Yesterday was the first day of Fall Festival here in Corvallis. Jason and I took McKenzie downtown to walk around the market for a bit and I spent some time in Peak Sports writing down guide books that I want to order on Amazon for the area. The saturday farmers market here is amazing with tons of fresh veggies and fruit grown in the very fertile Willamette Valley region where I now live. There were local bands playing folk music and a very good ambiance overall.
When I got back to the apartment I went to the Grocery Outlet (cheap grocery store) and got 70 bucks worth of food which would have cost me well over 150 back in Saratoga... gotta love Oregon... also gotta love that there is no sales tax here either...
Later I decided to meet up with Jason downtown at a concert of the festival where locally-popular 
Stairway Denied was playing. Stairway Denied is a very good local Zeplin cover-band. When I got there they were in their encour set but still sounded amazing. Jason and I then went downtown to Squirrels for a drink and to watch Amadon, an incredible Celtic band with a genuine digiridoo player ( I have no clue how to spell that). I had ridden down on my longboard so I stashed it in the woods near the river behind where market was earlier in the day. Jason and I each bought a pitcher of Black Butte porter (only $11.50 for a huge pitcher of microbrewed beer! - makes for a cheap night).
Anna and Issac showed up along with a bunch of Jason's friends. Jason was a little worried about having to get up at 6am to monitor the annual foot race the next day at the festival as first aid until
he spotted his fellow co-worker with a pitcher in his hand as well... haha. We stayed and watched the band rock out until about 1am when they closed down (bars rarely stay open past midnight here). I got to say hi to the owner, Greg Little, again. He definitely remembered me from kicking the keg at the 
COAS picnic. Anna had left a little earlier and given us her nearly full pitcher... so Jason and I had a very cheap <$15 dollar night and we were lit. I went to go grab my board... this is where the comedy of the night starts... and saw a couple sitting on a nearby bench watching me. I took a few strokes then saw a red object appear to hurtle past me.. I yelled back, "hey, stop throwin apples at me man!", thinking they had thrown a left over apple from the market at the punk skateboarder... nope... it was my wheel, flying off the front of my longboard. It nearly sent me crashing to the ground. I then had to spend 5 minutes, in a very dilierious state searching for the damn thing in the flowers and bushes with the light from the front of my board (I have lights on my longboard believe it or not). Finally I found it and made a mad dash up the streets, not really knowing my way yet, to catch up with Jason. I live past Fraternity and Sorority row and with the lights on my board running by I got a lot of attention and was invited into more than a few parties but I kept going, reminding myself that I'm 27, in graduate school, and way to old for that kinda shit now (yeah right... I'm sure I'll stop in at one at some point... who am I kidding?, but not that night). I called Emily in a state of bewilderment at what had happened to me. So far in Oregon I've smashed my bike, lost the wheel to my board and have managed to crash and bash and cut myself up nearly every day that I've been here hiking, biking, or climbing in the gym... what gives?
I finally caught up with Jason about two blocks from our apartment and called it a night after telling him my funny story about 3 times. I love it here... you can go out and have a terrific time with friends, great music, and incredibly cheap beer for just over $10 bucks a weekend.... exactly what I'm looking for. After that night it became pretty clear that Jason and I are going to become really good friends. Finally a roomate that is social and wants to hang out and have a good time with me socially who also does the same activities that I do.
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