On Sunday, at 8:50 p.m., I arrived back in (the People's Republic of) Portland on Amtrak from Tacoma. The train ride was shorter than I expected. Didn't even get to finish the book I'm currently reading (only a couple pages left)--Imperial Life in the Emerald City (review is forthcoming)--but I'll finish it before I go to bed. While back in Atlanta for nearly 10 days, I didn't do my nightly reading before bed. I used up nearly all of my waking hours after the relatives left on Monday to sort through the 30 boxes I still had in my parents attic. That was a lot of shredding of financial records (I had saved EVERY bank statement, credit cards statement, and payslip since 1990!!!). Whew! What a chore.I ended up sending 18 boxes on Amtrak, which should arrive by the weekend. A lot of that are personal records like my Navy paperwork, college papers, high school yearbooks, photo albums, family history paperwork, and other personal effects. I'm truly a one man bureaucracy! The last week kept me so busy that I didn't even make it out to visit a friend of mine who lived in Marietta or my last job (as I had "promised" a few former co-workers). Oops. But, when my parents live on the east side of Atlanta (think of the three o'clock position on the clock) and Smyrna and Marietta being at the 10 o'clock position, I honestly did not feel like driving that far. It would have taken up my entire Friday. After driving a long way to attend my old church congregation north of Alpharetta, it was just too much driving. Portland has truly spoiled me. I basically have all my personal needs met within Portland's fareless square boundary. Everything I need or want is pretty much in this free public transit zone (which is walkable from my apartment). I realize that I only love driving on long road trips, but city driving is annoying.
I'll share more of what I did the first week (when the house was packed with 14 relatives and four dogs) in a later post about the wedding (probably for Saturday). I'm just glad to be back in Portland. The interesting thing about the trip is that the day I left (two Mondays ago), it was raining pretty hard when I left work to catch my train to Tacoma. I flew to Atlanta on Tuesday morning and had a row of three seats to myself. When we arrived in Atlanta, I regretted not having my camera conveniently out because we flew over Stone Mountain (and my parents neighbourhood) near sunset. That would've been a cool shot!
I flew on Airtran from SEATAC directly to Atlanta. My brother flew out of Portland with a change of planes in Houston, Texas. His plane left Portland a few hours before mine left SEATAC. But I arrived in Atlanta first. There was about a 30 minute differential, so my parents didn't have to make two trips to the airport. The weather was mostly rainy while I was home. When I arrived back in the Pacific Northwest, I was shocked how hot it was. Essentially, I brought the Pac Northwest weather with me to Atlanta and brought back Atlanta's heat! Can't we have one more month of rainy weather? Yeah, I know. I actually love Portland's rainy season.
On Saturday, I flew out of Atlanta. The Transportation Security Administrator selected one of my bags for personal inspection. Talk about mild embarrassment. I had decided to fill one carry-on bag with things I considered my most "prized" possessions that I did not trust the post office or Amtrak to deliver. This included several rare Australian souvenirs I had found on eBay (including an ashtray in the shape of Australia that was inscribed with my first Navy ship, the USS ORION and the date of 1944), a map of Australia I had made in 1983 in art (using yarn and a piece of burlap), two volumes of the Journal-Letters that my best friend Nathan and I corresponded in during the 1990s (Nathan has the other three volumes), and the item that probably attracted the most interest in the X-Ray machine: a shadow box I had made to display the boutonniere I had worn as Best Man at Nathan's wedding in 2000. The shadow box also had a picture of Nathan, Lisa, his brothers, another friend and me...and a bottle of the liquid used to blow bubbles (it was part of their wedding favors). Yeah, I saved it and never used it. I had completely forgotten about the TSA and Homeland Security's paranoia about carrying any kind of liquid on the plane. Fortunately, I didn't have to break into the shadow box and dump out the contents. But, I wondered what that TSA guy thought of a guy like me carrying a bag of stuff like this. Most guys aren't sentimental.
After he completely emptied my carry on bag, he asked if I wanted him to pack everything back or if I wanted to do it. I told him that I would do it. No sense keeping him from his job of catching those terrorist killers that might slip through with real explosive liquid!
The concourse at the airport was packed with people. I don't think I've ever seen that many people at the airport before. For some reason, I didn't believe that Saturday was a crowded flying day. I thought Friday and Sundays were the most traveled days. The flight was fully booked. We left late and because of heavy storms in the Midwestern part of the country, the pilot wisely chose to fly around it, adding forty minutes to our flight time. We were supposed to land in SEATAC at 9:30 p.m., but it was 10:10 when we actually touched down. Then there was a problem unloading the luggage. They had us go to one baggage carousel, then 40 minutes later, they switched to another carousel. This meant that my ride was kept waiting 90 minutes!!! I felt really bad about it and offered to buy a late dinner, dessert, pay for gas...but he would have none of it. He did get an Obama magnet, though (a small token of my appreciation for his hospitality of taking me to the airport and picking me up and letting me stay at his place). He's the one who thinks Obama could be the anti-Christ (he's a Hillary supporter). Hey...I'm all about promoting love and support for our president!
Sunday, YAPS did the church service at Puyallup Congregation. It was the same service we did at the Vancouver BC congregation in January 2008 about "Uncommon Devotion" with silent acting scenes of various situations, as well as playing The Black Eyed Peas' "Where is the Love?" I was pleasantly surprised to see that David made it (he's Nathan's youngest brother and the most similar personality to Nathan of his three brothers). He and I caught up on what's been going on in our lives. I haven't seen him since 2003. After church, YAPS went to a Putt-Putt golf place. I actually made one hole in one shot (very unusual!). My average was three to five strokes per hole. I thought it was interesting that David and I were playing putt putt golf, because the night of Nathan's bachelor party (in June 2000), we did not have enough room in the car for everyone, so David was the only one of Nathan's brothers who did not get to play Putt Putt golf with us. I always felt bad about that. That night, Nathan and the two brothers with him, and another friend all made a hole in one in at least one of the holes. I was the only one who did not accomplish that feat. Nathan even hit a hole on my behalf and got a hole in one for me. In Sunday's game, David got two holes in one, just like his brother did that night nine years ago. I don't know if it means anything, but somehow, I just find it fascinating that nine years later (after feeling bad for having to exclude David from our "wild night" on a putt putt golf course), I had the opportunity to play putt putt with David. I think that is really cool. Maybe its an example of how spirituality works to correct your regrets eventually.
Now its back to work. I hope that the negative energy won't wear me down like it did before I went on vacation. This vacation was so needed and came at the best possible moment. My least favourite co-worker has the strange pattern of having explosive temper tantrums every three months and was due for another volcanic explosion in May. The last week in April, she was slipping...having daily whiny temper flares, but no all out screaming. If she did have an eruption, I hope it occurred while I was gone. I really don't want to deal with her negative energy tomorrow. My vacation was soooooooo good for my soul. I was truly relaxed, happy, content, and enjoying my time with family. Unfortunately, though, I did not have time to really visit my old stomping grounds in Buckhead, visit the Zoo (and see the baby panda), or go to the Aquarium and the new Coca-Cola museum (they switched to a new building. I had visited the old one a couple of times in the 1990s). My next trip to Atlanta (next year, perhaps?) will hopefully be more relaxing since I pretty much got all of my things out of my parents house finally.
It's good to be home. I definitely feel more like a Pacific Northwesterner now. My old stomping grounds in Stone Mountain was depressing. So many of the shopping centers I once walked to from my parents house are empty. Even Stone Mountain Village had mostly abandoned store fronts (in 2006, they had stores that catered to tourists). Its too sad to see the place where my parents live become a virtual commercial ghost town. Shipping the rest of my things from my parents house shows my commitment to settling in Portland. All that's needed is a job offer that will keep me from going off to Iraq later on this year. I feel optimistic and upbeat about my prospects for this summer. Good things are happening. I can feel it!
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