Friends

Tonight I had dinner with the fabulous Becky, (in town for a week from Chicago, via San Francisco) Cathe, Steff, and Cass at the world's yummiest sushi place, Yoko's. There are a lot of great things about living in a city, and having a fabulous sushi place right down the street (as well as 4 bars, 3 Starbucks, a Safeway, and a dry cleaner's within walking distance) is just one of them. In the summer we walk to Yoko's, wait upwards of an hour for a table, and then eat sushi until we pop. We are usually glad for the walk home, even though it is uphill most of the way.

Our dinner tonight was full of conversation and laughter, the easy give and take of friends who know each other well, like each other lots, and always have something funny to say. Our common thread is the Sellwood CC - we are diverse in age, education, lifestyles, and food choices, but we all seem to click. After we finished dinner we decided to go to Papa Hayden's in Sellwood, a place known for it's yummy oversized desserts. We all ordered something different and shared bites, sampling a little bit of everything. Somehow, Becky broke the pepper grinder and spilled peppercorns all over the table, sending us all into hysterical laughter. Her attempts to put the grinder back together were unsuccessful, and we decided on a discreet exit.

There is something comforting about having friends that you have known years. I value it even more since we moved every 2-3 years when my dad was in the Navy. We knew people all over the country, but it was always my secret wish to live in the same town forever. I was jealous of my high school pals who had known each other since kindergarten, and I had shown up as the new kid in 9th grade. I am grateful to have these friends in my life, and for the balance and laughter they provide.

Super White Christmas

I am not a cold weather person. I grew up mostly in warm climates (Honolulu, Key West), and would rather brace for an impending hurricane than live through a snowstorm. I do not like to be cold, I do not like to be wet, I really do not like to be cold and wet. We are on our 12th day of snow on the ground - an event that has not been seen in Portland, Oregon in 40 years.

My dislike for the snow does not extend to my family. The kids, like all kids, think snow is magical. I think snow is pretty, for a day or so. Twelve days is a bit much. This snow event was like that movie "Groundhog's Day" where the guy wakes up and the day is just like the day before. I do like the forced slow down that the snow creates. During the recent snowstorm I sewed 4 pairs of pj's for the twins, made chicken noodle soup, baked cookies, and watched the wall to wall news coverage of ARCTIC BLAST 2008! The planes can't go! The MAX can't run! The schools are closed! Timmy still made it to work, so everyone sitting in the snow storm craving a teriyaki chicken burger could get one at Red Robin! (if they had chains on their car) I slept better knowing our burger needs were covered.

Ruby was funny in the snow - she barked at it, ate it, and even got high centered in snow bank. I laughed a lot and took a picture. Tim took the kids on an adult supervised night sledding trip to the park - no teeth were lost! His comment when he came back - "I'm getting too old for this."

We were lucky to have Caitlin's company for Christmas - her parents are buried in 3 feet of snow at their house on the high, high, hill. I know she missed being with her family, but we loved having her here. She was able to stay in touch with the help of the amazing Blackberry phone which contained an email from her dad with a list of groceries she could bring up with her when the weather cleared, and pictures of giant icicles on the side of the house. Ah, technology!

Our good friend Carl called last night with a panicked message - the roof of his covered patio had buckled under the weight of the snow and collapsed onto the patio below. His unfortuante experience compelled Tim (and Parker) to get on our patio roof and clear off 2 feet of snow and ice. After they finished they called us outside. Up on top of the house roof they'd build a snowman, complete with OSU scarf and hat, arms outstretched to the world...welcome Christmas!

All I Want For Christmas...

Sometimes, I get to be right. Not always, (as my children would have you believe) but sometimes. Usually when I am right, I do the dance of joy, in your face, I was RIGHT and you were WRONG. Not this time. This time, being right sucks.

We are in the middle of a winter event the likes I have not seen in Portland. Not in almost 20 years of living here do I remember weather this awful. The east wind is howling, snow fell and iced over, and the thermometer says 20 something all day long. We are about to get hit with another 2 or 4 or 6 inches of the white stuff...and the dread continues. Of course, Portlanders can't drive for s**t in the snow, so they cancel school. Yesterday was the stuff of kids' dreams, a SNOW DAY. Carter's friend Chris called and invited him over "to play". I said okay and took a bundled up Carter (and Callie, who had made plans with her girls in the same general area) to Chris's house for a couple of hours.

Carter of course wanted to go sledding, but I explained to him that there was no snow, just ice, and that ice is dangerous-dangerous-dangerous. Most of you can probably finish the blog in your head now. Yes, Carter and his friends went sledding. In a place that he should not have been, doing something he was told not to do. I got a panicked phone call..."mom, I knocked my tooth out." Most of the blood in my head went to my feet. Which tooth? A front one, of course. Did he have it? No, it was lost in the snow. By now my freak-out was full force. All right, call reinforcements. Leave work, pick him up. Assess damage. Freak out.

I found him walking back from the park with his pals, the dredded sled dragging along behind them. My first look at this tooth was as awful as you can imagine. My baby boy, lip cut open and bloody, missing one of his beautiful front teeth. "I'm sorry mom," he sobs.

He feels horrible, and his mouth hurts, too. I gather myself together. He is mostly whole, it could have been so much worse. I try to be grateful. I try to be calm.

The neighbor is a doctor and he thinks Carter will be okay after a trip to the dentist. We are at the dentist at 6:30am the next morning. The nerve is okay, the part of the tooth that is still intact can maybe be capped, but not until the trauma to the mouth heals - in a couple of weeks. I calculate the cost in my head, root canal, crown, implant...but for the next 3 weeks Carter has a hole in his mouth you can drive a truck through.

There is a lesson here, but it's not the lesson I thought it would be. Carter said he knew he shouldn't have gone down the hill on the sled. He'd watched Danny do it, and even though the 'little voice" inside him told him not to, he went ahead. We had a long talk...about peer pressure and when to say no. The tooth is gone forever, a lesson is learned, and it could have been so much worse. Last night I was freaked out. Tonight I feel lucky.