Day 13 - 06/14/2008

I slept with my sleep goggles last night, and after such a long day yesterday, it was 8:45 when Todd finally knocked on my door. Breakfast would be ready in 25 minutes, and we were having company. I was glad for the advance warning because I had just enough time to get a shower in before breakfast. So much for walking the centennial trail (the walking trail Amy showed me my first night here) early this morning.

I met Lisa, a good friend of Amy’s. She is graduating from the community college here and will be entering the Moody Aviation program midway later on. Her parents Ron & Julie had flown up from California for her graduation and to move her back down there for the time being. So we had a breakfast with all Californians that morning. Roxie mentioned that Brian would be sorry to have missed this. Being from San Jose, he loves it when everyone in the group is from California. I would later learn that Brian is also dating Lisa.

I typed for little while down in my room, trying to catch up on my travel blog. I had considered going to donate blood plasma, and pestered Mike S. for most of the morning with specific questions about where, how long it takes, etc. The first time going can take up to four hours (reduced by more than half on return trips), and I knew I didn’t have that much time on my hands before Amy would be off of work.

After typing some more, I went upstairs to forage for a mid-morning snack to tide me over until lunch. Roxie called out from the living room that I was part of the family and should act accordingly, so I made a sandwich from what I found in the fridge.

I saw Grayson in the backyard raking pine needles. At first I went out to talk with him for a little while and to get some pictures of their spacious backyard, but I ended up picking up a rake to help him. It was a nice time for us to hang out, talking about how God brings people together. We had over half of the yard raked when Amy called to tell me to hit the road and to call for further directions when I had reached a certain interim destination. Imagine my Type-A glee at only having part of the directions to where I was going.

Amy had planned for us to meet at Subway, but learned that there wasn’t one near her work. So the lunch locale was changed to Pita Pit. Poor Amy was very distracted as she had been trying to coordinate the arrival of five people for the day’s adventure. She was also trying to order food for us while directing us all. I missed a turn during a “hold on” moment, but Amy recovered me, and I arrived unscathed. She apologized for her bad mood, and was quickly able to snap out of it through some good company and conversation. Ruby was already there, and Lisa and her parents showed up soon after I did.

Lisa told us that she had wanted an ice cream sandwich, and found that it was cheaper to buy a pack of six than one from the standalone freezer. So she brought the rest to share. Ruby, Amy and I each had one, but her parents passed. Trying to decide what to do, Amy suggested offering them to the people working at Pita Pit. I didn’t think they’d be able to accept them, but realized that FDA regulations probably wouldn’t apply since they wouldn’t be selling them. They were very grateful. That felt nice to do that since we had stayed so long after ordering our food.

Ruby had to go to work, and Amy and I would see her later. But the remaining five of us were going in the meantime to Manito Park (after leaving my car at Amy’s work), which had specific garden areas: a Japanese garden, Lilac garden, Rose garden, greenhouse, outdoor courtyard, etc. We all loved it. Ron and I were taking probably every picture possible, and the women were very patient with us. Amy was really great and would take one of our cameras periodically so that we would be in our own pictures.

From there, Lisa and her parents left to go do a little more sightseeing and packing, and Amy and I would go see Ruby at Starbucks where she was working. Amy remembered that we had passed St. John’s Cathedral, and we had wanted to stop and see it. I looked at Amy’s car clock and saw that it was 4:40. The marquee said that there was a Eucharist at 5:30. I hoped we’d get a tour in before they started. We went around the back and tried a few doors. A very nice woman (I forgot to ask her name) came to the door, and said our best chance for a tour was after tomorrow’s service, as there was one going right now. This puzzled me, but I wasn’t going to argue with the woman. I thought about this as we rounded the church, and finally exclaimed loudly, “Oh! Your clock is an hour behind!” I had forgotten from yesterday that Scott and I had noticed and tried to fix it. Amy had yelped out, “Don’t! You’ll mess me up!” So we took a lot of pictures of the gorgeous Gothic exterior.

We noticed an open door, and people coming and going occasionally, and couldn’t resist trying to see how far in we could get unnoticed. We saw the pianist with her back to us, but couldn’t see around to the congregation. Amy got her attention and asked which way the congregation was facing. They were facing away from us, and the pianist graciously said we could walk quietly around to other areas of the cathedral, as the Eucharist was only in one small sectioned-off area.

We quietly moved around and were amazed at the beauty surrounding us. Amy had wanted me to see a prayer labyrinth that she, Roxie and Kayla had found on a prior tour. They were very puzzled and concerned by the unclear information describing it, and she wanted my opinion on it. But when we got to where she remembered it being, it had been replaced by pews.

Walking to the foyer, we saw the visitor book. We had no idea that this would be our favorite part of the church. We flipped through to see who had visited on each of our birthdays: 4/23 (mine) and 8/1 (hers) in years past. As we would read some of the comments, we found some that were absolutely hysterical! “This church rulz!” “Gothic Rocks,” “Congratulations Paul,” and so many others.

Leaving the Cathedral, I only had about 20 picture slots left on my memory card, so I attempted to ration my pictures to make it to day’s end.

We wandered through Spokane, trying to find Ruby’s Starbucks. Ruby had told Amy the cross streets, but she had forgotten, and was so glad that I had listened in. I hadn’t completely remembered myself, so we called Sarah M., who didn’t really know either. But somehow between the three of us, Amy drove us there. When we arrived, Amy bought me a Captain Crunch drink. Ruby had teased us with mention of it at lunch, and I was desperately curious to try it. She modifies a Strawberries & Cream drink, and somehow it tastes and smells exactly like a bowl of Captain Crunch berries cereal. It’s amazing! Amy had Ruby surprise her, and got a mocha-something that I think would have tasted good if not for the coffee aftertaste.

We were hanging out waiting for Sarah M. to arrive, and walked around. This is the biggest Starbucks I have ever seen, probably double the size of the average one, allowing a lot more seating. We found it interesting because we were two of a few patrons that evening. There was a story on a huge posterboard on the wall that started well, became strange & confusing, and ended mid-sentence. We asked Ruby (as Sarah M. would also) where the rest of the story was, but she didn’t know. She only recently started working there, and hadn’t noticed the incomplete nature.

I saw a chess set in the corner, and asked Amy to join me in a game. Amy knows the mechanics of Chess (what pieces move in which fashion), but has no care for strategy. Somehow, though, she would manage to confound most every strategy I attempted, by mere accident. I was clearly winning by points, but really was having a hard time getting after her king. I reminded me of the Adventures in Odyssey episode where Eugene is beat at Chess by Bernard, and goes into a manic state trying to figure out how it could happen. I did win, finally opting for the simple strategy of just dwindling her other pieces.

Sarah arrived later, and after talking for awhile, we discussed what next to do. Sarah really wanted to go see The Happening, but I really didn’t have an interest in being on the edge of my seat all evening. We finally decided to meet back at Amy’s and watch Pay It Forward, since we all liked tear-jerkers. Since we hadn’t eaten, Amy and I stopped at Safeway to pick up some pasta and sauce for spaghetti.

Amy needed gas for her car, and insisted she knew where to get $3.99/gallon. I was impressed, and we actually found it at another station, sooner in our path than she expected. After subsequently picking up Serena, who was also getting thirsty, we just headed further back to her apartment to find her known place. As it turns out, that place was $4.02/gallon. She felt bad that she had gotten a better deal and offered to lead me to another place, but I have gotten to where I don’t care about the extra 3 cents per gallon in an 11-gallon tank. I’ll avoid surcharges of similar amount by paying cash if possible, but I won’t continue driving and burning gas to hopefully find a cheaper rate.

We were planning to go straight to Amy’s apartment, and I was following her, but my eyes suddenly became very dry. Since I needed eye drops and they were all back at the Elton House, I diverted course. I tried to get Amy’s attention by calling her cell, honking, and flashing my lights, but it was almost five minutes before she noticed me missing and pulled over to call me. I told her I’d meet her at her place and headed off in the other direction. I grabbed my laptop along with my drops, and after a few minutes of talking with the family, I headed out.

Amy cooked dinner, and really didn’t want my input as to when the sauce was done. She says she doesn’t boss me around in my kitchen and that I should reciprocate, but I seem to remember her being somewhat stubborn in my kitchen, too. I picked my battles, though, and didn’t pick this one. The dinner was very good. I used the cooking time to free up my camera’s memory card by moving pictures over to my laptop. I have taken over 2,400 pictures thus far, requiring 2.7 GB of hard drive space.

Mike S. came over to watch the movie with Ruby, Sarah M., Amy and myself. I usually cry at touching movies, but the waterworks really came on for this one. The scenes that hit me the hardest were when Helen Hunt’s character pays it forward to her mom, and during the candle vigil.

During the movie Ella came out to join us. She came right up to me and touched her nose to my ear, which caused me to jump up because I was so shocked at something wet touching me. She darted away, but later even let me pet her. I didn’t find out until the movie that it was Ella and not Rock. I had heard Amy say that it was three weeks before Ella let Amy pet her, and I figured Rock had been let out for while.

After the movie, Sarah M. told us a work story. As I mentioned, I think she works for a vet or an animal shelter. Don’t read the rest of this paragraph if you are a severe animal lover. She told a story about this older woman who brought in her tiny sick dog (a chihuahua) wrapped in a blanket like a newborn, with pink liquid dried all over its mouth. The woman had been giving it Pepto-Bismol because it had been having diarrhea. Before even finishing checking them in, the receptionist took a look at the dog, and asked to see him. She showed him directly to the vet standing nearby, and confirmed her suspicions. The dog was dead. Long dead. At least a full day, probably longer. This dog was stiff. This poor woman had been force-feeding Pepto-Bismol to a dead dog, and she had no clue. So she had come in expecting to have her dog restored to full health, only to be told that her dog was already dead. Forgive our lack of humanity, but we were howling with laughter. I’m not back to laughing at death unfortunately, but this story was a nice reminder of those days when I did.

Mike S. had taken off immediately after the movie because he was leaving for Wisconsin tomorrow. Ruby and Sarah soon followed. I stayed behind a little longer to copy my pictures from the past two days over to Amy’s computer. We went over to her computer desk, and I plugged my flash drive into the back of her tower. She said it might be better for her to do it because it was so slow and I might get frustrated. I didn’t think it could be too bad, and stayed at the controls. The slow speed didn’t bother me too much, but the mouse was terribly sticky. I told Amy she needed to clean it, and she insisted that she only needed a mouse pad. I turned it over, and without even pulling out the ball, I saw fuzz on it. Like I mentioned, I pick my battles.

After I transferred the pictures, we discussed our church plans. I realized I’d need an iron for my church clothes again. Amy had an iron but no ironing board, and I realized I could just use her kitchen counter, cushioned by a placemat.

So I went back home (the Elton House has begun to feel like home) and let myself in the back with the key they’d given me since all the lights were out. I opened my computer and tried to catch up on my journals and e-mail, but I didn’t make too much of a dent before calling it a night. Thankfully church didn’t start until 11, so I wouldn’t have to be up too early.