Why Am I Here?
I live in a tiny town in Oregon called Drain but my daughter goes to high school in a larger town called Cottage Grove. Cottage Grove is about 16 miles away from where we live and with gas prices being what they are, I can’t afford to drive back and forth several times every week day. I have two part time jobs in Cottage Grove but there are days when I have a lot of time to kill in town while I wait for my kid to get out of school. So, rather than wasting all my time just hanging out in the library (where they have free WiFi), I thought I would share Cottage Grove, Oregon with the rest of the world. It’s kind of a cool, funky little place and if I have to be stuck somewhere, I guess I would just as soon be stuck in Cottage Grove.
Today I was planning on dropping off the kid then going to my gym, Better Bodies. There is a Yogilates class at 8:30 and I rarely get to go to the classes. Unfortunately, the school decided to have a 2 hour delay because of the ice this morning. It wasn’t even bad. I have no idea why they did that. Anyway, instead of going to the gym I ended up hanging out with my girl until school started. At Better Bodies, I hit the sauna a few times and showered instead of working out, then I headed to the library, my favorite hangout in cold weather. The library itself is kind of chilly but there is a nice lobby with tall windows and comfy chairs. That’s my favorite place to sit.
The library here isn’t really a public library in the traditional sense. You have to pay to get a card (it’s not cheap, in my opinion) and you can’t check anything out without a card. But they don’t seem to mind letting me hang out and use their internet access and chairs. In the lobby where I sit is a statue of a girl named Opal Whiteley. I’d seen a few things about her before but didn’t really understand who she is. Yesterday I did some reading on her. She was a child genius who ended up in a mental institute in England, where she was kept for almost 50 years before dying in 1992. I’m definitely going to have to read more about her. I love to do research. Here’s a link to a good site about her. http://www.efn.org/~opal/
After emailing my boyfriend, Matt, for a while, I walked over to Victoriana, my favorite shop in Cottage Grove. The owner, Leslie, is a friend–one of the first people I met when we moved to Oregon. She is an amazing, wonderful person and tomorrow I’m going to write more about her and her shop and post some pictures that I took in her store.
Thanks for sharing your experiences of Cottage Grove! I currently live in Eugene and am thinking of buying a home in CG. but I really do need to find out more about the area.
Looking forward to seeing what more you have to say about being stuck in Cottage Grove!
I’m a big fan of the town. I like Eugene, too, but it’s a little big for my tastes.
I was thinking my next entry might be about some of my favorite houses in CG. Maybe you’ll see something you like.
Thanks for writing.
What fun! Guess I’ve traveled in reverse through your blog (kind of a left-handed thing)…thank you for using your time and talent to let the outside world in on the heart of Cottage Grove. I have family in Grants Pass and we’ve been planning a move for some time now, but the summers are a bit too hot there, and my sis suggested we might like CG better. Your vignettes are great and really give me just what I was looking for…what daily life is all about. We live in the Torrance area right now, but my husband is from New York and I’m from Chicago originally. Looks like quite a bit of snow in Drain…how about CG? Can’t wait for more news…thanks so much!
Thanks for the wonderful comments. I’m so glad you get something out of my blog. I enjoy writing it although lately I’ve been working too much to write. With the nice weather (hopefully) approaching, I want to do more natural sights. The last two winters we’ve had more snow than usual. Snow isn’t very common in Cottage Grove, from what I’ve heard. We’ve only been up here about 4 years ourselves. We moved up here blind–did all my research on the internet. We love our home but now that we’ve lived up here for a while, I would have to say Cottage Grove might have been my number one choice, although I do prefer Douglas County (my county) to Lane County (the county CG is in).
I look forward to meeting you if you ever actually make the move up to Oregon, which I would highly recommend. There is very little about California that I miss, and I lived there my entire life.
Thanks again for writing.