Fun with friends!

One of my best friends, Alitia, came up to Eugene from Central Point for the weekend. She hadn't seen us since FOB -- a weekend when both Ashley and I were super busy with OMB stuff -- and there wasn't a football game this weekend because the Ducks had beaten the Beavers in the Civil War the previous Thursday. It ended up being really good timing too; she and her boyfriend for almost two years had broken up recently, and Saturday would have been their two-year anniversary (aka a day she really didn't want to spend alone, or near him...) So, she came up Friday night, and merriment ensued.

Friday, she joined me and a bunch of friends (both people she knew from OMB last year and some amazing new friends) for tailgating. Traditionally we do this the night before home football games, but Thursday's game would have put tailgating on the Wednesday night of dead week -- very few people would have been out and about at the bars and stuff, and we would have angered more people than we would have entertained. So...we rallied on Friday to celebrate the Ducks' victory over the Beavers and the trip to the Rose Bowl! Also, Brian got to come finally because he didn't have to work until the next day, and he borrowed some of my 'gating attire.

After tailgating, we got a yummy late-night dinner at Dough Co. and then went to the Walmart parking lot to eat and then walk around for a bit in the store. We finished eating, Alitia reminded me to lock the front door, we walked about 10 feet from the car, and...Alitia realized that she had left her keys in the ignition. So, our casual stroll through Walmart ended up turning into a frantic search for wire coat hangers and duct tape. About 45 minutes of freezing cold weather and hard work later, we had successfully broken into Alitia's car and were on our way back to my apartment.

Saturday was a nice, relaxed day. We both slept in because we were so tired from the night before, then hung out in my warm apartment while we waited for Ashley to get off work, retrieve her boyfriend Danny and come over. Once we met up, we went to Goodwill, where we managed to find some cheap Duck game attire for Alitia, who until that point had been limited to OMB gear. Then, we went to Jamba Juice and Taco Bell (two of our favorite foody places to go) and then to Valley River Center to kill time until 9:30ish when we had planned to pick up Chase and Adam. We found some good sales, I managed to get a few more people checked off my Christmas list and we took some funny pictures in the photo booth.

Then the craziness started.

We picked up Chase and Adam and went to Strike City for cosmic bowling. Alitia took a bunch of pictures to document the occasion, and as it got later and later we got more and more silly...
After bowling we went to Shari's, where we continued to decline as far as self-control goes.



All in all, the weekend was a huge success. I got to see people I hadn't seen in a long time and Alitia said that she couldn't have asked for a better day. :)

"Passion is a blatant understatement."

The Oregon volleyball team had a tournament this weekend, and I went to all three matches and hung out with the Insane-O's - a nice change from football games where I'm pretty much restricted to the OMB section. Between the second and third games, kids attending the game get to play musical chairs.

Well, at this morning's game, there weren't a lot of kids, so the Insane-O's filled in...well, they pretty much ARE kids. :)

Introduction

Cam-O waves to the crowd

Getting started.

And dUckbOy's out. Three more.

Yeah!

And...Cam-O falls in the final round to the guy in the black shirt. Oh well.

Best of 2009: Part One

Now that more than half of 2009 is in the books, I thought it would be fun to sort of go back through the past seven-ish months and compile sort of a collection of memories. These are in no particular order except how I happened to remember them.

• "I like how you tear into those things. You're like a freakin' fire truck!" - said by Brian during dinner at Lucky Fortune one weekend when I managed to make it home from Eugene. The fire truck reference comes from the Family Guy episode "Petarded."
• Office party night, April 9, 2009. - This was the first time I had ever been introduced to the real game of life, which we played at Cameron's apartment while waiting for The Office to start. Thus began several months and counting of playing the game and sharing it with a bunch of other people, and the game has only become more and more fun.
• Finishing the SOJC pre-major requirements. - Finally, I can consider myself a true UO journalism major. Info Hell, Duncan McDonald and J101 are all things of the past and now I can focus on bigger and better things...like trying to figure out what exactly I want to do with my news-editorial degree now that all the newspapers in the country are shutting down.
• Concerts. - Beginning with Jason Webley March 19, continuing with OK Go March 30 and The Decemberists May 21, and most recently Relient K May 29, this was a busy spring as far as my live music intake is concerned. All of the aforementioned are among my favorite musicians, so I didn't consider any of the shows to be a bad deal, although having someone to hang out with at the Decemberists show would have been fun.
• Turning 20. - Although not nearly as eventful as next year will likely be, this July 14 was nevertheless a milestone - I am no longer a teenager, although I've been an adult for two years now. Now I have a full year to carefully plan out my next birthday, as it has the potential to end either good or bad...let's hope for good.
• Finally making it to the Melting Pot. - For the past couple of years, I have had to deal with Bess and Brian continually mentioning how amazing the Melting Pot is and satisfying myself with continuing to mention how much I really wanted to go sometime. Finally, for my birthday, Bess and Brian took me out to dinner at the best restaurant in the world (well in Portland anyway) and we enjoyed: Quattro Formaggio cheese fondue with bread, apples and vegetables; California salads (lettuce and tomatoes with crumbled Gorgonzola cheese, walnuts and raspberry black walnut vinaigrette); Coq Au Vin fondue (fresh herbs, mushrooms, garlic, spices and burgundy wine) with shrimp, duck, teriyaki sirloin, pork, chicken and potstickers; and S'mores fondue with cheesecake, strawberries, bananas, Oreo- and graham-cracker-coated marshmallows, pound cake and brownies. Plus the atmosphere is super sexy: the restaurant is underground, so you descend down a winding stairway into a dimly lit wonderland.

Hopefully the rest of 2009 will have more fun times!