Keeping in touch

Well good morning from rainy Portland, Oregon. Rain brings life and greenery and hope, doesn't it?

Yeah, whatever.

After a horrendous week from hell, and I do mean that, I am enjoying the weekend by not doing too terribly much. Rebecca T (as opposed to Becky H, isn't that funny? I discovered it was still T this weekend!) and her familia came into town on Friday afternoon, and we chatted on the phone as they were pulling into the SW Portland area. I considered hooking up with her at her hotel after her kidlets had gone to sleep (her kids actually go to bed between 7 and 8, you just don't see that anymore. I think it's great), but the rain, the darkness, the horrific work week... I couldn't do it. Instead I watched "Thank You for Smoking", a Netflix choice that frankly is very worthwhile. Sure I am a smoker, but this movie isn't necessarily pro-smoker (it is in a parodic sort of way, but that's just part of the comedy), it is more pro-spindoctor. I like a good talker. I could go on, but it's better that you just rent it yourself because I don't want to kill it for you. But only rent it if you don't normally rent everything with Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt or Julia Roberts in it. Rent it if you loved "The Player".

Saturday morning I went over to Rebecca's mom's house, the house Rebecca grew up in. It is near my old neighborhood somewhat, and I thought I would have no problem driving right to it, but I did get a little lost and found myself laughing out loud while driving around in circles and remembering street names and stuff like that. I saw her mom, sister in law and husband, all of whom I have not seen in 6 years (I was maid of honor with Keeli as matron of honor in Rebecca's wedding then - God what a fun wedding that was!), and met her two little boys - Jack and Matt. It's so funny to me to see fully formed children (as opposed to just born ones) of people you know - to see these individuals that have some of the family traits but also have their own gig going on as well. Jack is 4 and Matt is 18 months (okay, you know what, I just parrotted that - he is one and a half - I have to say this whole month thing always drove me nuts. No offense to anyone that I know who uses it, but good Lord. Don't make me do math on top of everything else. What am I? 492 months? And yes I had to get a calculator...). Active little boys in their own right - but not screamy and whiney and cry-y (Matt bonked his head on the coffee table and you could tell it really did hurt, but after a brief sob and some comfort from his dad he was right back at it again) like a lot of kids are these days.

Rebecca's (that's hard, I am going to revert to Becky) brother Brian came home mid-visit (his and Denise's 2 kids are precious as well - you kinda want to bite that baby Will), and the house sort of started to take on that clammoring house-full-of-kids feel it always had (Becky was the oldest of 5 so there was always someone around when you went over there), lots of activity in the kitchen, several conversations going on at once, that kind of thing. It was actually kind of cool. Reminiscent. We left there around 1pm, so it was a good visit, and Becky even gave me a handful of chestnuts, so today I will be scattering them about. I'm such a dork.

After parting ways at casa Thompson I went on to Target and broke down and bought a new coffeemaker. I mean for Pete's sake I don't even know where the one I have came from! So the good news is I have a sleek black self-timing son of a bitch and guess what - coffee tastes EXACTLY the same out of it. Whatever. It's stimulation.

But it was really a good visit. Later that evening Becky and I chatted on the phone for something like an hour and a half about pretty much anything - one thing about Becky is that we ALWAYS could converse, and intelligently. Becky has done some great things in her life, lived some interesting places, and her perspective is similar to mine. Honestly I could chat with her on the phone for hours and not realize it. Considered breakfast this morning but when I woke up for some reason my hips were killing me and I had to Frankenstein-walk to the bathroom and out to get some coffee... maybe it's the rain.

Completed my Saturday errands though and came home to finish making the bed up and watch the Duck game. I have an experiment going on of sorts - nothing official or anything - but I need to know if I am truly Jinxy Joyce. Every time I watch they do something horrid and/or lose. I try to tell myself it isn't me, but it's hard to believe. So I had a book in my hand and watched the game out of the corner of my eye - pretty much the whole thing, and we won. I have to say I think it is Bill R, down in Texas, because he says the same thing - he could be a jinx. Or maybe this year the Ducks just suck on the road. I'm waiting to see if Bill watched the game or not. Then we'll know.

Today I will resume weekend cleaning and chill with the NFL, maybe make some enchiladas for the week. Christine from work gave me a recipe for that sweet corn casserole - you know that little side they have at Chevy's and El Torito? Anyone know what I mean? I have the recipe now and it is the BOMB. Maybe I will make some of that too. It's icky out and I choose not to shower today. But I still need some shoes.