Visiting friends, hugging trees, and running on the University of Oregon campus

      Last week I went to Eugene, 160 miles north, to visit friends, especially the one who is leaving for Idaho soon for her sophomore year in college. Thanks, John Salinas, for suggesting I visit 75 friends for my 75 x 75 project. I'm not sure I would have done this if it weren't for your push.

     So I had lunch with my dear friend Vera, who just turned 89, and then, with a couple of hours before dinner at the Thoenesses, I walked through the University of Oregon campus to hug some of its beautiful trees. I went straight to my favorite tree, an enormous beech.

My favorite tree on campus

I loitered there till someone walked by, whom I approached with a smile, saying, "Excuse me. Would you have a minute to take a picture of me hugging this tree?" Yes, yes, yes, and isn't it a gorgeous tree and are you a visitor to campus? I told him I got my Ph.D. there in 2012 and explained why I was hugging trees, and he said, "Oh, what a great idea; I love the trees on campus and you should hug the Octopus Tree just over there and did you know there is gingko tree by the theater?" 

      After a still more extensive chat, I decided to put back on the 75 x 75 list the deleted suggestion that I have a conversation with 75 strangers. Maybe I can do that, after all.

      Next to the large, many-limbed cedar that is called the Octopus Tree, I snagged a young student walking by and had a similarly good conversation with her. (That's two conversations. Seventy-three to go.) 

Hugging the Octopus Tree

      Now, after hugging eight more trees on campus, I have hugged twenty-four trees, though not the gingko, which I couldn't find.

      I had dinner with the Thoeness family, Jen and Steve and their three children, and spent the night there, thanks to the youngest son, who offered to sleep in the rec room so I could have his bed. When I thanked him, he said, "It was worth it to have you here." So sweet!

      Early the next morning Jen, who suggested I run 75 yards, walked with me to the soccer field on the UO campus to run with me. While I was taking off my sandals to run barefooted on the turf, I looked at the length of the field and thought, "Yes, I think I can run that far," Meanwhile, Jen was asking Siri the dimensions of a soccer field. "Just as I thought," she said: "75 feet" – width, not length. I looked at the width. Why, that was nothing! I could do that.

      One, two, three, and off we set, at what I'll admit was a slow run. ("It's not a race," Jen said.) The end point came quickly, and because I wasn't ready to stop, we turned around and ran the 75 feet back to the starting point. I wasn't even winded. Seventy-five yards twice. Thanks, Jen!

Me with Jen, before our run