Saturday, June 20, 2009

Can't Stop

Maybe it's all the summertime going on but Julie's post sums it up for me.

This is where I came from:


This is where I am:

I don't think the world even believes anymore in the particular kind of love that I have for Oregon. But I am up to my knees in Tokyo like quicksand.

12 comments:

K.nov17 said...

I really love the photo, those are so beautiful!!!

Whitney said...

That day we kidnapped Aya from campus and drove to the Dalles was PERFECT. Man, I can't wait to see that landscape again but I guess white sand beaches and sky blue seas are nice, hahhaha.

Beth Roeser said...

kei - they were taken on a disposable camera! i love how the tones turned out so much. they're like my favorite oregon pictures ever.

Beth Roeser said...

whitney - there are a lot of great places in the world and oregon is one you can't ever forget you came from. i think.

Unknown said...

My new co-worker is from Corvalis and she's awesome. She always talks about how beautiful Oregon is, too.

selena said...

I'm from Corvallis, too, kind of. I went to h.s. there, anyway. That's pretty funny because Corvallis is a pretty small town. Also lived in Newport and Portland.

Beth Roeser said...

selena - my family lives in newport now! that's where i'll be staying for much of my visit back home this summer. i went to college in portland and i lived in TOLEDO for junior high/high school.

Beth Roeser said...

julie - i've been told that people from oregon who live in other places have a reputation for always whining about no other place being as beautiful as oregon. i think that's a pretty cool reputation though.

g said...

Beth, I completely understand what your feeling...

I called beautiful Oregon home for a very long time, and the wild forest of BC, the golden high desert of New Mexico but for the past year and a half Ive been crouched like a cat on a rooftop in the old city of Barcelona, trying to escape the rising waves of noise from below.

But I'm thinking of moving to Japan to teach very soon, and this post (along with all the cockroach ones!) reminded me that I really don't want to be in Tokyo.

Wonder if I can find a nice school in the country...

selena said...

Hey Beth,
Since Newport is so freakin' tiny, we might even know some of the same people. I worked at Café Mundo for awhile, and at the Co-op.

I have a friend from Toledo, actually. He split time between there and Siletz, I think. But he's a bit older than you I think. Like 31.

And I went to PSU for two years.

Beth Roeser said...

selena - cafe mundo was my headquarters when i was 17. i am sure we know some of the same people. and i went to elementary school in siletz. and psu is where i got my degree. oh internet! oh oregon!

i want a marionberry muffin from the co-op now.

Beth Roeser said...

g - if you can get a job here i'm sure it'll be easy to get one in the country. rural japan is beautiful and depending on your personality and how you like to interact with people it can be really fun.

i grew up in the country and dreamed of the city so i'm pretty amphibian, but i was stranded up in yamagata for five months all through this last winter and it seriously threatened my sanity. i can't tolerate that level of quiet and inactivity right now. anyway if i wanted nature i'd go back to the northwest.

it's weird that i never thought about it before just now, but i guess i mainly travel for the cities. i love seeing all parts of any country, including the rural parts, and i get stoked about any beautiful nature spot (but in my head i tend to rate them by how much they remind me of oregon, haha). with cities though i get in over my fucking head loving them so much. like me and tokyo right now, it's ridiculous. we're still going at it like rabbits every day. it just isn't getting old! it's dangerous, man.

i don't know, i could probably drone on forever and not really say anything about this.