twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?"

Author: place2place

  • two wheelin’

    Cleaning out the garage, I got on Camille’s bicycle to see if it’s rideable. You can ride it, but with the training wheels, which she says make the bike “tippy” it takes a whole street width to make a u-turn. “It’s harder with the training wheels,” we decided. But she is a modern kid who is only allowed to ride when and where we can see her, so she hasn’t put in as much time on a bike as any of us did when we were learning to ride. I haven’t been sure she would ever learn to ride a bike, she might be like my grandmother who won turn-of-the-century auto races, but never learned to ride a bike. Next thing I notice she is having our neighbor remove the training wheels and she and their daughter are goofing around on their bikes. Then Camille goes riding down the sidewalk without training wheels! I run and get the camera.

    Stefan announces that his miniature bike “Cherry” is tippy, and he wants the training wheels off. “You have to pedal fast, that’s what makes you balance,” I tell him. He nods, staring straight ahead like an Olympian listening to his coach. I held onto the back of his teeny bike, he pedaled his four-year-old legs fast, and took off.

    So it was a big day for me.

    Twowheelerc

    Twowheelers

  • rigamarole

    Either we are the luckiest people in the world or the stupidest. Time will tell. Our neighbors, friends, want to rent our house for two years. How does that sound, since we just happen to want to be gone for two years? Last night over wine we wrote up a contract. They will paint the kitchen. We will get out by the 16th of July.

    Today is mother’s day and the kids are making me brownies. We could eat the batter and be just as happy.

    Peter called from the airport–his e-ticket to Washington DC hadn’t been paid for and they wouldn’t let him on the plane. Many frantic calls to some emergency travel number with the state department, “Are you calling about a medi-vac?” “Oh. Are you calling about Kiev?” Finally got someone who authorized a payment for a flight that leaves in an hour. What a morning I’ve had already. Later, I want to draw pictures of the house and play Carcassonne.

  • Friday Show and Tell

    I have two kids giving me a hairdo as I write this. I finished the PBObrochure.pdf and now I’m dreaming of this dress from Anthropologie as a reward. Press check this morning. The brochure looked great on press and like something Ron Rick would do. I watched Sophie from 12:30 to 3:00 then gave her back and picked up Camille. I bought a beautiful hanging basket of geranium. I like the shadow it makes on the window shade. Peter is working today, has tomorrow off, his last day before he goes to DC for three weeks. Peter’s sister Nina is visitinig from Alaska for a short time, we will meet her tomorrow at the farmer’s market. Tomorrow is the marché at the French School. The postcard design is my hommage to Lotta Jansdotter.Marketcard_3

  • the wonky hot water bottle

    Three times the size of California. What do they have there, besides yellow cake uranium? If you want to read about a Foreign Service family’s tour of Niger and see pictures of kids standing in front of thermometers reading 130F and a herd of wild giraffes before we get there take a look at the: Pearsons.

    Nigermap

  • Crunch time

    My calendar is black with commitments and prioritized lists. There’s a sketch of an optic neuritis (eye infection) I saw a couple of days ago on one corner of the page and the rest of the calendar is filled in with work schedules, itineraries, and appointments. Anyone looking at the drawing would wonder what the hell it was; a boggy balloon or maybe a donut with sprinkles. I only have two days off between now and the day I fly off to DC on May 14th.

    My schedule is full and yet it still feels like I’m in control. Yesterday I gave a lecture at the Urgent Care Conference on “shoulder pain”, went directly to work in the ER and didn’t get home until 2:30AM. I had a strange dream which seemed to start immediately after I lay my head on the pillow about an African boy with a wound infection but I was treating him in secret because I wasn’t supposed to treat any embassy employees. The nurse caught me and was angry and threatening to turn me in. But it turned out to be her brother and I woke up as if I had just read a novel in which I had became the main character. It was 10AM, warm and sunny out. What seemed like a 7 hour dream was really only 10 minutes.

    On my to-do list was a concern regarding housing while in DC. Our generous government provides a per diem for housing. Most new FS employees are there for 7-8 weeks but in my case I’m only there for 3 weeks and then 3 more later in July. Nobody wants a 3 week binge. But I was fortunate enough to find an apartment through another FS correspondent (Dr. Ed Miron) who will be in my orientation with me. The apartment manager had a lovely British accent and I explained my dilemma. We talked about all sorts of things and eventually she agreed to rent me the apartment on two separate stints (with and without family). A tremendous relief and a big scratch off my list.

    After the first two weeks in DC, I’ll be flying to Seattle for Milla’s 50th birthday party. Then I return to Portland on June 3rd. I will hopefully see Pop soon after and continue to work in the ER and family practice clinic through most of June. Then I fly to Minneapolis, Minnesota for a Comprehensive Adult Life Support (CALS) course. That’s where they teach you stuff like how to evacuate a patient and assist in a premature delivery, etc. I will also have the opportunity to meet NP’s from embassy posts. June 30th will be my final work day at OHSU. We plan to make a trip down to California for the 4th of July, visit with family and store the Saab at Dina’s parents’ garage. A rental car will get us back here to Portland. I will probably work a few more days at the family practice clinic and the movers will come around the 13th (Stefan’s Birthday). We all fly to DC on July 16th.

    I may find this boring to read in a few days but it’s actually very exciting. The thing of it is, Dina is just as busy. She has deadlines with Hanna and a huge brochure to produce for the Portland Baroque Orchestra. Camille heads for OMSI camp for 4 days with her class on the Oregon coast. Stefan says “no fair!” Despite the tight time lines, we still find ourselves saying, “Can you believe this?!” It’s important to understand and be aware that the demands made upon us now effect our daily lives. Sometimes it’s intense. I said that I feel in control but sometimes I know that I’m completely losing it.

  • remake

    I had this Oilily nightgown of Camille’s and I couldn’t bear to get rid of it, so I did a remake. I used some buttons from a baby shirt of Stefan’s that we got in France that I also couldn’t bear to get rid of (but after I cut off the buttons I did.)I had to give him a gumball to try them on, but now he won’t take them off.
    Nightgownbefore
    Nightgownpjs_after2_4

  • Dentist: bad. Zoo: good.

    Today Peter, Camille and Stefan all had appointments with my cousin the dentist (one of Portland Monthly’s Best Dentists I might add. I don’t go to him because he’s my cousin, I go because he graduated #1 in his class, and he gives Peter all the happy pills he needs to get him to show up and get his teeth cleaned.) We camped out in the waiting room with trucks and homework and knitting and the crossword and books and the ipod and Martha Stewart; we made a day of it

    After about oh, 16 hours, I needed to get the kids out while Peter was still in the dentist chair. I groaned when the receptionist suggested it, but the zoo is right next door practically. I’d been scheming on how I could drag them to a second-hand store. The kids knew I would say no, so I surprised them by saying yes to the zoo. Every dentist should be next to a zoo. It was like getting an epidural to go from the dentist’s waiting room to the sunny, leafy zoo in a matter of five minutes. Lemonades in hand, we walked around admiring the giraffes’ stride and spots, watching a chimpanzee lay on his back and chew leaves and seeing pretty birds hop around in the sunshine. It was a balm. I usually hate going to the zoo, but I want to go back tomorrow; don’t tell the kids.

    Then we went to Uwajimaya. I was too distracted by Stefan, who would not stop asking for some thirty dollar Japanese fire engine book, to figure out which of the hundreds of craft books I wanted to buy. I will regret that. I should have just bought five of them without even looking. I loaded up on British Harcourt tea, Uwajimaya is the only place I know that carries it, besides a grocery store in Toulouse. I’ve squirrelled it away in the wine cellar to find later when we unpack, along with the champagne, costco-sized mega ketchups and cases of Two-Buck Chuck that I am hording. Every time I go to Trader Joe’s I buy an extra maple syrup. That’s the extent of my planning for this thingie called moving overseas.

    We got travel orders. Portland > Washington DC > London > Niamey. Also many confusing emails about per diems and appointments and shipments and authorizations. I have too many details today–Oregon state taxes, reimbursement for medical expenses, getting the kitchen cabinets painted–to get worked up about things I can worry about later. Official travel orders make going to the dentist, the zoo, and Uwajimaya so poignant.

    The zoo. The zoo was just what we needed.

  • corners of my garden

    Remember the eighty tulip blubs we planted? The trees go from the light veil of green to fully leafed in just a few days. We had our first 70 degree day. The quinze did it’s thing, now it’s the lilac’s turn. And the dogwood. Next up, the peony. The green is psychedelic.Tulip_1
    Dogwood_1
    Lilac_1

  • Peter’s email to Dina, April 11th

    We had a beverage at Starbucks before the flight and Stefan made friends with an old lady with a cane. They were clearly enjoying each other’s company while Camille drank her orange juice and I watched her eat a lemon cake: long fingers and brown eyes.

    In line for the flight, I knew there would be trouble over who should sit by the window. I told them they would need to figure out a way to make it fair and I proposed that each would have a turn each direction but to decide who went first by a coin toss. Stefan called it "heads" and won so he got to choose. Camille was upset and said, "Fine! He always gets to go first!" After a few minutes of sulking, Stefan tried to be friendly but got long slitty stares and a pout which only conveyed the message of, "leave me alone!"

    After a few minutes, he came up to her and with his eyes wide open and said, "Ok, Camille! You can sit by the window! Ok?! Do you want to?!"

    ‘No! It’s ok Stefan." Bizarre behavior from both. And then it was over.

    Later, on the plane, the stewardess remarked, "You seem like a very nice boy." To which he replied, "First we’re mean and then we’re nice!"

    When the stewardess asked him what he wanted to drink, he said; "The real thing!" He told me he wanted a real Coke before she asked, meaning, not diet, not cherry, or cherry vanilla…

    Mike picked us up and I was just as excited as the kids. Of course, when we got to the house, Tanya and Ana were out somewhere, only to prolong the kids agony. When they did arrive, Camille was jumping up and down like a pogo stick and Stefan ran up to Tanya and asked, "You wanna see my trucks?! I’ll show you!" The kids immediately started to play and it was at least two hours later before I realized that they had been playing nicely (including Stefan in their games) without any whining or sagas.

    Yesterday morning, we had great coffee with breakfast. Tanya and I completed the camping list. Mike lent me his car (anything I borrow from Mike is special) and we followed Tanya and Lidia to REI. Tanya bought a rack with a space case for her new car. We bought Ana and Camille matching T-shirts with a dog on it.

    Camille, Stefan, Ana and I drove to Bob and Valerie’s on Sunday. Grammy and Grampa were already there. The kids mostly played in the yard and later swam in the hot tub. Bob bought burritos and chicitos for lunch. Grandpa was ok but looked disheveled; unshaven and scruffy. He mostly sat quietly as he lately does. Valerie was a joy and we chit-chatted about our kids, trips, and current thoughts about the Foreign Service.

    It rained on the drive back to Davis from Sacramento and all three kids fell asleep in the car.

    Lidia came over with Bunya for dinner and we had fish tacos. The kids just played and played so nicely together. Camille and Ana made a collage from magazines. Camille’s has pictures of dogs and cats (both wild and domestic) and wrote; "Dogs are active. Cats are lazi."

    Mike and Tanya are at work. Bunya is inviting us to lunch and tonight we are all going out to Japanese food. I have errands to run and I want to take the kids out to a park in between rain showers. The kids are currently playing school and Ana and Camille did some homework this morning.

    The kids loved your "hot cross bunnies" joke and I can hear Stefan announce he wants to be eight now.

    You are my life.

    Peter

  • All By Myself Fest 2006

    I’m on the fifth day of missing Peter and Cast (CAmille and STefan.) I was suppose to be missing out on a week of Rainy-Camping-With-No-Bathrooms. Instead I am at home, working most of the days during a busy model casting for the holiday catalog, doing our taxes and missing Stay-in-a-House-on the Medocino-Coast-Drinking-Multiple-Bottles-Wine-From-Heush-Vineyards.

    I’ve seen three movies in the last five days. This is triple the amount of movies I’ve seen in the last year. Putting kids to bed, enriching in terms of reading aloud the entire series of the Borrowers and most of Edward Eager’s canon (which includes Half Magic, but all of them are wonderful), really cuts into my movie-watching. I hadn’t been to an actual theater since last summer’s debacle when I took Camille to Charlie et la chocolaterie and lost Stefan on the streets of Toulouse for half an hour. So. Actual theater. I saw Inside Man.

    Jodie Foster is in Inside Man, and she rules and rocks. We are the same age and you know how I look just like her. Except that I have dark hair, brown eyes and an extra 20 pounds. But other than that, wow, it’s uncanny. Also in the movie: Denzel Washington. ( I don’t look much like him. Boy, is he good looking though.) Spike Lee doesn’t seem to get women, they are two-dimensonal, but Jodie Foster can create her own third dimension regardless of the material given her, so see what a good director he is by making that choice? The movie was funny, a smart bank heist caper with a likable villain. A little violence that you can just close your eyes through. Enjoyable, but not as good as:

    Monsieur Ibraham. (on DVD) Now this is a movie. Last night I saw Camille’s adorable sports teacher, married to her equally adorable third-grade teacher–honestly, they both look like they’ve just tumbled out of bed, in the most wholesome and charming way–and when I mentioned the film he said, “Oh yes! With the Arab that runs the store? And then they drive to Turkey? Magnifique!” All true. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. Somehow, in the last scene the boy-now-grown-up running the grocery with great 1960’s music, it seemed to paint such a picture of how simple and good life can be.

    How do you know your kids go to a school that is french? The PE teacher smokes.

    So I have today and tomorrow before everyone heads home and it’s back to making a different breakfasts for everyone and tripping over brio trains. I miss hugging all of them.Knitting_newspaper_forget_me_not_2