Review of past 8 months

Its been too long since I logged anything here. Since my birthday a lot has happened.

According to the pattern of my life set these four+ years I have been working at , it has been months since you heard from me. Normally, I surface from the 6 month year-end & tax-season miasma by the first of May, but Stephanie and I moved apartments in late April. We like the complex we having been living in the past few years, so when a ground-floor duplex came open, we decided to take it. Of course, the apartment was not ready at the time specified by the landlord, so the move-in date ended up coinciding with a vacation. As we shifted boxes, Stephanie complained more than once that she should have gotten a roommate that collected stamps instead of books. I told her that someone who owns 3 dozen cookbooks has no reason to complain :)

We managed to shoe-horn our stuff into the new place and then traipsed off to the coast for a few days. Cannon Beach was lovely, but the visit was far too short, particularly because we knew what it was we were coming home to (a mess). We managed to get the mess mostly organized before our guest from Holland arrived and we commenced a whirlwind hiking tour of the North Cascades range in Washington state.

In the past several months I have made short trip to California to see my grandfather and to Massachusetts to see my new niece, Hannah. I’ve made a few mental-health visits to the beach, and taken up golfing. There is something very satisfying about watching the ball arc across clear blue skies, and walking down the greens in pursuit of the elusive par. My uncle Gary went missing in January. I found him two weeks later in convalescent care—he’d had a bad fall. After months of physical therapy he was finally allowed home on June 4th—the day before his birthday. My father has been in and out of the hospital himself: reaction to anesthesia after surgery on his foot has lead to bouts of congestive heart failure. He was on a plane from Phoenix to Massachusettes that had to make an emergency landing in Denver because his heart stopped. He’s had a taste of mortality, and supposedly he’s going to take better care of himself :)

I celebrated my 35th birthday in February with a trip to Lithia Hot Springs in Ashland, Oregon. The spa was great, the wineries we visited had some wonderful wines, and the golf course was--wet. April 28th and May 5th were my mother’s and grandmother’s birthdays, and on those days I marked their passing and remembered them well. I had hoped to make the 5th year reunion for Smith Class of 1998, but I couldn’t manage to fit it into my schedule. It was disappointing because the class of 1993 was having their 10th year reunion, and I’ve a number of friends in that class that I would love to have seen.

My college room-mate was married during July 4th weekend, so I made a trip to Houston. My trip to Houston was eventful. It began when I entered the airport. I left my fanny pack with my ID in the truck, which Stephanie drove off in :) Fortunately I had my cell phone in the camera bag, so I called her and she came back with my ID. Of course, I didn't make the security checks in time and missed my plane. The airline was nice enough to reschedule me to a later flight, which was delayed. So rather than arrive in Houston at noon, I got there after 7pm. I managed to my pick up the rental car and get to the hotel in 45 minutes, which isn't bad considering that the hotel was 30 miles from the airport and it was pouring rain.

Once I got to the hotel (which is very, very nice) I took a quick shower and dressed. I was an hour and a quarter late, but people had been schmoozing and drinking cocktails for most of that time, so I was able to sit down just in time for dinner. Susan and her parents were very pleased to see me, lots of hugs and all that. Some people at the rehersal dinner had assumed I was a friend of the groom since they didn't know me. When I told them I had been Susan's roommate at college, they asked me how India was (grin), as they thought I was Amanda Guyton (Dunstable's wife). Everyone had name-tags except me, since I arived late and they'd put the labels away, so it seems like when I wasn't eating I was giving my name and explaining my relationship to the bride and groom.

The next morning was breakfast and more of the same. A large banquet to feed 150 guests at the hotel. Lots of children this time, and I got to see Amanda and Allan's little boy Joey. No sooner was the nashing (easting) and schmoozing (talking) done than it was time to meet in the lobby at 11am for lunch with the bride. Susan was glowing. Not really nervous, which is good. Everything was going smoothly and the biggest crisis she had to deal with was a chip in her nail polish. Lunch was 2.5 hours of talking and eating, accompanied by generous bloody marys.
I was so worn down from all the socializing that when I got back to the hotel I went upstairs for a nap. I received a phone call from Stephanie during my nap. It was nice to wake up to the sound of a familiar voice. After we concluded our conversaton I watched a program on the History channel about King Leonidas of the Spartans and the battle at Thermopylae.

The wedding was formal dress, and when I got downstairs I was part of a sea of tuxedos and sequins. My mantilla lace looked very nice as a shoulder wrap. I was pleased that I went with black shoes and accessories (thank you for finding that bag, Stephanie!) instead of white, as it worked out very well. The men in the wedding party wore black tuxedos and white yarmulkas (sp), and the women wore simple black dresses. Susan wore her mother's wedding dress and her grandmother's veil. The wedding was performed in the traditional jewish manner, which began with Susan walking a circle around her husband seven times. There was a contor who sang the blessings, and the rabbi performed the betrothal and presented Susan with her wedding contract. They were married in a chuppah (wedding tent) under the tallit (canopy) made for the occasion. When they exchanged rings, it was very interesting, because his vows were much longer, he said all these promises about loving her, protecting her and providing for her, and she just had to say that she accepted him as her husband. Then they put the rings on the right fore-finger (index finger) and broke the glass.

Then we danced. I have never been to a wedding where so many of the guests danced. I'd say at any given time during the evening, only 10% of the guests were seated. We formed chains and danced around the new couple, bounced them high overhead in chairs, etc. At one point the parents of the bride and the groom were honoured by sitting them in chairs on the dance floor and then all their children and grand-children formed a circle and danced around them.

It was a beautiful, well-planned wedding that seemed to go off without any hitches. I expect that Susan and her new husband were very pleased.

Right after I got back from Houston I had an email from friends from Sweden. There were coming to town for an O'Reilly conference and wanted to extend their stay to spend some time with me. Of course I was thrilled, since I hadn't sen Laura or Jacob since Thorsten's wedding 2 years ago. We had a good time, drank lots of wine, and ate lots of good food.

The next two weekends were spent at Cannon Beach. Stephanie's step-father and his two youngest daughters were in town from Alaska. It was a good visit, and it was good for Stephanie and Howard to see each other again after several years.

August started out nice, but in the middle of the month a friend died. I found out on Wed the 13th that Gerald Jones was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was in a coma. By 2am on Friday he was dead. It was very hard to handle the suddenness of it. I mean, whoever heard of someone being diagnosed with a brain tumor, falling into a coma, and dying, all in a 24-48 hour period? I cried about it more than I cried about my mother's and grandmother's deaths. I thin kthe tragedy of Gerald leaving 12-year old Keely behind that made it hardest. He didn't expect to die so young, and he really didn't make any provision for her. Kevin and Connie came from Houston for the funeral. It was wonderful to see them again, though of course I would have wished for better circumstances.