Blogs are supposed to be journals, right?

Listen...I love Eugene. 

This weekend, I went on a float with some of my friends down the Willamette. It was so great. The weather was warm but not stifling and the sun was out. We started off pretty weak - Kaia and I needed to be pulled along by some kayakers which...hitchiking wasn’t so bad lol. But then it was pretty smooth sailing! We landed at a little island, picked some blueberries, and ate sandwiches. Then we continued on to The Box. It’s a deep part of the river that we can dive into. Austin and Hayden convinced me to jump off of it and it was so fun. We helped two little kids do the same. It was so cute!

Went through some rapids then we all chose to stick together for the last 45. We were all holding on to each others’ floats, chatting. Then we noticed we were heading straight for a shallow part so we had to paddle like hell to get to the left of it. At the end, we all lost each other and Kaia and I ended up missing the exit. Ended up swimming to some random location and walking through a bunch of thorn bushes to get to where everyone else was. 

We went out to dinner at a wing joint where I bought everyone a beer as an apology for forgetting the car keys and then we loaded up and went out to the ravine for some star gazing. We saw shooting stars and it was awesome! Also Cam brought a green laser pointer which was so cool to look at in the darkness out there.

Yesterday I cleaned all day but I wend to the bottle drop and like...what a great idea. You load in your bottles and then the machine weighs it. If they accept the bottle, you get 10 cents. Wild. I was able to recycle a load of stuff. 

First day alone in a new state! I took the parents to the airport around 6:30 this morning and then hung out until noon. After that, I walked to campus to time it and found out it'll take me about 20 minutes to get to my lab! I then went to a small cafe right off campus and had a pulled pork sandwich and had the nicest waitress who's friends with all the students, it seems.

When I got home after walking A LOT I sat on my balcony and watched a lady put a boot on a neighbor's truck. Then, I drove to target and picked up some items to make a healthy-ish chicken stir fry! (See below) The dinner took a ridiculously long time to make and made a massive mess but I listened to a podcast while making it and drank some wine and it was super chill.

Maybe I'll play some destiny 2 tonight :)

10.24.16: Everyone has thrown in the towel, especially Jack. A few weeks ago Jack was forced to answer a question by Lincoln in Math Physics. He had a hard time answering the question and, sick of being called on out of the blue, we joked about him running out of the classroom the next time Carr calls on him. We talked about it for a few weeks but then kind of forgot about it. 

Well

He did it. All for a single dollar from each person who told him to do it. 

Today Lincoln went to the back of the room and called on him. Jack, without a word, stood up, grabbed his backpack, and busted out of the room. Think of a light jog. The room, already completely silent as it was, just froze. Carr looked around like “um...ok” and moved on. But after class Lincoln started asking around for Jack’s email and even had another student find Jack and talk to him. 

I really have begun enjoying my time at Gamestop more and more. I’ve stopped feeling unqualified (most of the time) and I feel like I have real friends there now. Nicole and Jarred are always joking around with me now, and Nicole always talks about playing games together. Idk if she’ll ever actually play the things she says she will with me but it’s nice to hear that she wants to include me. Even my manager is opening up more and I generally look forward to hanging out with everyone. 

Today was a pretty awesome day though. Mostly because of one customer. She came in yesterday and I helped her pick a game out for her nephew. I was trying to give her a ton of suggestions, doing what I normally do and she told me out of the blue that I was great at my job. She seemed so impressed and happy. Today she came in looking for me and I was worried that I’d done something wrong. Turns out her nephew already had the game she bought. So she brought him in and we picked a couple out for him. Again, she was super happy with me and said she’d make sure to fill out my survey. Well, a half hour to an hour later we get a call asking for me specifically. She couldn’t figure out how to navigate the survey website. She was honestly taking the time to figure it out, and instead of just blowing it off she actually called in to get me to walk her through it. Idk why it made me so happy but it did. I guess I haven’t realized just how much I need that positive feedback sometimes.