Monthly Archives: November 2008

At Home in CO

Thanksgiving Break

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So, Thanksgiving Break has finally begun.  I don’t think I’m capable of being more full of thanks.  I started the break right, with the world’s worst teenage girl movie with Shauna, Karyn and Emily, which was awesome.  The movie sucked a great deal but watching in a theater of people who couldn’t decided whether to laugh or cry was a lot more fun than I would have thought, despite the angry ushers trying to get people to stop holding seats.  We did Rockband afterwards so Matt could have his fix before Emily bailed on us for the rest of the break.  Yesterday we spent cleaning, seriously, the whole day.  This place hasn’t been so clean since it was made, because it sure as hell wasn’t this clean when we moved in.  The whole cleaning process confused and upset the dogs who took to following us around and looking perturbed, but it’ll be worth it when Mom isn’t horrified when she arrives tomorrow.  Which is the most exciting part, of course, Mom will get here tomorrow evening and then we’ll have grocery shopping to do and lots of tv watching to veg through and it’s going to be wonderful.  I’m so excited to see her.  We’ve got our turkey, and I’m going to try to make some of the Thanksgiving stuff early so it won’t be so ridiculous in our tiny kitchen on the day of, and matt and I are going to decorate our live mini tree as a table centerpiece and this Thanksgiving is going to be better than I expected when we came out here.  I’m completely excited.

On the other hand of course, I still have a twenty page paper to write, a 5-10 page paper to write and 8+ books to read for a 6+ page prospectus and annotated bibliography all ideally started before next Monday, so it’s not as lovely as I’d prefer.  They really love to pile it all on at the end, don’t they?  Oh well, I guess on that note I shouldn’t really be procrastinating.  Margaret Atwood scholarship and Judith Butler are impatiently awaiting me, and the angry looking face of Raymond Carver on his book is making me nervous, so I had best begin (or at least flip that Carver book over).

Happy Thanksgiving Break to all of you, whether or not you are experiencing any sort of actual break at this moment!

yours,

alaina

everything

Fun with my Papa

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A couple of weeks ago my dad drove all the way out here to come and see us. It was awesome, we did a lot of fun things. The first day we went to the Fort Collins museum, where I learned that Fort Collins was originally established to fight off the Indians, however the Indians in this neck of the woods were not interested in fighting so they tore down the fort and established an agriculture school here due to the rich soil. Later that day we ended up in old down town in the middle of a crazy Halloween costume party. Except the party wasn’t for humans. Instead furry little creatures were dressed up (dogs) in all sorts of crazy outfits (see pic above). Alaina and I agreed that next year we would enter our dogs into the costume contest by dressing them up as little boat captains while we push them around on the boat we make. This is a fitting idea, as the breed of schipperke was once used on boats around Belgium. Also later that day we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park, and we saw a heard of rams! It was really cool. They were galloping up the side of a very steap cliff. I couldn’t believe how good there balance was!

The second day we took the bikes out and gave the puppies a bike ride. Later that day we went to the campus to see Barack Obama! It was insane. The line to get into the oval was over a mile long! They estimated over 45,000 people saw him there that day. It was cool feeling the excitement in the air, but it also was too bad we weren’t close enough to see him. Just too many people.

The last day we took a trip down to Colorado Springs. The tourist trap of Colorado! There is a lot to do there, and we only scratched the surface. However, we did see a cool place called the Garden of the Gods. Beautiful red rock features jett out of the ground giving a surreal feeling. There is a huge rock (several tons) which balances on a rock below with only a little area to hold it up. Its quite amazing (see pic above). Apparently this feature was created by strong water currents during the ice age. Later that day we saw a the ancient ruins of the manitou cliff dwellers. I have never seen anything like it. Stone buildings were literally gauged out of the side of a cliff for the Indians to live in long ago. Quite a number of Indians lived inside this “Cliff Mansion”, most were farmers, they had quite the assortment of medical herbs.

After my dad left it was back to the grind. I can’t believe this school term is almost over, and then we’ll be back to Oregon for a few weeks. Weather permitting we will leave here December 17th, looking forward to seeing all of you.

*unable to post pics, will post once I figure out problem.

-Matt

At Home in CO

the photo contest and the movie debut

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So, the contest winners announcements supposedly came and went and I haven’t heard anything so I’m assuming I did not win, but two of my photos were displayed as finalist and I get pretty framed and matted copies of them when they are taken out of the gallery, so either way I’m stoked.  I’ll attach them below for those of you who wanted to see them.

Also, a classmate and I made a movie for a class project.  Matt is the starring character.  The movie is based off of Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” and is awesome if I do say so myself.  Below is a link to it on youtube if you’d like to see.  And, please, do go see, it’s only been viewed a few times…  My ego is bruised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FyLBCawkAk
Adventures in Colorado

Mucho Excitement!

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So, a couple weeks ago I saw an advertisement for a photography competition, and I entered because a professor at WOU told me a long time ago that I should…  And I got chosen as some kind of participant/finalist/something!  I’m so excited!  I’m not sure if this means I won a spot in the actually “winners” or was just accepted for the exhibition but either way I’m practically floating on a see of my own ego, it’s so cool.   And, as follow is the email that you probably don’t need to see, but I need to show off.

I’ll post the picture that got accepted when I find out which one of my submissions it was.

Congratulations!!!!

Your image/s have been chosen to be a part of the 2008 Where in the World is CSU From photo contest. To celebrate, we will be holding a reception on Monday, November 3 from 5:30 to 7:30 in the 1st National Bank Gallery in the Morgan Library with all the images displayed. Refreshments and appetizers provided by COISA—the Council of International Student Affairs.

Congratulations again, and we look forward to meeting you all to hear first hand where all these pictures came from.

Sincerely,

– The Contest Organizers.