Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Cookies, Coke, & Cucumbers: Or, in Other Words, Oregon

Dear Readers: These photos have very little rhyme or reason and are in no particular order. I am afraid that is the way they will stay. Please piece them together as you wish in the delicate prisms of the mind. 

Above photo: Within the bus, we ride to dinner in style. This is my mom and Aunt Jean.
This is Little Red. You'll hear more about him later.
So I was having a hearing impaired moment, and I thought my cousin Megan was saying Sultan something. What she was saying was "Salt and Nut Roll". Still, in my family we like to jest, so they crossed out the salt and put in Sultan. The odd thing was, I am reading a book called The Historian, and that night the entire chapter was full of Sultans. Hmmm...
Me and my adorable cousin Megan. We enjoyed swapping hideous roommate stories.
On the right (your right) you see Uncle Larry, adventurer and explorer. It is quite a sight, I assure you, to see him coming around the corner in this vehicle to pick  you up for dinner. It has the element of... surprise.
This is Mom, modeling the latest model of John Deer potato picker. She grew up on a farm similar to this one, and I have many wonderful memories of summer on a farm similar to this one.

Little Red amongst the boots.

Here is the bus. Uncle Larry has a bus. He bought it at an auction. It is actually a lot of fun to ride in. If you like bouncy rides. Buses are, after all, the new limo.

Labor Day Weekend found me in Ontario, Oregon! Simple pleasures included walking out of doors without the feeling that someone is holding a blow dryer in front of your face. In fact, the weather was rather chilly. I wore my hoodie. With the hood on.

This is Little Red. He lives in my Aunt Jeannie's garage. Totally adorable rescue kitten, I fell in love with him at once. Unfortunately, he did not reciprocate the affection, and hissed at me more than once.










Within your heart, keep one still, secret spot where dreams may go. ~Louise Driscoll
Sometimes my powers of multitasking are tested to the limit. Well, sometimes I add unnecessary work to my already filled agenda. Such as these cookies for a baby shower. These were a pre-vacation effort. They look nothing like the cookies in the book, but to me, they were the most beautiful cookies ever.
If I was to go on a vacation, I had to wrap up everything at work.
Another requisite to leaving town: find a petsitter. Fortunately, my sister Juli was available. Although my kitty, Pan, has withdrawal symptoms just when I leave her for the day, still, one must visit one's relatives.
So maybe I am not the most graceful traveler. Getting off the plane in Reno, I guess I walked a little too vigorously with my Coke. When I opened it, it spewed like a fountain for perhaps ten seconds. There was nothing to do but sit and let the beverage, meant to ease my queasy tum, soak into my pants. I had a quite a wet bum the rest of the journey. Other funny things that happened on the plane (funny, that is, in retrospect): This guy whistled the whole ride. Not kidding. The whole ride. Loudly. Everyone kept looking around to see where the whistling was coming from. I was afraid the whole ride that it was some frail old man and someone was going to yell at him. But no one ever did. Then, just outside of Boise, the pilot announced that the electrical system was down at the Boise airport, and if they didn't get it back up, we were going to have to turn around and land in Reno for the night. At this point, I had to work very hard to restrain myself from approaching the cockpit with an, "Excuse me Mr. Pilot. We really need to land. I do not know anyone in Reno, and I have got a seriously wet bum." Fortunately, after a heart-thudding ten minutes or so, he announced that the lights were back up. Then, gratefully going to get my bags, I was approached by a man who said I looked "intriguing" and gave me his card. He said if I found myself bored in Boise, to give him a call. I was just really glad to see my mom. She even brought a blanket, possibly knowing of my clumsiness and tendency to spill cold drinks at inconvenient times. 





2 comments:

Jayme said...

Love it, love it! The coke is so something I would do...I want to ride on the bus too...remember how your mom or dad would take us to school in the convertible...we were so cool or so we thought!

Tiffany M. said...

No, we were definitely cool. I am wondering how I was so cool in Jr. High and am now so awkward ;)