Today I was Ms. Multitask, and it was fantastic. Although now that I think of it, it wasn't so much more than one thing at a time as I just tried to be really efficient. Either way I got things done, which is so necessary right now!
As a bonus to me from the universe for my on-task virtue (I can only assume), when I walked to the library to return an overdue book and pick up some holds (THREE THINGS RIGHT THERE), I saw a 7 foot leprechaun wandering the lobby attired in green shorts, a hat, and what appeared to be a beard made of cotton balls that had been colored an irregular orange. (magic marker? food coloring? blood of the innocent?) The Large Leprechaun was talking to one of the pages and I overheard him saying "do you want to take my picture?" HA! This is but one of the many reasons I love the library.
Wilkie Collins Obsession Update: I now have the Woman in White in my hands! Powell's didn't have the edition that I'm looking for (Everyman Library), so when I saw the penguin paperback version on the shelf at the library, I had to take it home. I'm sure I won't get to it for a while, but that's okay.
Here's the last of the roadtrip pictures (for this trip). I don't have any leprechaun photos, so these will have to do.
the actual naturalization oath! There were over 560 people becoming citizens, so they had to move the proceeding to the civic center since no court room could hold everyone. There were over 40 countries represented; my aunt is from India, which had the largest contingent of new citizens (100). There were too many people to read off names (except for those in the armed services), but they did read the names of each of the 40+ countries. It was pretty evenly spread all around the world. There were smatterings of applause for various countries, but the funniest one was Great Britain -- there was only one person in the crowd, but they were all "GREAT BRITAIN, REPRESENT!" which struck me as hilarious and great.
It was so wonderful to be there -- I'm glad my uncle thought to call us and let us know it was happening. As for my aunt, she was really nervous. She was sure something was going to go wrong at the last minute, despite her acing the test, despite being married to my uncle for over 5 years, and despite the fact that if it was going to go wrong, it probably would have done so before the ceremony. But I understand irrational anxiety! It won't listen to reason, and it really won't listen to 15 people telling you "you've got nothing to worry about." But as it turns out, she had nothing to worry about and it all went off without a hitch.
My uncle was so proud I thought he was going to break in half or float off into the air. (she also changed her last name, which she didn't do when they married.) She said changing her citizenship was a hard decision, a difficult choice. I can only imagine.
I love this sign! The bear has this "cabin decor? WTF? I don't know what you have in mind, but you can count me out" look on his face. This shop was just next door to the italian restaurant where we went to celebrate post-ceremony.
I loved our banquet room waitress. The room itself was pushed together tables with the requisite wall mural of vineyards and roman ruins. The waitress had neatly set white hair, a red shirt and hot pink lipstick. She was no-nonsense and we clearly exceeded her nonsense tolerances by quite a bit, but she ENDURED. The owner kindly came and took a group picture after dinner. He went to high school with my cousin's husband, and is one of several siblings operating competing italian restaurants with the same name. (what is the story there?!) anyway, he told my aunt that his father had come from Italy, so he knew what a big thing she'd just done. It was sweet.
and the next morning we were on our way! this is sunrise on the way out of town. I thought it was so lovely -- it had been all pink and soft and undecided just moments before, and then ORANGE and then daytime. Speaking of daytime, the time change came right in the middle of this trip, and I'm convinced it's why I was so tired for so long afterwards.
Palm tree stoplight in Red Bluff. My best advice for Red Bluff is to make sure you're not hungry when you drive by, as I believe the town was designed by some sadist/social scientist to drive hungry travelers to the brink of madness. (they accomplish this by hiding all restaurants.)
rest stop pay phone. This was up in the mountains, approaching the siskiyous, I think.
Mt. Shasta from the other side! Still volcanic. This profile -- white pointy mountain with tall fir trees framing it -- is what I think of when I think of mountains. Isn't it pretty?
A mere 6-8 hours after that, we were back in Portland!
As a bonus to me from the universe for my on-task virtue (I can only assume), when I walked to the library to return an overdue book and pick up some holds (THREE THINGS RIGHT THERE), I saw a 7 foot leprechaun wandering the lobby attired in green shorts, a hat, and what appeared to be a beard made of cotton balls that had been colored an irregular orange. (magic marker? food coloring? blood of the innocent?) The Large Leprechaun was talking to one of the pages and I overheard him saying "do you want to take my picture?" HA! This is but one of the many reasons I love the library.
Wilkie Collins Obsession Update: I now have the Woman in White in my hands! Powell's didn't have the edition that I'm looking for (Everyman Library), so when I saw the penguin paperback version on the shelf at the library, I had to take it home. I'm sure I won't get to it for a while, but that's okay.
Here's the last of the roadtrip pictures (for this trip). I don't have any leprechaun photos, so these will have to do.
the actual naturalization oath! There were over 560 people becoming citizens, so they had to move the proceeding to the civic center since no court room could hold everyone. There were over 40 countries represented; my aunt is from India, which had the largest contingent of new citizens (100). There were too many people to read off names (except for those in the armed services), but they did read the names of each of the 40+ countries. It was pretty evenly spread all around the world. There were smatterings of applause for various countries, but the funniest one was Great Britain -- there was only one person in the crowd, but they were all "GREAT BRITAIN, REPRESENT!" which struck me as hilarious and great.
It was so wonderful to be there -- I'm glad my uncle thought to call us and let us know it was happening. As for my aunt, she was really nervous. She was sure something was going to go wrong at the last minute, despite her acing the test, despite being married to my uncle for over 5 years, and despite the fact that if it was going to go wrong, it probably would have done so before the ceremony. But I understand irrational anxiety! It won't listen to reason, and it really won't listen to 15 people telling you "you've got nothing to worry about." But as it turns out, she had nothing to worry about and it all went off without a hitch.
My uncle was so proud I thought he was going to break in half or float off into the air. (she also changed her last name, which she didn't do when they married.) She said changing her citizenship was a hard decision, a difficult choice. I can only imagine.
I love this sign! The bear has this "cabin decor? WTF? I don't know what you have in mind, but you can count me out" look on his face. This shop was just next door to the italian restaurant where we went to celebrate post-ceremony.
I loved our banquet room waitress. The room itself was pushed together tables with the requisite wall mural of vineyards and roman ruins. The waitress had neatly set white hair, a red shirt and hot pink lipstick. She was no-nonsense and we clearly exceeded her nonsense tolerances by quite a bit, but she ENDURED. The owner kindly came and took a group picture after dinner. He went to high school with my cousin's husband, and is one of several siblings operating competing italian restaurants with the same name. (what is the story there?!) anyway, he told my aunt that his father had come from Italy, so he knew what a big thing she'd just done. It was sweet.
and the next morning we were on our way! this is sunrise on the way out of town. I thought it was so lovely -- it had been all pink and soft and undecided just moments before, and then ORANGE and then daytime. Speaking of daytime, the time change came right in the middle of this trip, and I'm convinced it's why I was so tired for so long afterwards.
Palm tree stoplight in Red Bluff. My best advice for Red Bluff is to make sure you're not hungry when you drive by, as I believe the town was designed by some sadist/social scientist to drive hungry travelers to the brink of madness. (they accomplish this by hiding all restaurants.)
rest stop pay phone. This was up in the mountains, approaching the siskiyous, I think.
Mt. Shasta from the other side! Still volcanic. This profile -- white pointy mountain with tall fir trees framing it -- is what I think of when I think of mountains. Isn't it pretty?
A mere 6-8 hours after that, we were back in Portland!
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