"Don't Take Any Guff"

And now, for something completely different:

I’m on a cross-coountry trek up the west coast of the US to do fundraising and visit my family. The first stop is San Jose to see my cousins. I tried ride-share for the first time and it worked out great! Ended up getting a ride from a nice guy named Edward who has a similar story to mine. Worked in film for about 10 years and just decided he was never gonna be a big famous whatever, so he got a job working for the news in San Francisco and now works as an editor and cameraman for them while getting to see his family often.

I stayed with my cousins Judy and Bob and Maggie the dog overnight and had a great dinner with them, filling them in on the past year. I got to visit my cousin Gail’s classroom and talk to her kids about Thailand and our program. They all wanted to buy the stuff I had brought to sell at churches, so it was pretty funny; they cleaned me out before I even got to my destination! I figured, who cares who buys it, as long as I can sell it for the families. Plus, this way, it gives more people the chance to hear about our program.

I bought a train ticket on Amtrak to go up to Eugene to visit my friend Erika, partly cause it was cheaper, partly because I had never been on a train in the US before and wanted the experience. At the station was an old man, a volunteer conductor, according to his badge, who explained to each individual person what the process was to get on the train, and called us all together when it arrived. He said, “Now listen, if anyone gets off the train and starts smoking by you, tell them to smoke down here. Don’t take any guff offa them!  It’s against the law to smoke this close.” It was awesome.

He went on to tell us that the Union Pacific freight lines own the rails, and Amtrak just rents them for passenger trains, so they always have to get out of the way of the freight trains. I never thought of anyone “owning” the rails, I guess I always figured they belonged to the US as a whole. He was also chatting with a Filipino mom and her two teenage girls about their trip. Apparently, he’s been taking classes at the senior center and learning all about Southeast Asia. Great volunteer conductor, that one!

On the train, even though I was just in coach, the seats recline almost all the way back, and it wasn’t the best night of sleep ever, but I got a good 6 hours at least. I woke up just at sunrise as we were passing the base of a beautiful snow-covered mountain. Wow, what a great sight to wake up to. Definitely reminded me that I was in Oregon, not in Thailand anymore. At our next stop, in Klamath Falls, I got off the train to stretch my legs, and was hit with a blast of cold mountain air, about 40 degrees. Very refreshing, but FREEZING. I can’t say I wasn’t expecting it, because I knew it would be cold in spring, but I still could only handle it for a few minutes before getting back on the train for warmth.

The conductor invited all the people who were interested in learning more about Oregon history to come sit in the Sightseer car where they would be talking about the train lines and the towns we were passing through. The sightseer car was nice because it has huge windows that run the length of both sides of the car, so much better than the seats in coach. Of course, even with the best of intentions to learn something, most of the people, including myself, succumbed to sleep with the rocking of the train. I did wake up to see some nice waterfalls and an old train from 100 years ago that had been knocked off the tracks and into the ravine below by an avalanche.

I finally arrived in Eugene, where Erika met me at the station and we had a nice lunch: GRILLED CHEESE! I did not realize how much I missed grilled cheese sandwiches, until I got back. Also, I love Erika’s cats. They are awesome, all five of them. I even won over the skittish Siamese. While Erika and her husband Doug went to dinner with her former boss, I wallowed in the luxury of Netflix and watched copious amounts of Parks and Recreation! Ahh, American (scripted) tv, how wonderful you are.

Erika played hooky and we went up to Portland to hang out for the day, dodging rain showers the whole time while shopping and finally ended up at the greatest bookstore known to man: Powells. If you have never been to Portland, go there just to see this bookstore. If you have been to Portland and not to Powells, well WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU? :) We met up with my cousin, Kate, and had drinks and hors d’oevres (don’t check my spelling, I studied Spanish) at this cool restaurant. That night, after Erika headed home, Kate and I went to see The Iron Lady at one of the coolest movie theaters I have ever been in. It reminded me of the theater in Roslyn, the one in the old funeral parlor. They have little tables built into the back of each row so you can put your food there and they make their own fresh lemonade and pizza. Great movie experience!

The next day, we had breakfast with Kate’s boyfriend Chris (great guy) and I was introduced to delicious gluten-free oatmeal blueberry pancakes (shocking right?), and reintroduced to the incredible American portion size. I wandered around downtown for a bit of shopping. After Kate’s roommate got off work, we piled into the car and drove up to Olympia. Love that drive up the coast, it’s so beautiful. I am sad I did not get to stop into Vancouver and visit my friends there, but we just did not have time. I did get to see my college roomie, Neli, for a brief visit on our way up, but that was about it.

Finally, we got to my grandma’s house and I got to see my mom for the first time since Christmas and my grandma for the first time in a year and a half, almost! OK, now back to our regularly scheduled programming. More about the WA visiting in a moment.