Almost Ready for Reuniting

Mt Hood in the morning
Originally uploaded by suzipaw

We're the uniters, not the dividers!

"I thought California was a non-smoking state," quipped the pilot as I stepped off the plane from Portland into smoky Santa Rosa. The air had felt amazingly clear during my visit north. The CA atmosphere is better now, and I hope it stays that way, not least because of the destruction…

I spent two very pleasant days with aunt and uncle while in Portland. We toured and lunched in Silverton, watched a glockenspiel run its course, visited an abbey (with spectacular vistas , pipe organs, and trees), strolled the grounds of the Oregon Garden, viewed the wares of artists and crafters in Salem, ate great food both home cooked (mmm, crepes and mac n cheese…,) and out, had a nice morning visit with cousins, and overall just had a lovely time catching up. I wish all of my conferences could start this way.

Particularly this one. Even though I skipped out on the last day and a half, it was a long event. I kept pretty busy--worked on video and was the officials Twitterer for the first few days, which was fun, but it's pretty time consuming. I also gave myself an assignment wrangling attendees to take part in a little promotional video so I had to be a chatty uber-extrovert for over an hour--that'll take it out of ya. It was a good event--almost everyone seemed really happy, and I ran into people I often only see at this show, so it felt a little reunion-ish. While at the conference, I had a suite in the Portland hotel, which makes me wish M could join me even more when I travel--someone who needs to relax a little and who could enjoy the nice room. I made time to enjoy the tub one night. Also ate at the Farm Café, which was delightful.

So now I'm home, a few work emails sent on Saturday, and I'm resolved not to do any more work related stuff during my vacation. I may check my email on the Sunday before I go back--it will probably take me several hours to just to skim/delete all of the crap from my inbox. I've been doing chores, cleaning the house, spent a few hours at the County Fair on Saturday, and (trumpet flair) the reunion has officially begun for me--my cousins arrived! Their plane was delayed, so I drove down to SFO to get them after all, but encountered so much traffic that I ended up at the airport *after* the next shuttle bus, making them wait even longer…not helpful. But I was just so excited to see them. And speaking of excited--I couldn't quite pull the trigger on an expensive, high quality video camera but wanted something to record, so I got a Flip. I tried it out at the Fair, but haven't had a chance to download and edit any footage yet. It also inspired me to start on a felted cozy for it, cuz you know I'm cuckoo for cozies. Tomorrow morning we leave for Mom's and more reunionizing.

Happy birthday, Felicia!

July marks another year of home ownership for us--this makes eight years. Time has certainly changed the market, and our abode, some of it good, some wear and tear that we haven't been able to work on quite yet--I hope that will turn around soon.

And last, but certainly not least--IT is just about here. M leave tomorrow for San Mateo, and the Bar exam begins on Tuesday morning. He's completely stressed out about it, but also feels prepared, as ready as he'll ever be, which is very hopeful. I'm just so inexpressibly glad and grateful that it's going to be over in a matter of days.