The Baboon Congress, Travel

Feelin’ Groovy in Portland, OR (littlejailbird’s trip, part 2)

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Today’s post is from littlejailbird.

Feelin’ Groovy in Portland, Oregon (littlejailbird’s trip, part 20

Dear Steve and Molly,

Thank you both for the wonderful day in Portland (March 26). It was a golden day from start to finish. Near the end of our time together, when the ice cream server asked how my day was going, I realized with a shock that there wasn’t a single thing I would have changed from the time I woke up until that moment in the ice cream shop (and it held true until I went to bed that night).

After three days and three nights on the train, it was blissful to be outdoors and to be able to walk around. I started my day with a walk to a breakfast place, then another walk to Mt. Tabor Park. Then it was time to be chauffeured around by you.

Steve had told me earlier that the day was going to be all about me and what I wanted to do. I am still in shock from someone telling me that – and then actually doing it. From visiting the world’s largest bookstore (Powell’s) to a buffet lunch at an Indian restaurant to visiting a park and walking around the waterfront to going out for ice cream, there is nothing I would have changed. I know that you thought the food at the restaurant wasn’t as good at it usually is, but you hadn’t been eating train food and snack food like almonds and protein bars for 3 days. It tasted good to me!

Of course, the weather cooperated in giving us such an amazing, sunshiny day, cool at the beginning and end and warm in between; and wherever I looked I saw green, growing things – a far cry from the dead browns I had left in Minnesota. It would have been difficult for me to feel grumpy with a day like that, but I suspect that I would have had a fine time even if it had been cold and drizzly, because you two were very satisfactory companions. I hope you had half as good time as I did. I told the ice cream server, “I’m having a good day!” but I fear that I communicated it better to her than I did to you. So, I’m telling you now: I had a good day – a magical day, a golden day, a day full of simple pleasures from start to finish. Thank you.

Your friend,

littlejailbird
What are your simple pleasures?

44 thoughts on “Feelin’ Groovy in Portland, OR (littlejailbird’s trip, part 2)”

  1. Sorry baboons. Somehow a key box went unchecked backstage. Comments are now open on Little Jailbird’s post.

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  2. Simple pleasure #2 (#1 on yesterday’s post with many other comments): every Saturday at 8 a.m. Pacific time our son calls from San Diego. We spend an hour on facetime watching our 22 month old grandson patrol his domain. He is very self-entertaining, which we watch. Periodically he comes over to share his new words with us and at some point smooches us on the screen.

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  3. I’m just wrapping up my first day of supervising my young pal, Liam. We watched a little TV, horsed around with a plastic tube (making elephant screams into it), read a nice book together and talked. Talk about simple pleasures. Liam’s favorite toy this morning was my flashlight. He would beam it around the room, calling the spot of light a “ghost.” I would call out things in the room. Liam would maneuver the ghost to those things.

    When he first began playing with the flashlight I had to stifle myself. I was going to say “be careful!” or “you’ll run the batteries down!” Why? Why are adults so stupid. Is there any real prospect he would cause trouble with a flashlight? Would it be so awful if he ran the batteries down? What use do I have for a flashlight that is half as important as amusing a five-year-old?

    My reward: I’ve been officially designated his favorite grampy in the world. I am his only grampy in the world, but I still can enjoy his thought. Now we go to the pool.

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    1. That’s an interesting question, Steve. With the almost-2-year-old twins, I have to stifle my own stupidity often (although, sometimes it’s necessary to put a damper on their fun, for their own safety or for the sake of protecting a possession of some value). I wish that it wasn’t so easy and natural for me to stifle their creativity. Why is that?

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  4. A non-simple non-pleasure: we have to go to a surprise birthday party in Medina at 5. We are going to take the long way around, not via freeways.

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  5. The feeling of taking an evening shower and then climbing between clean sheets is marvelous for me. Extra points if pjs are fresh out of the drawer as well!

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    1. When I traveled a lot a grilled cheese and a bowl of tomato soup was my welcome home meal to myself. Now gluten, cheese and all that delicious butter take the fun out of it.

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        1. The roses weren’t blooming yet when I was there (end of March). My memory is weak on this, but I think the white flowers were on a tree. Of course, in a climate where rosemary plants grow like weeds on people’s boulevard – 6 feet or taller, a tree there could be a small shrub here.

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    1. I confess that I’ve been a very poor steward of the gooseberries. I shilly-shally around until they either fall off from being over ripe or the birds eat them. The years I’m motivated are the years there is a poor crop. You’ve inspired me to look up some recipes; I’ll post some ideas soon.

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      1. Gooseberry Fool. I also have recipes for Gooseberry Fold-over Tart, Wiltshire Whitsun Gooseberry Cake, and Hannchen Jansen (Gooseberry Cream Cake).

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      2. Forgot that we also have gooseberries (they are in front and like ljb, I ought to steward them better-grand word, steward).

        I’ve made both pie and jam with them. They arechigh in pectin and I’m thinking this year I need to use them that way with the raspberries and grapes for jam making.

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  12. Morning bird songs
    Evening crickets and frogs
    A cigar
    That ahhhhhh moment
    Getting an email or letter from a friend
    Getting a yes
    The first bite of that food
    A rainbow
    One of the 10 perfect days
    Inspiration
    Hearing that song

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  13. Perfect, perfect, perfect day. Exactly the same weather we had when ljb was here. I posted earlier about the morning I had with Liam. Molly came back from giving a speech to a client company, and we all hit the pool. Perfect day for a swim! Then we went for lunch, with Molly and me getting Greek food that we ate outside. Then ice cream. Back to my apartment, and now we go to the pool again.

    Liam was on the floor with scissors (really sharp ones) destroying bubble pack pillows. Molly passed by, cautioning, “Be careful Liam. Sharp scissors!” Liam said quietly, “I’m always careful.” Looking at me, he asked my favorite question of the day (favorite because it was so nicely put). “When have you ever seen me not be careful?”

    Perfect.

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  14. Children’s laughter – especially when it’s laughter while kids are playing outdoors in the summer
    Frozen Thin Mint cookies in a hot August day
    Laughing with your friends so hard you cry (and, in my my other book club, you get Christina to fall off her chair)
    The smell of lily of the valley and/or shrub roses wafting on the breeze
    The sound of ice skate blades on an outdoor rink
    Finding just the right turn of phrase for something you are writing
    Velvety basset hound ears (which, for better or worse, come with damp basset jowls…ah well)
    The smell of a baby’s head (not their butt)
    Singing loudly in a group (not a choir where you have to sound good necessarily – think Irish tunes at a pub with your pals)
    The smell of baking in the kitchen
    I’ll think of a few more I’m sure…

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  15. Coming home from work and suddenly remembering that I put supper in the crockpot before I left.
    Finding that piece of a jigsaw puzzle that I’ve been looking for for the last half hour or so. That one with the little bit of orange on it.
    Purr.
    Reading the Sunday paper in the big wicker chair on the porch.
    A wine glass that is sparkling clean and is about to have some wine poured in it; or a beer mug that has been in the freezer and is all frosty.
    Music.
    Friends.

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  17. Homemade anything made with food grown by yourself or someone you know.

    A job well done

    Napping kitties

    Good coffee

    The weigela in bloom (did not grow up with this shrub-my first experience of it was when it exploded in my recently purchased front yard)

    getting another section of yard tidied up

    Truly people, could the days possibly be nicer?

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  18. Singing in a choir where you DO have to sound good and when everything aligns.
    We had our end-of-year choir potluck and white elephant exchange tonight. We sang one of my favorite songs written about singing, “To Sing with You is Home” by local folkie/composer, Brett Hesla.

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  19. It’s a simple pleasure when standoffish Martha decides she needs some loving. Most of the time she tolerates being petted but clearly doesn’t enjoy it. Tonight she can’t get enough. Tonight she’s a snuggler.

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