Northern Lights!

My mind is still numb from playing hours of Halo with Jeff today, but I'm still happy I got to see my long-lost Seattle friend Brian! He made a cameo appearance at Jeff's party and though we didn't get to spend a lot of time together, it's always good fun. And what better way to end the evening tonite than by seeing the NORTHERN LIGHTS?!

Yes, in the suburbs of Detroit, I saw the Aurora borealis! I looked up in the sky and saw this crazy glowing green stream of lights going across the sky, flashing and dancing and fading and getting brighter... I had never seen them before and I definitely didn't expect to see them this far south and close to the city. Now I want to go up to the Keweenaw. Why not??

I of course had to go and attempt to photograph it. Didn't work so well, but by lightening the exposure of the picture on my computer... ehhh, definitely doesn't do it justice. I did spend more time than you would probably think healthy lying on the driveway, bundled up in fleece, watching the flickering lights in a peaceful awe.

Life is good.

My first Ebay selling experience

I did it.

I'm selling something on ebay. I don't think I'm supposed to directly promote anything on my blog that I am selling, but I can post a picture and give you hints, right?

Goodbye, hot shoes. You have been replaced! (Assuming I can sell them, that is.)

If you want to find them, they are women's size 9 Ellie brand stilettos, model called "Sydney". It will be listed until Nov. 10th. ;)

Silver lining??

Feeling Grumpy

So how are you supposed to see the silver lining, when the ENTIRE SKY IS OVERCAST, GREY, AND UNIFORMILY SHITTY?! (Please notice the extended metaphor.)

Heh heh, not to worry. I have found one bit of news that is moderately good. A few townships/cities around us had proposals to aquire new parkland and/or nature areas and/or trails, and a couple passed. Commerce Twp voted to preserve open land; Milford approved a trail connecting to Kensington Metropark; West Bloomfield passed pedestrian and bike safety paths; Eminem's current place of residence, Oakland Twp (and where I worked earlier this summer) rejected bike and pedestrian paths; and Orion Twp rejected a parks millage.

There was a totally unrelated article about "urban spelunking" - exploring abandoned buildings - that was a nice diversion. Heather, I know you'll appreciate it. And from there I found a link to the now long-gone Northville Tunnels, the dark underbelly of Northville's innocent suburban fascade.

I had woken up early - did I REALLY expect things to be finalized today? did i learn NOTHING at the last election?? - to check in on the race, saw the spiel about Ohio, and went back to sleep. I had a dream that the way they were counting provisional ballots and absentee ballots was that people put their ballots on stuffed animals, and then they sent these stuffed animals down a conveyor belt. People would take off the votes and count them, put the stuffed animals back on the belt, and then children would be waiting at the end of the line to bring the toys home.

Shows how much faith I have in this whole "uncounted" votes thing, no?

Nothing beats a good book...

"Just to put everything in context, an eruption of Huckleberry Ridge dimensions would mean the end of civilization as we know it. This is something to think about when you're standing on top of Mount Washburn staring south at 37 miles of mountains that no longer exist... With this in mind, I don't really mind sharing the boardwalk. We're all just potential puffs of steam anyway, and the earth is mighty beyond our imagining." - Tim Cahill, Lost in My Own Backyard

Picture from Amazon.com - not sure if I can link to it or not but its free advertising so they shouldn't complain!

I went to the coffee shop for a healthy dose of caffeine and some good reading. I had picked up a book by one of my favorite travel authors, Tim Cahill, about one of my favorite places, Yellowstone. The book was good enough that I read the whole thing. In less than an hour and a half. Yeah, books are good, but good books are better. I ate it for dinner!

Ok, so it was a short book - a bunch of related short stories (adaptations of articles written for magazines in some cases) about hiking in Yellowstone. I had planned on writing a good review of why this book is great, but well I'm distracted by the election results coming in, and Sex in the City reruns.

Focus. Book report. It's just like writing a book report in middle school. You can do this Lisa. Concentrate...

Awe hell. Too distracted. I'll just put in another quote to illustrate why I like Tim Cahill so much. He's much better at expressing in words exactly how I felt - sarcasm and wry humor included - while trapsing around Yellowstone this summer, with all that hot magma action bubbling beneath my feet and snarly grizzley bears hiding behind every bend in the trail. It's about hikes in Yellowstone, but not like a travel guide - more like anecdotes about specific areas in the park. So if you're into humorous travel books, he's definitely on the top of my list!

"He wanted to see a place where fish could swim across the Continental Divide. Tom, I should explain, was raised on a cattle ranch in South Dakota, 60 miles from the nearest town, and is prone to become excited about concepts like fish swimming over the Rocky Mountains."

Hee hee. I think that would be pretty cool too. How dorky am I??

"We stood for a strangely triumphant moment on the exact instant of the Continental Divide and discussed transcontinental trout."

Right on!

Tee hee... I voted.

On this overcast, wet, dreary (typical) Michigan fall day, I voted.

It brought back memories from... 4 years ago. Go figure. ;)

Four years ago, I remember I was still an ambitious young environmental student at U of M and even then, I knew the election would have a big influence on my future. Steve and I both realized that if Dubya won, it could bring environmental rollbacks and subsequently a hard time for both of us finding jobs in our field (both of which happened and I am still feeling the effects of). We were apprehensive and excited, for this was the first presidential election we had taken part in.

So, as typical college students would do it, we had a party! It might not be the same type of excitement as, say, a college football game, but it was a nail biter. Me and the guys at our house on Division - at least Brian, maybe Kevin, Jeff, and Ryan also - gathered 'round the tv and watched. And waited.

And got bored quickly.

Can't remember exactly what happened, but we were up late. Steve camped out at the house, and all I remember was hearing that Gore won. Yay! We were going to have jobs when we graduate!

Then he suddenly didn't win. Hmm, not so good. Then there was all that back and forth legal balogna, chads and all, and it wasn't so great. JUST GET IT OVER WITH!

So today was pretty anticlimatic. I voted. I'm very anxious as I was before, but alas no college party. Steve asked if I was going out to watch the coverage. Now, I've never heard of "going out" to watch election coverage, but it's pretty funny to think about going to a sports bar and watching the map of the US light up in red and blue colors as the results come in. Do they really do that?? I betcha I could find a reason to scream and cheer and boo like I do for football. ;)

I like excitement but I just hope it's not a looooong, drawn-out annoying legal battle again. If it's good news, great. If it's bad news, make it quick and painless! The sooner we find out, the sooner we can party out of joy, or drink until our sorrows drown!