getaway report

My little overnight getaway turned out very nice. I feel refreshed after spending some time relaxing and hanging out with my sister. We're so close. I miss her already. Her show was great! She sounded better than she ever has. It's great seeing her have fun on stage. I was reminded of how important it is to pursue one's passion. I love seeing how far my sister's hard work and dedication have gotten her. Truly inspiring. Another thing I enjoy is hanging out with musicians. I spent many years around musicians before I moved to Portland and that world feels sort of like family to me. And I enjoy conversations about music. So, that was fun.

After the show all the musicians, an Olympia-based dancer and musician we met that night, and I went back to our hotel and hung out at the bar. Our waitress was one of the worst I've had. The clarinetist that plays with my sister and I were laughing like crazy. This high school age-seeming girl with a fake tan had a bit of an attitude, was unresponsive most of the time and when we did finally catch her attention to ask her about items on the menu (which, by the way, only contained about six items), it turned out she knew nothing.

"I see you have two kinds of buffalo wings." I said. "What does kalbi-style mean?"
"Oh, it means spicy, I think," she replied.
"So, you have either hot or spicy buffalo wings."
"Well, I'm not really sure what it means. It could mean mild."
"So, could you go and check?"

Every conversation with her was like this. My sister brought a bottle of wine to the bar. We were told they would open it for us for a $10 corking fee. Great. So our by now infamous waitress comes and fights with the cork screw and bottle for ten minutes, saying things like "Oh, oh." and "I have no idea how to use this." and "I'm scared." Wow, scared of what, I thought and teased her, "It could explode, you're right." She finally broke the cork in half still in the neck of the bottle. So, my sister's bass player had to finish the job. And the restaurant still charged us the corking fee. I tried to challenge this to no avail. Welcome to Olympia.

At the end of the night, a moment I had been waiting for impatiently arrived. I finally got to show my sister a couple of video clips of sketch comedy I recently found. The character's name is Borat and his comedy is the funniest stuff I've seen in a long time. Every time I watch one of his sketches I laugh so hard my stomach hurts and my eyes water. I made the mistake of watching one of his sketches while my sister was taking a nap in the hotel room. I had to laugh into a pillow. And at one point I had to leave for the bathroom. I highly recommend this dude.

Well, now it's back to Portland on the bus. It's raining cats and dogs outside, which I don't mind at all. I sometimes enjoy the melancholy mood of wet weather. And we needed the rain "like salt," as the Czechs say.

In other news, I will be returning to my old job in November. Yay!!! More of a challenge, a lighter schedule. I will only be working three days a week, which means I'll be able to go back to teaching Czech at the community college, which I love! So, life is good. (Knock on wood.)