Day Seven

Day 7 (07/03/08)
The people of Oregon are very proud and protective of their beautiful state. In reaction to the host of new people moving into the state (mainly from California), I use to see bumper stickers that read “Welcome to Oregon, Now Go Home.” I haven’t seen any of those so far. All I see is “Obama 08 Change We Can Believe In” stickers and posters that are planted in front yards all over town. I’ve been up here for a week now and I’m beginning to feel like an Oregornian. I’m learning the names of streets and locations of buildings I like to visit both here on the campus and downtown. We’ve seen a lot of people moving into the dorms today as some people come in for just the second half of the meet. Often these are people who can’t get the full 12 days off it takes to do the whole meet, or people who come to see their family members or friends that compete over the last four days of competition. Since I didn’t have to be out to the track until 7pm today, I had plenty of time to relax. In the morning, I went over to a new and closer location of Allann Brother’s Coffee Company where I posted to this blog and read my e-mail. After lunch I went over to see the Knight Library. Perhaps you have heard of Phil Knight (the swish man, as in Nike, and multi billionaire). This library is just one of his many contributions to his alma mater. They have already cleared the land for his next project which is a new basketball arena to replace the legendary “pit” where the Ducks now play. Phil’s father, William, has his name on the Law Library So you could pretty much say that the Knight family owns this campus up here and what a beautiful campus it is!

This next part of the blog is for Melinda so if you are not Melinda, don’t read this paragraph because it is kind of scary. On the way back from the library, I was approached by an attractive woman who started chatting me up and talking like she actually knew me. After a few minutes, she said that she had two tickets to Madam Butterfly and asked if I would l would like to go see it with her. When I politely declined, she got very agitated. When I started to walk away, she grabbed me, turned me around, and said, “I won’t be IGNORED, Dan.” I have no idea who Dan is but she must think I’m Dan. Clearly this woman is delusional and I hope I’ve seen the last of her.

Now back to the open part of the blog. (you didn’t read the above paragraph did you Cherie?) The best races on the track last night saw pull what many considered an upset by LaShawn Merritt who defended Olympic gold medalist Jeremy Wariner in 44.00 to 44.20. 24 year old Anna Willard capped off a great week up here by winning the 3,000 meter steeplechase in a new American record of 9:27.59. This record run came after getting engaged to steeplechaser Jonathan Pierce last Saturday. I’m sure this will be a week she will never forget. Looks like her honeymoon will be in China.