winter's last hurrah

Hello everyone!

We retreated back to winter this weekend with cold temperatures and lots of rain. A storm from the Gulf of Alaska was to thank but it's clearing out now and temperatures will rise back up to spring sixties. I'm not feeling very well and will probably be leaving work early so I apologize if this post is less than coherent. I'm not firing on all cylinders and I'm not above speaking in such cliches at the moment. My throat feels like I've been gargling sandpaper which doesn't even make sense but I'm not required to make sense today. On to my weekend...

Friday night I was so excited to stay in. Work has been unusually exhausting the last few weeks. Camille and I had a little music listening party where I played her song after song of stuff that I've been listening to: Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Sondre Lerche and even so oldies like the Blake Babies. It was lovely. She then went out with Jamie for drinks while I stayed in and watched a movie, I Heart Huckabees. I've seen it before but again I found myself falling asleep during it.

Saturday I woke up and ran a bunch of errands. I bought a bunch of supplies at the paper store for making photo cards. I then drove to Sellwood Park. I was hoping to walk on the beach along the river but I discovered the beach was in the river as the water is quite high. I walked out on the floating pier and took a few pictures but the rain was too much so I retreated to my car. I drove over the Sellwood Bridge and stopped at a camera shop. My camera has a speck of dust on the sensor thus every picture I take has had a gray blob in the upper corner. This must be dealt with. So the camera shop is sending it off to be looked at & diagnosed. I'm afraid of what the cost of this will be but I need to get it cleaned. In the interim Elaine has been kind enough to lend me her Canon G5. Sweet!

I went home and made a bunch of photo cards and watched The Unbearable Lightness of Being. As always the book is better but Daniel Day-Lewis was excellent. I read my book for a long time then took a nap. I woke up to something unusual...sunlight shining through the window! I jumped out of bed, grabbed my camera and went up to Mt Tabor to take a few pictures and soak up the bit of light granted by the sunbreak. Despite the sun it was damn cold outside. I went to Elaine's house to get my pictures off the camera and she came home with some yummy chicken salad her parents had made. We chatted and ate in her kitchen then she had to do more work, work, work.

I stopped at home briefly then drove downtown to the Fez Ballroom where my friends band, Kieskagato, was playing. It was also our friend Larry's 31st birthday so it was fun to celebrate with him. The first opening band played forever and ever and ever and had a guitar player who looked like Slash's dorky cousin (the hat, the glasses and horrible hair). The second band, SETI, was unusual with no vocals and only a girl on violin, a guy on drums and a guy on guitar. They sounded pretty good but their songs all sort of sounded the same and were much too long. Finally Kieskagato went on last. They played a bunch of new songs and of course lots that I already know. We danced but Larry & Bridget really tore it up. I called out for the guys to play my favorite song, the one where THREE TRUMPETS are played at once. The bass player responded with "That's so 6 months ago!" Boooooo! I love that song and hope that they really haven't taken it out of their repertoire. They did play lots of songs with 2 trumpets so I can't complain to vehemently. They sounded great and the show was tons of fun. It was late when I got home and I didn't get to sleep until 2:30.

Of course Sunday morning I wake up too early. I shower and read some of the paper then make plans to meet Gina at the Bipartisan Cafe, our local coffee shop. I arrived before her and ordered my food & mocha. I read the paper for awhile then jumped up and hugged Gina when she arrived. She and John had just gotten back the night before from 16 days in Costa Rica! She ordered coffee and a bagel and we sat and talked. She gave me some beautiful jewelry and a wooden bookmark. She told me about the banana pancakes she ate over & over again, about the crazy monkeys in the trees and the huge iguanas everywhere, the huge flying roaches and the beautiful beaches. The went on a canopy tour in the jungle, stayed at a resort with hot spring waterfalls, surfed, lounged in hammocks with beers and books, ate good food, ate bad food, got sunburned and bitten by mosquitoes, picked up shells and smooth rocks from the beaches, snorkled around little islands and went fishing in the ocean! Gina caught a mackerel & a black tuna. They had their hotel prepare the mackerel for them which they ate for dinner that evening! They had a really great trip and did and saw some really amazing stuff.

We went back to her house and Gina & Dave left to go play soccer. I stayed and baked some banana muffins and did laundry. When they came home Gina started showing me some of her amazing pictures. They have tons of great shots along with video & sound recordings. I hear John is really good at putting together slideshows so I'm really looking forward to that. I went home and read my book for awhile until I got a call from Elaine who was at her parents' house where I was being invited over for dinner. I jumped into my car and drove over. Dinner at the Hilberts is not to be missed as both Gary & Dorothy are excellent cooks. We had caesar salad, a huge delicious baked ham with homemade mustard sauce, sweet potatoes with pecans, twice baked potatoes, apple sauce, green bean casserole and warm rolls. It was an excellent meal! Dorothy & Gary told stories about when the traveled around Mexico when they were young. They were married in a hot spring in Mexico! There were great stories and I was so happy to be invited. I was sent home with leftovers even which I will happily have for lunch today. I went home and stayed up much too late finishing my book, Cloud Atlas. It was such an unusual book and I just had to finish it. Probably not the best idea given my wavering health and of course today I feel even worse. bummer. So that was my weekend. Please let me know how you are and what you're up to. I hope all is well!

xoxo,
carolyn