How I spent my autumn vacation, part 2
Nov. 3rd, 2001 11:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivka(I decided to drop the present-tense narrative style I used in part 1. The stylistic discontinuity bugs me, but writing in the present tense is bothering me more.)
Saturday, October 27
On Saturday, despite being in a three-hours-earlier time zone, we didn't wake up until 10:00. In contrast to Friday's nice sunny weather, on Saturday the weather was highly Portlandesque: chilly, drizzly, and blanketed with grey. I made the alarming discovery that Misha didn't pack any flannel shirts for the trip, and started worrying that he would either (a) freeze to death, or (b) be arrested for failure to display flannel in a Northwest zone.
We had planned to spend the day with my friend and former roommate Sam and her partners and kids. They've bought a house (!) in outer Southeast Portland, which turned out to be a one-story Craftsman bungalow with an amazing collection of built-in shelves, cabinets, and general storage wonderfulness. Much of Portland, especially the Southeast section I know best, is built in the Craftsman bungalow style. I really like these houses - they're unpretentious, comfortable, and solidly built, and they usually have beautiful lines and details. Sam and Shandra both work for the library, so their house was particularly full of books. That was also a definite housing-design plus.
It was great to see them all. These are friends I had pretty much fallen out of contact with when I broke up with my ex Lane (their former housemate). Prior to the breakup, Sam had been one of my closest friends. I'm one of the godmothers of her seven-year-old daughter. And then... I went away, mostly because I was trying to close an entire chapter in my life. I shouldn't have. They forgive me, but there were still undertones of regret in my happiness at seeing them again.
They have a girlfriend. This is six months' new. It was really fun to watch them NRE-ing, and comparing poly notes, and hearing their girlfriend Renee (who is actually also one of Sam's prior girlfriends) loudly claim that she wasn't "doing the mommy thing" as she washed and dressed the kids. The kids are seven-year-old Rory and almost-three Max. Max took an immediate and incredible shine to Misha. Rory kept throwing her arms around my neck and swearing that she remembered me, which is unlikely. She also insisted that she sit next to me at dinner "because Rebecca used to be my mommy." Um. Not quite, but I sure did love her.
My very dear old friend Sven came over as well. This was even more heartbreaking than seeing Sam, because Sven is the one friend I was dead certain I'd lost forever in the breakup. I'd written to him several times without response, and finally wrote saying that I missed him, but would take further silence as an indication that he didn't want to be part of my life anymore. And heard nothing. He said sheepishly, "the letter was next to my computer for a year and a half. I kept meaning to write." I was frankly torn between wanting to shake the flaky little bastard and wanting to to throw myself into his arms and cry. I opted for the hugging without the crying.
We went to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, mostly because it was a good place to take kids in the rain. They have a cast of Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that lives at the Field Museum in Chicago, but otherwise there wasn't a whole lot for adults to see there. That was okay, because all we mostly wanted to do was stand in front of exhibits and talk to each other. In the gift shop, I ran into one of the people I went to Romania with in 1997. Went from Iowa to Romania, you understand - no Portland connection. Weird.
Dinner at their house, and then Shandra and Renee made Sam a wonderful offer: she could go out with us for the evening and they'd stay home with the kids. We decided to go to the Lucky Labrador brew pub to drink beer and play games. (Sam loves games. Other people love to play games with Sam somewhat less, because she's so phenomenally good. We suspect that Renee and Shandra wanted to sacrifice fresh blood to the Sam-games situation.) At any rate: Sam taught us to play Quiddler, a word-making card game I loved and must either buy or receive as a Christmas gift. Misha earned Sam's friendship and respect forever by beating her five times in a row at pente. It was a good mellow evening. We dropped Sam off and went home to bed around midnight. I think I used to stay out later when I was younger and actually lived in Portland.
Saturday, October 27
On Saturday, despite being in a three-hours-earlier time zone, we didn't wake up until 10:00. In contrast to Friday's nice sunny weather, on Saturday the weather was highly Portlandesque: chilly, drizzly, and blanketed with grey. I made the alarming discovery that Misha didn't pack any flannel shirts for the trip, and started worrying that he would either (a) freeze to death, or (b) be arrested for failure to display flannel in a Northwest zone.
We had planned to spend the day with my friend and former roommate Sam and her partners and kids. They've bought a house (!) in outer Southeast Portland, which turned out to be a one-story Craftsman bungalow with an amazing collection of built-in shelves, cabinets, and general storage wonderfulness. Much of Portland, especially the Southeast section I know best, is built in the Craftsman bungalow style. I really like these houses - they're unpretentious, comfortable, and solidly built, and they usually have beautiful lines and details. Sam and Shandra both work for the library, so their house was particularly full of books. That was also a definite housing-design plus.
It was great to see them all. These are friends I had pretty much fallen out of contact with when I broke up with my ex Lane (their former housemate). Prior to the breakup, Sam had been one of my closest friends. I'm one of the godmothers of her seven-year-old daughter. And then... I went away, mostly because I was trying to close an entire chapter in my life. I shouldn't have. They forgive me, but there were still undertones of regret in my happiness at seeing them again.
They have a girlfriend. This is six months' new. It was really fun to watch them NRE-ing, and comparing poly notes, and hearing their girlfriend Renee (who is actually also one of Sam's prior girlfriends) loudly claim that she wasn't "doing the mommy thing" as she washed and dressed the kids. The kids are seven-year-old Rory and almost-three Max. Max took an immediate and incredible shine to Misha. Rory kept throwing her arms around my neck and swearing that she remembered me, which is unlikely. She also insisted that she sit next to me at dinner "because Rebecca used to be my mommy." Um. Not quite, but I sure did love her.
My very dear old friend Sven came over as well. This was even more heartbreaking than seeing Sam, because Sven is the one friend I was dead certain I'd lost forever in the breakup. I'd written to him several times without response, and finally wrote saying that I missed him, but would take further silence as an indication that he didn't want to be part of my life anymore. And heard nothing. He said sheepishly, "the letter was next to my computer for a year and a half. I kept meaning to write." I was frankly torn between wanting to shake the flaky little bastard and wanting to to throw myself into his arms and cry. I opted for the hugging without the crying.
We went to OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, mostly because it was a good place to take kids in the rain. They have a cast of Sue, the Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton that lives at the Field Museum in Chicago, but otherwise there wasn't a whole lot for adults to see there. That was okay, because all we mostly wanted to do was stand in front of exhibits and talk to each other. In the gift shop, I ran into one of the people I went to Romania with in 1997. Went from Iowa to Romania, you understand - no Portland connection. Weird.
Dinner at their house, and then Shandra and Renee made Sam a wonderful offer: she could go out with us for the evening and they'd stay home with the kids. We decided to go to the Lucky Labrador brew pub to drink beer and play games. (Sam loves games. Other people love to play games with Sam somewhat less, because she's so phenomenally good. We suspect that Renee and Shandra wanted to sacrifice fresh blood to the Sam-games situation.) At any rate: Sam taught us to play Quiddler, a word-making card game I loved and must either buy or receive as a Christmas gift. Misha earned Sam's friendship and respect forever by beating her five times in a row at pente. It was a good mellow evening. We dropped Sam off and went home to bed around midnight. I think I used to stay out later when I was younger and actually lived in Portland.
