Political.

I have bit my hypothetical cyber tongue for days now, but tonight, on election eve, I want to let you know how important your vote is tomorrow.  If you've found your way here you are a person that is special in my life in one way or another: you're my mother, my brother, my family in some way, or my friend.  You already know who I voted for.

Here's the thing: your vote affects me.  Before you hit that button think of me, Logan Oates.
I am the Logan Oates who will be graduating from OSU in May who has funded his education with Federal Financial Aid. 
I am the Logan Oates who emailed Sherrod Brown when something in my life went a little crazy and who got a personal call back from him. 
I am the Logan Oates who stood with young people from across the country on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial educating them about what it means to be an American. 
I am the Logan Oates who grew up on the poverty line in Appalachian Ohio.  
I am the Logan Oates who has fallen down, been beaten down and who has stood back up, every time, proudly and unscathed. 

I am the Logan Oates who is depending on you to pick the candidate that supports me.

Free roses?

I still feel a little guilty.  I got this beautiful bunch of roses for free.  I was at Giant Eagle and noticed they were marked for $4.50... the other bunches were kind of crusty so I picked out the best bunch and moved on with my trip.  I was excited to get a dozen roses for $4.50!
I finally milled my way up to the register and they rang up $16.99!  I asked the cashier working about it and she said she'd walk back with me and check.  Well low and behold there they were marked $4.50.  She took the sign off, walked me back up to the register and comped them from my total.  Apparently at Giant Eagle if the scanned price doesn't match the advertised price you get the item for free.  So exciting!
I also used coupons and got a boatload of stuff for just a little over $20.  So exciting.

I split the roses up into 2 separate bouquets and I plan on giving one to Lindsey.  She always says she never gets any packages and I figure this will make her day.  I loved cutting down the flowers and putting them into these Mason Jars I have. 

I think they're the prettiest free roses I've ever seen.

Happy Monday,
Logan

Where do you keep your to-do list?

I tend to keep my to-do lists in some very strange places.  Recently my evening to-do list was stuck to my favorite black-and-white polka dot coffee cup.  The reason?  Each time I picked it up to take a sip of steaming hot cocoa I was reminded that I should actually be working on conquering my list.  This tactic did actually help since I knocked everything off of the list before bed.

Also seen here are some of my favorite things:

• a small black elephant I bought from Target with a dear friend ages ago
• gumballs leftover from my Mom’s birthday celebration
• the new Taylor Swift album my friend Taylor burnt for me (SO good!)
• my GRE study supplement (which has been barely used)

I believe that all spaces should be filled with things you love.  If it’s not practical or it’s not something you love then it has no room in your life.  I use this philosophy when pairing down things I own and donating.  Those pants that don’t fit just right?  Gone.  That sweater that sags a little when I wear it? Gone.

I only have room in my life for the things (and people) I love the most.  The rest of it will have to find somewhere else to be.

Logan

off to a good home.

In a strange (and wonderful) turn of events within the past few months I have been asked to design 2 new necklaces for an Art Auction.  And here they are!  I wanted to capture them in photographs because I'm not sure if I'll ever see them again!  This will mark the first time that I have created jewelry and given it to anyone other than friends and family.  It's a big step!

If you purchased one of these pieces at the auction and found my blog through my business card, please leave me a comment.  It's be great to know who now owns one of my creations!

Here are some shots I love:

 

(Thanks to my lovely neck model Annie!)

...someone has been wearing the stupid hat all day.

First of all, I'm writing this post on my lovely Mothers birthday.  She's only a few hours late, our dinner reservations were for 7:30 (currently 7:36) but guess what?  It's her birthday and none of that even matters.  So, as I await her call so I can finally go get my car from Farmhouse 18 and bring my friends' stuff back several hours past the time I told them I would have it (this will all make sense if you just keep reading...), I do have a great little story to tell you.  It involves some great friends and colleagues, S'mores and me attempting to be a sheep dog.  Intrigued?  I hope so.

Friday night to Saturday afternoon the RAs from Taylor went away for a weekend retreat- I wasn't quite sure what the plan was, but it ended up being a lot more chill and relaxed and not so much setting goals and Title 9.  I appreciate a mixture in activities, so I could have gone for a little more content, but I still had a blast. 

We had our retreat at the OSU Retreat House, which is something that actually exists in this world.  It's really an old farmhouse that employees can rent out for a retreat, the concept is really awesome.  The best part?  The sign on the door listed this OSU-owned property as Farmhouse 18.  Do you know what that means?  Farmhouse 17 and below exist as well.  Where are they?  No one knows.

It was a three bedroom one bath house with bunk beds in each room (more on this coming up later) and a nice rustic charm.  Because I have the genes of a 45 year old gay man I was automatically planning the space for when I bought it and lived there myself.  I was going to make a cozy seating area near the fire place while still allowing for traffic around the room, and I would have made the room we didn't really use the den and office space.  If it was given to me I could make this a really nice little house.  It's only 15 minutes from downtown so I can't imagine it's real estate value, but I should digress and continue on with how I ended up murdering people until 3am...

I got you again, didn't I?  I keep pulling out all the stops. 

We got settled into the house and almost immediately set out to make S'mores.  I mean, duh?  I was running around the property with a miners light on my head (pictures below) trying to rastle' up sum fire wood.  I eventually was just breaking limps and twigs off of trees and bushes, but I felt really manly doing it.  With several of us babying it, we finally got the fire to take off.  (Genie, if you're reading this, throwing leaves on the fire didn't help at all. And Katie you gave the fire too much air and actually blew it out.  And Martin I am still not sure what kindling is.)

So naturally I was already trying to find some sort of stick to roast marshmellows on, and Taylor was getting the S'mores fixin's ready (we used the trunk of my car as a sort of table) and it was on.  I made my first S'more with two marshmallows and was patient and roasted it was it was perfectly golden brown.  It was a thing of beauty.  I made my second S'more the same exact way, but this time I doubled up on the chocolate.  So good. 

After digesting all of that I ate 6 more roasted (read: burnt) marshmallows two-at-a-time right off of the stick.  I made this noise each time that I literally couldn't contain... so good.  I think the Native Americans were on to something in having those fires all the time. 

We played this really awesome game called Murder in the Dark as a group... the idea is that 2 people are the murders and like the game Clue you have to figure out who the murder is.  I loved it, I think a lot of that is because I was on a sugar high.  Martin made us warm spiced apple cider (so good!) and I also ate more food.  We slept upstairs and my friends who I shared a room with were all about the pillow talk. 

Saturday afternoon we were ready to leave when I decided it would be a good idea to go pet the sheep who were in the pasture area near the house.  Well... the sheep were not having any of it, so I was running around and trying to herd them and such... and I lost my keys.  I'm not sure where they are in that sheep pasture, but I went back today and searched for 3 additional hours and couldn't find them.

The best part?  I realized I left my wallet and my flashlight at the Farmhouse, and although those aren't really a huge part of this saga I still feel like the world was out to get me this weekend.  Murphy's Law came back to bite me once again. 

On the bright side?  I was able to see my Mom and family twice in two days, I did find my wallet and my flashlight, and I have been nursing my cold and drinking tea and Emergen-C trying to get over it.  There is a lot more to this story, but I'm feeling sleep calling my name. 

Goodnight friends.  I love my life.
Logan