Ducks @ Oregon - University of Oregon

Transportation, Climate Change & Whiffleball

Trafton B.

January 24, 2010 - 5:14 PM

Four weeks into the term and things are starting to heat up inside the classroom and out.

My first midterm is tomorrow in Natural Resource Policy and to be completely honest, I'm nervous. I've been brushing up on national Air Quality policies and standards all week, but I don't feel quit ready yet. Our professor handed back our Carbon Cap & Trade memos this week, and I discovered that he's strict when it comes to grading. I pulled off a B on the assignment, but the grading rubric was scattered with "Excellent" and "Very Good," so I apparently need to shoot for perfection if I want to survive the class. So, like I said, I've been sweating this exam all weekend, just ask my friends that I spent Friday night studying with in the Education Building. I also logged in a few hours at Knight Library on Saturday night, and, let me tell you, there is nothing more depressing than seeing the faces of fellow students burning the midnight oil in the library on a Saturday.

Thankfully the weather has been an unexpected distraction for my friends and me. I woke up all too early Saturday morning to attend the Eugene Bicycle & Pedestrian Summit as a semi-mandatory field trip with two of my ELP team., Claire and Samantha. Aside from the sleep deprivation induced grouchiness and that our GTF showed up a few hours late, I had a really good time. Mayor Kitty Piercy spoke to congratulate the city of Eugene on our achievement of Gold Level Bicycle Friendly Community with the League of American Cyclists and a few transportation planners gave updates and oversee brainstorming sessions for the new Eugene Bike/Ped Master Plan.

The Eugene bicycling community is relatively zany, one might say, but they have a slew of innovative ideas that have the possibilities for dramatically reworking the city's transportation system to allow for more active transportation on a daily basis. My teammates and I signed up for just about every newsletter, and talked with a whole bunch of community organization members, which I hope will come in handy while looking for summer internships. As the idea of entering the transportation planning business world is becoming more and more enticing for me, so I guess I have to get used to these crazy people sooner or later.

After the conference, Sam invited us over to her house to hang out for some team building relaxation time on her back patio. There weren't too many things that could pull me out from our sunshine indulgence session, but then I received a call from my roommates telling me to get to the lawn behind Knight Library for whiffleball as soon as possible.

I feel like I should briefly explain the place that whiffleball holds in my heart so that everyone fully grasps the excitement I received from that phone call. I've loved the game of baseball every since my glory days of Kindergarten tee-ball, so I never pass up an opportunity to share that joy with friends. Also, whiffleball on the lawn outside of the dorms is one of the more memorable experiences from freshman year for our group of friends. So, without hesitation I went home to grab my Mark McGwire slugger bat (which I've had since the 5th grade) and headed out. I even dug up an old pair of baseball cleats and duct taped up the holes in the sides. My roommates laughed at me, but it turned out that the sunshine didn't imply dry grass, so I was the one with the last laugh.

At the beginning of the game, our friend Kelsey hit a slow roller down the 3rd base line. Winston, our pitcher, took one step before his back foot slipped out from under him. Then Sarah, our 3rd baseman, tried her best but barely lasted longer than Winston and ended up on the grass within a few steps. Needless to say, Kelsey ended up on 1st base, with everyone else cackling at the sight of Sarah and Winston simultaneous lack of grace.

The best moment came after the game ended, actually, when two pit bulls came bursting onto the field. They were pretty rowdy, and started chasing each other without no regard to anyone else, so they eventually made it to our side of the field. Sarah, who keep in mind is about 5'3" and most likely weighs less than the two dogs combined, called the dogs over. But instead of a friendly pet, Sarah was instead completely run over by the dogs. I'm saying they completely took her legs out from under her as she flipped head over heels to the ground. All fifty or so kids on the lawn feel down with laughter and I'm sure that everyone in the library fortunate enough to be looking at the right place at the right found it equally hilarious.

Just for good measure, some kid was playing the trumpet while wearing suspenders and no shirt on the top of the Lorax as we were walking back. If that doesn't scream Eugene, then I don't know what does.

All in all, it's been a successful, albeit jam packed weekend and with that said, I need to head out to a meeting with my ELP team and I'll likely head straight to the library after. Work hard, play hard. ‘Nuf said.