The Mary month of June: Endings, beginnings and other celebrations

One of my biggest hang-ups with my health occurs when I hear the term "quality of life" thrown about. While I'm still a more or less functional person, the majority of my age group are at the peak of their physical vitality. This term always throws into stark contrast how drastically far I fall from "them" on this "quality" spectrum. From there, it's a self perpetuating dialogue of disgruntlement, resentment and shame as I tunnel-vision in on what I cannot easily do due to my health. It's easy to begin seeing the world through a lens of limitations.

Well, June: Mary 2015 edition was all about living. Sure, my problems didn't miraculously evaporate and it may not have been a sustainable long-term template for my life, June brought about a fierce, enveloping livelihood and a beautiful raw relationship with the present. 

A small casualty to this was the upkeep of this blog. So lets Time Warp. 

June 13th-19th: Cause for Celebration

It seems as though this was the theme of the month. After a weekend of showering Mary in honor of her existence, the school year came to a close with the honoring of the adults that some kids would become, the amazing forward leaps that some took, and the final big-hurrah events for our AmeriCorps year. 

Among those entering the unbelievable phase of adulthood was Kelly's son, JC. When I'd met JC, he liked to talk about the existence of Bigfoot non-stop, share the unfair treatment he received from his football coach, and was not so hot at censoring himself with the kids. While he still insisted on the existence of Bigfoot, JC was now a licensed driver, had since become more serious about graduating and was finally walking with a plan to go into Job Corps. Mary and I stopped by his Open House after the school graduation and delivered our personal gift: an attach brigade of silly string!

That Tuesday, the elementary school had their own little ceremony to honor the end of the year and those that would be moving on into the Jr. High. I hadn't planned to attend at first but was so glad that I did. Each grade group had an opportunity to share their thanks and appreciation with the rest of the school and it was so moving to see some of the 6th graders I'd worked with get up and, despite the attitude hurdles, ultimately acknowledge how fortunate they'd been to have such a great teacher and guide - Mrs. Shook - help them through. After each grade spoke, the 6th graders were then lined up and all of us staff went down the row shaking hands and hugging them farewell. It was amazing to watch so many of them inexplicably catch the water works as they realized their own achievement and looked into the unknown.

Then we did the chicken dance. And the Gummy Bear dance. Ya know.

And then the celebrating continued, first with our big hurrah to Wild Waves and then with a Lock-in for the girls at the Teen Center. Wild Waves was much more enjoyable than last year (I think it had something to do with the shorter hours and the less severe sunburns.) I had a full car with me which stayed fully energized on the way there and the way back but during the day, I was allotted plenty of down time on the beach chairs.

The lock-in was themed for all-things-slumber-party. Mary joined me and we arrived early to help with the finishing decorative touches. First, Ariella took us to the park for some laughter yoga. It took a couple of exercises for even the most rowdy kids to make fools of themselves the way we were but by the end, everyone was feeling slap-happy. Back inside, we began makeovers and dress-up. Before I knew it, I was both tacking make-up application for the first time on Mary and volunteering my face to be put under the brush. We ended up making quite a stylish duo and with looks like ours, could not pass up our 15 minutes of fame on the stage for the grand ''Lip Syncing Contest". We performed "Waterfalls" and were graced with equally impressive performances of Britney Spears, Spice Girls, Aladdin, and more. Mary and I checked out around 10:30.

Laughter pile

The Lip Sync Stars

Just as we were acknowledging the end of the year with the kids, the week also afforded some opportunity to keep the adventures going with our new Floridian transplants. After our kick-off Bonfire the week before, we were quickly making more and more plans with our new friends. Leo and Lew came to Mary's surprise party and when Marilyn finally arrived from Florida, they'd had Mary and I over for a short time the night I retrieved her once again from the airport. 

The three of them had made a pact to do a hike every Saturday, as time afforded. We'd given them the suggestion to look into Tongue Mountain and on Graduation day, they decided to go for it. Having not been as close to JC's family, I was going to leave the Open House early and come to get Mary after the hike. However, thanks to the power of beautiful weather and group psychology, Mary was convinced she should make herself go as well by the time they were ready to pick me up. It was an absolutely perfect day for it. With that first hike, Leo immediately dubbed Mary and I mountain goats as we left them behind in the dust. Fortunately, all of our hiking styles seemed to meld well together. No qualms were had as to keeping up pace or how to properly wait for others and most of us were content to enjoy the silence and the surroundings during the uphill climb. At the top, we shared conversation, cherries and chocolate before gallivanting back down to get to the second Fireside Saturday at the Butter Butte. Ariella had agreed to play at the shop's new music and s'mores event and I was anxious to get there to support her. The turnout was great and Mar immediately decided that Ariella should create an entire completion of Johnny Cash. Dean started a tip trend and the music went well on past 9:30. Afterwards, we all went across to the spruce for some drinks. Eventually, everyone had dipped out except for Mar, Leo, Lew, Mary, Corey and I who kept on Karaoke-ing into the night, some of us even getting up for the first time! ; )

Mar and Lew's pup, Savannah liked to be the leader of the group 

A successful hike!

The Fireside Organizers, Dean and Koreanne

Ariella Rockin' the house

While our attempts to kidnap old AmeriFamily Corey forever were unsuccessful, he did stay that night in Packwood and join Mary and I at the car races the next day where we got to do ride-alongs! I'm sure I've written about these in the past but now, a refresher: As the summer returns, so do weekendly car races at the old mill. This crew includes or Karaoke extraordinares Karl, Amy, Ron, Jeannie, Charlie et all. While they all happen to love Karaoke, it is not a requirement to be a racer here. In fact, having a race car is not a requirement. Essentially anyone can race. The track is arranged with cones and constructed not for speed, but for precision. At 55 mph, the racers make razor-sharp turns and perfect their technique on each run in order to shave mere milliseconds off of their time for the best score. Mary and I both got to ride with Karl and Amy and then in a couple other cars of recommended drivers. If it weren't so dang hot, I would have stayed longer but instead, opted to leave Mary while I went to melt in marginally more comfortable temperatures. That evening, other long lost AmeriFamily Jordan came into town and we had a pow wow salmon dinner at the duplex.

My first time round the tracks with Karl

Helmet Hair!

Squooshy helmets!

The old team together again! Titan of course, was the most indispensable member : ) 

The next day, festivities continued with our inseparable crew. After the last day of school and a very quiet open gym, Mary, Corey and I went over to Lew and Mar's house for dinner and games. Beings after my own soul, the two of them had been through their own journeys with food and come to find that a mostly paleo diet of sustainable and organic ingredients was best for them. As a result of their years of trial and error, both were great chefs. I put my full trust into them and let them be the first to cook me chicken beyond my own kitchen. No regrets.

After graduation on Tuesday, we spiced things up with some out-of-town adventuring. Coffee Customer Kate was to have her first in a string of competitive stand-ups down in Portland and had gotten us free tickets. Leo, Mary and I headed down early since I had a doctor's appointment and then got dinner and cider to pass the time before the 10pm show. There were a couple stand-out stand-ups but a good handful of shoulda-sat-downers as well. Kate was definitely one of the better performers and we were giddy with joy when her name was called as making it into the top 3! Especially since she was the only female performer in the group. When we found her after the show, I could tell she was a bit shocked and pretty damn pumped.

And this was just week one. After weeks of melancholy and a sense of drab isolation, I was finally feeling a sense of belonging again. It was not just the appreciation of my work in the community but that I suddenly had a bond, a comrade of people I could rely on and confide in within this town; something I had not found all year.