The Art of Packing

The final weeding

My grandfather always said that when traveling to take less clothes and more money.  I've always tried to emulate that as much as I can when I travel.  The problem is that I still have a tendency to over pack.  I'm much better than some people but I still have a long way to go.  I have found a technique that works for me when it comes to packing that gets me closer to my grandfather's wisdom.

When I pack I first pack everything that I might think that I would need, provided it fits in my suitcase.  I pretty much cram my suitcase completely full.  The next step is that I leave it for a few hours and come back to it to look again.  Generally on this second look I lose a few items that I was unsure about to begin with.  But after this round I still feel as if I have to much stuff so I leave it again.  This might happen a few times with things being taken out and then being re-added then taken out again. 

Finally the night before I leave or just before I am leaving I take (almost) everything out of my suitcase again and do a final check.  This final check allows me to make sure that I have what I want and to take out those few things that are unnecessary.  After this process I inevitably still have more than I need but I feel better about myself because I have reduced along the way.  Maybe someday I will be able to just pack without needed to do the weeding but I need more practice.  I guess that means more travel. Oh well...

Novelty of the Previously Ordinary

A Payphone at Little Whale Cove and it actually works

Yesterday while at the beach we stopped at Little Whale Cove.  It is a gated housing type development where my grandma has a lot. No house just a lot. But that gives her access to the amenities which includes the clubhouse.  Attached to the outer wall of that clubhouse was this very rare piece of machinary, the payphone.

It is amazing how as some technologies rise things that used to be commonplace become rare again.   I guess that is the cycle of the technological life.  First something is new, advanced, and rare.  Then it begins to gain in popularity it begins to sprout up more and more places until it is ubiquitous.  Eventually the technology develops and as the new items are on the rise the older ones become more obsolete.  Eventually the technology that was once everywhere is a rarity and becomes a novelty when found.  Kind of a typical life cycle for better or worse.

Off to Get Some Vitamin D

A typical day at the Oregon Coast

 

This morning I got a call from my mom asking if I wanted to go with my parents, grandma, and aunt to the beach.  The valley has been innundated with cold fog for the last few days and this morning on the news they were saying that the coast was going to be clear and warmer than the valley.  So I decided to go along with them to see the sun and get a little bit of vitamin D. 

 

Going to the Oregon coast is a unique experience.  I have lived here my entire life and it still makes me laugh.  We Oregonians love our coast and spending time there.  But the water is so cold and the wind is usually blowing and there is usually a chill in the air even in the summer.  So proper beach attire here is fully clothed, with coats, shoes, gloves, and hats.  During the summer we may replace the coat with a sweatshirt or a light jacket and forgo the shoes but it's pretty much the same.  And when people here go to the beach we don't sit and sun bathe.  If people are sitting on the beach its usually wrapped in blankets or towels.  When we go to the beach we walk.  People walk up the beach.  We drag sticks behind, we weird designes out of our footprints, we try walk as close to the water as we can without getting wet, we let our dogs and our children run free...  We walk.  I guess that is why when I go to tropical locations I have a hard time just sitting on the beach.  It is just not something that we do.

 

 

People enjoying the beach in proper Oregon beach attire

 

I am smiling in that coat.

 

 A family walking their two dogs and their kid. 
It looks as if they have leashes for their dogs and their daughter but the
little girl is "walking" one of the dogs but her dad is also holding onto the leash.

 

 

 

I often wonder what a person who lives in So Cal or Florida or any place where people just sit on the beach would think about us Oregonians and our beaches.  I love our beaches and they way we enjoy them.  I feel like it is uniquely Oregon.  There is a local TV station that has a commercial on right now that has their weather people speaking about how we don't fear the rain, we'll do anything in the rain because we know that if we had to wait for a sunny day we'd never do anything.  They say that there is a term for the people who live here and the term is unstoppable.  I like that.  I don't know that we are unstoppable but we are unique.  And we do know that if we waited for a sunny day nothing would every get done.  And if we waited to enjoy our beaches for a warm, calm day the majesty of our coast would go completely unappreciated. 

 

Anyway I went to the beach today with my parents, grandma and aunt and had a nice relaxing day.  We went to Little Whale Cove and wandered around there for a while.  Went and had lunch and then walked on the beach.  There was no grand plan for the day.  The plan was simply to get out of the dreary cold valley to the sunshine.  And there was sunshine and while the news was right that it was warmer there than in the valley it was still cold enough to warrent the entire winter garb. 

 

Enjoying the view at Little Whale Cove

 

 

The ocean was amazing.  The waves were very large and seemed to be rolling in forever.  I am not a surfer but it looked like the kind of waves that a surfer would love.  Dad and I talked to a surfer on the beach in the afternoon and he said that the waves further out were big and I believe him. The waves that I saw were huge, much larger than normally seen at the coast.  The water was really churning at the coastline but further out it looked calm and peaceful. 

 

The waves crashing on the rocks at Little Whale Cove. 

 

It was a nice day and even though it was cold, seeing the sun is nice. Especially after it's been hiding for a while.

 

 



N/A

Sydney agreed that I used my time wisely
as it provided her with a warm body to sleep on.

This week has seemed like an eternity.  And it isn't because I am going on vacation next week, others have said that this week was an eternity too.  Yesterday when I got home as I was unzipping my coat, I realized that I still had one more day of the work week and I was kind of crushed.  So when I got home today I was very happy and just felt the need to unwind.

Despite the fact that I know there are several more productive things tha I could have been doing with my evening I decided that I wanted to lie on the couch and watch TV.  So I did.  I layed on the couch and watched many episodes of Bones on Netflix. And it was perfect. 

I know that it was the least productive thing that I could have done and I might regret it later but right now I feel there was no better use of my time. In fact at one point I thought about going to bed but that just seemed like too much work so I decided to watch anotehr episode.  Don't judge me.

Sea Lion Day

Sea Lions just chillin' on a buoy (April 2011)

I am beginning to feel that I have set an unrealistic goal for myself, writing everyday in my blog.  Not that I have not been maintaining but I am on my 17th post and seem to be struggling.  The problem is that somedays there is just nothing that strikes me as picture worthy and some days there is just nothing that I feel the need to discuss and I find that on those days I have look through the photos that I have on my computer and everyone has a story but are they stories that people want to hear?  And there are so many of them.  I guess since I am mostly writing for myself I don't have to worry about that but I do.  So I end up with a random photo of Sea Lions hanging out on a buoy in the Pacific Ocean and musing about nothing. 

I do love this picture though.  For my friends 30th birthday (April 2011) I took her whale watching since she loves the ocean.  We went to Depot Bay and went out on a Zodiac out to find the whales, which we did. Along the way we passed this buoy with the Sea Lions hanging out on it.  I must say it is pretty impressive that they can get up on to it as the platform is at least a few feet out of the water.  I can't tell if the Sea Lions are slightly annoyed that we are disturbing their relaxing by driving by and giving us the stare down or if they are just relaxed and lazy that they are looking at us because we are simply there.  My guess is the later. 

To be honest that is how I kind of feel today.  I'm just sitting on the buoy, not really thinking anything, not feeling particularly emotional in any direction, just watching the boats go by waiting for tomorrow.

Widgets and Doohickies

A beautiful shot of the Oregon coast to help calm the nerves

Today I overheard a coworker discussing a student interaction that he had.  The student had failed to do something in time and so was in a situation that they didn't want to be in. After several emails with my coworker, where my coworker told him the policies and what steps the student would need to do to appeal the policy, the student said that my coworker only thought of the student as a widget and was done with the college.  For some reason this really irritated me. 

I understand frustration with a situation, I have been there many times.  I understand getting upset about a policy, again I've been there.  What irritates me is when people accuse others of basically being unfeeling and terrible.  There is no organization that does not have policies.  Policies are in place to protect those within the organization as well as those that utilize the organization.  Part of an employees job is to uphold those policies.  If they don't, they don't stay an employee very long.  There may be policies that don't make sense but usually the person getting yelled at has no power to change those policies. 

There are times when I have been dealing with a customer or a student and despite me explaining the policy and what I can and cannot do to help them, they insist that I ignore the policy and do something anyway because they are "a special case."  I always fight the urge to ask where the person works and whether they have policies.  If they blatantly went against those policies how to they think their employer would react and why should I get reprimanded or fired when they would be doing the same thing if the roles were reversed.  (I have never said that, but use my customer service skills as best I can to get them to go away as quickly as possible.)  :)  I get very irritated when someone questions my or others humanity simply because they are following the rules of their job.   Especially since most likely the person is mad at themselves but wants to make someone else to blame so they don't have to take responsibility. Taking responsibility stinks.

I feel that we are becoming more entitled as a society.  That there is a pervasiveness of the thought, "I am special and better than others, therefore rules, regulations, and policies do not apply the same way to me as they do everyone else."  And as a person who follows the rules and is not one who is very often the squeaky wheel I find it especially irritating. 

I am not sure that I explained things very coherently but I just needed to get that out there.  And it didn't even happen to me.  The picture is one I took several years ago at the coast. I figure I would post a tranquil scene that I could look at after getting all worked up and relax.   (I'm not actually all worked up.)

A Happy Sydney

That's a happy, comfy cat.

 

 

 

It is one of the best feeling in the world when someone is just so happy to see you.  I have a cat.  Her name is Sydney. You will probably hear more about her as the year goes on.  The last few days she has been staying at my parents house because they did an inspection at my apartment building.  One of the requirements for the inspection is that you "secure any pets."  So rather than trap Sydney in the bathroom all day I decided it would be better to have her be at my parents house.  I'll admit, I was lonely without her.  I live alone and she keeps me company.

 

Today was the inspection day and my dad brought Sydney home this evening because he had a meeting nearby.  There is nothing as good for the ego as some creature being beyond happy to see you.  Sydney has a pretty strong purr but it was much louder tonight. She inspected to make sure her food, water and perches were still all where they should be and then she proceeded to make sure that I was where I should be. It's nice to see when someone cares about you. Even if that someone is a cat.

 

Note: I am not implying that my cat is the only person that cares about me. Just making a general observation that knowing that you matter to someone is nice.  And maybe we should try and show others that they matter to us more often.