Portland Trip

a trip to Portland, Oregon

I’ve had a hospital visit, a couple chest x-rays, and a couple roadtrips since I last wrote here.

Portland Trip

Nels dressed up for the cats at Purringtons Cat Lounge. Yes, that’s a real thing. Above: Owen. Owen was a bit of a trouble-maker – but handsome, and affectionate.

Portland Trip

Emily with Rephil. Rephil was not shy about straight-up clinging to a lap. Anyone’s lap, really. A true sweetie!

Portland Trip

Phee, looking super-posh. <3

Portland Trip

Portland Trip

After the cats: a soak at the Kennedy School.

Portland Trip

Then dinner at Nicholas Restaurant on Broadway. Pictured above: Phee’s lamb kebab.

***

Now and then the cloud of depression lifts. It is such an obvious difference – like clouds parting for sunshine. I am wise enough to really appreciate my good-mental-health days fully – to savor them. Who knows how I will feel tomorrow!

Today I started sewing after a long hiatus. I have an ambitious project I’m debuting in spring, and I’m making the preparations now. Winter was a little rough – first, the tail-end of my busy season, then an unsavory experience or two.

One good thing about getting older – for me, anyway – is having a bit of perspective. I don’t take my time, talents, or resources for granted. I’m glad to have had a chance to put in some time designing and sewing tonight.

celebrating life and possibility

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Once I saw a couple awesomesauce photographers at the Sauvie Island wedding locale, I gave myself permission to stop taking pictures and trust that, later, wonderful pictures would come to me. This accounts for the kind of inexcusable lapse in that I don’t have a single picture of the couple (or of my own husband, sister, or mother!) to offer you, this evening. Still, I stand by my choice to be in the experience, instead of recording it.  If you don’t know the kind of intense energy that goes into a wedding, at least when you are family or involved in a major way, then – pssshhhfft. I’ll post more photos when they come around.

So, Portland then.

In the house we stayed at, Ralph told me he intended to treat me “like a Queen” all weekend – and he did. Strawberry pancakes, at my request:

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Almost better than devouring them (while reading a junky noir novel!) was watching my daughter eat them. Delicious!

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Getting ready for fancy shin-diggery. The kids’ togs are all silk and cotton – a silk/cotton blend for the suits, a very fine cotton for each shirt, and silk taffeta for the bowties.

Yes, I made bowties. Yes, it was awesome. And kind of tricky. Bowties, if you want to make real ones, you have to make the exact correct length for the neck. I am now all fired up and ready to make Ralph a few vests and bowties because he looked gooooood. My brother said my entire family was “sharp as a diamond tack.”

Reader, I wore not one but two outfits, changing before the reception. No pictures yet of my get-up, although I offer you my custom-ordered boutonniere, a little nicety I purchased along with a wrist corsage for the mother of the groom.

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Wedding gifts: Ralph and I made Jamila a steampunk travelling hat, complete with goggles, lace netting, and homemade wired ribbon and multi-loop bow:
Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Phee models, after her wedding-morning bath:

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

My brother, I made an overdyed wool vest. Prick-stitched lining, bound buttonholes, brass buttons, and a secret charm sewn into the pocket. Shhhh!

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

The back belt:

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

We also bought them a two-night trip to Sol Duc hot springs!

Billy And Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

The wedding was super-lovely and worth every bit of effort it took our family to get there, and get there in style.

Billy & Jamila's Wedding, 06/22/2013

Hm, how much do I love this picture? My brother, the groom, looking handsome and happy. Tony checking something in his hand – the ring? His phone? And Chris, marching like a goddamn champion, gripping a bottle of wine. Fuck YEAH.

And yeah I got teary-eyed at the wedding. Of course I did, what the hell is wrong with you?

***

So we had a lovely time, all in all. I got to see my friend B. and her wonderful family, and thanks to some donations from two online friends, we got to hit the Mummies this afternoon, and visit with my sister. This morning I wrote a piece for Underbellie, in large part sparked by gratitude for the blessing of friends and family who, perhaps unwittingly, continue to challenge me in my day-to-day life.

Oh, and this was the first time I went two nights without my dog, since we got him almost a year ago. I MISSED HIM and I think HE MISSED ME, but now we are reunited.

Vintage Surfers

we do not take a trip; a trip takes us

Vintage Surfers
I love vintage beach photos – the older the better! – and who wouldn’t?

We’re travelling again today – to Portland, for my only brother’s wedding. I am very excited about this, as you may well imagine!

It wouldn’t be a Hogaboom occasion if things weren’t a little busy right up until we leave. Ralph and I have two o’clock haircut appointments and we still need to do some housecleaning and pick up some suspenders for the kids. I have sewn a silk suit for each child, a shirt for each child, a bow tie for each child, two different headpieces, two wedding gifts, and a hanging bunting – all of this besides the effort required to find semi-formal togs for Ralph and I, who needed the works, including shoes. And of course, we are orienting our house-and-dog-and-cat sitters and the like, as well as wrangling our kids who don’t exactly slow down no matter how much we might like them too!

These past few weeks I have paced myself as well as possible, attempting to ameliorate my enthusiasm and creative energies with my family’s needs and my own need for rest and enjoyment. Daily bike rides and listening meditations have been essential in keeping me from growing ill or over-anxious. Today will be an exercise in trying to move slowly.

For me, a wedding is a celebration. Life is hard and being mated is tempting at times but doesn’t actually make things easier, or at least not in the long-term. Being partnered is quite a challenge – a wonderful, at times baffling journey! Tomorrow my family grows larger and my brother embarks on more responsibilities – or at least a new element to his life’s journey. I am honored and grateful to be included in this celebration and I am grateful for the health and well-being of those I love.

keeping cool in the heat

A friend once told me, “The kind of peace that passes human understanding… and that may be your children.” She meant my children too, what she knew of them. I was touched at the time and I also knew there was a possibility of truth to this prophecy. This concept was with me today while I watched these little ones cope with a lot of time in the car, with a few car mishaps and money mishaps, with a lengthy shopping trip to a large fabric store, with more time in the car, more delays and mishaps. At one point in the boiling heat we finally made it to an outdoor pool after first getting lost – only to discover it was closed. Phoenix collected herself in the car and said, “OK – let’s try another.” Nels knelt down quietly in the grass and picked a small bunch of shaggy daisy and brought it to me, then we were back on the road.

Facing the I-5 freeway below us my daughter says, “Look at all that gleaming metal.” I am aghast. Then Nels says, “At least we had an easy time getting down here.” I am immensely cheered.

Their helpfulness and good spirits are all the more humbling as I am having a rough day with heat, traffic anxiety, and the kind of odd tension I get when I’m the only grownup on a roadtrip. I am oddly tearful and touched by their optimism and helpfulness, my son puffing up his thin chest to run and find me an iced coffee, my daughter serving as the navigator on the phone and putting her little hand on mine.

Cooling off before dinner. We are three of only a handful bathers at the soaking pool. Another family enjoys their company and their conversation – and a little later, I hear this mother whispering to her son, “Isn’t it obvious they are brother and sister?”

They are really lovely in a way I am so grateful to experience.

Kennedy Soaking Pool

Kennedy Soaking Pool

Kennedy Soaking Pool