Ohhh, blogosphere. And Twitterverse. How neglectful I’ve been. I feel like all my rare and randomly-written blog posts include the word neglect in the first line: I’m sorry.
I got my wisdom teeth out today. I’m currently sitting on my little ol’ Dell at my parents’ house in Woodinville with two bags of frozen peas plastered to each side of my face, secured there by four of those long athletic hair bands that girls use to hold their manes back when they’re working out/washing their face. (Side note: When I bought 25 of those bands in assorted textures, designs and colors, I KNEW they would come in handy someday. Five years later…)
In the last few weeks, I’ve been too busy to even get on Facebook much — oh, horror of horrors. After I ended my internship at Capital Press two Wednesdays ago, I immediately started packing my life (which seems to get bigger and require more boxes each year), cleaning up my house, and beginning the process of moving out of my beloved south town and dropping crap into my parents’ garage (time bomb, start ticking). A few really exciting (and extremely cost-effective) opportunities have come my way in the last few months, both of which will put me out of my comfort zone… so I’m going to take them.
I start my fall academic reporting internship with The Oregonian Sept. 27, which basically feels like it’s going to be my final and perhaps most significant opportunity for a launchpad into the world of professional journalism. Big plans and lots of things to do beforehand — still need to talk to my college adviser and the office of financial aid about taking a term off but still taking credits. I still need to get my hair done (my roots are about two inches long right now), nail down the logistics of leaving my lease and having someone else sign in and, oh yeah, find a place to live in Portland.
As far as that goes, I think I’m gonna look for a place close to the MAX that’s farther outside of Portland. A room in a house or a studio would be fine at this point. Anything aside from a cardboard box under Burnside Bridge would be just great at this point. I’m aiming for a place that has good running nearby and a good park where my dog can make happy puppy bathroom time. And as much as I would love to spend a beautiful Oregon autumn downtown in the heart of the Rose City, it’s pretty impossible to find a place to lease for three months, with a dog, in the realm of $500.
Somehow, I’m still not panicking. Somehow. Procrastinating is an art form for me. Deadlines are like my little sidekick. They empower me. That’s probably why I love journalism so much… Bam.
The other opportunity involves a decision my parents and I made to move my show horse out of training for the first time in the three years we’ve owned him and bring him to a barn in Corvallis so that I can ride him and train him myself. Since we bought him in 2007, Carlos was a show horse, through and through. Understanding his talent and potential as a four-year-old at the time, we bought him as an investment. We decided we’d build him up, show him all over the place and get his name out there, then sell him, hopefully for a profit and to a good home, when the time was right.
Then the economy crashed, the nationwide slaughter ban was passed, and people started letting their horses loose on government land or on Indian reservations (halters still on, etc) because they couldn’t even afford to feed them anymore… let alone the idea of trying to sell them in a worsening recession. This made the situation for anyone with a good horse to sell really volatile and virtually impossible.
The horse (Carlos, who by this time had become our horse and more importantly my baby) didn’t sell. We didn’t even market him, because we knew we wouldn’t be able to get a third of what we paid and there would be no guarantee that he would be go to solid owners that wouldn’t turn around and sell him again or let him go to waste. So recently we made the decision to give him a little break from constant showing and take him out to Corvallis for a few months of grass hay, reckless running and straight being a horse.
When I found the place that I decided was perfect for him just outside Corvallis, the barn owner showed me a slightly dingy but charming single apartment in one of the barns with a beautiful screened-in deck that faces out into endless pasture. So if everything works out, after I finish the internship at the O, I’ll spend the rest of the school year living at the barn (WITH my horse, something I’ve wanted my whole life), mucking stalls and feeding horses constantly, and taking on yet another new adventure.
I’m young, still in school, sporadically employed and the only other living thing I’m responsible for currently is my dog. At this point in my life, it’s all about taking chances and forcing myself out of my comfort zone.
Adventures in the News Hole 