August 1, 2005
I took off this weekend and headed south to Vancouver, WA to spend the weekend with Ami. It was a much needed escape from the manual labor of moving, cleaning, and organizing I've been doing for the past 3 weeks. I departed at around 1:30 pm on Friday in hopes of getting out of town before the traffic slowed to a standstill. I had a straight shot down to around Tacoma, and then things got ugly. Not only was it outrageously hot in my Jeep when I got into it in West Seattle, it literally turned into a sauna once I hit traffic jam after traffic jam through the South Sound region. It was miserable. I was trying really hard not to freak out, but my feet were really hot and there was no relief in sight. On top of the fact that I was already a sweaty pig with a tangled afro to boot. I swear to you I will have air condition in my next car. I swear it here and now.
Once I finally broke through the congestion, I had reached the point of no return. I tried to just power through, but when I saw a Target just off the freeway I made a beeline for it. I parked about a half a mile away from the actual entrance to strategically place my sweltering car under a bit of shade. I was so happy to peel my sweaty self out of that car and get a little bit of air...even if it was hot air. I walked into the air conditioned oasis and made my purchases as I listened to the clerk (who was working in an air conditioned store) tell me how hot it was. Shut up.
My shopping basket contained a fresh shirt to put on after I actually made it to my destination and had a chance to shower. (Because I was in no condition to go anywhere without a shower). Gum. A bottle of water, and a Sprite. That's right...two drinks, I was parched.
I hestitantly returned to my car, but was feeling a bit better about the last leg of the journey having had a chance to remove myself from the sweaty puddle I had been sitting in for 3 hours. My just under 3 hour trip had slowly turned into a 4.5 hour trip, and I got a call from Ami wondering if I was okay. Okay was a relative term at that point. I was alive, but not a very happy camper.
I finally arrived in Vancouver and it was fine from there on out. Though I did make a note to self to leave on Sunday in the morning while it was still cool to avoid a repeat performace. I showered off, got cleaned up and Ami & I headed to a yummy dinner in Portland. We followed that up with a stop at a Ice Cream Renaissance in Vancouver. I had the most delicious flavor. White Pistachio. Yum!
Saturday we woke up with big plans. We went to the Farmer's Market and bought some goodies to eat for lunch, got some breakfast and some coffee and headed to Les Schwab. It was there we purchased 2 inner tubes with the intention of using them to float down the river. We made it to the river and took several trips floating down, and walking back to where we started to do it again. The water felt awesome, it was relaxing, and fun! We spent the day on the river, and headed back home to shower off (Ami doesn't have air condition in her car either). Once again, we got cleaned up and had a nice dinner in Portland. All in all it was a fun relaxing trip (minus the travel portions), that included good food, good talks, and good company.
Sunday morning, after coffee, I headed home in the cool of the morning like I planned. I arrived back to W. Seattle to find that Jay had been hard at work while I was gone. Planting shrubs & herbs, adding beauty bark to the dirt areas along the fence, installing the ceiling fan, and hanging Irish paraphenalia he had purchased online. We spent the evening at ZooTunes, sat in the grass, had a picnic and listened to Carbon Leaf perform. All in all...a perfect weekend.
Happy Birthday Dad! |
August 5, 2005
I am a smart girl. Sometimes I just do some "not so smart" things. It seems lately no matter what I am doing I manage to hurt myself. The past couple weeks...you name it, I've done it. Pinched my fingers (twice), ran over my toes with a shopping cart, backed into the edge of the stairs gouging the back of my heel, whacked my head on the cupboards, and the list goes on. Last night, as I was trying to find homes for some of my artwork, I stepped up onto the bed. Now...I know we installed a ceiling fan, and I know it was on...but I stood up on the bed anyways, not thinking the blades would whack me in the head. But they did. Hard. And it really really hurt.
So, I lived to blog about it, and luckily I'm not missing any chunks of my skull. But I do have a knot the size of a walnut on my noggin. And poor Jay, he hadn't really been exposed to the true caliber of my clumsiness, and he doesn't know whether to laugh or get me a band-aid. Ouch!
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