1. I dropped in at the Beltsville Costco on Friday to pick up some pictures and I took a stroll up and down the aisles to gawk at 52 inch tv screens and tables packed with cargo shorts and toolboxes the size of our apartment home and I thought, "Hmmm. I think the Deke and I should come over here and consider a few purchases." This morning, the Deke agreed and we went to Costco. We bought a couple of fans and some flea killer. I got some cargo shorts and the Deke bought a floppy sun hat. We picked up a couple swim suits and couple other clothing items for David and Olivia to have on hand when they visit. I spent a lot of my time strolling the aisles, pinching myself, contemplating this move the Deke and I made. Honestly, I've never been in the company of so many different people from so many countries and heard so man different languages spoken and seen so many people dressed in so many various ways as I have since we moved to DMV. I spent much of my time in Costco today taking it all in: the bright magentas and pinks and golds and purples, the elaborately patterned skirts and radiant head coverings, the many languages -- European, African, Asian, American (South, Central, and North). I realized I was part of the variety with my baggy cargo shorts and gray Orofino Lumberjack Days long-sleeved T-shirt over my purple and gold Kellogg All-Class Reunion T-shirt. I mean, how about if someone in that store marveled that today s/he saw something s/he'd never seen before? You know, a gray guy from North Idaho and thought, "Wow! He was buyin' almond butter and flashlights and fresh blueberries and a tower fan just like other people do. I didn't get to hear him speak, though. I wonder what those people sound like."
2. Going to Costco and spending some time on Rt 1/Baltimore Avenue, an interminable multi-lane thoroughfare packed with traffic, traffic lights, strip malls, shopping plazas, and national chain after national chain like Costco, Petco, Buffalo Wild Wings, IKEA, and others, the Deke and I talked a bit about how where we live now is so different from living in Eugene -- everything we loved to do in Eugene was just minutes away and it was all top-notch: bakeries, beer joints, church, local markets, yarn stores, places to eat, our friends, everything. We laughed at ourselves for ever having moved -- we are now close to nothing and we have found nowhere that even begins to live up to the standards of Billy Mac's, Great Harvest Bakery, Sixteen Tons, the yarn stores the Deke loved. But, we see our grandchildren and we see Molly and Hiram and Adrienne and if you'll just read my next entry, you'll understand what makes us so happy to be here.
3. Molly and Hiram drove David and Olivia to our apartment home this afternoon, hugged them good-bye, and left them with us for their first SLEEP OVER with Nana and Grandpa. We had a great time before the grandchildren went to bed. We had chicken and corn and rice (no eggplant!) for dinner, the kids played outside, watched some frog videos inside, had shortbread cookies and chocolate ice cream about an hour or so after dinner, and took a bath in a whole different bathtub, ours. Eight o'clock was popcorn time and gramps popped a big bowl of buttered and salted popcorn that helped the kids get started on a movie and before long they got to get into the beds we just bought just for nights like this and Nana sang them to sleep.
This was two grandchildren weekends in a row: Jack last weekend for two nights of sleep over in New York and now a sleep over this weekend right here in Greenbelt, Maryland.
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