Seattle and Portland: A Whole New World

It's 2am, but my body is till telling me that it's 11pm. That 3 hour time change has my internal clock all in a tizzy! Anyway, I couldn't go to bed before pouring my heart out into this post, especially since I haven't posted in an immensely, unacceptably long amount of time. So many problems...

As many of you know, this past week I took my first ever commercial flight to the West Coast! I visited Portland, OR on Wednesday and Seattle, WA on Thursday and Friday. New experiences abound! I've never been anywhere west of Chicago before (save for that AMAZING experience in South Dakota during spring break last year), so this was all new to me. Where do I even begin?

I suppose we will begin where all good stories start: at the beginning! The airport. 5:30am. Dark outside. Cold as all Polar Vortexes. In short, not a fun morning. Our plane left the Lansing airport at 7:15am, and I would like to think that I conducted myself pretty professionally on my first flight ever. On the inside, I kept panicking that security was going to stop me, pat me down, send their hounds on me and throw me in the jail where they send all irresponsible flight passengers, but thankfully that never happened! Security was a bit of a bitch though, pardoning my language. I mean, what do you people think I'm going to bring on this plane? Dynamite? Nun-chucks? Secret ninja tools? Or maybe something from my vast guns and knife collection? Because those are all of the things that security specified NOT to bring when I checked their website...

Regardless, I got on the plane without a hitch and for the next 7 and a half hours, was on my way to an experience I am so grateful that I had.

We landed in Portland at 11:30am (which was really 2:30pm Eastern Time because of the time change) and headed off to our hotel. Can I just say how absolutely spoiled rotten I felt at that hotel? First off all, it was super classy: white sheets and all. Second, I got my OWN ROOM. That's right: 2 beds, a full bathroom, and a television ALL TO MYSELF. I guess since I was traveling with the University, they can't make me room with someone else for privacy reasons or something. Whatever, I'm not complaining :)

Food Trucks in Portland

After checking into the hotel, Drew (the other student I was traveling with) and I went out to explore the city. First, we ate at the food trucks pictured on the right. Food trucks are apparently a big thing on the West Coast. I had some authentic Iraqi cuisine, while Drew had Korean. I must say, some of the best Middle Eastern food I've ever tasted, and made by immigrants who had tasted the real stuff. Fabulous. When we finished eating, Drew and I were going to go to the park, when it started to pour. And I mean pour. We ran into a coffee shop to get out of the rain and were so wet that the waitress offered us towels to dry ourselves off! Good ol' Portland for ya! Eventually, the rain subsided, and we headed off to the Chinese Gardens.

Family room entrance sign

Stone waterfall

The Chinese Gardens: a magical, otherworldly oasis situated right in the middle of the city. As you can see in the pictures, the gardens included a small pond surrounded by buildings that resembled those owned by wealthy families in sixteenth century China. There was a study room, gazebo, family room, tea shop in the back, and many, many freshly-blooming flowers and trees. The sights, sounds, and smells of the garden were designed by the architects to send you back to this time in Chinese history and give you a small taste of what life was like. The carvings in the pictured stone wall and over the door frames symbolize peace and good spirits to all who enter the home, and they ward off bad spirits that may try to defile this tranquil space. It was such a lovely scene, and made me wish that Michigan was no longer immersed in this eternal winter. Only 2 more months till spring...

Me at the Chinese Gardens

Wednesday night, I presented alongside Drew and my boss at an alumni event at the Portland Art Museum. This was the reason that I went on this trip in the first place. I spoke about the Creativity Exploratory (CE) at the College of Arts and Letters (website can be found here), which has been my workplace since last spring semester. I updated the alumni on events going on within MSU and informed them of why the CE is a place that matters to me and that I invest my time in. I was extremely nervous to speak in front of such a large group of people, but once I got up there, I just did it. I pretended I was an actress hired to sell the space, and I acted. Can't really remember what I said, but apparently I did a good job, because after I finished several alumni came up to me and told me that they loved my speech. They said I was on the right track to success, which of course was encouraging to hear. One of them even gave me his business card and told me to email him if I was ever looking for an internship (which I always am). I was over. The. MOON. Absolutely fantastic day. And the trip only got better from there.

Magazines from the 30's

Thursday morning we flew from Portland to Seattle, and arrived at our hotel on the waterfront of Puget Sound around 11:30am. Once more, I got my own room and enjoyed it immensely. After arriving at the hotel, Scott (my boss), Drew, and I immediately walked to the Pike Place Market, a must-see for all in Seattle. We saw the famous gum wall. We watched the famous fish men do their routine in the market. We visited the original Starbucks (not really anything that special). We did it all.

Home-grown veggies

The market was my favorite part of our Seattle adventures, by far: a bustling, eclectic torrent of tourists, street performers, immigrants and workers of all cultures, races, and backgrounds. Homemade goods overwhelmed my senses: teas, fruits (the Washington-grown pears being my favorite), vegetables, old Time magazines and newspaper clippings, leather journals, candles, lotions, herbal remedies, honey, fish, shrimp, crab, and other seafood caught in the ocean not far off. Basically, anything and everything that you could imagine ever wanting ever was in that market. They even had wallets made from recycled tires! Talk about a progressive city!

Fish at the market

By the time Drew and I left the market (our boss had wandered off), we had enough time to eat some ice cream and walk through the park, viewing the mountains in the distance, before we had to get ready for our final performance. This time, we spoke to Seattle-based MSU alums at the Seattle Asian Art Museum. Same routine, same fantastic results. Some alumni came up and spoke to me afterwards about what a great job I did, and two people this time gave me their cards and told me to email them about an internship over the summer. One girl who I particularly liked even offered to house me at her place for the summer! I must say, they were all very accommodating and overly kind to me, Becky Harris of Lapeer.

Becky Harris who had never ridden on a commercial airplane before. Becky Harris, who had never been anywhere west of Chicago. Becky Harris, who is unimaginably thankful and blessed to have had this opportunity, and who will never be able to thank her work enough for taking her.

All I have left to say is thank you. Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip a reality. Thank you to God for allowing me to live such an amazing life. And thank you to all of you, for reading this obnoxiously long post.

The Battle Against Laziness

For the first time in a loooong time, my university has a snow day tomorrow! Hurray! It is days like these that make me realize how much I love living in Michigan, with our unpredictable snow and ice storms. Some people might hate them, but I am currently very grateful to have 12"+ of snow :)

Since I don't have school tomorrow, I really have no excuse not to write a blog post, especially since I haven't written one in...a while. It's not even like I was too busy and I didn't have time. It's more like, I'm a lazy fool who loves sitting around watching TV instead of doing the things I should be doing. Like, you know, writing blog posts. BUT I HAVE CHANGED! I have renounced my old ways of procrastination and laziness! I have taken up arms for the battle against sloth and gluttony!

Can you tell that I am also a little bit bored? I get dramatic when I am bored. Please forgive me: my imaginary scenarios make my life more interesting.

What am I going on about, you ask? Where am I going with this? I honestly just started writing this post in hopes that something would come to me...and something did! So here we go! The topic of today's post will be...laziness, and my never-ending battle against it.

It is a battle, believe me. This part I am not dramatizing. If I could do whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, well then I would honestly do absolutely nothing all of the time. I love being lazy: sitting around watching TV and eating. Doesn't everyone? That's sort of why Netflix and Nutella are so popular...But this troubles me, and it is one of my least favorite traits about myself. I try my best to overpower it, but sometimes it is a struggle. It is only after periods of long vacation and relaxation that I find my laziness resurfacing and taking hold, kind of like a constricting snake, wrapping itself around me until I feel practically numb to everything else. Getting back in the grove of being motivated and doing things is difficult, but once I get started, I find that things get a little easier as I go. It all starts with getting up in the morning, at a reasonable time.

This topic came to mind because I am feeling particularly lazy right now, and it troubles me. So, to negate the laziness and begin shrugging off my winter break skin, I decided to write this post. Then I am going to go for a run tomorrow, and maybe have dinner with a friend. Baby steps, and before I know it, I'll be back in the groove of things.

People, myself included, often wonder why I keep myself so busy all of the time. At first, I myself didn't even know. But as I continue to grow and deepen my understanding of myself and why I do the things I do, I've figured it out. The main, but not the only reason that I keep myself so busy is because that is the only way I can keep myself moving along like a well-oiled machine. That is the only way I can get the motivation up to a high level and keep it there, so that I do not get choked by the constricting force of my natural laziness.

The more I do, the better I feel, and the better I feel, the more motivated I am to do even more. It is a semi-vicious cycle, but I'm figuring out how to handle it. And it has it's drawbacks: I find myself feeling guilty for having fun sometimes, because it feels like I shouldn't be wasting my motivation on such trivial things. I've discovered very recently that, in reality, being lazy is not always a bad thing. It is ok, even recommendable, to relax and unwind sometimes. I have learned that I just have to be cautious about when I relax, and for how long. If I'm not careful, I could spiral downwards into my unmotivated pit, and it will take even longer to climb myself out again.

This post turned out to be just as much about motivation as it is about laziness, I suppose. Sorry about that: sometimes my brain just does what it wants without me asking first. I just do the writing.

I guess one message you could take from this post would be to stay motivated. Not everyone suffers from my chronic laziness, but I know a lot of people do. What I'd recommend to cure the lazy-bones would be to simply start small. Make yourself get up no later than 9am. You'd be surprised the amount of things you can get accomplished before noon. Once you're up, maybe do a quick exercise routine: it will get you motivated to do things for the rest of the day. Once you think you're ready, text one of your friends, maybe somebody you haven't seen in a while, and set up plans for sometime in the week. I have noticed that if you make plans with someone else for the week, it's harder to back down. So you HAVE to do things! It's a great way to back yourself into a corner of motivation, really.

Maybe for this New Years, my resolution will be to stay motivated! And for all of you out there who are like me, good luck getting through the winter blues and staying perky as a peach! Best Wishes, Friends.