road trip!

Monday I drove to Corvallis, Oregon...completely hungover. You know what? That is not the way to drive 571 miles, 9 hours, with the sun beating down on you for 6 of those hours, with no a/c. I left at noon, which is also not a recommended time to leave when you have 9 hours to drive, but around 3pm my hangover wore off!

So I am cruising along in my totally manual car (no cruise control man!) and there is a minivan behind me for awhile. Then I take off my hoodie and all of a sudden the mini van speeds up and is driving along side of me on this two lane highway and I glance over and driving is this guy and in the passenger seat is probably a 13 year old boy. As I look in their direction, they both start waving at me.

I wave back and then they drop back behind me. A few minutes later they speed up again and I delay looking over, but I do and this is what I see:

In case you can't read that sign, it says "You're Hot!"

I totally cracked up and then zipped off (you know, after taking the picture) but I was thinking, who are these people? Like, is this a dad and his son? The rest of the drive was uneventful. No admirers.

When I lived in Cambridge, my next door neighbors were this woman Nikki and her husband Stephen. Nikki was probably my first “grown-up” friend. Someone I didn’t meet at a job or in school or something and it was cool because, believe it or not, I pretty much keep to myself, more so back then, and she was the first woman to actively pursue me as a friend. Naturally, I loved her for that! We figured out this week that we have been friends for ten years. That just floors me.

About 7 years ago they left Boston for Oregon because her husband got a job at OSU. Since then they bought a house, got a dog and had two kids! And since we are now both on the same side of the nation, I needed to visit.

Corvallis is um, nice. It’s small, which doesn’t bother me. I always entertain the idea of living in a small town, and it’s full of those Craftsman houses that I love so much. The problem with Corvallis is the fucking hippies. I saw actual tie-dyes in rotation AND Birkenstocks…TOGETHER! The other thing was every woman there either had a kid or two or was pregnant. It was really weird. And they were all so into it. They were kinda “in your face” about it. Kinda militia about it. No, not really but as an example we met up with Nikki’s friend who has a kid and is also pregnant. So Nikki’s kid and the woman’s kid are playing and something goes wrong and someone cries and mom’s yell/console and then the woman turns to me and says, “Doesn’t it make you want to procreate?!” In that total way which means either that she is envious that I haven’t yet procreated or that she recognizes that I am in their age group and don’t have kids. You know what I mean? It’s almost like a judgment thing. Because you know what? Yeah, I do want to procreate and you know what else? You have no idea what is going on with me. What if I couldn’t HAVE kids. How insensitive would THAT statement have been? Ugh. Ok rant? Done.

So, I have a new boyfriend now. His name is Corbin. He has the right amount of independence but still needs me. He loves to show me things he’s created. He tells me he loves me, often, and then he tells me how much. He makes sure I have everything I need like water or cookies. He wants to sit next to me all the time. He cuddles with me in the morning. He is three.

corbin and hez

Nikki’s two kids are the most beautiful children in the world and she is such a good mom! I was totally in awe of her and how she manages. Her kids are so well behaved, thoughtful and considerate. Her house was beautiful and funky and I am so proud of her! It was so nice to see her and we had some time to catch up amidst the swimming lessons and playing.

Nikki, Alden and Hez

Oregon actually has a summer and it was the best feeling in the world to be warm and to sleep with the window open and have a nice warm breeze on you (as I write this I have my heat on in my house) but it is really nice to be home. The older I get the more I realize that I really like my space and my stuff and it’s less fun to be thrown into someone else’s space and stuff. Ya dig? photos here.

Dear DJ iPod,

You got to play for a full 18 hours on my trip yet you chose to play the same 60 songs over and over again? Why DJ iPod? Are the rest of the songs not that fun to play? Are you such a big Clash fan that you have to pick a song from them every 3 songs? Are Jamiroqui, Helmet and Adam Ant your all time favorite bands? Is that why you played them 8 million times on my trip?

Love, Hez