We arrived Friday morning, bleary and cranky from the red-eye. Somehow we feel too old to take the overnight flight anymore, even though there were plenty of people older than us on the plane. Maybe it was the lack of sleep plus the sadness at leaving, I don't know, but Friday we were both pretty out of it. I drove B home, then spent the rest of the day just sort of blobbing around my parents' house. Got to see Emily for a little while, then B came back over Friday night and Saturday we drove up to his parents' cabin in Enfield. Mini-golf and pizza on Saturday night, and Sunday the whole crew got together. Birthday cake, adorable children, a big lake. Nice.
B's family: Paul, Laura, Lena, Becky, Catherine (in front), Jim, Kaelen, Beth, Me, Nancy, Marcel.
Monday we drove down to New Haven to see our friends Joe and Bahareh, who struck us as suspiciously calm despite ha
ving 6 week old twins and an imminent move to Chicago. Maybe the extreme cuteness of Jobin (the hairy one) and Kian (the moody one) has fogged their brains, or maybe it's the lack of sleep, but they were really very un-stressed in the face of such giant changes. Bahareh reports recurring nightmares in which they have three children. Shudder. (Me with Jobin, Bahareh, Joe, B with Kian)
Tuesday we split up - B stayed in Pepperell while my mom and I drove to Schuylerville to see Lis and John and Elliott and Katherine. Katherine put on every available accesory, mostly upside down. Elliott dragged me around the liquor store looking for wine from Oregon. He managed to score a dum-dum from the cashier and was so thrilled: "I didn't even have to say please!" Also, he apparently has a thing for pirates, and we spent a good chunk of time hunting for imaginary booty.
(Photo: Katherine and Elliott.)
Thursday it was off to New Jersey to visit Danielle and Kurt and
Graham and Christian. The boys got right into their show, which I unfortunately was not allowed to video or even photograph. I can only describe it as tightly choreographed, yet plagued by complications. Christian beat his lollypop drum with legs spread for balance, face screwed up, as if it had killed his best friend and he was exacting his revenge. Graham ran the show with an iron fist, and when it was all over (Christian left his spot and then cried when Graham attempted to pick him up and carry him back to it), informed us that, due to this unorthodox ending, the performance did not actually count as a "show." We gave it 4 stars anyway.(Photo: Graham & Christian gearing up.)
Friday we headed to the Haven, where Pop sat on the deck with a bb-gun to keep the squirrels and chipmunks off the bird feeders.
Nan seems happy, to me it seemed that she was repeating herself less, she mostly likes to sing old songs and Pop joins in. In a big way she's gone, the grandmother I remember from my childhood isn't in there anymore, and I miss her, but as much as she's still here she's happy, and not in pain I don't think, and those are two things to be grateful for. Aunt Eileen and Uncle Mike rounded out the crew, and Dad and B turned up in the Miata, and we spent part of the evening on the deck in the middle of a strangely dry thunderstorm. Lightning was forking in the clouds overhead and the thunder was right behind it, but it wasn't really raining. Fireflies came out, the mosquitoes went away, the moon appeared and disappeared through the rainclouds. We talked about our wedding, three years ago on that exact spot, and later watched the Yankees game.Saturday B and I left early, stopped by the Badenhausen's for a quick hour, then went further south into Jersey to see Ari and Christine.
We had to amuse ourselves for about two hours while they did some family stuff. It was simply a matter of finding the right strip mall, which in suburban New Jersey is no small feat. We managed to fit in about 5 chain stores in under 90 minutes, do we get some sort of Jersey bonus points for that? Dinner at an Indian restaurant (filled with actual Indian people, be still my beating Portland heart), a couple episodes of South Park, a bachelor party story narrated by Ari that left me, no prude, slack-jawed with shock, and bed.Sunday, DC. Arlington, actually. I hadn't seen Dave and Steph since our wedding three years ago and they went and had an adorable baby.
Ian's 6 months, all roly poly with those awesome baby thighs. Super smiley. We grilled veggie hot dogs and corn on the cob and sat up late trading stories, Tim won handily with Peace Corps stories from the Phillipines, it's no fair, you always have the best stories when you get intestinal parasites and wisdom teeth while in a third world country.(Photo: Tim, Dave, Steph, B, Me)
Monday, Brooklyn. Adventures with Chris and Gaia.
I hadn't seem them since the wedding either, when Gaia was 4 - now she's 7 and a whole other person. We went to Williamsburg (Foodswings, vegans holla!) and the East Village (E.V. books, Atlas, De la vega, F train), and New York, I'm sorry to say, was disappointing. Maybe it's because it was just SO HOT and I couldn't stop sweating and when you sweat like that in NYC your sweat is different, it's thick and grimy and gray. Or maybe I'm going soft in Portland - the most likely explanation. New York seemed so dirty. And loud, my god it was loud everywhere. Still it was a fun day with C and G, and later Theresa. The walk home from the subway was lovely, actually, Greenwood Cemetery on one side and a decrepit train yard on the other, with the sun finally going down behind us, kind of glinting off the rusty old trains. Later, after it got dark, we walked to a kosher ice cream shop that had parve ice cream - non-dairy, that means. Which is something I do love about NYC, that overlap of cultures, so that a business that's set up entirely for orthodox jews is also a major score for white vegan hipsters.
Tuesday, took Gaia and met up with Gabi for coffee in Park Slope, then headed out. A quick stop in Manhattan for bagels and then we decided to just stick around the west village long enough to get hungry for lunch so we could hit up one more of our favorite vegan spots. Headed out of the city around two and I have to say, though it makes me sad to admit it, I was happy to put my back to the city. I knew when I left New York that it was a good move, that despite 8 years there it wasn't really my home and wasn't going to be, but all the same I was sad and I have missed it since then. But being there - I know it's different to visit but still - I couldn't remember why I'd ever thought it would be a good place to live. I think I have more to say about this but I have to chew on it some more first.We got home last night and today I mostly spent just lounging around. Went bra shopping with my mother, that took me back to 8th grade, felt like back-to-school shopping like we used to do way back. Later, watched a disappointing Red Sox game and now, about to sleep.
Few more days here. Seeing Darci and Laura this weekend, and hopefully Meredith too. 3 more full days. On the one hand, our departure seems unreal. On the other hand, I'm anxious for it. Tired of wondering about what it will be like. Ready to find out.
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