Three Beautiful Things 10/05/13: Vero Breakfast, Too Short of a Visit, Oregon Duck Fatalism

1.  Sister Carol and I made our way over to the Vero espresso house and enjoyed some more conversation and a bagel with cream cheese and a coffee drink.  It was nippy outside, but the inside was crowded and noisy and, I, for one, enjoyed being out in the fog where it was quieter, even if a little chilly.

2.  The fog lifted and I drove sister Carol to the airport in Portland, wishing that our visits and our sibling outings didn't have to be so short.  I wanted more time together in Nelson, I wanted to see more of Carol in Kellogg, and I wanted to have this visit last longer.  The good news is that our drive to Portland was safe and so was my drive home and we'll see each other again some time in the next several months.

3.  It's funny.  The Oregon Ducks are rated by coaches and the press as the second best football team in the USA, but emotionally, I still experience them as the unpredictable, likely to lose Oregon Ducks I used to watch when I moved to Eugene back in 1979.  I listened to the Ducks play Colorado on the radio as I drove back from Portland and they didn't score on their first series, they fell behind 3-0 and then 10-8.  The Ducks gave up 16 points in the first half, and even though the Ducks scored 43, I was nervous, reacting emotionally as if they were the same kind of team that blew big leads in games in nineties.  I can't shake it, I guess.  I am one of those fatalistic Duck fans who thinks disaster is just a snap away and just can't seem to get accustomed to their 21st century successes. 

Three Beautiful Things 01/20-21/10: 17th Century Sex Poems, The Depth of Ai, Lunch with Jonathan

1. Those sex poems by Marvell and Herrick are kind of immature, but very clever and witty--and a lot of fun to read aloud and melodramatize. My favorite line of Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress": "The grave's a fine and private place, / But none I think do there embrace."

2. After the sort of fantasizing featured in Marvell and Herrick, it was more satisfying, to me, when we got down to more complicated business in the push and pull of Ai's "Why Can't I Leave You?" : a packed suitcase, scripted sex, and safety.

3. Jonathan and I sat down over some teriyaki chicken and rice and pretty much got everything figured out concerning LCC, the U of O, the athletic department, free speech, and the electorate of the state of Oregon. Not bad for an hour's lunch! I look forward to our next lunch. Maybe we can get the U of O men's basketball team figured out....well, on second thought...there are limits even to the genius of Jonathan and me!

Three Beautiful Things 11/15/08: Special Olympics Breakfast, Snug Cruise, A Purple Umbrella and a Fifty Cent Hat

1. Got up, threw on an ugly ensemble of rumpled brown highwater slacks, a half milk, half cream colored pair of dollar store socks, Whitworth hoodie, and ebony crocs and told Deke I was going to Appleby's for a five dollar Special Olympics benefit breakfast. I figured I'd be going Hans Solo, but the Deke wanted to go and so we did.

The breakfast was perfect: fluffy pancake, modest heap of scrambled eggs, three slices of bacon, not crisp, but cooked through, just the way I like it, served on a festive oval platter accompanied by a pint glass of iced orange juice . I loved that Appleby's served everyone the same plate of food: no menu, no decisions: just sit down, get some coffee and juice, wait a few minutes, and a steamy plate of morning energy appeared. And, it was all you can eat, but Deke and I stopped at one plate!

If I found out a restaurant took this one plate, one pancake, scrambled egg, tender bacon, five dollar, no order needed approach to breakfast, I'd be there every Saturday.

2. Snug and I went errand hopping and software windowshopping and we listened on the radio as the Ducks screamed to a 45-17 halftime lead over Arizona, but by the time we took a stroll in Westmoreland Park and came home to debone the whole chicken that had been in the Crock Pot all day and by the time we ate our dinner, the Ducks had squandered all but three points of that magical lead, but hung on to win 55-45, and in celebration Snug ate a Pig's Ear.

3. My midmorning, post Appleby's tooling around town featured the XM radio tuned in to the Led Zeppelin channel and I nearly ecstatically crashed into the front of Old Navy when "Hearbreaker/Livin' Lovin' Maid" jumped out of the sky and into the tinny speakers of my '93 Honda Civic.

Three Beautiful Things 02/14/08: Themes, Schemes and Dreams, Gratitude, Ducks Win!

1. I have grown to love Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour on XM Radio, here. Today I discovered this blog where each episode of the show is available for download and I've begun making cd's for me and Jeff of as many episodes as I want to. I was so happy to discover this blog and its fruits, I nearly cried.

2. One of my favorite students, a woman returning to college in her 40s, wrote me Valentine's Day card thanking me for my classroom instruction. She told me that my classes are exactly what she'd always imagined college to be. For me, it's the highest praise I can receive as an instructor.

3. I came home from class tonight and nervously opened espn.com to find out how the Ducks fared against the Washington Huskies, the dreaded, hated Washington Huskies. The Ducks won! Joy! I'm wondering if the Ducks have turned a corner and might finish this season with a flourish (fingers crossed).

Three Beautiful Things 11/1-3: Sean Penn, Go Ducks!, Safety

1. The movie "Into the Wild" left me speechless. I went with friends and had to say, "I can't talk. I have to go home. Good-bye."



2. Oregon's speedy, gritty Ducks beat undefeated Arizona State, 35-23.

3. I learned at a division meeting safety presentation that when I come to LCC to work, I shouldn't be worried about getting shot.

*The Autzen Stadium photograph is from ESPN.com.

Three Beautiful Things 10/27/07: Awesome, Lucious, Humane

1. Oregon defeated USC, 24-17. I am in such a habit of thought, which goes back to the O. J. Simpson days, that the Trojans cannot be defeated, that listening to them go down to the Ducks today filled me with awe.

2. The Deke made a sausage, spinach, potato, lentil soup today that was so delicious it defied reason.

3. As I approached the intersection of 18th and Pearl to make a left turn, a driver at the head of a line of about ten cars waited, let me make my turn, before he went forward. I smiled broadly as I waved him a thank you.

Three Beautiful Things 03/19/07: Blackbird, Ducks, Strat Genius

1. WR 122 ended today with Laura presenting an inspiring essay of hope and triumph against difficult odds. She read her essay before playing the Beatles' song, "Blackbird". The whole class knows that Laura split with her meth/crack addicted husband this past summer and is as heroic as any of those she mentioned in her essay. Like the blackbird, she will "take these broken wings and learn to fly/All your life/. . .only waiting for this moment to arise." What a perfect way to close a great course together.

2. Linda and I sat down during her lunch break and talked about how proud we are of Ernie Kent and the Oregon Ducks and how we can hardly wait to see how the Ducks do Friday against UNLV.

3. At our short break during WR 122 today, I played Jeff Beck's version of "People Get Ready", accompanied by Rod Stewart singing and hoped that some of my younger students listened and could hear Beck's mystic and rousing breaking of boundaries on his Strat. Sublime.

Three Beautiful Things 01/06/07: Benigni, Ducks, T.O.

1. I watched "Life is Beautiful" for the first time. I read some critical response to the movie and discovered that Robert Benigni polarized critics. I am decidedly on the positive side. I need more time to piece together my thoughts about him and this movie.

2. Checking college basketball scores on ESPN.com and discovering, to my surprise and delight, that the Oregon Ducks defeated UCLA early this afternoon.

3. Trying to figure out a dream I had last night in which I was assigned to be a mentor for Terrell Owens and came to his defense as he was shunned by Ernie Kent and Ernie's son Marcus after T.O. was overlooked by an anonymous football team that would not throw him the ball. Weird.