Anna had the day to unwind while I was at school, which went off without much of a hitch. I’ve been having a more direct one-on-one role with a couple of the more troublesome third graders at the end of the day so by the time I got back, I was certainly ready to unwind. We’d procured all the ingredients to make veggie sushi and got a bit carried away, since two of the night’s guest were culinarily unadventurous. It was wonderful to introduce Anna to a taste of the Packwood crowd and finally christen my new fire pit set-up that Dean had constructed just before the winter break. The rain was kind enough to hold back and we basked in an evening of summer fever until late into the night.
For my half day of school, Anna was going to tag along. However, I hadn’t considered the possible complications of that. Mrs. Shook had been perfectly fine with the idea and I’d thought her permission would be enough. Apparently even for a couple-hour visit, Anna would need a background check filed. Having left her ID at home, she was stuck to nap in the car while I did my morning work. Luckily, she was still able to participate in Open Gym in the afternoon. She got along particularly well with JoJo, our little 4-year-old addition. I was greatly appreciative of her patience with her as other attention was split between games and kids wanting to do crafts.
On Thursday, Mountain Festival weekend kicked off with the youngins’ field trip around town. Anna and I tagged along with Mrs. Wanda from the school to lead a group through the museum, library and post office. I’d been looking forward to the post office based on the kids’ enthusiasm for going behind the scenes last year. But this year, the group was fairly unenthused. The highlights were probably seeing the box of crickets that had been shipped (apparently you can do that) upon walking in and then watching what happens when you toss a letter in the slot. I still like the stamps the most.
For the Sheriff portion this year, the local detective came in and showed off his tazer, talked about collecting evidence and let us see the computers that tracked all of the active calls in the county; that was pretty neat.
As things wound up, I wasn’t feeling great so we left and I went to lie down a bit. A few moments on the heating pad got be back on my feet and we had a whole afternoon ahead of us so we drove up to the pass to see the views of Rainier and then up to the watertower overlooking packwood. There, we cracked a cider and embraced the pause in our busy schedule to reflect on how the trip had shaped up. As we sat on the hill sharing our most authentic thoughts and feelings about the ups and downs of this experience and the uncertanties we were facing in our life, I saw our friendship reach new heights. I’d recognized earlier that day how part of me had been stuck in relating to my middle school Anna and I wasn’t giving full credit to the woman she’d become. Anna had done considerable work being honest with herself and not taking things as personally since our talk in Seattle and sharing acknowledgements like that brought us fully into this realm of equality. We were two beautiful souls pouring our hearts on a mountain.
We made our descent a little before 5 to begin our elaborate dinner plans. I’d found a recipe for gluten-free veggie Samosas, which, for those of you thinking it, are not a type of drink. They’re those indian pastry pockets, usually stuffed with potatoes and such. These ones were made with almond flour and stuffed with squash with a Rhubarb chutney on the side. As we worked about one another in the kitchen, things were getting stressful and Anna removed herself for a moment before coming back with the understanding of the stress source. From our childhoods of baking experiments together, we’d both moved on to be the primary cooks of our households and had developed very distinct styles of kitchen management. Our culinary egos were fighting for dominance. Luckily, just as it was getting steamy, we were nearing the final creation. We popped a cider, dished out place settings and sat down for a proper dinner together. Instantly, the stress was gone. The Samosas could’ve used more spice but we thoroughly enjoyed them and found the tweaking potential of the recipe could only lead to greatness. After dinner, we were feeling pretty jolly and decided to venture to the Spruce. We spent a short bit of time there and played a game of pool before calling it a night.
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| proof of success! |
Friday brought team meeting and Chili feed madness. I’d anxiously been awaiting the Chili event, crossing my fingers that we wouldn’t see a repeat of last-years disappointing turnout. to our relief, it was a huge success. We ran out of most of the chili and had to put out three more tables for extra seating. It was great to see so many of the faces I knew this year. I think part of the draw was that we’d decided to make it a cook-off, having team members make different kinds of chili to try instead of using one standard recipe. We were also on top of advertising, getting things out much further in advance. However, communication and team dynamics were a different matter and by the end of it all, Anna and I were ready to go to the Spruce. The tension was so strong that even Anna, who wasn’t a direct participant, was getting disgruntled by it. Since I’d gotten there on the earlier end before most that had made Chili, I figured it would be reasonable to leave once the majority of clean-up was done. Everyone was pretty much just crowded in the kitchen at that point, chatting as the last of the dishes got done by a few people. So I excused myself, too exhausted to be worried about trying to please the team anymore.
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