It's like Woodland Creatures and Fairies Built a Festival in the Forest.

The Oregon Country Fair is hands down one of the most bizarre experiences i've had in my entire life. My sister would have loved this shit. I say that because apparently at night they have a silent rave. I will provide two mini stories to try and help you understand this place. First, Drew, Peter, Olivia (Pete's girlfriend) and myself all drove to Eugene on Friday night and stayed with Drew's friend Miles so that we wouldn't have to wake up crazy early yesterday to get there. We got to Eugene late and played some bolo (best yard game ever!) and Miles described the country fair by saying, "It's like woodland creatures and fairies built a festival in the forest." I didn't have my camera with me, so there's probably no way it can be better conveyed than through that one sentence. That is hands-down the best description ever for something indescribable! Next, the next morning we got on a bus to get from Eugene out to the middle of nowhere forest, and when we got off there were people wearing multi-colored dog outfits on stilts, barking, and telling stories about the magic that awaited you inside. It was like Disneyland on acid.
We had a lot of fun, ate some good organic hippie food, registered some voters (not nearly as many as i had hoped), and became part of the magic. The magic included: lots of drugs (obviously, not for me), dread locks, multi-colored everything, tie dye, fairies, sweaty people, shirtless women with body paint, shirtless women without body paint, drum circles, poetry readings, and voter registration. Minus the shirtless women and voter reg it was not my scene, but i had a good time and it was a hell of an experience. I probably could have even been talked into staying for the silent rave because i heard the night time fiesta was off the scale wild and some people did stay.
Today is my day off and i'm doing laundry. The internet isn't working in our apartment, so i probably won't be able to call anyone. I miss every single on of you who read this. I'm having a great time and learning a ton.

P.S. Oh, i almost forgot that the Bus Project and PolitiCorps made the Times. Yes, we were in the NY Times. Nate Gulley is my roommate, but i wasn't interviewed. Check it out: Times Article. I think they referred to us as out supporting Obama, which isn't true at all, but still very cool.

Balance?

Work time is fucking awesome! We've been told since we got here that eventually we would be given time to take care of work. That time is now and it is great. I don't have a committee appointment until next week because for the last week i was working on the Research Committee, which means that i don't have much to do right this moment. In thirteen minutes from now i'm going out to spend the evening registering voters. I need to get my numbers up so i'm trying to get excited about it.

I was feeling very frustrated about things the last few days, but i'm feeling much better today. We had a interesting discussion about balance today and i think that helped some. 

After we get done tonight, i am going to Eugene to the Oregon Country Fair (Alex calls it "advanced research in the sociology of white people." it's got a ring to it.) to register voters tomorrow. I'm going down with Drew tonight to meet some of his friends and party before we have to work. This fair is supposed to be an interesting hippie fest that is ripe for voter registration so i'm excited to get there.

Next point, Blue Oregon (a blog about progressive politics in Oregon) posted an article about the Bus Project today so you should all go read it. Here is a picture of me (a couple more are in the Blue Oregon article).