Successfully Avoiding Anything Planned

39 to 40 (Day 2): Hot Cakes and Vintage Sinks

Hot Cakes

You know that part in Back to the Future when Marty speeds through the mall parking lot away from the Plutonium villains and cracks into 1955 almost hitting a scarecrow and driving into a barn? 

Of course you do. 

Sometimes life feels that way doesn’t it? Like you’re in 1985 one second then the next you’re being interrogated by a confused farmer and his family. 

We’ve all been there.

That’s kind of how day 2 of 39 felt. Almost surreal, like someone changed the channel and just like that I’m in another time and place. It’s refreshing like jumping into a cold lake, which I understand Portland has plenty of.

People have reminded us on several occasions that Oregon beaches aren’t like Hawaii beaches. This is absolutely unacceptable. Now that I’ve lived in Hawaii I expect every beach everywhere to adhere to specific standards. First of all I’m gonna need some palm trees. It needs to be 85 degrees, light trade winds, and every five feet have a sleeping tourist sunburning to a crisp.  I want to have trouble walking with sand in places where sand should never go and I want Jellyfish to arrive with every full moon. Standards people! I’m also going to need a beautifully dressed Japanese couple taking wedding pictures.

Rich Goodbyes / Fun Hellos

I’m grateful for the times we had over the past few weeks to say goodbye to our friends in Hawaii. Times of laughing, crying, and sharing memories. 

We say things to people when we’re saying goodbye that we don’t normally say. 

It inspired me to try and say things I want to say sooner, before parting ways.

I became fond of saying and hearing A Hui Hou which in Hawaiian means until we meet again.

Life Lesson #1132349: Say it now, don’t wait.

We checked out a few more apartments and it’s safe to say that along with many cold bodies of water Oregon has an abundance of cool refurbished vintage sinks:

Fall colors on point:

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We narrowed it down to a few places and we’re confident we found the right spot. Very exciting. Applications are in, forms are filled out, gallons of coffee and hot cakes consumed and now we wait and see.

Tomorrow we’re heading to the Midwest to pick up some stuff our family has generously stored in their basements for the past decade. 

Along the way I’m going to reunite with my Punk-Ska band Threefold Cord in Iowa to play a couple shows.

But that’s a story for another day.

Cheers,

A

 

About the author

I work as a chaplain and play as a comedian and singer-songwriter. My wife and I met in Chicago and have lived in Honolulu and Portland, OR. We now chase our two daughters, Naomi and Leona, around Santa Rosa, California.