Wednesday 12/23/09
7:45am - I slept later than I had in a long, long time.
8am - Sex… 4 out of 6 days so far. Better than our average.
9am - A 'light' breakfast. That means a big bowl of oatmeal for me, and scrambled eggs and toast for G.
11am - Pendleton Wool Mill built in1909. I met Jeff & Cheyenne, a young couple coming out as I was going in. Jeff said he was born and raised here in town, and works at his uncle's saddle shop. He told me to be sure not to miss the 99th annual celebration of "The Pendleton Roundup", a rodeo par excellence (he didn't say par excellence, those are my words). They were a very handsome couple, and I wanted to get their picture for my story, but dog gone it… it didn't turn out.
2:30pm - When we were about 20 miles from Enterprise, G called her sister-in-law Pat, to tell her we were running slightly late. It was perfect timing as we were literally just driving past the turn-off to their house… in Wallowa… not Enterprise.
Her brother Skip and his wife Pat welcomed us warmly into their recently remodeled home. From the outside, the house looks pretty non-descript… just like most of the other homes in this little blink-and-miss-it cowboy town, but they had done a tremendous upgrade to the interior, and when we looked around, we felt like we could've been at the Ritz. Okay, that's an exaggeration, but I know Skip and Pat are gonna be reading this, and I thought I'd give them a chuckle.
After an hour or so of small talk, we got in Skip's car and drove blindly down the highway towards Enterprise, where G's other brother Bill and his wife Bonnie live.
The reason I say we were driving blindly is because Skip didn't wait for the windows to de-ice or de-fog. He just started the car and started moving. He was making jokes about knowing the road like the back of his hand, but when I asked him how many freckles he had on his right hand, he had to take his eyes off the road to look.
Jeesh… I amaze myself. I just met these people, and here I am, already flipping them shit. Oh well, like everyone else… they'll either learn to love me, or learn to hate me, or learn that they love to hate me, or learn that they hate to love me.
When we got to Bill and Bonnie's, the warm welcome we got at Skip and Pat's was repeated. Wonderful folk. Full of love, and an easy comfort that made me feel right at home. We also met Bill's daughters Donna and Shawna, and their respective husbands Jack and Carey, and Donna's daughter Kristen.
5pm - Great Christmas dinner… a prime rib roast, mashed potatoes & gravy, corn, broccoli salad, fruit salad, and rolls.
Skip made us all realize how special this gathering was, when he reminded everyone that this is the first Christmas with both his brother and sister since 1959, when G was only two years old, exactly 50 years ago. He and his brother are 19 and 17 years older than G, so they were out of the house shortly after G was born. It's interesting… I have an older sister and (2) older brothers almost that much older than me.
7pm - Games… laughter… silliness…
9pm - Back to Skip & Pat's.
10pm - Asleep, after playing with the adjustable air mattress for a while. Yep… simple things for simple people.
No comments:
Post a Comment