Tunes

Awake My Soul is yet another song by Mumford & Sons. I absolutely love their entire album, this is my newest favorite of theirs.

P.S. Linc and I had several groups of trick-or-treaters today! So exciting, unfortunately we only had tootsie rolls to give out. But yay! I feel like an official house-owner.... or renter :)

Corn Maze Extravaganza

Let's just say that Halloween would in no way be complete without a corn maze outing. We set out from the LC campus at around 9 pm, four cars and 14 people. We drove out a dark windy Tammany Creek Road, into the backwoods of Lewiston (kind of redundant in Idaho to have backwoods), that's when the fog set in. Had to find the fog lights in the little red Honda Fit for the first time. 

See nobody had ever been up to the Rodeo Grounds before which was where the corn maze was located. It was a conundrum. We came up to a stop sign in the middle of nowhere about 15 minutes after 9. Right turn led to Lewiston, left turn led to US 95. We had no idea. Maybe we had gone too far, and had passed the maze in the fog? Maybe we were on the wrong road entirely? 

I called Marina, native resident of Lewiston for the past 20 years. She lives in the area, and she has been a rodeo participant for quite a while, in fact I believe she won a National Equestrian title of some sort.... Anyway. I call her for further directions. She responds with what I imagine to be a completely blank expression.... "Uh... where are you again??" Apparently she had never heard of a stop sign on Tammany Creek road, so for all intents and purposes we were completely lost. I randomly chose to take a left, ushering the 3 cars behind me on the side of the road to follow blindly. We made it! Just 300 yards down the road was the Clearwater Corn Maze - over two acres of corn to fight our way through to the finish :) 

It was a great experience. We of course lost our way many times, and ended up in many small groups rather than one large one. At one point Barb, Cesar and I were very alone, up to our ankles in mud, but we persevered. It took us 35 minutes or so to find our way out, unaided by maps (mostly because they were an extra dollar to buy). I was so glad to have shared such a wonderful time with so many of my teammates - what a bonding experience. And of course we have hilarious photos to share, and laugh over now! 

Happy Halloween everyone :) 

Fall traditions

A football game is a great way to spend a cold Friday night in the fall. 8 man football is a little different than what I'm used to, but it's actually easier to watch because I can follow the ball better. Scot played a great game (before he broke his collarbone, sad day) and Sherman emerged victorious over local rival Dufur. 

Besides remembering the game score, I realized something at that football game. As anyone who has taken a cursory glance at this blog knows, I have a list of things I love on the side, things to be happy for, to take joy in, etc. I realized that a huge majority of these things are usually fall-related. 

I love spending  time with my family. Well lo, and behold, a mere 28 Stroud members (and companions) appeared at the game to cheer #42 on! Not to mention there was burgers and hot dogs at the game, hotdogs being a personal favorite. The air was crisp, we were all bundled up against the breeze, and it was a beautiful night out in the country. The little kids ran around the track, and shot Goldfish into each other's mouths. The parents cheered, honked at, and cajoled the kids on the field. The game ended right as the first sheet of rain fell on our heads. Even the rain couldn't make the last couple hours less amazing. 

Our return journey to Lewiston on Sunday included much of the same beauty. The hills were alive, but not with the sound of music. They were alive with golden light. It honestly looked like the warmest light I had ever seen, shining right across the wheat fields of the Palouse, infusing each grain with sun. A double rainbow arched through the sunlight, fading in and out around the clouds bulging with water. It reminded me why fall is my favorite season. 

Everyone: this is Larry. He is the animal house spirit protecting Lincoln and I in our cluttered house of Clarkston, Washington. He is very friendly, but kind of uppity at times. For example he has yet to leave the mantle to mingle with other animal friends in the house -  namely a variety of spiders, and potato bugs, and the occasional sphinx moth. Larry seems willing to share his humble abode with Lincoln and I, and we are grateful to have him. 

Sean, the technical owner of our house, picked Larry up on a Moroccan vacation. I dubbed him Larry upon our arrival, sadly this is not the name he was originally christened with. But I like to think it's growing on him. 

Other pictures of our wacky house to come! 

tunes for the day

Ben Lee is an Australian crooner with a smooth voice. His music fits into the indie pop genre similar to Ben Kweller, Ben Folds, and Matt Nathanson to name a few. I've listened to a couple of his songs religiously for the past couple weeks. My current favorite is Into the Dark which I actually woke up singing this morning. It's disappointingly short in my opinion and could use one more verse, but it's still a very pick-me-up type song! Enjoy :)

Confession time

Time to share a random fact about my life! I don't tell people this very often, but when I do I get a very odd look usually paired with a "I don't get it.... you're weird" type of expression. Needless to say I'm excited to share it :) here goes..... 


I "save" letters. 


Doesn't sound that weird right? Course, you probably have that look on your face that I was talking about earlier. Typical. Let me explain, or at least try to.... I don't really save letters. I conserve them. And it serves no purpose, just an OCD habit of mine. Let's start from the beginning: when I read something, or am thinking about how to spell something, I type it in the air, like I would on a computer keyboard. If I am typing the phrase "google it" I can save two letters because there are two g's and two o's.... At some point this must have been exciting to me, or I had a very boring childhood because I can remember playing this game and being very entertained by it. I even competed against myself to find phrases and words that I could save the most letters with. 


Judge as you will, but I know deep down you're envious that I have outed one of my secrets online. It's my own personal version of Postsecret and I stand behind it proudly. I think it was probably an ingenious method I developed to work on my spelling, but I admit I'm a little biased. 


Feel free to share any of your oddities, or random facts you know in the comment section below! I won't laugh if you don't..... :)

Mumford & Sons

My brother and I keep up an ongoing battle. It has various names but inevitably boils down to a argument over who has found the most music for the other person's enjoyment. "I found Modest Mouse" I yell. "You know I gave you all of Bright Eyes" he retorts. It's never-ending, amusing, good old sibling rivalry.

No matter who is ahead at any given time (not that anyone is keeping score, as they say) we still share music, and often like similar things. One major difference: I listen to songs, Lincoln listens to artists. He is devoted to them as if one great song must make all their songs equally great. He is not of the era of the one hit wonder. He hates using my iPod because I have 450 artists and 473 songs, only slightly more than one song per artist.

Here is a recently shared artist: Mumford & Sons. Linc maintains their entire album is good, but I've only had opportunity to acquaint myself with two songs in between study sessions. Here is their song The Cave which is not only alternative, and catchy, but also has a pretty interesting music video along with the tunes. Enjoy!