Friday, June 09, 2006
Mother's Day part 1 - The Visit to Oma's
I brought my whole clown outfit down to Oma's. It was going to be a surprise for her and brother Nick. His 16th birthday was Monday.
Flash back~ Oma came up for Orion's dedication, but she fell asleep ON HER PHONE the night before, so she arrived early Sunday and saw the nearly finished floor.It wasn't QUITE done by the time we returned from church, but she got to see it finished and helped with restoring the work zone into a living room.Then late ~ 8 ish, she drove back to Portland (West Linn).That was 3 weeks prior. Uncle Nick and Bibi Betsy hadn't seen Orion for months. Nor he them.
~Saturday before Mother's Day we get a late start. Trish squeezes appointments in. Orion squeezes a nap in. He stays awake all the way down. We stop at a Taco Bell.
TWO people in line ahead of us demand refunds. Our order isn't correct either. Orion poops. They don't have a changing table in the bathroom.
Trish changes him on the grass in front. Right by the drive-through. Right by the intersection. Right by the mall. Right by the hiway. That boy is OVEREXPOSED. He has market saturation.
We keep making stops. We cross the street to the Target. We're looking for a mother's day plant. Oma mentioned a 2" or 4" plant to go in the kitchen. This Target has NO plants."They kept dying," an employee tells us. I wish we had stopped at the Olympia Target and picked up some bamboo.
We get back on the highway and find a Home Depot. It's 8PM. I see a sign that says: Registers open 8 -8, so I let her out and find a parking spot.
Buck has to poop, and Orion is poopy again! Afterwards, we go and find Trish with two huge plants. She's picked a 6" indoor one for Oma and a 6" outdoor one for Grama Jill/ Great-Grama Olga - who aren't technically related to us, but we spend time with because Grampa Joe used to be Jusby's step-dad. I thought I was looking for a 2" plant for $3. Instead I'm getting 12" of plants (and pots) for $30. I guess I love my mothers 10 times as much as I thought.
Finally in West Linn right at sunset, and I hurry Trish out of the car to admire the handiwork I had done on the lawn during my last visit. She's suitably impressed. Callas Lillies are blooming. The cilantro has come up. Tulips are up. The lavendar is still thar.
Inside she asks to see 'the infrastructure' I kept talking about. I had told her that things could not get as bad as they were because I'd built new infrastructure. Basically that meant adding two Costco wire shelving units in the garage and removing a set of wooden shelves in the pantry. It's all still there, but so are the huge quantities of boxed up miscellanea.
Then we go to bed. In the morning I figure that I want to change the clowning plan. Trish's concept involved us down at the Saturday market. I perform in front of hundreds of strangers milling around the stalls. I tried to figure a way to arrive in a seperate car and stall enough to get on the makeup.
Two monkey wrenchs ~ Bibi Betsy can't guarantee when she'll be back from her party near Mt Hood. Jusby's not so sure he wants to perform this unprepared. He conveniently left his balloons in Olympia by accident. He did bring his flipping fans tho. It's a puzzle what to do, until he figures that he's got to deliver the pseudo mother's day plant to Grama Jill and Great Grama Olga... where Uncle Nick happens to be spending the night.
He's due at 10AM, but Jusby will arrive before then! Jusby is putting on makeup, and a little voice says "Call ahead to prepare Grampa Joe", but he tells the voice "Naaaah. I don't need to do that!"We drive over to pick Nick up and deliver the pseudo mother's day plant, and no one answers the door.
Trish calls Grama Jill on the cel phone. They're headed to the coast, but Uncle Nick IS inside. He's taking a shower. They don't expect him to answer for 20 minutes. We should go run some errands.
Jusby WILL perform in public somehow. He will go take back some recycling and buy some bruncheon supplies at the not-Zupan's. It was Zupans for 20 years, but now it is a Bale's Thriftway. Oma can't move on. I like the sound of the not-Zupan's myself.
In the not-Zupan's Jusby amuses some of the shoppers and some of the staff, but it's very casual. Best gag: pointing out clown on ice cream cone package and saying "Dad!" Second best gag: asking Baker if they had PIE and indicating he would throw it.
After shopping we pick up Nick. Uncle Nick is almost 16. He has a full head of shoulder-length hair. He's getting close to 6 feet tall. A lot of things could be keeping him in the shower for 20 minutes while his parents drive to the beach.
A person could tend to get pretty relaxed after a shower like that. Nick's usually pretty relaxed to start with, so it's understandable that his demeanor would be mellow on finding his big brother dressed as a clown at his door on mother's day.
I've got the pseudo mother's day plant with me. "This is for the lady of the house. Are you the lady of the house?" I ask.
A micro-chuckle. "-I-can give it to her_?" he says with an underscore and question mark. Tough crowd.
Later I tell him that I heard he was getting a used lap-top from Oma, and that I was planning to get him a used lap dance... since he's 16 and all.
Eventually, I decide to take the costume off since it's getting hot, uncomfortable, and potentially dirty. However, I encourage uncle Nick to take some pictures first, and he gets a handful of really great ones, but he can't figure out how I'll be able to get them unless he e-mails them to me.
We stick around until it's late. We never get to the Saturday Market (Now on Sundays too), but we work together as siblings and clean the grill cuz daddy really wants a cheeseburger and not necessarily from Burgerville.-next... the side effects of a cheeseburger at oma's
I brought my whole clown outfit down to Oma's. It was going to be a surprise for her and brother Nick. His 16th birthday was Monday.
Flash back~ Oma came up for Orion's dedication, but she fell asleep ON HER PHONE the night before, so she arrived early Sunday and saw the nearly finished floor.It wasn't QUITE done by the time we returned from church, but she got to see it finished and helped with restoring the work zone into a living room.Then late ~ 8 ish, she drove back to Portland (West Linn).That was 3 weeks prior. Uncle Nick and Bibi Betsy hadn't seen Orion for months. Nor he them.
~Saturday before Mother's Day we get a late start. Trish squeezes appointments in. Orion squeezes a nap in. He stays awake all the way down. We stop at a Taco Bell.
TWO people in line ahead of us demand refunds. Our order isn't correct either. Orion poops. They don't have a changing table in the bathroom.
Trish changes him on the grass in front. Right by the drive-through. Right by the intersection. Right by the mall. Right by the hiway. That boy is OVEREXPOSED. He has market saturation.
We keep making stops. We cross the street to the Target. We're looking for a mother's day plant. Oma mentioned a 2" or 4" plant to go in the kitchen. This Target has NO plants."They kept dying," an employee tells us. I wish we had stopped at the Olympia Target and picked up some bamboo.
We get back on the highway and find a Home Depot. It's 8PM. I see a sign that says: Registers open 8 -8, so I let her out and find a parking spot.
Buck has to poop, and Orion is poopy again! Afterwards, we go and find Trish with two huge plants. She's picked a 6" indoor one for Oma and a 6" outdoor one for Grama Jill/ Great-Grama Olga - who aren't technically related to us, but we spend time with because Grampa Joe used to be Jusby's step-dad. I thought I was looking for a 2" plant for $3. Instead I'm getting 12" of plants (and pots) for $30. I guess I love my mothers 10 times as much as I thought.
Finally in West Linn right at sunset, and I hurry Trish out of the car to admire the handiwork I had done on the lawn during my last visit. She's suitably impressed. Callas Lillies are blooming. The cilantro has come up. Tulips are up. The lavendar is still thar.
Inside she asks to see 'the infrastructure' I kept talking about. I had told her that things could not get as bad as they were because I'd built new infrastructure. Basically that meant adding two Costco wire shelving units in the garage and removing a set of wooden shelves in the pantry. It's all still there, but so are the huge quantities of boxed up miscellanea.
Then we go to bed. In the morning I figure that I want to change the clowning plan. Trish's concept involved us down at the Saturday market. I perform in front of hundreds of strangers milling around the stalls. I tried to figure a way to arrive in a seperate car and stall enough to get on the makeup.
Two monkey wrenchs ~ Bibi Betsy can't guarantee when she'll be back from her party near Mt Hood. Jusby's not so sure he wants to perform this unprepared. He conveniently left his balloons in Olympia by accident. He did bring his flipping fans tho. It's a puzzle what to do, until he figures that he's got to deliver the pseudo mother's day plant to Grama Jill and Great Grama Olga... where Uncle Nick happens to be spending the night.
He's due at 10AM, but Jusby will arrive before then! Jusby is putting on makeup, and a little voice says "Call ahead to prepare Grampa Joe", but he tells the voice "Naaaah. I don't need to do that!"We drive over to pick Nick up and deliver the pseudo mother's day plant, and no one answers the door.
Trish calls Grama Jill on the cel phone. They're headed to the coast, but Uncle Nick IS inside. He's taking a shower. They don't expect him to answer for 20 minutes. We should go run some errands.
Jusby WILL perform in public somehow. He will go take back some recycling and buy some bruncheon supplies at the not-Zupan's. It was Zupans for 20 years, but now it is a Bale's Thriftway. Oma can't move on. I like the sound of the not-Zupan's myself.
In the not-Zupan's Jusby amuses some of the shoppers and some of the staff, but it's very casual. Best gag: pointing out clown on ice cream cone package and saying "Dad!" Second best gag: asking Baker if they had PIE and indicating he would throw it.
After shopping we pick up Nick. Uncle Nick is almost 16. He has a full head of shoulder-length hair. He's getting close to 6 feet tall. A lot of things could be keeping him in the shower for 20 minutes while his parents drive to the beach.
A person could tend to get pretty relaxed after a shower like that. Nick's usually pretty relaxed to start with, so it's understandable that his demeanor would be mellow on finding his big brother dressed as a clown at his door on mother's day.
I've got the pseudo mother's day plant with me. "This is for the lady of the house. Are you the lady of the house?" I ask.
A micro-chuckle. "-I-can give it to her_?" he says with an underscore and question mark. Tough crowd.
Later I tell him that I heard he was getting a used lap-top from Oma, and that I was planning to get him a used lap dance... since he's 16 and all.
Eventually, I decide to take the costume off since it's getting hot, uncomfortable, and potentially dirty. However, I encourage uncle Nick to take some pictures first, and he gets a handful of really great ones, but he can't figure out how I'll be able to get them unless he e-mails them to me.
We stick around until it's late. We never get to the Saturday Market (Now on Sundays too), but we work together as siblings and clean the grill cuz daddy really wants a cheeseburger and not necessarily from Burgerville.-next... the side effects of a cheeseburger at oma's
// posted by daddy @ 12:03 PM 
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]
