Author Archives: Christene

Random Pictures

Today was good, especially in comparison to yesterday. My presentation went very well, and I got to meet a lot of very wonderful and brilliant people. I am not going to really talk about the conference since most of you who have been to conferences know what it is like, and for those of you who haven’t, well, my paltry description won’t really elucidate much.However, during one of the longer breaks I walked around a bit and took some fun pictures.

This was directly across the street from the conference.

I tried getting a close up of the tower….
I just like the way this building looks.
There was a park/sitting area down the street…. the autumn colors looked so beautiful.
This is a terrible picture, but this coffee shop was actually pretty cute.
I haven’t the slightest clue what these things are, but they reminded me of printing presses. Either way, this building had a bunch of them, and I had wanted to take pictures since yesterday… finally got a chance to do so as I was walking back to my car tonight.
Tomorrow I am going into actual Portland, so I should have more to share then.

My Day, Briefly

Today was exhausting. I have been up since three in the morning and had to be at the airport before the sun was even up. The flight was fine, but the car rental place was not. Everyone and their brother decided to rent a car today, and the wait was almost two hours. I had reserved a small sedan, but by the time I got to the counter they didn’t have any left. I ended up with an SUV type thing. It is a Ford of various natures. They didn’t increase my cost any, but the car is a little bigger than what I am used to, so I am driving cautiously to the point of probably annoying everyone else on the road.

By the time I got to the hotel, changed and drove across the bridge I pretty much missed more than half of today’s conference and was only able to catch one panel, after which they had a social hour/banquet.

I chatted for a bit with people who I have until now only spoken to via email, but I wasn’t feeling altogether social. In fact there were so many people there I felt slightly overwhelmed.

So I am having dinner in my room with my blog and books.

Highlights of my day? Hot shower and the fact that there is a Starbucks 0.2 miles from my hotel.

Tomorrow there might be some pictures.

It Is What It Is

What would it be like to freeze one moment in time? Like Keats’ Grecian Urn, fixed for eternity. But a moment is so short. Nothing more than a photograph. What would it be like to freeze an entire segment of time?

It sounds ideal, to go back to a point in your life when everything was going well, and replay it. Except, how many times can you replay the same thing? Like watching Groundhog Day on a loop. Don’t you want to move forward? Wouldn’t you want to experience something else?

I guess that is the point. The ideal is unrealistic, and once plucked out of fantasy, becomes quite undesirable.

But reality can be beautiful in its own ways, if taken as is. Sometimes it is good, other times bad, and when bad, it won’t be so for long. At least not if you can still find glimpses of happiness. And enjoy them in the moment for what they are, accepting that they may soon fade. That might be all that happiness is – enjoying something in the moment without worrying about the future of it. I don’t mean the practical future, which you should always worry about, but rather the whimsy future. How can you enjoy anything if you are always poking and prodding at it? That is how the happy moments get overlooked.

It could have been. It might still be. But right now, it is what it is.