When I was a senior in high school I was desperately counting the months, weeks, and days till I was able to go up to college and get out of the god-forsaken town of Rogue River. It was small, cramped, the people were closed minded and nosy, and your business was never really YOUR business. I had made it a goal to go to one of the universities near the portland area so that I could live somewhere big enough to, well, disappear.
Some years later, and I've lived city life long enough. Yes, I realize Forest Grove doesn't really count as big city life, but I can tell you that the mind set and pace are WAY different from what I grew up with. Even in Springfield I'm feeling the burden of living in the city.
So what brought on this sudden observation? My boyfriend brought me to his hometown of La Grande, OR (east side of the state) for Thanksgiving. Normally this would be a HUGE relationship milestone, being brought home for the holidays, but since I'm considered the family's second daughter because they've known me for over ten years, it really wasn't THAT big a deal. We arrive and I'm immediately pulled away from my boyfriend to greet the parents. Tyrell's mom, or Mama G as she is affectionately called, told me she had all kinds of plans for her and I while Tyrell did his homework and visited old friends. Such plans included helping out at the Historical Society Christmas Bizarre and Bake Sale, pottery class and belly dancing at the local art studio, pitting cherries for her homemade cherry bbq sauce, and helping cook thanksgiving dinner. Here's how said plans went down:
Bizarre/Bake sale: a bunch of senior citizens get together with a bunch of food and crafts to sell and raise money for the historical society. This took place at 8 in the morning the day after our 7 hour drive from Springfield, so I only stayed a couple hours due to extreme sleepiness. According to Mama G everyone there thought I was 'just adorable' and wish Tyrell and I the best in our relationship (translation: when is the wedding date?)
Pottery/Belly Dancing: While I LOVE art and dancing, I'm not necessarily good at executing either one of those things. So when I was given a ball of clay and told to create I pretty much sat there for half an hour staring at it...waiting for inspiration to come. It finally came in the form of a stemless goblet and a turtle. Belly dancing was awkward because A) Tab and I were dancing with a bunch of women 50 and older and B) They were belly dancing better than we were. It was still fun, though!
Cherry pitting: Nothing really exciting here. We just had to split cherries from Mama's orchard in half to get the pits out. I found out she had never used her cherry pitter machine, so being industrious (and admittedly slightly lazy) I busted out the gizmo and set to pit over 400 cherries in two hours. I win.
Turkey Day: I didn't get to contribute to this as that would have disrupted the system, but I will say that the deep fried turkey was delicious, and I'm sure the pies would have been tasty, too...had I had room for them after dinner.
After all of this we decided to end the vacation by getting loaded up into the two pick up trucks and going to the mountains to chop down a Christmas tree. This entailed getting the pug bundled up in her homemade snow gear, bringing a box of food (two family size cans of chili, hot dogs, and tortilla chips), and driving up the mountain until the trucks got stuck. The pictures of this are hilarious, and I hope to carry on the tradition of trekking up to snow covered mountains to chop a tree down.
Now I'm back in Springfield, and I'm counting down the days to when I can go back there for christmas! I loved the pace and lifestyle over there, and have now made it a personal goal to move over there someday!
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