Pre-Lenten Getaway, 2007

Phew! I wasn't sure we were going to be able to get one in this year, since Lent is coming so early. But we did it! We had to change our two days out of town to this week, because of a couple of deaths in the parish last week. And the other priest at our church is out of town for the Folk Dance Festival down in southern California. So Paul knew he would have to be "on call"--if there were any emergencies, he'd have to skedaddle back to Portland, on the double. Thank goodness, there were no emergencies!

We went to Eugene. We liked going to Ashland last year, and wanted to go again, but two strikes against that were the fact that we only had one night (two days) not two, like last year, and the Shakespeare Festival season hadn't quite started yet either. So we finally decided on Eugene and had one bad day and one good. Well, the first day wasn't entirely bad, but there were elements of it that were not ideal.

First, the kids were bickering from the get-go. We stopped at the end of our block to discuss how we wanted to actually *enjoy* this trip, and that was impossible if they continued this bickering! It slowed, but didn't stop for the rest of the day. But that was nothing compared to how bad it would be before the days' end. Now, none of us ended up in the hospital, and we didn't have a car crash or anything awful like that, so I suppose some might think I'm over-reacting. But our pre-Lenten getaway-- so necessary I believe it to be, because a priest's schedule is so demanding in the Orthodox church during Lent--needs to be fun and relaxing.

Anyway, I'll list some things that were good about the day first. One, we had a delicious breakfast at Pearl Bakery on our way out. And we had a terrific lunch in Eugene, at the World Cafe. I had the tempeh fajitas--now, the flavor wasn't exactly authentic, but it was so delicious! We found a great used bookstore, Smith Family Bookstore and spent more than an hour perusing it. And we had a great nap at the hostel we were planning on staying at that night. (Forshadowing of impending doom here...)

The night before we left, I had been looking through an online calendar of happenings in Eugene. And I found a concert of an artist that I discovered way back in September on Dawn's blog--Neko Case. I loved the video that Dawn posted--such a powerful and haunting voice! I found clips of her music online and had the rest of my family listen. Beautiful! We all were convinced to go to the concert. But alas....the opening act was awful--he could play decent guitar but his voice was frankly annoying in parts, singing about "luv" and with a put-on twang. More than that, he had nothing to *say*. We were so glad he only inflicted his "art" on us for about 45 minutes.

But Neko didn't come on right away. They were setting up and stuff after the other guy was done, and they even put the lights back on. We saw Neko come on stage and try out the guitar, all without spotlight. Then she left and it was a *long time* before she came back. When she did, I felt she was not truly with us--whatever problems there had been was where she still was. And she really lacked stage presence. Whenever she was not singing, she was looking at her musicians. But the worst was probably the mixing, which may have been the reason for the delay in the first place. We just couldn't understand the words. And that powerful voice that I'd admired online--it just wasn't there. Sometimes she seemed to cut out altogether. So, it wasn't an *awful* concert (though the opening act was--we dubbed him "subway man" because you can find just as good of performers in subways) but it was quite thoroughly mediocre.

Then came the real downer of the day. So, it was 10:30. We were all tired, especially Zac because he usually goes to bed between 9 and 9:30. We headed back to the hostel. Now, we all enjoyed greatly staying at the Hawthorne Hostel in Portland when we were visiting and planning to move to Portland. I like the idea of hostels--the loosely-formed community of travelers all sharing a real house, not a sterile motel. Having a real kitchen to use and share. Sitting in the common room reading while interesting people mill about, come and go. So, we liked the hostel in Eugene. But the guy who was working there was a little too good-intentioned. We had reserved the private room. But the private room only has one double bed. They could put a fold-up single bed in there for one of the kids, but then one would have to sleep on the floor. But we were cool with that. When we got to the hostel, however, it was quite empty. So the guy in charge showed us to the women's dorm, which was empty. It had four bunks. Great! We each get a bed. No problem. He told us it could be our private room.

Just inside the door to our room, though, was another door. We were to find out that it is a private women's room. After we ate lunch, the guy told us that there had been someone staying in there, and she'd called down after we'd left saying "did I just hear you showing the room to a *man*?" He'd "fixed" it by putting her in the private room we were going to have. Um, okay. Good. That works out just fine, I guess. I was wondering at that point how he'd missed the fact that she was there, but oh well.

So, we have a good afternoon, then the concert, then at 10:30 we headed back to the hostel. Oh, by the way! the guy says. We're all filled up now! And I put two women in the room off your room. They needed a place to stay and they were cool with the situation. At first I thought they would just be going through the little space by the door, just to get out. And then Paul asked, "will they be using our bathroom?" Yeah, the guy answered. But it's totally cool with them and I think it's going to work out just fine, he assured us.

I thought about it and the idea that the women were already asleep, and that probably meant that they'd be waking up earlier than us and traipsing through our room and using the bathroom, taking showers, etc. This was just not what I bargained for in my getaway! So, we left. We looked for a few minutes for a better-than-mediocre hotel that wasn't the Hilton, but didn't find one, so we settled for mediocre. Zac found the advantage: a TV in our room. :-)

*****SIDENOTE: There are two hostels in Eugene. I don't want to overly malign the one we stayed in...the guy really was well-meaning and he wanted to please everyone. So, I won't mention which hostel it was here. If you want to stay at a hostel in Eugene, and you want to make sure this doesn't happen to you, email me and I'll tell you the name of it.*****

So, we woke the next morning ready for a *good* day. And we had it! We went to breakfast at Morning Glory Cafe (I'm not finding a website for them but if you google it you can find lots of great reviews). Yum--vegan biscuits and gravy with tempeh! I'm not supposed to be eating vegan food this week but I couldn't help it--it was so good! And then off to another great bookstore, and the Footwise Birkenstock store across the street. Then Buffalo Exchange to look for shoes for Zac who has unusually narrow feet, and then when we didn't find them there, to St. Vincent de Paul where we found shoes for Zac and more! Most notably, bookshelves made in their workshop using recycled wood. Great! Just what I've been looking for. This house didn't come with very much shelving, and we had books still sitting in boxes. I can get them put away now!

Lunch was ho-hum....we had it in a promising-looking gourmet food court, but the only really good thing was the french fries. They were....dare I say it....like McDonald's french fries, which is one thing McDonalds does well--though probably all that good flavor comes from chemicals.

We looked in a shop that has lots of fairly traded goods, kind of like a Ten Thousand Villages shop. Paul bought six more fluorescent bulbs, which have really worked out well....though we heard a report on NPR about how the mercury needs special recycling....sigh. Anyway, we got a henna tattoo kit as well, because Hibi asked for it and Paul was in an uncharacteristically spendy mood. So, we all took advantage of it. ;-) A visit to a nursery, because I'm reading the book Food Not Lawns, which has a boatload of great ideas in it. And I got the crazy idea while there in Eugene, which is where the author lives, that perhaps she or someone in her organization has a sample garden that could be walked through, to see how these things can be implemented. So we asked around, including a the nursery, but alas, found nothing.

The last thing we did in Eugene, which left us definitely sated, was Sweet Life Bakery. Paul and I both had chocolate cream pie, and so did Hibi. Yep, there was a vegan version as well! She was quite overwhelmed, in fact, with choices. She's used to not having very many, or none at all, that the sheer number of delicious-looking sweets gave her pause. She took quite awhile in deciding. Zac had a cream puff that was also delicious. Paul finished what he was going to finish and put the rest in a box, then said, "I'm ready for Lent." I looked down at my pie and said, "not yet!" But I finished mine off last night late. And now I am, after we have our Cheesefare classic, Cheese Soup in Breadbowls, tomorrow.

When we got home we watched the movie Gattaca. Wow, what a creepily interesting movie. We saw clips of this movie at a "Faith Forum"--an ecumenical gathering to discuss the ethics of genetics science. But I won't go into that now, as Zac is breathing down my neck, waiting to use the computer.