Dispatches from Portland: Therapy

Let me start by saying that while it's supposedly 42 degrees outside, this project I'm on is on a butte and the wind howls up here and I can't get enough layers on to stay warm.  I have to remind myself not to say "Geez it's cold out here!" to the guys because I can always come back to a nice warm trailer any time I want.  Yesterday one of them told me he would punch me if I complained about the cold any more.

See this group of guys?

They look like construction superintendents, but they are really therapists.  I can ask them any question, real or theoretical, and they will discuss it openly and add personal life experiences to their answer.  Yesterday I had a family-ish issue rolling around in my head and was trying to figure out why I felt the way I did about it.  They gave me the Man's perspective and it was basically settled.  It's surprisingly comforting.  I almost cried once.

Sometimes it works the other way too.  One might have an issue with his wife or mother and I give our side of the deal.  Actually that happened yesterday too.

I hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving weekend.  I feel like it wasn't really long enough but who doesn't?  Brown Eyed Man and I drove to my parent's place in The Dalles on Thursday morning and came back home on Friday afternoon.  Got to see Woodrow and Pershing and my Brother and Sister-in-Law.

The Girl, The Boyfriend and I went to pick out the Christmas tree on Friday afternoon.  We don't include Brown Eyed Man in this trip because he makes it miserable.  Sorry to say it but he does.  It's a fact.  Do not involve him in any tree-related activities.  He loves Christmas and having the whole house decorated, but the tree is his nemesis.  By Friday evening we had the tree up and decorated and most of the rest of the decorations out.  I think we finally finished everything last night.

Saturday, The Girl, Brown Eyed Man's Sister and our niece and I went to The World's Largest Christmas Bazaar, which I believe is false advertising because I can't imagine that it actually IS the world's largest and it's hardly a Christmas bazaar.  It was mostly that stuff you see at the fair: pots & pans, jewelry cleaner, re-do your shower, etc.  Kind of annoying.  We did see some weird stuff and several weird people.  Here is my favorite thing I saw all day:

A macrame Christmas Tree!  Talk about sustainable.  You simply remove the rod from the center of this thing, squish it down into a box and drag that baby out again next year.  No needles, no watering, no putting up with Brown Eyed Man belly-aching about getting a tree.  Never mind that it's the ugliest thing you've ever seen.  Never mind that it was a terrible idea even when macrame was popular.  Oh my gosh, I just noticed the crocheted tree skirt!  Genius! And you can make it in any color, notice the white (or "flocked") one right next to it?

After that Christmas extravaganza, The Girl and I went to a vintage shop over in SE Portland to hunt for some ugly Christmas sweaters.  She likes to wear them to work because she thinks it's funny.  I think that most of the older people who come into her Drive-In think "Oh, what a lovely sweater that young lady is wearing".  I needed one because we have been invited to an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party.  If I thought I could get Brown Eyed Man to wear one, I would have bought him the most sweet sweater vest with Christmas teddy bears on it, but there is now way he would do it.

The Girl wasn't feeling well and we were on our way back home, when I mentioned a visit to H&M.  She suddenly perked up because for some reason, we usually end up there right around Christmas time and neither of us can resist that weird store.  We actually ended up in a couple of stores and when we got back in the car I had to declare a moratorium on shopping for ourselves until the holidays are over.  We're really good at finding things we want.  On the plus side, everything we bought, with the exception of some boots, was less than $20.  On the negative side, we bought a lot.

While shopping, I kept close tabs on the Oregon v. Oregon State game, or Civil War as it's known in Oregon.  Not joking you.  Thankfully, the Ducks trounced the Beavers and all is good in the world.  Unfortunately, later in the evening, Stanford beat UCLA so we're not playing in the PAC-12 Championship, but we'll still make it to a BCS bowl game.

The other highlight of Saturday was meeting a little black Chihuahua named Poppy.  She was up for adoption and I was dying to get her.  She was a Mini-me to Clover.  I called Brown Eyed Man to see what he thought and he said NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!".  I sensed a little hesitation in his voice so I waited about an hour and called him back but got the same answer.

Sunday I was cleaning house and went to take the garbage out and found a leak under the sink.  Lost of towels and a few hours later, we had a new garbage disposal!  The Insinkerator BADGER!  Grrrrrrr!

j