The Weatherholds

I haven't posted in forever. Too much has happened, and most of you have already heard it all by now. That or you were there.

Optimistic. and I drove to Portland to see some concerts. We went and picked out a ring. He met my family. My parents met his parents. He was forced to meet every person I'd ever met on account of the fact that I never moved growing up. Everyone had something to say. None of those things are in the order that they happened.

The concerts were amazing, especially the Decemberists. I've never had so much fun in all my life. The drive home was not as much fun, owing to the fact that the concert was two hours away in Eugene and both of us were falling asleep. We did eat at Shari's though. Man I love that restaurant. And on the way there we crossed over a bridge with a sign that read "Butte Cr."
We were both thinking the same thing.

The group that opened for Andrew Bird, called The Apostles of Hustle, had a sound that attacked you when they played. I felt their music in my collar bones. And as we were leaving I saw a girl with some really cool Nightmare Before Christmas Tattoos.

And we went downtown to Powell's Books, Pioneer Courthouse Square, and Finnegan's Toys. We met up at my house first, me and Optimistic. and his brother "Kevin". My sister H2 was home sick and trying to work out some math homework. She asked for my help and I tried to make sense of the problem by drawing it out, which is how I think, but really I just made the whole thing more confusing. Then Optimistic. and Kevin showed up, and Kevin is in math education so he got excited and started in on the problem, only he couldn't solve it either.

Kevin: Man, I can't believe this.
H2: Me either. You're in college.

I think we were all disappointed that none of us could do the math homework assigned to a thirteen year old, but I can't say I'm surprised.

We went downtown and shopped and walked and ate. I think I could spend a week in Powell's if I brought some sandwiches with me. I bought a few children's books, some postcards, my own set of slang flashcards, and a collection of Wodehouse stories. I found some other things I would have bought if I weren't so cheap, and by cheap I mean practical. There was a neat booklet about the art of thumb wrestling. The jab, the counter-jab, wrist angles - all these things were discussed and diagrammed. There was a book about gamesmanship, or rather how to cheat without really cheating. And another sweet book about croquet. I wanted it mostly for the cover, because that's apparently how I judge books after all is said and done.

We stopped and sat in the shade by a park and watched some children play, by which I mean they ran and screamed and crowded around the drinking fountain, jumped in the pits dug out for the trees, fell off of things, etc. One boy kept on yelling "Barf bags!", and I practiced my glare on a small girl with a ponytail. We continued on our way but stopped almost immediately to use the bathroom. It may have been the dankest restroom I've ever encountered. Definitely a hobo bathroom, with a bottle of vodka on the floor next to the toilet. I took a picture. The good news is that I found 4 pennies outside on the curb. Optimistic. and Kevin each got one. I got two because there were four, and despite all of us proving that we didn't know how to do inequalities earlier that morning, I still knew that three didn't go into four evenly.

We were stopped on the sidewalk and asked to sign a petition. We signed, but when we looked up Kevin was gone. He'd already ambled across the square, managed to find a group of people playing hackey sack, joined them, and had taken his pants off to do so. We sat and watched and I took pictures of some pigeons - fat and gloriously filthy as they were I couldn't resist.

I took my mom to a plant nursery seeing as how I'd missed her birthday in March and Mother's day was coming up. All she usually asks for is dirt for her garden. That said, I wasn't about to mail her dirt across the country, so I told her we'd go and she could pick out whatever plants she wanted for her garden. When we were done we stopped by H's best friend's house, because that's where H had spent the night, at A's house. Her parents were out of town and she was all by herself. I found them in the downstairs living room sitting in the dark eating out of cans and looking incredibly nappy. I think they're incapable of making food for themselves. Or cleaning.

me: Get in the car. Mom wants to take us to lunch.

This was met with some moans about how disheveled they looked weighed against the fact that they needed sustenance.

H: Do you have a hair thing?
me: For the love of crap put this in your hair and let's go.

Burgerville was full - we went to Dairy Queen. Then we went home and H, A and I went to Value Village. Man alive I love that store.

We went to WINCO our last night in town and bought gummi worms, fruit pies, Martinelli's sparkling cider, cookies, strawberries, pudding - anything and everything we felt like eating. We brought it home, made a toast to ourselves with the cider, and had a small midnight feast. We'd meant to go TPing but we were all too tired when the time came around. We'd even taken a pre-TPing nap, but to no avail. We were both dead tired throughout the trip. I guess I'm not used to being so busy. Or I am, but in a different way. Mopping and shopping take their different tolls on me.

We said we would only go TPing "if the weather holds" and H2 asked," Who are the Weatherholds?".

We explained that they weren't people. She said a number of remarkably funny things this visit home, so this is me giving her some mad props for that. I love that family of mine. Krebscout always says that she wants to meet my family because in her mind they are the Weasleys. Optimistic. said he also saw that in them when he met them, so I guess it's true. It was good to be back home where I can be a little more spastic. F also made me laugh with a phrase that is now my new motto and the words I will leave you with - "Keep your friends close and your sandwiches closer." Words to live by indeed.

P.S. The driving parts of the trip were fairly uneventful. I'm not much fun on roadtrips -I tend to sleep. We listened to roughly a billion CD's. Highlights included a rest stop on the way back, and stopping in Baker City at a windmill where I was proposed to. Hoo-ray.