Double-Oh Sunburn

What a day. After staying up a bit later than I intended, I crawled out of bed at six-something to pack for a day on the mountain. This is a FULL TERM for me. Forty-five straight minutes of soccer in the sun for four days a week, a six-credit community oriented "capstone" class, an online anthropology class on American culture, an evening class in Euro Prehistory (which I was superduper excited about until he assigned a fifteen-page research paper. in an 8-wk course!), and then a course on the geography of Mt. Hood. Today was the first field trip for that class, consisting of eight hours on and around the mountain.

At our first stop at a town nearby, I talked with a man who has visited from New Jersey 14 times. Holy crap, MOVE HERE ALREADY! He was appalled that most of us hadn't spent much time in the area, despite only living an hour away. He asked if we at least skied. "Yeah, I've been snowboarding. Once. In Korea." He wasn't impressed. But he was certainly nicer than the metermaid I tried to interview who looked at me like I was trying to sell her bibles or something. Although, I have to admit, receiving a scathing look from a character who is so deplored herself did make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Next we listened to a man who works a family owned peach orchard and I learned more about fruit than in my previous 25 years of existence combined.

Remember my little backpacking adventure last year when I thought I was going to get crushed by large boulders, only to realize that my biggest worry was the blizzard that had moved in suddenly? Well, a bit of dammed up glacial water burst through the top of that valley this winter and a long way below where I camped the debris - sand and gigantic boulders - took out a highway and is now stacked fifty feet high in places around a nearby parking area. I really can't describe just how astonishing it was to see how much mass moved through that valley - a valley that I had slept in, on the ground, amidst these very same rocks and dirt. So, lesson: camping in the White River Valley is Bad Idea.

Also a bad idea, although not bad enough to warrant capitalization, is not putting on sunscreen until 3pm. I had some witty thought that I had delayed total glacier meltage by global warming by at least five minutes from all the heat I absorbed, but realized that, actually, absorbing shortwave energy causes it to be re-emitted as longwave energy, which is exactly what causes the greenhouse effect. That moment of nerd hurt almost as much as this burn.

So, after spending a day heating the earth I then came home just in time to finish half an assignment and then dash off to an indoor game. There's no AC in this building, and people play soccer there from 9am to 1am. By halftime my entire body was shaking; I've since nearly drank a gallon of water and it's only just subsided.

BUT! The most interesting thing that happened in all of this was before the soccer game. As I got off the light rail on my way home from campus, someone slapped my arm from behind. I turned, expecting to see a friend. Instead, it was a trim man in decent clothes and shades; he didn't look crazy or like he was asking for money.

"What's your name?"

"Sara," I blurted. I don't mind giving strangers my first name. It seems like the only women my age that aren't named Sara are the ones who have a sister named Sara, so it's not anything uniquely identifiable.

"You should think about the CIA, Sara."

"Heh," I said, which is my typical response when I have no idea what to say to someone.

And then he was off, weaving his way through the crowd. Was he joking? Was he serious? Either way, WHY would he ask me that? Why why WHY?????

Ahhh, summer (school)

School so far hasn't been that bad, despite the overload of credit hours. (Perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon, as I haven't been to all of my classes yet) I got a new ID card, a transit pass, verified my military benefits, and added a minor all in about twenty minutes. Any other time of the year, I'd be lucky to accomplish just one of those tasks in that amount of time. The buses aren't as crowded and Screaming Jesus Man of the South Park Blocks doesn't have a large enough audience to bother preaching.

I am slightly disappointed with my soccer class. I was really looking forward to playing outdoor soccer again, to shoot at a real goal, to have that wonderful feeling of booting a ball further than three lines and higher than twelve feet. I wanted corner kicks and throw-ins and offside traps. Instead, we're playing indoor soccer outside. That is, there are no high balls allowed (like, over three feet in the air), only three touches at a time, and the goals are little plastic cones five feet apart. Supposedly, this is for the inexperienced players' benefit. I don't know though. I learned to play soccer by...playing soccer. I fail to see how playing a different game is really going to help anyone. Sigh. At least it's sunny out and I get to experience running around on a real fake turf field (it's hot and these little rubber pellets get in your shoes and socks).

.....and a wave of fatigue just washed over me. Ehhhh, back to class again.

Empathy vs Hilarity

On the one hand, this makes me feel immensely better about my own soccer skills. hahaha the international star whiffs it! On the other hand, I'm plagued with this terrible thing called "empathy" and I want to go hide under the covers every time I see it.

We can all agree, however, that North American soccer did not gain any credibility yesterday. Fouls were egregious, coaches made head-scratching substitutions, and the refereeing was absurd. The final against Mexico is on Sunday, to be played in Chicago. Despite this location, how much ya wanna bet the ratio of Mexico fans to U.S. is somewhere between 2:1 and 3:1?

I want them to do well. I really do. They just make it so damn difficult!

oh the decisions

Jesus flippin' Christ, is it this difficult to get tickets to a Premiership match for all teams, or just ones called Manchester United? I never thought I'd see a system more confusing and daunting than army healthcare, but this has it beat. Pretty much from what I can tell, it's a membership lottery system for each game. Great. Some of us live halfway 'round the world and only have a few potential weekends, or in my case, really one. That one weekend just happens to be against Chelsea. Yeah, I bet no one's putting in an application for that crappy match. Maybe I'll just stop being snooty and watch Reading v Blackburn or something ultra exciting like that. The point is, this time while I'm in that part of the planet I'd like to see a damn EPL match.

Also, I officially found out that the one course I need to graduate isn't offered until next spring, essentially putting my life on hold another three months. The question is whether I go to school in the intervening terms or travel or work. Decisions, decisions.

Dragging out the Agony

In a perfect world, I'd have finished the paper, the other paper disguised as an "exercise", studied for the quiz, done well on the quiz, gave my presentation and would now be nearing Pullman, WA for the Middle Sis's birthday bash. In actuality none of the above happened. The presentation wasn't my fault due to technical difficulties, but creating the damn thing cut into my quiz study time and the thought of being able to finish the two papers a day early only to embark on a six hour drive was too stressful to really even think about. So instead, my presentation has been rescheduled for 9:00. A.M. Criminey, who thinks that early? So now this terrible semester has just been extended another day.

AND!! I just found out that the Timbers are playing our arch rivals Seattle in Round Two of the U.S. Open Cup on the first day of my summer evening class taught by the a-hole who gave me a shitty grade in my first ever college course! Will the injustice ever end?

[To answer that question: possibly on the 19th, when the Timbers lay waste to the future of Serie A: AC Milan's Primavera (U21) squad. Specifically, you'll have the horrid patchwork of green stuff they call a 'field' at PGE Park to thank for nipping those young divers' careers in the bud.]

This is how I feel today

Unfocused, out of shape, and with an overwhelming urge to nap. And I haven't even done anything!