Life is a Banquet

Where in the world. . . .

The week after Halloween is my least favorite Oregon week--Fall is offically over and RAIN has begun. We will next see the sun in April. If we are VERY lucky, we might get a glimpse in March.  Otherwise, Rain, rain, and more rain.  The rain is balanced by five months of amazing weather each late spring/summer/early fall. 

But . . .THE RAIN.  A week in and I am already SAD again.  So, I've been amusing myself with realtor.com, city-data.com, and other searches.  Where would I live if not here? It's a very freeing question. 

My ideal city: Artsy, politically moderate or left-leaning, easy-to-get involved (lots of organizations, boards, clubs, easy to join up), near scenic areas, moderate cost of living, and the least number of over-cast days possible.  Snow I can deal. Clouds not so much. 

Where would you live if you could move? What would your ideal city look like? Why? What non-rainy/non-cloudy cities do you recommend for my virtual vacations?  Speak up before I float away! 

Grown Up Child

Clanna left to return home today. I'm missing her so desperately right now, that I wonder why anyone chooses to live so far from all family, or more specifically, what possessed me to do so.  I don't miss the Midwest at all, but I miss my family with an intensity that surprises me, that continues to blow harsh winds of depression through major holidays and personal crisis.  I thought being here would be enough to counterbalance them being there.  In the three years that I've been here, I've nurtured a silly little fantasy that my mother would come, and fall madly in love with Oregon, running Julie Andrew's style down the mountain. She was not impressed. She was however, impressed with my house, our life, and it felt like for the first time, we were true equals--her being a guest in my house tipped the balance of power in a new way that allowed us to establish healthier ways of interacting as adults. It was over far too quickly, as most visits are.  As she left today, I was struck with crushing waves of sadness as the slim likelihood of her moving here, me moving there (no chance), and us seeing each other more than twice in three years converged to leave me a weepy mess.  I wish it were easier, this being a grown-up child business. 

Others who live far from family, tell me your tricks.  Does it get any easier?

Where the heart is

Day two of recovery from my NY vacation and I suppose a blog update is long overdue. Despite so much on my mind, so much to think about, write about, my blogging mojo seems to have left me. But, there are things I want to remember, little notes to myself that I don’t want to forget like so many unwritten thank-you notes. If this blog is a record of this time in my life there are things that I want to remember. Just as absence makes the heart grow fonder, so also does it make the mind grow clearer. Here are few basic truths I have re-discovered during my little sojourn. 

What to love (and hate) about my home

St. Louis

is DONE.  I lived there for nearly five and a half years after a childhood spent in

Southwestern Missouri

(near the mecca that is Branson), and while writing my list of what to love & hate about St. Louis was fun, I have a much more visceral connection to Salem. Two years ago this week, I moved here, in the middle of what was a cacophony of changes in my life. I have had three

Salem

addresses, four pets from the

Salem

humane society, have joined local groups, and have found the most remarkable thing: HOME. 

 

We All Park Together

On a rare moment, I will suddenly be struck by how incredibly lucky I am.   It hit me today, as with the gorgeous Oregon sunshine streaming down, I parked my car in the last available spot on the roof of the parking garage where I park.  As I walked the long row of cars, cars I have seen nearly every day for two years now, it occurred me how completely ordinary and yet, completely wonderful all those cars, side by side really are. 

We have "W" is for Women" stickers, "Bring Big League Baseball to Portland!,"  "Kerry/Edwards,"  "Support Our Troops"  "No War"  "No on 36"  "One Man, One Woman"  and a host of other causes adorning beaters and BMW's, SUV's and hybrids.  We all park together.  We all go off to do the work of the people every day.  We make the state agencies run, we answer questions, we are union and non-union, and we are all unique. 

How completely ordinary and wonderful.  I am so blessed to live in a place where I can work for the government, maintain my own beliefs and identity, park my message-laden automobile among others with opposing viewpoints, and not worry about keying and car bombs, job loss or retribution. 

Tis days like today that I truly appreciate how wonderful this country is, why it's still worth  protecting and fighting for, why these little ordinary, wonderful things must be treasured.   

What small ordinary, wonderful things did you encounter today?

What Feels Like Home

Sometimes, you have no idea how much something means until you have been without it so long.  Nearly two years ago, I went from having an apartment filled with nice furniture to having nothing, as the result of an ugly divorce (things are more civil these days, but very ugly then).  I decided that my furniture was simply not worth the mental energy required to fight for it.  But, in the ensuing two years, as I have gradually moved from owning an inflatable mattress and a dish upon my first night in Salem, to acquiring computer desks, washer & dryer, refrigerator, chairs, a breakfast nook, a real bed, bookcases, storage, cooking supplies, and all manner of other odds and ends (including of course A HOUSE and FOUR beasts), I have thought often of what I was forced to leave behind.