Emi's Journal

Well, it was quite windy today. Besides fearing that my hat was going to blow away, we had the honor of being Pacific Power's "most affected area". Woohoo!
 

Just before 5:00, we lost power at home. I was listening to This American Life on my iPod, and suddenly it went silent. Not because the iPod stopped, but because the speakers I had it plugged in to went dead. And over by my TV, something was making weird sounds. Upon further inspection (read as: glancing at my TV) I realized there were no lights on the Wii, digital converter, or VCR. Which led me to realize that we had no power. Oops.

So I went out to my car. Because my phone was dead, but I have a car charger, and I knew I could charge it that way. And I called Pacific Power, and made the report. Then I decided to go to campus. Surely they would have power, so I could do m homework…. Right?

Uh, nope. I got there and there were people sitting outside of Nash, discussing the outage. So that was a waste of my time. I did find out that Albany was out too. That was interesting. So I went home, and did the only thing left to do: read. Which is all well and good, except that I had two assignments to work on, and while I could work on them without internet, my laptop battery was down to reserve power. So that was out. So I grabbed a book and read. Called PP for an update occasionally, and learned from their pre-recorded message that about 40,000 customers in the Albany-Corvallis-Lebanon area were without power due to "multiple down lines and equipment damage,", and that they had crews working on it.

Around 7:00 power was restored. Yay! But my internet and TV still weren't working. So I called Comcast, and they had an "experiencing problems in your area, working on it" message. So I thought maybe they still didn't have power, or something. But I did start working on homework.

Got a call from my friend at the Valley Library, and she told me they had power and internet there…. So it wasn't Comcast as a whole, but just us without internet. So I went down to campus. I had three chapters of a textbook that I needed to scan anyway, and that took about an hour.

Upon returning home, still no Comcast services. I called again, and got the same "working on it" message I did before. I considered staying on the line to talk to a rep anyway. But decided not to. Turns out Comcast was on site, and a few minutes later (around 9:30), we finally got Comcast services back. Yay!

Life is good again. It's pathetic how everything goes crazy when the power goes out. We rely on electricity too much. But that's life. Me, I'm a whole lot happier now than I was three hours ago. Or even one hour ago, when I had no internet. Sad, perhaps, but true.

Last night (and this morning) was Relay for Life at OSU. For those that aren't in the know, that's American Cancer Society's fundraiser event, and they have them pretty much everywhere.

Our's is a 14-hour overnight relay in the quad. We walk the perimeter of the quad, approximately .33 miles per lap.
 

It's not much of a secret that I was really mad at our Relay committee this year. They were trying to keep teams from participating because they hadn't "tried hard enough" (raised a certain amount of money). Teams that had paid a registration fee to participate. At the same time they were trying to drive home the fact that we all have different reasons to relay. It was a very confusing dynamic.

So in short, we fought for the right to Relay, and we won. But that's not the point of this post.
 

Why I Relay. The reason to Relay. There's a lot going on when they ask that. Many family members have had cancer. My grandpa died of it. Some friends have had cancer. I'll probably have cancer someday. And I want to help do something about it.

The problem is, I don't have money. No one I know has the money to spare. We can give a little, but not much. So what do we have to offer?

Time. Energy. Support. That's what Relay is to me. It's being there, supporting the cause. It's giving up a night, some sleep, and just about all the energy I had in me. It's walking, walking, walking. Walking until it hurts, and you can walk no more. And even then, that's nothing compared to cancer. It's pushing yourself, being there, surrounding the Relay route as the survivors walk. It's support. Supporting the survivors, those in the fight now, and the cause. That's what Relay is to me. That's why I Relay.

I Relay because it's what I can do. I don't have the money to donate. But I can be there and be one more person supporting the cause, and making the event big.

And I can push myself to my limit. I can lose a night and some sleep, walking 10 miles (which is a lot for me), because on my 5th lap I decided I could. And I did. And it hurt. But I did it.

Relay is about people. The people who have dealt with cancer first-hand, and the people there to support them. Fundraising is a great addition to the event, but I fear people are losing sight of the true spirit of Relay. It's not just about money, it's about community too. And that's why I Relay.

I've been noticing something in the past couple of years. Scooters are returning. I mean, they never really went away for little kids, I guess, but they're really back now. I usually see at least one a day on campus. I see more of them around everywhere, but the change on campus has been impressive.

I can't help but wonder if I contributed to the return. Not that long ago I could officially document two scooters on campus. And I'm talking razor or razor-wannabes. One was mine, and one was another Razor Pro. There may have been an A model floating around too, but I couldn't be sure. There were motor scooters, too, but very few kick scooters were seen on campus.

Now I see them everywhere. I still make a point of acknowledging fellow scooterers, with a smile or a wave. Even when I'm on my Diggler, though I'm mostly on the Razor until the weather becomes a bit more predictable. I don't want to risk walking home in the rain with the Dig, because it takes me at least a half hour. Plus I've been extra anemic, and last time I rode to campus and had to walk home, I almost passed out going up the hill. And I thought I was going to throw up.

But that's not the point at all. The point is, scooters are back. And they aren't just for kids, folks. The number of kick scooters on campus continues to astound me, because I remember when people thought I was crazy for riding my Razor around. And there was ONE other scooterer that I saw on occasion, and made a point out of saying hi whenever I did. We were the lone razor-riders, and us scooterers gotta stick together!

Now I'm one of maybe two people that can be seen riding a Diggler…. My ecology prof had one, but I haven't seen her in over a year. And I never saw her on campus with it…. I still use the Razor a lot. It's the one I grab when I'm taking the bus. And if you see someone walking around OSU with a scooter slung over their shoulder, it's probably me…. I am yet to see anyone else rig up a strap to carry their scooter. It's the way to go.