(From Yesterday) Afternoon Update

Afternoon update: So I don’t have wireless at the moment, but it’s 12:03 so I feel like I should update you guys on my day. So I woke up, fell back asleep, had a dream about the best nerdfighter gathering, where I met my roommate for next year (which can’t happen. I’m in a Single next year) and she was a seriously made of awesome nerdfighter. Then we met Hank, and he offered us high-fives, and for some reason when he got to my new roommate, she said, “No, I want a ghigh-five from the hand in a dress!” so he switches and high-fives her with the other hand, and then he gets to me and we’re about to high-five…

And then I wake up. And then, at some point, I fell asleep.

And instead of being asleep in a devoutly Christian brothel, I was in this like serious mansion. It was quite nice, and I had a lot of stuff with me, and Melody, Beth, and Amy were helping me pack. Then I woke up and my first thought was, “How am I going to get all my stuff into my little green bag?!” And then I realized what I was thinking, and I laughed at myself.

So then I woke up all the way and checked out of the hotel. The lady at the hotel was very nice, and wanted to make sure that I’d be okay, and offered to drive me to the Amtrak station. I walked to the Amtrak station, and I exchanged my ticket (Original tickets: $111.60. New tickets: $130.something), and then I walked around Klamath Falls in search of a coffee shop.

I did not find a coffee shop.

Instead, I found a museum. And I thought to myself, “Finally, a museum where I can spend as long as I like!” So I did.

Having gone to high school in California, most of my knowledge of early American history is focused on California. I know what American Indian tribes lived there, and all about the gold rush, but I don’t know a lot about Oregon.

I learned a lot about the Klamath Indians, the kind of shelters that they built during the winter, the ropes that they made out of tulle reed.

Apparently there was a relatively large war between the people who wanted to send one of the tribes to a reservation, and the tribe who didn’t really want to be sent to the reservation, around here. Also, Klamath Falls is the location of the only casualties of World War II that happened on the North American continent. Six picnickers were hit with a Japanese balloon bomb. Fun fact.

But the most interesting part of that was the children’s forestry section, with hands-on demonstrations including a large hollow log to crawl through, which I did. It had frequent points of view checks, from the points of view of a logger, a hunter, a recreational hiker, and a preservationist. The entire point that they seemed to be trying to prove is that loggers aren’t necessarily trying to destroy the forest and that preservationists aren’t necessarily doing everything that is best for the forest, that you couldn’t judge a person by their title, and that the thing that was hurting the forest most was uninformed people attempting to do what they thought was best for the forest without doing the research. WHEN YOU ARE IGNORANT, YOU KILL TREES, GUYS.

For example, hunters who know how to kill the right animals, and do this to decrease overpopulation that the natural predators of the animals can’t keep under control, will be helping the forest. If there is an outbreak of bark-beetles, clear-cutting a section of trees to contain the infection will probably help. Trees around here need fire, so uninformed legislators passing anti-control-burn bills leave the trees susceptible to disease, which they can’t fight because they’re competing for nutrients with smaller trees, and then responsible loggers who selectively cut down the smaller trees that would normally be burned can be helping the forest. It was an interesting take on the subject that I hadn’t expected to find in a taxpayer-funded museum. (Giants can be good, witches can be right…okay, I’ll stop now.)

So then, as I was leaving, I asked the receptionist if she knew of a good coffee shop around here, and she suggested A Leap of Taste (“Just keep following Main Street. You’ll find it.”). So I wandered down Main Street, making note of things that I’d like to see/do during my remaining 8 hours in Klamath Falls (Art supply store, bouncy castle playground. Though I MAY be a little too old for the latter), and eventually I found A Leap of Taste. Wandered in, bought an iced tea and a sandwich, (Turkey and grape jelly, because I asked the cashier to just order me her favorite sandwich. I’m stranded in a strange town. I’m willing to try new things!) and turned on my computer to write this up. Now it’s time to work on my USEM Portfolio iSearch paper (in which I chronicle my research methods and what I learned in the first person. I hate the first person) and then maybe do some studying for History.

Step 1: Put all of the portfolio research onto GLaDOS so that I can read it on the train.

Step 1: Complete.

Step 2: Procrastinate.