It wasn’t official until yesterday, but Ken Griffey Jr. is back with the Mariners for one more year (see the ESPN article: Mariners 'tickled pink' with Griffey 1-year deal).
I’m so giddy, it’s gross. But just in case this is his final year in the pros, I plan on buying tickets to the final game of the 2010 season to see his farewell. What’s more, the M’s look better than ever to make a run at the playoffs next season.
Perhaps one more photo sequence like this end his amazing career?
When it comes to recording television on my computer, I am completely inept. And thus, for my Fox Sports Northwest acting debut, I just filmed the tv with Holly’s camera. What’s more, since my computer has been so incredibly slow lately, I was forced to piece together the three clips with Windows Movie Maker
Jake on Cougars All-Access from Jake Donahue on Vimeo.
On Saturday the lowly Washington State Cougars faced off in Autzen Stadium in Eugene against the Oregon Ducks – and it was a friggin’ bloodbath. Knowing this, I decided to be as big a WSU fan as I could – after all, the Cougs needed all the support they could get.
So, I threw on my cougar shirt, some red shorts and tied a Wazzu blanket on my back as a cape. Not owning a Cougar mask, I did the next best thing: dawn a gorilla mask!
As you can tell from the photo, I wasn’t pretty. But I scared the hell out of Puddles (the Ducks’ mascot). Look at the left eye on his costume. Notice anything funny? I know it’s hard to tell from the photo it’s upside down. Yeah, I can’t prove it, but I like to think I scared him enough it popped off because of me.
But my crowning achievement may have come in front of a camera. The crew from Fox Sports Northwest’s weekly show “Cougars All-Access” taped me yelling, “Don’t go anywhere! Cougars All-Access will be right back!” The show is on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
What’s more, I must have posed in front of at least 20 separate cameras as people kept asking for my picture. Everywhere Ben, Jeff and I walked, we were stared at. Or, maybe, they were looking at my mask.
But I was a celebrity. Even if it was only for one afternoon!
No joke, every single bad maneuver I’ve seen on the roadways in the past week reared a similar license plate as the one above!
Now, I’ve always given people the benefit of the doubt. One Washingtonian nearly swerving into me out of nowhere? Just a fluke. Another Spokanite driving 25 in a 55? Coincidence.
But damn near 10 mishaps in just a week? It’s a trend, I say, a TREND!
And I’ve noticed it not just in the Coeur d’Alene area. Sure, we’ve always assumed the poor drivers and beach hogs swarmed from Spokane, but I’ve noticed these demented drivers all the way to Portland and the highways in between. Sure, Oregonians are no textbook travelers (of course, not everybody can drive like those in Idaho), but nobody is worse than Washington.
It now embarrasses me to admit Seattle as my birthplace.
It was my final trip back to Coeur d’Alene while still a resident of North Idaho, so I took my time driving from Portland toward Canada. I stopped at Multnomah Falls again (see below, compared to last year), although I think I like the photo from last year better.
Driving the new Jeep was also pretty much awesome; it was so incredibly smooth and very nice to sit in for over six hours, I must admit that even with an average gas mileage of just under 18 miles-per-gallon, it was well worth the added comfort.
Here is Mt. Hood (I think…) from my side mirror as I drove along the Columbia River:
Following that, I was incredibly interested in how things looked through the side mirror (almost too interested, as I hit the rumble strip along the side of the freeway once or twice whilst gazing behind). I couldn’t believe how clear things were, but what caught me the most was looking at a picture-in-a-picture; I will definitely try more of these:
So, even though it was hot, and I turned the AC off while climbing up the hills, the warm breeze wasn’t all bad. I 
couldn’t open the sunroom since it was mid-day and I feared burning my ears and arms, but the trip overall was quite pleasant. I seem to like driving long distances alone much better than previous endeavors, except when I want to show someone a mini-tornado – I guess the next best thing is simply to snap a photo so people don’t think I’m a lunatic. Right behind a tractor, there swirled one of the biggest dirt twisters I’ve seen in a long time:
Well, it's roughly one week until I move for the 20th time in my life. Here's a simple breakdown of where I've lived (and in what order):
1- Green Lake, WA (Seattle): East Green Lake Dr.
2- Lynwood, WA (Seattle): 67th Ave. West
3- Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. E. Sunnyside Rd.
4- Coeur d'Alene, ID: N. 7th Street
5- Coeur d'Alene, ID: N. 6th Street
6- Junction City, OR: Prairie Rd.
7- Corvallis, OR: 25th Street
9- Corvallis, OR: 26th Street
10- Eugene, OR: High Street
11- Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. Sunnyside Rd.
12- Coeur d'Alene, ID: 13th Street
13-Coeur d'Alene, ID: Wedgewood Loop
14- Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. Sunnyside Rd.
15- Junction City, OR: Hattie Ave.
16- Eugene, OR: 17th Street
17- Eugene, OR: Broadway Ave
18: Eugene, OR: Austin Way
19: Coeur d'Alene, ID: Hattie Ave
20: Coeur d'Alene, ID: E. Sunnyside Rd.
And starting July 13th, my new home will be here:
21: Portland, OR: Barnes Rd.
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Whew! At first I thought I had only lived in about 10 separate houses, but I'm blown away at the fact that I've lived in 20 different places! (Well, 16 actual houses, since I moved into my Grandparent's place in Cd'A a few times...). And the weird thing is I can name the address for almost every one of those residences!
It's bittersweet, to say the least. Moving away from Coeur d'Alene, that is. I've always considered this my home; no matter where I lived at the time, I told people, "I live in (BLANK), but I'm from Coeur d'Alene," -- even though I was born and raised in Seattle until I was nine. Nevertheless, I expected to spend my entire life in North Idaho: get married, pump out some Jakelings and coach Coeur d'Alene Little League until I was 90.
That all changed a few years ago when I started dating the woman I knew I would marry from Day 1. Hell, we joked about getting married all the way back in high school, so you could say I expected good things when I started dating one of my best friends. Thus, for the past three years I knew my life-long dream of a Coeur d'Alene existence was in jeopardy -- especially when I moved to Eugene, OR, to be with her.
But, Holly actually surprised me when she moved to Cd'A with me. I knew it wouldn't last, but she did give it a solid eight months before headed back to hippy land (i.e. Oregon). And so, once more, I'm moving to Oregon to be with her. This time, though, I know there's no coming back.
And I have no problem with that.
You see, I finally realized that I can have the greatest life ever as long as she's with me, and Coeur d'Alene is a place we can still come visit. In fact, after moving to Oregon early July, I'll be returning to North Idaho at least 4-5 times before January. So a life in Portland (the biggest city in a state I've boisterously denounced for years) looks to be the greatest accomplishment of my life. I'll be starting a family with my best friend (wedding is sometime in early 2010, more details on that later) and I'm actually looking forward to living in a big city again.
So, while Coeur d'Alene will always be where I'm from, Portland looks to reign on top from here. And I've never been more excited about anything in my life.
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