Venting about Fording the River

Fording the River: A recipe for turning a 15 minute drive into 50.

1. Work 12 miles from where you live and have to cross a major river to get there and back.

2. Arrange a huge wreck, so large it completely shuts down 4 miles of the I-5 corridor for several hours.

3. Don't put out any signs telling drivers about viable alternate routes or lengths of wait times.

4. Don't have any local radio stations explain the situation or guide drivers to alternate routes.


Tonight I worked late.

Tomorrow is one of our busiest days of the summer and several of our operations staff members were staying late to prepare. I decided to stay with them and get caught up on some work. It was a productive and fun evening. Around 9:15 someone brought in pizza and we all took a break to eat and chat.

Around 10 pm people started leaving. The last of us walked out the door at 11 pm (I don't have to be back until 10 am, so it's not that bad). I walked a couple of blocks to my car and got on the road about 11:10 pm. I hopped on I-5, expecting it to be pretty empty in the middle of the night. It was . . . For about 3 miles and then I could see that traffic ahead was totally stopped. I was in the far left lane and had to fenagle my way across three lanes of traffic, but managed to get off at the last exit before I got trapped with the stopped cars.

This is my normal commute to and from work.


As I crossed over the freeway I looked north and saw lots of emrgency vehicle flashing lights. I figured there had been a wreck. At the next possible entrance I could see it was also blocked by police, so I took surface streets as far as I could before I knew I would have to get on I-5 to cross the Columbia River. But when I tried to get on I-5 at Delta Park, the last possible exit/entrance before water, I was dismayed to see the same flashing lights.

Now I was annoyed. How is it that something happened, significant enough to block off 4 miles of freeway, and O-DOT had posted no signs, no readerboards to tell me, the driver, that the Interstate Bridge, my link to my homeland, was completely blocked off and I could not get home that way? Because now I had wasted 15 minutes driving north northwest on surface streets when I could have been driving northeast and been to I-205 by then.




This was my convoluted commute home last night.


I'm also disappointed in one of my favorite radio stations. They are usually really good at giving traffic reports, especially when there is something unusual going on. But not one peep came over their airways: Not during the 20 more minutes of surface streets to get from Delta Park across town to I-205 nor even during the 15 minutes it took me to get home once I got on I-205.

I do realize there are worse things than taking an extra 35 minutes to ford the river and get home. In fact, some of you dear friends are dealing with hurts and situations far greater than my little rant. I just think that in today's age of technological saavy, something could have been done to avoid the extra 35 minutes, not to mention the extra miles and lower in-town mpg I put on my car--gas is $4.00 a gallon.

Thanks for reading anyway. Typing has helped me unwind the energy coil that was created on my 50 minute journey . . . I might actually be able to go to sleep now :)

Yep, I think I drifted off there . . . Good . . . Good night!

Pop Rocks and Fireworks!

I love spontaneous Friday evenings. I was ready to come home from work and spend the evening doing laundry and/or reading a good book, but my friend texted me on the way home to see if I wanted to go to Delta Cafe for dinner. And so began an evening full of fun and adventure.

Right now I'm sitting on my couch eating strawberry Pop Rocks!

These particular Pop Rocks were acquired at the beginning of my spontaneous evening. Sami and I tried to find something to buy at Fred Meyer to write a check for cash and avoid outrageous ATM fees. They are so worth the .50 cents I paid for them!

I love Pop Rocks! I love to feel them shoot off my tongue onto my teeth or the roof of my mouth, or to open my mouth and hear them popping around like Rice Krispys in a bowl of milk . . . it's like a mini fireworks show and you get to "taste the explosion."

After we left Fred Meyer we headed south to the Delta Cafe were we enjoyed the down home southern cooking, good sweet tea, and eclectic atmosphere for a reasonable price. I am a little horse from talking over the din of voices and music, but it's a small price to pay for good conversation with a fabulous friend.

And a trip to Delta just wouldn't be the same without walking a couple of blocks down the street to Bubble Bubble Tea. Bubble Tea is not for the faint of heart--a milky, chewy, lovely Taiwanese concoction that is probably an acquired taste, unless you're me, who fell in love with it the first time I ever tried it. However, tonight our experience at Bubble Bubble Tea was less than spectacular thanks to the slightly harried and odd cashier/bubble tea maker. Long story short, we'd only been there about 20 minutes when he cleared his throat and uncertainly bit out, "I'm closing my doors in 5 minutes" to a restaurant full of customers (most of whom had come in after us). We sat in stunned silence and looked at him for about 10 seconds before conversations continued as though he hadn't said anything. He responded by explaining himself to the air, "I've gotta close 10 minutes early tonight . . . I've been slammed . . . I've got . . . ." He trailed off and just looked around the room. We looked at the posted hours on the window, which clearly said they closed at 11 pm on Fridays (it was 9:45 pm) and giggled to ourselves that he must have had a rough day and be at his wits end. What else could cause such a break down?

But, his melt down was our gain. As we headed north on McLoughlin Blvd. we found ourselves driving straight toward the Fireworks show at the Rose Festival's Waterfront Village. And thanks to Sami's quick thinking and driving, instead of getting on I-5 North we pulled over on the side of the Morrison Bridge with many other onlookers and stood right under a spectacular fireworks show! It was beautiful and loud. I could feel each boom vibrating my chest as if I was in the front row at a rock concert.

Here's a picture of last year's Fireworks show . . . the bridge with the blueish-purple lights on it is the Morrison: the very bridge where we stood and watched this year's show. And off to the right you can see the bright lights of the Rose Festival Carnival shining out from behind the Tom McCall Waterfront Park trees, and above that the incredible Portland skyline. This picture captures everything I love about downtown Portland. Rose Festival season is Portland at it's best.

By the way, I was just reading the ingredients of Pop Rocks: 1) Sugar 2) Lactose (milk sugar) . . . Wait, what? Lactose? Hugh? I guess lactose intolerant people gotta be careful about the Pop Rock intake. Who knew?

P.S. I also bought Fun Dip . . . haven't cracked it open yet, but when I do I'm sure it'll be worth all .33 cents I paid for it and a successful end to the spontaneity of this Friday evening :)

The Birthday that keeps going and going and going!

The octopus on the top of Greek Cuisina in Portland, OR.

My 35th birthday was exactly a week ago, today. It started out like any other Thursday . . . going to work. I don't even think I saw my roommates in the morning. But then, around noon Jess came to work and brought me some beautiful peachy colored roses and cookies to share with the office. And it only got better from there.

My roommates and I gathered with some friends from church to go to dinner at Greek Cuisina in downtown Portland. It was really good food and even better company.



My yummy roasted lamb all rolled up in philodough with great veggies.

Kalamari is one of my favorite things! But this picture was really to gross out the other people at our table :)

Beckie and I at dinner.

Pretty flowers at our table.

Beckie, Me, and Lori.

David, Kailina, and Jess

After dinner we headed over to Rimska's Korska Koffee House. It was an interesting and fun experience, as the pics show. We were seated at this round table, one of the largest they have. We ordered desserts and hot tea or cocoa. The restaurant itself is in an old house and if you don't know what you're looking for you'll probably miss it. The decorating is eclectic and fun.

My roomies and me at Rimsky's. I'm drinking my Earl Grey and waiting for my frozen Lemon Pie, which never came :(

Our creepy rotating table . . . until we realized it has a motor we couldn't figure out why our food kept floating away.

Kailina, who'd been to Rimsky's before, told us we all needed to check out the restroom.

This is the picture that greets you ask you open the door. The lady of shatolietpaper?

And this is the unsettling scene in the rest of the bathroom. Did I mention it was creepy?

And this is the funky ceiling. Not so much creepy as kind of cool.

Did I say my Frozen Lemon Pie never came? Well, actually, when we asked the waitress to remove it from the bill because I didn't get it, she was horrified!

She apologized profusely for forgetting the Birthday girl's dessert and gave it to me for free.

Here's her apology via the ticket. It originally said, "Happy middle of Winter Birthday." After she realized she forgot my dessert, she changed it to "Happy middle of the Winter Bad Waitress Birthday."



And that was the end of the Thursday night festivities, but my sister Christi came over on Friday night and we celebrated again! We went to dinner at McMenamins on the Columbia and then on to the Hazell Dell Bowling Alley for Karaoke, which came highly recommended by my friend Sami. It was fun and a little crazy. As you can probably tell from the pictures, the Bowling Alley Lounge is a bit of a dive. But it was a friendly crowd of regulars that all turned their head to look at us when we walked in.

We started off the night with Christi and I singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart." And then nothing for a long time. The Karaoke guy kept trying to get us up there and finally he made all of us get up and sing a song with him. This seemed to do the trick.

Soon after the first group sing, Beckie got up and rocked Sugerland's "Baby Girl."

Then Jess knocked out the Dixie Chick's "Ready to Run."

And Christi got down to Carole King's "I Feel the Earth Move."

Beckie and our friend Beth perusing the Karaoke books.

Beth (who was a voice major in college) wowed us all with "God Bless the USA" . . . way better than the girl on American Idol!

Me singing Carly Simon's "You're so Vain" . . . who knew there's a line in that song that says "you're with some underworld spy". What?

And my birthday weekend continued when Christi and I flew out for Las Vegas the next day . . . but that is a subject for another blog post :)

Nothing Romantic about Schnitzel & Spatzle

Single Awareness Day, or SAD, as it is more commonly referred to , is celebrated by many on February 14th. I prefer not to refer to it by it's initials or acronym, SAD, because it's not a sad day for me--I'm not sad about being single or about getting to celebrate Valentine's Day with some of my best friends.

In the words of my roommate Jessica, "A single girl can ROCK this holiday too."

For the third year in a row, my roommates, myself, and our good friends Beth & Rea all went out to eat together for Single Awareness Day. Last year we struck out in search of the ultimate "Hole in the Wall" and found it at the corner of 46th & Woodstock (see last year's post for details). The year before that we ended up at a little Chinese restaurant, almost by accident, that was flooded with suburbianites waiting for take out. This year Rea's request was that it not be any place romantic or rather any place that could conjour up romantic memories, so we settled on Gustav's German Pub & Grill in Clackamas, OR.

We were all in good spirits as we arrived toting our little valentines gifts and/or cards. Some of us enjoyed the complentary cider in the lobby as we waited to be seated. After a short wait we were shown to our seats and started the evening off with some great cheese fondue! We laughed at each other's stories and enjoyed the ease of company that long friendship brings.

It was a learning experience for us. I don't think any of us really knew exactly what "schnitzel" and "spatzle" were before that evening, but we found out they were good! And Rea was right, German food really isn't the least bit romantic. Our booth was high backed and cozy in a good family meal kinda way, and this feeling was spurred on by the meat and potatoes compositions on our plates. Our waiter was friendly, attentive, and didn't seem to mind our frequent questions about the menu or our lengthy stay in his section.

We finished off the evening by exchanging the small gifts we'd brought along for each other as well as sharing a fantastic piece of strawberry pizza . . . that's what I said, strawberry pizza. How German it was, I'm not sure, but it was good! And finally we ventured out to the front of the restaurant to take some pictures. What we didn't know was that what had been a mild, day had turned into a freezing cold night. So in between snaps of the flash, our teeth chattered and we all wished we'd worn more layers. Good thing you can't tell in our pics :)

What a bittersweet memory! As Jessica prepares to move, our three year tradition has come to an end. We'll probably gather to celebrate Single Awareness Day next year, but without all 5 of us, it just won't be the same.

A synopsis of life lately.

This summer has been busy and yet I've taken time to "Breathe." It's been filled with old favorites (such as the Grandma Fredrickson blanket featured in this picture) and new favorites such as Marrakesh, Tad's Chicken 'n Dumplings, and hiking in the Columbia Gorge.

On June 15th I went home for the weekend to celebrate my Mom's Birthday and also Father's day. On Saturday Christi took Jared & Cassadie to the Zillah Public Library to get their own Library cards--which caused a flood of fond memories as I waited outside the little building. It was in that tiny library that I first fell in love with detective and mystery novels--I think I read every book they got in the "Saint" series as well as Sherlock Holmes and others.

One friday afternoon late in June I went to an early movie with my friend Bethany and afterward we went to AppleBees to get 1/2 price appetizers. We actually missed the 1/2 price appetizers, but when we came out of the restaurant, the sky was beautiful. I'm sure the other restaurant patrons thought I was crazy as I stood in the parking lot taking pics of the sky.

For the Fourth of July, my sister Christi and her family came over to join us for the second year in a row. We went down to the Fort Vancouver Celebration and had a great time. It was very hot, but we took plenty of beverages and snacks. Last year we struggled to get all our gear to the park, but this year my smart brother-in-law Alex brought the kids' wagon and we just piled everything in there. It was a good time.

After my sister's family left on July 5th, my parents came on July 6th for my sister Beckie's 30th B-day. We went to this great restaurant called Tad's Chicken 'N Dumplings. We sat in the dining room pictured above . . . it overlooks the Sandy river and all those windows fold back to make it an open air seating balcony. And they serve their Chicken 'N Dumplins in this great big goblet looking dish with the biggest spoon I've ever seen. We had a lot fun . . . for a further report of Beckie's birthday festivities, you should check out her blog. It's listed under "Sites & Blogs I read."

The next day, Mom, Dad, & I headed down to Sweethome, OR for the wedding of our good friend Tim Wyatt! It was a fun little roadtrip and the wedding was sweet. Congrats Tim & Megan.

And what have I been doing with the rest of my time? Working, of course. This is me on a break, sitting at my desk at work, trying to take a decent picture of myself. Summer is a busy season at work and so I've been working hard to keep up. But my job is fun . . . I really like it. I have yet to go camping this summer which is a bit of a disappointment, but there have been plenty of other exciting adventures to fill the gap.