Memory

To occupy my hours and hours of free time over the last week, I begun the slow process of converting all of the Snell's home videos to digital.

A few years ago my sister, Amanda, got my parents a nifty device that copies VHS tapes to an SD memory card.  The process is insanely simple but takes a fair amount of time.  The fun part is getting to re-watch a lot of home movies I had forgotten about.  Most of the tapes are quite old so it's also nice to get them backed up on the computer.  Once I fill the SD card, I'll have to burn the clips to DVD, erase, then continue the process.  Exciting stuff, I know.  The best part is I now have so much blackmail on my sisters.

Of the videos I've converted, here are some highlights:

One of our classic Easter egg hunts with matching outfits courtesy of my mom.

Megan may not have been the most athletic child.  Throwing the ball directly at the ground clip.

Audio's a bit off but Amanda shoving me mercilessly down a hill.  "GET UP!"

I would be murdered if I put this video up.

Only a few know of what this is.

Some of the most interesting videos to watch are the birthday parties, mainly to see who was invited to the festivities.  A fair amount of the people I still keep in touch with whereas a few I have no idea who they are.

I could have put loads more clips on here but I feel like they're really only funny to those who were involved so I'll leave it at that.

That's all for now.  Bye.

Signed, Sealed, Delivered

Four years ago in my Social Anthropology class senior year of high school, my awesome teacher Ms. Pandey had us write letters to ourselves that she would then mail to us 4 years later.  We were  supposed to get friends to write us letters as well.  I pretty much completely forgot about this until recently when I saw an envelope addressed to me which appeared to be in my handwriting.  The letters had arrived!

Some people actually wrote some pretty personal stuff in the letters so I figured I would just highlight/respond to some of the fun things each person included.  Here we go.

The first letter I read was the one I wrote to myself.  I basically summed up things that had happened senior year of high school and made some guesses as to what the future would hold.  I wrote about going to CSU and possibly majoring in business in the hopes of opening a climbing gym.  At the time, I was waiting to find out who my roommate was.  In the letter I hoped we would get along (seeing as I switched rooms two weeks in, not so much).  The rest was actually pretty deep.  Go me. 

  Sara W.:

• Drew out our self made seating arrangement for our Senior Inquiry class 
• Apparently she got her new iPhone named Salvador and was wondering what cell phones would be like now  
• Let's define murder
• Included was a very brief note from Sam.  Thanks Sam.

It's like Sara could see into the future

Alexi R.:

• How annoying Senior Inq is/was 
• How we entertained ourselves in class

Kayley T.:

• Said I had a bad haircut freshman year. Probably true haha.
• Social studies

Christina R.:  

• Unfortunately I don't own my own airplane and rocket ship...yet.   
• Don't Stop Believing
• Magic Secrets Revealed

All of these people told me to call them when I read the messages which I did not do.  Whoops.  Maybe I should do that. 

Thanks for the letters guys!  They were heaps of fun to read!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

Well, I'm back in Oregon, at least for a while.

Packing commenced on Monday this week and took me about three days to get done.  Packing might be the worst thing in the world.  Trying to fit your life into 3 bags is not enjoyable.

Packing sucks

My friend Sophie came up from Denver on Monday so we could hang out a bit and say goodbye.  We ended up going to Odell's brewery on a spur of the moment decision but missed the last tour of the day by five minutes.  Oh well.  It was my other friend's birthday on Monday as well and we went out at night to celebrate.

Courtesy of Will

On Tuesday, Heather arranged a surprise activity for us.  I tried to figure out what it was but was unsuccessful.  It turned out to be paddle boarding!  I had never done it before and the weather was beautiful which made for a great time.  That night we went out to dinner.  I originally thought it was just going to be Heather and me but was surprised when other friends were there as well.  If you don't know, Fort Collins has copious amounts of restaurants and almost all of them are delicious.  Unfortunately, this place is in the top 2 for worst places I've ever been.  I had to send my food back twice (I've never sent back food before).  If you're ever in Fort Collins, do not go to The Boot Grill.  Although the food was terrible, it made for a good laugh.

Courtesy of Heather

Wednesday was a pretty depressing day.  My flight wasn't until almost nine at night and I still had a fair amount of packing to do.  When the packing was finally done, Heather, Will, and I walked around campus and then played a game of Gin Rummy.  After saying farewell to the house, CSU, and Fort Collins, Heather drove me down to the airport and we had our last goodbye (at least for now).  Having to say bye to your two best friends in the span of less than 3 weeks kind of sucks.

Empty rooms are sad

I flew into Seattle because the ticket was about $100 cheaper for some reason as opposed to heading to Portland and my dad was driving down anyway.  The added 3 hours to the trip was not the greatest thing in the world but it all worked out.

Congratulations to all the West Coast people graduating today!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Friends Till The End

Well, this is officially the last posting from Colorado.  I'm moving back to Portland on Wednesday and so I thought it would be appropriate for this week's "featured friend" to be about none other than my roommate of two-ish years, Heather Sanders.

The story of how I met Heather is a bit odd.  Freshman year she went to school at Chapman University in California but her best friend from high school lived on my floor that year.  Her friend and I were really close and so I heard a lot of stories about Heather but didn't get to put a face to the name until she came and visited for a few days.  Our interaction was very brief and it would have never crossed my mind we would end up living together a few years later.

Sophomore year, Heather transferred to CSU.  Although she had a place of her own, she pretty much lived at me and my roommate's apartment.  She studied abroad second semester that year in Florence, Italy which I was sad about because at that point, we had gotten really close.  After I got back to Colorado from winter break, we had a Skype session while she was in Italy about some things and we made a fairly elaborate plan for when she got back.  We decided we would live together and both study abroad in the spring of the next year and that's exactly what ended up happening.

Senior year we decided to live together again since it worked out quite well the first go.

Still One Of My Favorites

 Here's a few things I've learned about Heather:

• She could play Gin Rummy 24/7 and never lose interest
• She could move into a retirement home next week and fit right in
• She's reliable (this one sounds dumb but many people are not, so this is a great trait to have)
• She's "allergic" to everything
• You could name any popular song/movie/pop-culture event and she will likely have no idea what you're talking about, unless Taylor Swift was involved

And here are some of my favorite memories (too many to choose from):

• Halloween 2013
• Mary's cookie trips
• RamRide nights
• "I just went to Taco Bell..."
• Mean Girls quotes

Halloween 2013

Heather is one of the main reasons I made the final decision to go abroad which completely changed my outlook on things.  It's strange to think what would have happened had she not persuaded me to go through with the whole process, so thanks for that Heather!

We've been through a fair amount together and have consistently been there for each other when needed.  I seriously could not have asked for a better roommate/friend and I wish her the best of luck when she moves to Spain in a few months.  You're one of the few people I don't need to tell this to (and who will actually follow through), but Heather, make sure to stay in touch!

That's all for now.  Bye.

Graduation

Whoever said high school is the best four years of your life clearly never went to college.

It's been two weeks since the graduation ceremony but I had two semi time-sensitive posts before this one so you get it now.  Grades came in a few days after the ceremony which confirmed that I did indeed graduate, so that's good. 

When I started school at Colorado State University four years ago, I had no idea what was in store.  I didn't know I would make a whole new set of friends, study abroad and travel around Europe, get to know and love a city, and learn a little bit of academics along the way.

It hasn't quite hit yet that I never have to go to school again.  Part of that is incredibly exciting but the other part is a bit terrifying.  Up until this point, there was always a plan for what was next.  Now, it is all up to me. 

I was reading some other blogs about graduation and this piece written by Veronica Grandex pretty  much sums it up:

"What you weren’t prepared for was this unshakable feeling that you don’t belong anywhere. At some point in the past four years...this place became your home. Not just because you live here, but because every corner of campus has a different memory attached to it. Because you don’t have to look at the menus of your favorite breakfast spots...Because you know which cafeteria lady won’t charge you for guacamole. But mostly because the people here –the faces you see every day– make you feel absolutely at peace. And you’re just now realizing that when you cross that graduation stage, you’re not just leaving your home. It ceases to exist.

The people you know are leaving. Your friends. Your roommates. The acquaintances you are stoked to see at the bar...The familiar faces of random people on the way to class. Everyone who made this place home. They won’t be here anymore. The storefronts will change. New restaurants will open. New buildings will go up. And a fresh new batch of students will arrive. Your home is constantly changing. You can never go back to it, just as it was.

Your friends will move to different places. Some will move back home. Some will move to new and exciting cities. Some will be just an hour away. Some will be a flight away. Some will be close enough for regular happy hours and nights out. But you know for certain that it will never be the same. You’ll never all live in the same place again. For the rest of your life, you’ll have to travel further than across the hall to see the people you call family. You’ll have get togethers, and brunches, and weekend getaways, but you can never go back 'home.' And that leaves you feeling…kind of homeless."

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While I was in Portland last week, I had an interview for a new climbing gym that's opening beginning of Fall.  I'm really hoping I get the job because I don't really have a plan B at this point.  I think offers are supposed to begin mid June.

I was originally going to stay in Fort Collins for the summer but don't feel like I'm supposed to be here anymore.  I don't really like walking around town/campus anymore because it brings up so many memories of people and good times.  Because of this and a few other things,  I'm headed back to Portland the second week of June.

That's all for now.  Bye.