sjamesho.v3

since my visits to Ashland, i’ve always had one meal at Munchies. so that’s where i grabbed my dinner. and no, this restaurant has nothing to do with the aftereffects of the cannabis variety. after eating i stopped by Starbucks for a caffeine aid to be used later on. obviously it won’t be open by the time the play finishes so i put the venti-sized cup in my car before heading to the theater.

remember how cloudy and rainy it was on sunday? well, not yesterday. although it was still pretty warm at 7:39p, at least it wasn’t as humid.

between the two gentlemen of Verona, i truly believe that it was the dog that stole the show. since photography (flash or otherwise) is not permitted i’m unable to show you the cool canine. you’ll just have to see this play and hope that the dog that is cast for that production is as awesome as this one.

11:00p. as soon as the play let out, i immediately made a beeline to my car to begin my exodus. i love night driving. its so much cooler… temperature-wise. however the biggest difference between day and night driving is that all the beautiful scenery is gone. the stealthiness of the scenery is compounded by the fact that there is no light pollution save for the road reflectors and occasional signs. but i think that the effect is cool.

4:30a. i rolled into my garage this morning and freaked myself out because i couldn’t find my housekeys. serves me right for putting it in a different compartment of my bag the night before. you’d think that i’d be so tired that i’d just quickly shower off the travel grime and sleep. i was tired, but it still took me awhile to wind down. after finding unconsciousness at 6:15a, i was awake by 8:00a to leave the house by 8:30a to go to work. its going to be a zombie-like day which will most likely end with deep deep sleep.

i’m going to work on the photo gallery of this trip and hopefully you’ll be able to see all my pictures by the end of this week… or sooner.

last sunday the weather was overcast and even rained for a short while. well not today! i arrived in Ashland around 2:30p and took the opportunity to walk around town and take some pictures.

there are plenty of flowers around the box office courtyard and you’ll be able to see them when i post the entire gallery of my trip. i also found some interesting sculptures around town. since i’m going to be leaving after the show tonight, i attempted to sleep in my car a little bit after my photo session in the lower level of the public parking structure. i think i barely went out of consciousness when the heat woke me up. although it wasn’t that hot, there wasn’t any breeze going through the garage so i opted to leave and find shaded parking in the open. shortly after driving around i found a nice quiet place next to a cementary, screened down my windows and opened up the moonroof.

after i laid the seat down this was the view i saw through the roof and thought it was picture worthy.

so was the view through the passenger-side window. i just love the texture. anyways, try as i might to catch some sleep it was unattainable. so i went to the next obvious choice to get out of heat… the public library. they have wireless internet here so i found a compfy chair facing a floor-to-ceiling window with a beautiful view of the hills on the opposite side of the valley and blogged this entry. its about 5:44p right now so before i leave i think i’ll watch a downloaded video from DLTV and then grab something to eat before the play The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

monday is an off-day for the Shakespeare festival so i took the opportunity to take in more of the state of Oregon by heading up to Big Lake Youth Camp and hang out with Christina on her day off.

i have friends that have attended Big Lake back in the day so i was kind of neat to actually go there and see it for myself.

this moment was captured as this was day that my car first went “off-pavement”. its definitely a slower and bumpier ride experience… one that i’m definitely not used to. please don’t misunderstand me. the insanity of current gas prices and the economics of my new car has reinvented my past driving habits. i’m not the lead-foot that i used to be.

after lunch at Big Lake, we went to the town of Bend to do some store browsing and then caught a flick. after that we hung out at the local library for some internet action where Christina schooled my computer-geekness in opening multiple browser. their system protects the operating system from idiots by providing a menu of applications to launch instead of displaying the desktop. CTRL+N wasn’t working for me so i had to minimize the browser and launch another instance of the app. anyways, after that she took me to this Thai drive-thru for some eats. when i drove up to the place it was like the size of Caffino stand. very interesting. we took our food to Drake Park and then headed to Starbucks for some Tangerine Frappacinos. mmmmm! i dropped her back at Big Lake but before i left she showed me pictures of some of her girls as well as other varied pictures of her adventures.

it was a long day, but it was fun and kicked back. tomorrow i have one more play to attend and then i’m heading back to California. laters.

today has been a long day. well, not really. its just that when you’re the only one driving, it seems long. however, i passed the time away quickly with plenty of podcasts loaded on my mp3 player. so to start of this blog, here’s a picture of my parents and i right before we left the house.

while they go on a cruise for 15 days, i’ll be making my way up to Oregon. why am i going up to Oregon? well, you can read my earlier blog entries this month. that’s what they’re there for.

we stopped at the post office so that my mom can send off mail before she left. i took this opportunity to take another snapshot of my aforementioned GPS mounted on my windshield. this is as close to “in-action” as i’m willing to get because taking pictures and driving don’t mix… and its also harder to keep your hands steady.

the thing i like most about road trips is the beauty revealed when the texture of the sky and the variation of the mountain ridge meet has if they are holding a pose just long enough for you to take its picture. the clouds are constantly moving and there are a myriad of angles to choose from.

i arrive in Ashland about 3:00p and checked into my hotel. i relaxed for about two hours before heading into town to fill gas, get some money from the ATM, pick up my tickets, and grab some dinner. as i was waiting outside the Elizabethan Stage, it started raining. you can’t see it in this picture but i’m being rained upon. if you look closely you can see that it looks like there’s sweat coming down my right cheek. well… maybe a little, but the water from above certainly helped the dripping.

the heat and humidity tonight was uncomfortable for me and for about half of the first half of the play i was so drowsy and found it difficult to keep awake to pay attention. i didn’t sleep but actively fighting against it wasn’t doing me any good. by the second half, it was much cooler and not so humid. i was able to completely enjoy the Merry Wives without fear of slipping into a coma.

that’s it for now. since there are no plays on Monday, i’ll be going up to Sisters to visit Christina who also has a day off of camp. so more driving and hopefully more opportunities for me to take more pictures.

at the Port Washington Diner i had the number 14 breakfast special recommended by aunty Mag which consisted of an omlette (with lox and onions), hash browns, and bagel. uncle James dropped me off at Islip where i caught my flight back to Milpitas. this time there were no disruptive babies on either connecting flights so i was able to sleep all the way to San Jose.

my mom picked me up and we went to The Chessecake Factory for dinner. it was a fun trip but it is also very good to be home.