place2place

Mt. Shasta report

Sat under the stars and pine trees of Mt. Shasta drinking wine and Amuk cooked, of course. Biggest laugh: me and Tanya almost wet our pants because we couldn't figure out how to make their bed. Or maybe when Serge told me "If you have one watch you know what time it is. If you have two, you never know." Abe taught me four new guitar chords, which doubled my repertoire. Thanks to Jeremy and Milla who provided a great venue for four-day house party, and they weren't even there.

Isn't my husband the cutest thing ever?

we don't call it stalking, we call it love

am i dreaming?

It's like the dream I had one night in Niamey last year: I'm at Peet's in the Pearl, and I'm wearing my cowboy boots and I'm walking to Powell's. And then I wake up. 

But it's real. After two fabulous weeks with my sister, we came to Portland. Peter stood in line for four hours and bought us new iPhones. I got to hang out with David Cook for half an hour, it was like a party and then I went to the American Idol tour concert twice. I sat between Mom and Peter and David Cook poured a bottle of water on himself and sang; does it get any better than that?

Today in the Pearl district of Portland, I went from Imelda's shoes to Rich's cigar/magazine store, to Anthropoligie (ahhh) where I tried on clothes for six hours and bought the cutest pants in the world, and a vintage-looking apron. God, I love vanity sizing. Then I went to Powell's looking for my own copy of that perfume book, but they didn't have it, although they did have at Anthro, and why didn't I just buy it there? But I did find another fabulous-looking book about some perfumer during the time of Louis XIV and I bought that, "now a major motion picture" it says on the cover. Then I went to Buffalo Exchange and looked at cowboy shirts with abalone shell snaps for Peter.

The one moment that actually brought tears to my eyes? The soup bar at Whole Foods.

 

After that, I went to Safeway and bought a bottle of Ravenswood Somoma County old-vine Zinfandel, then drove down 39th to SE Salmon Street, to our litttle blue house with all the windows and the birds chirping.

And Peter bought me a Martin guitar and then I went to the Woodstock branch library and checked out a song book and I'm learning to play 'Here Comes the Sun' and tomorrow Amuk is coming from Seattle and we are walking to Bread and Ink for dinner, and then on Saturday we drive to Mt. Shasta to see Mike and Tanya and Abe and Serge and Mrs. Issakov.

It's the best dream ever. I love you, Portland, Oregon.

1.41 seconds eating into my 15 minutes of fame

http://fox40.trb.com/ click on the video titled "American Idol Tour, the fans." There I am, talking for a LONG time, and Camille too. Notice my adorable nephew and niece Dave and Natalie in the background. If their adorable baby had been with us, I'd have gotten no screen time.

And it wasn't A bottle of water, it was HIS bottle of water.

Don't be jealous honey, I love you more.

camille: paintball with the guys

I'm Really On My Way!

No matter how well you try and prepare in advance, time slips away and you spend your last minutes running around trying to get everything done. Leaving Niamey was no different. But in the end, I got done what was needed.

I was supposed to do early check-in at the airport so that after the 4th of July celebration, I could take my time and not have to sit in the hot airport 2 hours before take off. But the expeditor forgot me which only added to my already stressful day. Seeing Pierre and Zourie for the last time had already made me a wreck.

Running late to the fete at the Ambassador's residence, I put on a borrowed suit. The jacket was a bit snug and I tied the tie forgetting to look at it in the mirror on my way out the door of my office. There were a lot of people (more than I could say all my personal goodbyes to) but it was quite nastalgic with the Ambassadors' speech and the Marines carring the flag to the bugles playing our National Anthem. It was sweltering with humidity and they ran out of ice early on. Everyone was dripping with sweat. The view was fantastic though; overlooking the river and the table top bluffs on the other side which I had run during the hash.

At 9PM, people were starting to leave and I was anxious to get back to my office, grab my luggage and get dropped off one last time at our residence to take a shower before being taken to the airport. As I entered the hall in the health unit, I saw myself drenched in the full length mirror. The knot in my tie looked remarkably well considering I tied it without looking. But it extended too long beyond the last closed button, giving the appearence of a striped arrow pointing down at my crotch. Nice exit strategy!

After my shower at home, I took one last look at our home. It served us well for two years. Amina and Kasumi drove me to the airport and dropped me off. Every camel and Nigerien we past I tried to take in for the last time. Fighting back tears, I said my thanks and goodbye to Amina who made this tour an "E ticket" ride (back in the day, Disneyland used to reserve the "E" ticket for their wildest roller coaster rides).

The plane lifts and I kept every last light reflecting from Niamey in my sightes until they where no more.

I arrived this morning in Paris to a world that seems light years ahead in time. Not so much a parallel universe but more like an intersecting one with rare bisecting lines. The young woman in a mini skirt with an open crash helmet and those huge fashionable sunglasses on her vespa with her dog at her feet made me look. But Niamey is such a nunique place. I will always remember.

apple pie, chocolate raisins, root beer

Random thoughts, sitting at my sister's cabin at Donner Lake. My sister made yogurt parfaits for breakfast. The dog really wants one.

Guess what country is the least green in the world? Newsweek article.

Peter is sitting in Niger with his fourth day of no electricity. The generator is running non-stop and he says he invited everyone without a generator over for shower. Should I be worried?

Idol tour opened last night, I can't wait. Look.

Stefan is playing cards with my parents and drawing all the lucky jokers. Zero is his favorite number, he tells us.

Fire, fire, everywhere. When we landed in San Francisco I thought it was foggy, but smoke from so many fires in Northern California had made its way to the coast. Yesterday when we got to Donnor Lake the smoke in the air made the place look like a Bierstadt painting. Today the sky is blue but tens of thousands of acres continue to burn all around northern California.

My sister says I have to get off her internet connection and do my laundry because we have to go exercise, or my rent will go up.