• McNary Hall Memories | Birthday Memories

    Last year for my birthday, I asked my friends to send me stories related to our friendship. I spent my birthday taking a trip down memory lane, reading through all of them. This year, I asked some of my friends if I could share their memories with you.

    My College Senior Portrait - 2001
    My College Senior Portrait – 2001

    Today’s memories are from Cody Daggett, one of my residents when I was a Resident Assistant at Oregon State University. He was a sophomore when I was a senior. That was probably my easiest year of being an RA – McNary Hall was the official dorm of the University Honors College and my floor had a lot of engineers. They were a fun but responsible bunch.

    Here’s what Cody had to share:

    It was a dark and stormy night in McNary Hall when the evil RA roamed the halls looks for scared underclasspeople to write up for doing misdeeds. (Don’t believe him. I wrote 1 conduct report that entire year.) She was a sassy one and her name was Ruth Bare Ass Carter. I’m not sure how she got that middle name. (My middle name is Barras – my great-grandmother’s maiden name.)
    Everyone was a little afraid of her at first (See – I can be scary) but then Wyatt started with one of his women jokes and got her to crack a smile. Hannah joined in with her lovely British accent and funny American impersonation and the just forced Ruth to like the group more and get rid of her evilness.

    Even still, she would roam the halls every night looking for open doors and people to entertain or chat with. I also found myself doing the same many nights. Sometimes she would show off with a gymnastics trick or two or tell the story of how she once escaped from Alcatraz. At least that is how I interpreted it the when she told me she was from San Francisco.

    There are three things I remember most about Ruth:

    #1 The amazing OSU black and orange blanket that she made for me over winter break. I still have it. (Yay!)

    #2 Although never being a Trekkie myself finding myself, getting into Star Trek more and more during nightly readings. (I get horrible insomnia. When I couldn’t sleep, Cody would read to me from whatever Star Trek paperback I was reading at the time until I fell asleep.)

    #3 The fun and friendship she brought to some of the best times and friends in my life.

    That was such a fun year. The sixth floor of McNary Hall was an awesome group of residents, many of which I’m still friends with today.

  • Everyone Should Vote By Mail

    This past Saturday, I stood at my kitchen counter for two hours and worked on my ballot.  There was much to vote on:  governor, representatives, propositions, judges, and the State Mine Inspector just to name a few.   There were very few heated campaigns or hot button issues so I spent a lot of time reading through candidate statements, the pros and cons of the propositions, and the results of the judicial performance review.  I was very grateful to AZ Central for providing information about the candidates for the Central Arizona Water Conservation District.

    A voter returns his vote-by-mail ballot in the...
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    I have always voted by mail.  When I turned 18 and registered to vote, I lived in Oregon where everyone votes by mail.  They don’t have polling places.  They only have ballot drop boxes.  It’s very convenient.  When I moved to Arizona, I signed up to permanently get my ballot by mail.  I have voted in a polling place once in my life – it was overrated.

    While I was working on my ballot, I wondered how many people don’t look at the candidates or the propositions until they go into the voting booth.  Do they just vote along party lines?  What do they do about votes to retain judges or non-partisan races like the water conservation district?  Do they just vote for the names that sound pretty?

    One of my favorite voting memories was from the 2000 election.  I was a senior at Oregon State University and a resident assistant in McNary Hall.  I remember sitting on the floor in the hallway with some of my residents working on our ballots because they were due the next day.  Nothing spectacular happened that night but I remember really talking about the candidates and the propositions before making my final choices.

    I think every state should be like Oregon and only have voting by mail.  It would force voters be more thoughtful about who and what they are voting for.  It would also give them the ability to do more research on the candidates.  I had some questions while I was working on my ballot and I sent emails to the candidates asking for their position on key issues.

    It’s also more convenient to vote from home.  One of my fellow law students is from Oregon.  Like me, she’s a permanent voter by mail too.  We were discussing this issue today and she said that she’s too lazy to go to a polling place.  If she had to go farther than her mailbox to vote, it would be too far.  I don’t think she’s lazy, just efficient.

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