EEEP winter break eep

Yesterday my Dad and I were looking in the paper for used Volvo's (The older ones that you see errywhere in Portland) and we found one that I like! It is a sort of dusty blue color. Sam and I get to have our own cars since we possibly might not be going to the same school next year and such. So YAY! I'm getting it at the end of the school year. I've been having a series of summertime premonitions today, maybe because it's sunny out (but still cold). I'm not sure what exactly I'll be doing this summer but I have a feeling it's going to be a good one. In the meantime, I actually cannot wait for winter break. What's best--other than all of us being together of course--is that since we're going into a new semester of classes, there will be no homework wooo. So we can just relax and have amazing adventures in da snow. Hailey, what time is your basketball game/where? I'm so excited to see you plaaaay. I'll make a nice lil' sign juss 4 u. GAH IM SO EXCITED TO BE ALL TOGETHER AGAIN. We should really try and have that dinner party. We can have in the barn if y'all want and it will be like we have our own house. I just miss you all so much.
SEE YOU SO SOON OH GOD.
Love Elaina

We can listen to xmas music now!

I hate that no one is here. I mean I've been with my basketball team quite a bit... like 3-4 hours a day except thanksgiving but still, there is no one in the dorm or on campus and its weird and empty and lonely and I hate it. Plus I'm the worst student ever and have SO much to do... like its ridiculous. Three essays, a revolutionary poster, and chem homework.... I'm overwhelmed and haven't done anything all week and now its pretty much too late because I have a game tomorrow and Sunday (which sucks because I'm going to be gone right as everyone is getting back). I started knitting again, and I watched a lot of tv shows and movies over the week and just like sat in my room without pants on doing nothing productive. I've skyped a lot of people (haha I skyped with Sara for 2 hours today). My family finally knows and they're all happy (I think) they found out last night because Kelsey sucks and I felt awful for not being the one who told them but all well its over and they didn't really seem to care. So he's planning on visiting I think and coming to my game in Portland on the 17th of December (the night I get home which you should go to if you can) and that will be nice and fun. Anywho... I should try and get work done. Love you all and miss you lots. Happy holiday season... time to  whip out the christmas socks and sweaters.

I'll be seeing you

beautiful.

Uhh... (#throw back 2?)

BOOM (

Sara and Joan arrived yesterday!! O H M Y G O D it was amazing. Sara got a little frightened at my tackle on the street in my big red gown but recovered quickly. They have a pretty nice hotel and after receiving a package from my mother we went to go see my dorm. My girlfriends there were really excited to meet Sara cause I'd been bouncing around all day for them to come. Then we went to Italian where Joan was like what wine would you guys like and me and Sara were like "Uhh..." So she got us red wine and pasta and it was delicious. Then we walked down the peer in the starlight - there were SO MANY STARS - and then I took them to my favorite pub were we had a pint and just talked and talked. THEN at like 9 45 (lolol) Joan was like, I'm going back and you and Sara can go party (LOLOL) and we were like, bed sounds great. 

SO now it's the next day and I"m trying to think of what I can do with them... I think I'll take them to the beach...then the castle.... then the golf course... my favorite bookstore.... favorite coffee place...hmmm. There isn't really a lot to do in St. A. But at least my crowd isn't a difficult one :) 

Wish y'all were here!

Soph

lightbulb cake (#throwback)

I am also so so enjoying hearing your guys' experiences, as i think about you often and wish i could be there with you all the time. so, let's see. my life currently involves doing odd modeling jobs (which is alright. i don't really enjoy it, those people are weird. but money is good.) and sort of "interning" at the acupuncture clinic that my mom works at (which is nice. it can be kind of boring, but the people are really great and interesting and its just so ZEN there.) I'm getting close to saving up enough money now to buy myself some singing lessons, which i've been talking about doing for aaages. i think it's time to bring that back into the mix....i actually miss singing so much, i always put on joni mitchell when i'm driving so i can sing along and it annoys my family, and miles. they don't support my freedom of expression. the jerks. BUT my mom and i are taking a roadtrip next week so we can belt with joni all we want!!!! i'm ridiculously excited. a spontaneous deal was worked out with our neighbor that if her car made it down and back from guatemala, we could just have it. it made it as far as california, which is close enough. so my mom and i are flying down to LA and staying with my grandpa for a couple of days, and then driving the car back up to portland. i insisted we drive through san francisco, and then both mom and i have forever wanted to see the redwoods, and then we're also driving through ashland to visit southern oregon university, because i'm considering that for next year possibly....pretty much i've gotta stick to a state school, since its the cheapest. so I'm also thinking about psu...which i'm not too psyched about...i kind of want to have just a pinch of adventure and independence, maybe? but, we'll see how it works out. i mean, u of o is the best school, but its just soo huge. anyways, i digress. SO YEAH ROADTRIP WOOOO. i'm going to take lots of pictures and listen to lots of nick drake and try to finish On The Road (reading on the road whilst ON THE ACTUAL LEGITIMATE ROAD?!? so topical. so original!!!) So, hopefully, i'll have lots of more interesting things to report after next week. so thats pretty much it, i suppose. I miss you all, and am sending a little brainwave package full of love your way.

percters erv thergs

Letters to hailey

Guys go back and read this blog when you have a chance... our friendship is really special that it has lasted so long and so strong!

http://haileysletters.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/ketchup.html

Slash elaina is just fucking hilarious.

Ramblings in Medieval History Lecture...

Hmmmm posts!! I love LOVE hearing from you guys even if it is just a sentence or two. Nay, that party sounds so nice. And now even if it is really crowded next time you'll have a group of people to hand out with. Nice feeling  :)
SO I stayed up all night for the election (which you guys will appreciate knowing I've never done that before and my appreciation for sleep) and had went for a run and the morning AND the gym cause I 'had so much energy' (what?). I decided to take a nap at 3pm and woke up at 8 the next morning. Hmmm looong sleep. But with lovely romantic dreams so it was all good!
I'm going to a Belated Halloween party tonight so I'll tell you how my costume (Lennie) gets received. And then I'm having a Snake horror movie night with paul tomorrow which should be funny. Ahhhh too many social engagements.... I'm actually struggling. I'm with you nay, mostly all I wanted to do was just read  or watch TV. OR EVEN DO HOMEWORK. which i haven't done in a really long time even though I have to cause Sara IS COMING THIS WEEKEND WITH JOAN OMG. Can't wait to show her around the town and my friends :) :)
Miss everyone - better start paying attention - cute scottish lecturer just said sex... Attention = caught

<3 bai

my night of pie-eating pot-smoking and dream-pop music listening

So my day could have been a lot better. I had my rough draft of my english essay due which I finished throwing together at about 1:30 last night. I slept through my alarm so I didn't have time for breakfast and I was just feeling sort of off, you know those days? To top it all off, when I got back from french class--my last class of the day on Wednesdays--I sunk down in my chair and checked my email, planning on spending the remainder of the day watching Wallace & Gromit in my pajamas with a face-mask and a cup of tea. But WRONG. Because I had an email from Daniel (my music director dude) that was like, "YO so we've had like a shit ton of listening parties and you need to come to more of them cause you've only been to one. It is tonight at my house, at 7." Upon reading this I was so frustrated I couldn't stand it because all I wanted to do was relax for the rest of the day. I knew I wasn't going to enjoy it because the last listening party I went to (OH yes so listening parties--technically--are where the dj's meet and listen to the new albums that come in on rotation each week and give feedback and shit. Mainly though everyone just sits around and smokes a lot of weed.) was really awkward for me because there were a ton of people there who I didn't really know and I just felt really uncomfortable. But I figured I kind of had to go to this one. When I got to Daniel's house there were only a few people there--some of them I recognized as DJ's and some were his house-mates...everyone there seemed to be involved in the station though. They were sitting in a circle in his tiny living room on the couch and in comfy-looking chairs, so I sat down in an empty chair and waited for more people to get there but only two other girls showed up. So it was me, Daniel, his house mate, Matt the electronic music director, Carson (dont actually know what he does but he's real cute) and these two other girl dj's. We figured we'd get started since it was already 7:15. And it was actually so relaxed and fun, everyone there was so cool! We just listened to the rotation albums and talked about them and talked about our shows...Daniel was being super nice and told everyone there that my show was really good and he was like, "Do you think your show's gonna keep its same sort of vibe next semester?" And this made me happy because you have to re-apply and get hired again each semester, so that basically meant that he was going to hire me again which is really nice. When we were about half-way through the albums (we only listen to one or two tracks from each album) Daniel just all of a sudden was like, "I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE HOW MANY PEOPLE DIDN'T SHOW UP." and Matt was like, "Don't feel bad, they are missing out." and he was like, "Yeah except I have this CD that I was gonna give out after this little contest I was gonna do but there is like no one here." (for the record, it was a signed copy of a Tennis CD which is why this next thing pained me a little inside) So long story short, we decided to burn the CD in rebellious fury. It was SO. SATISFYING. but also a little sad. For me. Because I totally would have loved to have that CD. Anyway. After this we continued listening to rotation and Daniel turned to one of the girl DJ's and was like, "Oh wait you made a PIE, didn't you! Completely forgot. Let's get stoned and eat your pie." So the rest of the listening party consisted of these activities, and it was really mellow and I felt really comfortable with everyone there. It was also nice becuase even though I was the only freshman there, they didn't treat me like I was younger than them which I appreciated. At like 9:00, full from lemon-meringue pie and pleasantly stoned, I headed back to campus. I walked with this girl who is a Sophomore and turns out that she really (really) loves Elliott Smith. And she's not just any ol' fan, she's like MEEEE so that was a pleasant walk back, filled with squealing and gushing over Elliott. And that was my night! I'm happy that I get to look forweward to Wednesday evenings from now on. Right now it's only like 9:50 hehe. But I'm glad because now I can fulfill my dreams from earlier and watch Wallace & Gromit in my pajamas, but this time, in a better mood. yay. Sorry if this post is rambly and such, you see, I am still stoned. Love and miss you all so dearly and truly. <3

Sleep.

So I'm proud of myself. Gettin 7.5 hours of sleep tonight ahhhh yeahhhhh. And gays can get married in Washington and Obama is president and had an epic dance party with friends to 80s music 'twas awesome. Love y'all

All nighter worth it. Don't really see the point of going back to sleep... Oh well!

My lyfe now.

Ugh yeah I've been bad and haven't been posting, though I've written some things in like a word document to post. But they were all long stories and I forgot that these could just be short and sweet.
Here's my life now

• registration was today and I'm taking chem again even though I hated it. I figure I can always drop it if everything goes to shit in that class.
• Basketball is getting better. My Achilles isn't hurting anymore and they told me that I was probably the best defender on the team and that if I learned to handle the ball better I'd be a really good all around player. We have a scrimmage tonight and leave for California in a week and a half for our first games (AH!!) 
• It might snow here on Friday even though it was 70 degrees yesterday
• I like my BOYfriend a lot (which is just so weird to say and think and yeah we've basically been together a month and a half because nothing has really changed but still... super weird for me)
• I'm an anxiously waiting replies from letters I sent. I got Sophia's today.... 
• Fall is beautiful here I'll see if I can post some pictures 
• Kelsey got really drunk the other night and I missed it because I went to bed at 10:30 because I was stressed and felt sick. So that sucked. 
• I got to sing a CHRISTMAS song in chorale on Monday which just made my whole life and day and year because now I have an excuse to sing Christmas music before thanksgiving. Yay
• I'm working hard at getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night 4 days a week because I've been really sleep deprived lately and its causing me to be forever and always sick which is just sucky. So yeah-- trying to do that and be better at doing my homework. 
• I love you all and miss you very very much.

Cairngorms Trip

Hey guys! Happy election day!
The fact that I'm writing two Breakaway posts in a row just speaks to the fact that y'all have to write more often. SO this last hill walking trip was the the Cairngorms. It was so much fun - I had the time of my life.
So I drove down there with a couple of yah's (one was actually kind of cute I'll be honest) both named James. We stopped off for fish and chips on the way in this WAY sketch chippy that would have been an acceptable scene for a murder. The chips were really greasy but okay. We got lost when we were close to the hostel so Cute James hopped out to a pub to ask where it was, and this really drunk guy was like "I'll show you!!" So he had to jump start his car and sort of drunkenly started leading us in his car to the place. It was actually so scary. I was like "Guys he's probably just leading us to his lair so he can kill us all." But it turned out he was actually leading us to the place. But I still couldn't stop laughing.
The hostel was so so so nice, with fires and a piano and nice bunk beds. Xavier, the french guy, shared his wine with me and convinced me to go on the high walk the next day.
LITTLE DID I KNOW that there was SO.  MUCH. FUCKING. SNOW. I hate snow. Cute James wore shorts and Paul and I had a bet going to see how long he'd last without trousers. He outlasted all of our bets - and I mean there was snow everywhere! Like up to the waist trudging through snow. And you had to be careful - cause if you walked on the plain white snow, it could be 5 feet deep. If you stepped on the rocks though, it could be covered in ice. Like holy crap! We got lost in the mist at the top of our first mountain but Paul got us back okay. We had lunch under this enormous plastic thing to keep warm. It was like a giant orange parashoot blob to stop the wind.
After lunch we went down the mountain to this gorgeous little loch that we had all to ourselves. The mist cleared just as we came down. It's in the pictures on facebook. Then most of the group wanted to climb another mountain and I was like, You know what. I'm good here. I'll just you know. Stay here. ... so then everybody went but me and Paul... awk. But no it wasn't. We just talked about everything and he made up stories about castles and fake Scottish legends. It was really lovely actually. And then when we got too cold waiting for them by the loch, we went down the valley to this tiny little cottage thing called a bothy, where hill walkers can stay for free. It's literally one room with a tiny fire place. There was an old hiker there for the night and he made me and Paul tea and gave us biscuits. It was so cool cause he was just sharing stories about hiking and stuff and it was like a book, really. By the time the others came back it was starting to get dark - cause in scotland it gets dark nowadays at like 5 and getting earlier by the day. So we should have had to really hurry back to be safe. But instead we decided to have a singalong. Cute James beat-boxed, Paul and I took lead, and this other guy took backup. Oh my god it was so funny. We sang through Bohemian Rhapsody and all the Sound of Music songs and disney songs for two hours. I was laughing so hard. I forgot how much fun it was to sing outside at the top of your lungs. I forgot about that.
That night we had mashed veg and haggis it was so delicious. I slipped away to bed kind of early cause I was exhausted. The next morning I was for sure taking the low walk. Cause Paul promised me a castle but mostly because I was so beat from the day before. Before we left I said goodbye to Xavier cause he's leaving St. Andrews for good next week. He kind of took me aside and told me that if I ever wanted to visit France - like even in two years - to just give him a call and I could stay with him no problem. It was actually the sweetest thing ever. So on the walk we walked around this loch and there were a like a million sheep and cows it was fantastic. We ate lunch in the heather on the side of the trail. It wasn't as exciting as the first day - no thought of getting lost in the snow - but it was really nice with good conversation and good sheep. I love me my sheep.
YUP I think that's about everything. It was a load of fun and I'm having a really good time over here. Except I'm watching descent right now. And its scary as shit. Last night I went on a ghost walk for Guy Fawkes night and it was scary as shit cause they took us to this abandoned hospital and we had to break into the cemetery and it was so so scary. But good fun cause we went to the pub afterwards.
I miss you all in my heart of hearts and I want you to post on here more often. Not about exciting things. Just about anything and everything.