Two weeks later: Eugene

It's  been a week since I wrote anything here and TWO weeks since I was in Eugene watching Anna and Finn toss really nice Christmas decorations onto the tree at John and Diane's.  I promised to write about it, so this one is for Pat.

I rolled out of Newport, on the coast, away from the lovely hotel where I could have stayed another week. Seriously, a great room, a great ocean, a great Irish bar and a great wine store. What else does a girl need?  Bookstores?  Four of them within 4 blocks.  Good coffee?  Check.  Quiet?  Check.  Romance?  Wasn't checking.

The drive to Eugene, via Corvallis, was about 2 hours and it was beautiful, a small road, lots of green trees and meadows and rainbows and ..... unicorns?  They were the only thing missing. Lovely drive, I was at John's around 1:30.  Diane and the small critters were not home which was good. John and I got to chat about all the stuff we always chat about: kids, siblings, parents (mine), books, movies, wine, weather, life, death, taxes, Christmas decoration vomit. Seriously, I walked into their lovely home and there were probably 20 boxes of xmas stuff. Tons and tons of it.  John called it "Christmas vomit."  I just nodded.

Around 5:30 Diane arrived with Finn and Anna.  They are 8 and 6 now, respectively, and rather loquacious. We chatted about their day, how school was and all that but they were there for one main purpose: to decorate the tree.  Diane had lights on the tree and a few ornaments, just to give it some credence, I think.  She gave the kids full rein at opening boxes, taking whatever out and putting whatever on the tree. The kids rose to the occasion, but were serious in their pursuit of Excellent Decoration. They were on a mission.  By the time an hour had whipped by, with much merriment, the tree was fully (and I mean fully) decorated.  There was not an inch below the 5 foot mark that had any pine needles visible.  Large xmas dolls had been tucked in between branches, sizable glass ornaments had been hung, small gnomes were ensconced in the recesses of the tree. Garland had been tossed willy nilly strung with care around the tree.  A ladder was brought out so that they could decorate the top of the tree. They didn't topple onto the tree, but they came close.

About half way into this, while the three grown-ups were polishing off the second bottle of wine, I asked Diane how she came to be such a Christmas Decoration Hoarder.  Diane, as many of you know, is a very smart yet pragmatic woman.  This obsession to own all this .... this.... xmas stuff, is confusing.  She had no real answer, it was just stuff she had picked up along the way.  However, she did say that last year she didn't decorate much and she was very happy with the minimalistic manner of that year. But her daughter sort of shamed her into going big this year. So, instead of going home, she went big. (Texans will get that.)  ((Go big or go home.))

Anyway, it was a delight to watch and I must say, in the end, the tree looked very happy.  We then sat down to a really good salmon dinner, with fresh green beans that I overcooked, which the 6 year old Anna happily pointed out to me.  "Well, the beans are overcooked."  Sigh. Busted.

I left the next morning, I drove to Redding and stayed at a very unfortunate La Quinta (they take dogs for no fee) where I had to put a chair, sideways, in the sliding glass door slot in order to have some air during the night but not invite strangers to walk into my room.  The sliding glass door was one long balcony, anyone could just walk from room to room and if your door was open, walk in.  Creepy.
Seriously. What were they thinking? Even in apartment living that is wrong. In a crappy motel, in a crappy motel town like Redding, were they inviting a lawsuit? Thank goodness I had the fierce beast Cooper with me who would gnaw off the leg of any intruder.  NOT.

So there you have it, the end of my small yet nice road trip. Speeding ticket notwithstanding ($366, ouch!!!) it was a nice time away.  But as Tom has pointed out "six days does not count as a vacation" and so I will be forced to take some more time off before winter ends.  Forced because if I don't, some innocent hotel guest might die.  Or one of the clowns I work with might die. (If any hotel employees are reading this - very doubtful - I don't mean you. I mean the other ones. The other clowns.)

Onward.  I bought a xmas tree, it's up, it looks nice. No gifts this year except for things I can steal.  Jolly.

xoxo to you all. more later, over and out for now.