It’s been a while since I made an entry, so, in spite of the fact that I’m having a hard time keeping my eyes open, I wanted to do a little catch-up…
Last week, I got the ring that Deidre sent me that was Mawmaw’s. It looked just like I remembered and fits perfectly on my middle finger which is cool since I had wanted to get a ring for that finger anyway. I’ve been wearing it every day since I got it and it makes me smile to look at it. Silly enough, sometimes I kiss it when I look down at it. 🙂 Deidre also sent me a silkscreened print that Herbert had made of my dad as a child when Herbert was in Japan in the Air Force. Still need to get those papers over to my dad to get Herbert’s military records since they sent me something asking me for something else. They said my signature wasn’t included, but it was, so I will try to remember to give them a call to follow up on that.
Last week was wild with work from Rennie. I have two projects going on with them at the same time – Pacific View and the Phase II stuff for Southmere. Last week was a mad rush to get ads designed and revisions made to get two of the Pac View ads off to the pubs on Friday.
Tracey and I decided to go away for a couple of days, so I was up early on Friday (after being up til 6am getting things checked off my to-do list for Rennie) getting ad revisions done and ads submitted to the pubs. STRESS!!! We had wanted to leave early Friday morning, but ended up only getting to leave a little after noon. The border wait was a breeze at a mere 10 minutes or so. Then, we drove for what seemed like an eternity and got caught in every major city’s rush hour from Seattle through Olympia. The stretch between Seattle and Tacoma was probably the worst of it.
We hadn’t really made any hard and fast plans other than we wanted to go to Oregon to go shopping because there’s no sales tax there – please let’s consider this concept for BC and everywhere else! Paying $19.99 when the price is $19.99 rocks! It takes all the guess work out of figuring out how much cash you’re gonna have to lay down for your purchases.
So, we got into Oregon at probably around 9:30pm and, by this time, I was getting pretty cranky. I drove from Burnaby to the Taco Bell in Bellingham and Tracey took over from there. For some reason, these days I just get really anxious driving at high speeds for long distances. It’s almost like I feel dizzy, like I can’t focus or something and the next thing you know, I feel like I’m going to crash the car. Of course, after this happened a couple of times, then I start to EXPECT it to happen, which is probably why it does. This doesn’t happen to me every single time I drive on the highway or anything, so I fully believe it’s 90% psychological.
Our first stop was in Jantzen Beach, Oregon, which was the first exit after crossing the Columbia River bridge into Oregon. We checked a couple of hotels there – one of them was gigantic even though it didn’t look great from the outside – and decided to keep moving a little farther South since they didn’t have a Wal-Mart in the area and we needed to pick up a few things before calling it a night.
Next, we stopped off another exit and this snotty guy asked how big our dog was when I asked if they accepted pets. I said, “Oh, she’s a Lab…” and he said, with the snottiest air of condescension he could muster, “Ok…how BIG?” and I said, “I dunno….70lbs???” and then he proceeded to tell me with a most authoritarian air that they had a 40lb. restriction on pets. Ok, so what the fuck is the difference between a 40lb. dog and a 70lb. one? It’s just a stupid rule and, as tired as I was, I wanted to smash the motherfucker’s face!
Next stop was a place called Lake Oswego. I went into the Marriott Residence Inn and asked about rates, etc. and the guy behind the counter proceeded to tell me that Lake Oswego is the most expensive town in Oregon. Great. So, I found a brochure for the Outlet Mall we were wanting to go to and we decided to find ourselves a hotel in that town, which was 20 miles farther South. Great, more driving….
We stopped in Woodburn and looked into the Best Western but their pool was outside and the hot tub was covered. After all that time bored out of my skull in the car and working on very few hours of sleep, I wanted to end my day with a dip in the pool and some time in the hot tub to relax. So, there was a Super 8 Motel nearby and that’s where we ended up staying. The lady that was there was super nice to me, if a little white-trashy. I inquired about the pool/hot tub and she said it was closing in five minutes. I said, “Oh, nooooo” and she said, “Oh, don’t worry….I’ll keep it open for you and you can just let me know when you’re done.” That made my night! Tracey was exhausted and didn’t want to swim or go in the hot tub, so she could care less about whether or not we had one, but I was thrilled to get what I wanted without it costing $100 for a night. We went to Wal-Mart and then I came back and went for a swim and in the hot tub. Just what the doctor ordered!
Then, we had a little spat about the temperature of the room. I cannot breathe if a room is hot/stuffy…with this nasal congestion issue I’ve had for the past two years, I am even less tolerant of warm air in a small room. So, I turned the heat down. At like 7am, she woke up bitching about how cold it was and, rather than snuggle up to me for warmth, she goes and turns on the heat full blast and keeps vocalizing about how pissed she was that she couldn’t sleep all night because she was too cold. What a way to start the day….
Tracey went down to the pool and I didn’t go. I was pissed at her and didn’t want to be around her right then. I took a shower, fed the dog and went downstairs to check out the pathetic, but nevertheless free, continental breakfast. I met some people who told me they held an SCA Battle event at their ranch in Southern Oregon and showed me pictures of it. Weird stuff! T was in a better mood after swimming so we checked out of the hotel and headed for the outlet mall.
OMG! I LOVE tax-free shopping! It absolutely rocks! We first went in Gap and I picked up a couple of things there. Tracey had brought Jesse with us and had her walking around with us in the store. I was pissed. I do not want to drag a fucking dog around while shopping – it’s just not practical, or necessary! So, we got into another little spat about that, but she put Jesse in the car and the rest of our shopping adventure went well. I bought myself two watches at the Fossil store (and one that matches the white band/blue face Adidas one for Deidre as a Christmas present), followed by a nice black, double-breasted (as am I) wool coat from Jones New York. The lady that helped us was really nice and asked if we work out a lot – I think because of how broad my shoulders are. Then, I ended up buying a cool pair of Adidas Campus ST retro-style sneakers. They are hot shit! White leather with light blue stripes and a dark blue sole. Very snazzy!
After our shopping spree, we headed to Cannon Beach and Seaside, since we decided Friday night to head to the beach. The drive was OK – a very windy road through the forest. It was like driving through an entire forest of Christmas trees. Oregon is very beautiful!
We arrived in Cannon Beach at about 5pm and took a quick walk on the beach – my god, it is SOOOO much more beautiful than Ocean Shores! Haystack Rock (the 3rd largest monolith in the world, apparently) was mesmerizing. It’s just this giant boulder-looking thing hanging out not far from the shore. And, as it turns out, it’s where they filmed part of The Goonies. Funnier still is that I didn’t even realize it while I was there. Deidre saw some of the pictures I posted and noted the resemblance and then she did a search to discover that it was, in fact, filmed in the area, as well as in Astoria which, when driving through on Sunday, I thought to myself “Hey, that’s the name of the city from The Goonies…”, but I thought it was set somewhere on the East coast.
Then, we headed over to Seaside to get a hotel room. We ended up staying at the Shilo Inn which wasn’t great. The pool/hot tub/exercise room were nice to have available 24/7, but the room was small, but nonetheless adequate. We went to eat at a place called Dooger’s which was gross. I ordered fish and chips to have them bring me four thick chunks of Halibut with barely any breading – not the way a non-fish-lover prefers it! Then, we went to an arcade place which had tons of games and was really cool. It reminded me of a place Manon and I went in Montreal once. Tracey and I played this game called Fascination where you have a little wooden alley and a little ramp that you roll a red rubber ball over to have the ball fall through one of a grid of holes at the top of the board that, when the ball falls through, lights up the corresponding light on the display. The idea is similar to Bingo in that you want to complete a full line of holes to light up a full line of lights. There are a bunch of people playing at once and whoever completes a line first wins the game. The prize was like 100 arcade tickets, but we didn’t win any games at all! A few games of SkeeBall later and we were back to the hotel. I went down and did some weights after the second person of the day (a guy who worked at the hotel this time) asked if I worked out a lot and told Tracey that I had “really good shoulders”. I was wearing my bathing suit and track pants at the time when we were headed down to the pool. Weirdness!
Tracey fell asleep early and I spent a while talking to Laina on IM and uploading the day’s pictures for her to see.
We woke up and went for a quick swim/hot tub dip before heading over to Pig ‘n Pancake for breakfast – pecan waffles YUMMMM!!!! Then, we packed up and headed over to Cannon Beach to walk around. Tracey experimented taking some videos and pictures with her new digital camera – Canon S5 – and I discovered that it was way more enjoyable to stop and take pictures when I go somewhere when she’s busy doing the same thing! lol
I bought three new tin signs – one that has a red heart and Hostess Cupcakes written on it, one of Topps Football cards and one that says Seaside Bakery which I got in, oddly enough, Seaside. I also got a cool Underdog t-shirt.
We completed our tour around the shops in Cannon Beach and walked back out to look at the beach and water for a few minutes before heading out. I had to make sure to get pictures of the Lewis & Clark Trail, US 101 and Tsunami Hazard Zone signs before we left and was excited to get all three! Ah, it’s the small things, eh?
So, we headed back and stopped at Wal-Mart near Marysville (I-5 Exit 200 for future reference!) before heading for the border. We got home about 11:30 and were exhausted.
Monday was a pretty lazy day for me since I was so tired, but I managed to clean up the house and vacuum which was sorely needed after having missed doing it last weekend.
Today was a bit more productive. I ran a few errands to pick up my vintage Poison Flesh & Blood Tour (90-91) from Mintage, then to Costo, the mailbox and Tisol for cat food. Today was an awesome day for mail – 4 checks! I had met Carol at a duplex she is thinking of buying and she drove us around to do the other things and it was a pretty pleasant day.
So, I came home and did some work and made dinner when Tracey got home. I finished watching the LSU/Alabama game that I had taped on Saturday – thank God LSU pulled it out and won the game. It was a nailbiter!
Just finished watching the ep of Smallville that I missed from last week. Man, is it getting exciting! I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next and I’ll be super pissed if the writers in Hollywood don’t work out their deal and get back to writing my shows, damnit!
Ok, now I’m off to bed. I’m exhausted and this entry is way too long already!