Okay, its time to give you a glimpse of another facet of that enigma you know as UltraMom. I have been taking clogging lessons! No, not stopping up drains or toilets. This is a type of dance. No, (as I had to explain to my niece Sara), it also does not involve wooden shoes.
Kelly from Howe was teaching dance to girls; ballet, jazz, clogging, and she thought it would be fun to have an adult class as well. It is! The shoes are kind of like tap shoes, but the taps are fastened on differently so as to make a different sound. We have been at this since last fall, and this Saturday we are part of Kelly’s dance recital! To begin with, we were not going to perform, but that has kind of changed lately. We even have matching shirts and sparkly purple shoelaces!
We have been working on two dances, both to Shania Twain songs. We definitely still need a bit of practice, but we are improving. Kelly is very encouraging. Sometimes I can see her watching me with a little frown on her face, but she addresses her comments to the group in general (usually). “Some of us are not getting in that last double-down before the turns. Some of us need a little more practice with that traveling step”, etc.One time I slipped on my slippery clogging shoe and fell down. I picked myself up and finished the dance like a true professional, however. Kelly just told us what a good job everyone had done that time, leading me to suspect that she wasn’t really watching all that closely,,,,,,
Anyway, I just got home from Weightwatchers, and half of my drive was in a blinding snowstorm. Yes, in April. In Idaho you just never know. The bad part is that the closer I got to Howe, the less storm there was, and we really need the storms. So I’m stressed and exhausted. Maybe I’ll have some ice cream. After all, I have a whole week before I have to weigh again.
As Ever, Ultramom
We didst arise in goodly time, packeth up our car and wendeth our way towards the hamlet of Boise wherein we were to have merry reunion with our two youngest offspring. I didst have a refreshing respite from my weary travails whilst my spouse steerest the carriage on its established route.
Sorry about that. I’ve been listening to a bookontape about King Henry VIII and his six wives, and that middle English-type language is kind of getting to me.
Anyway, we picked up the boys, made contact with Aunt Debi who had a Triple AAA map and guidebook for me, and it was Oregon or bust! On the advice of one of those aforementioned friends, we made a stop in Baker City to visit the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. It was a bit more out of our way than we had anticipated; in fact it was nowhere around anything else. There it sat on the edge of a bluff, all by itself. It was rather interesting. It sure made me think about how spoiled I am. I have NO hardships in my life, contrary to what you might be inclined to believe if you could hear my whining and complaining. Can you imagine taking off across the United States (Missouri was a popular launching point), walking or riding in a swaying, uncomfortable wagon all the way? There was a hands-on exhibit with wagons and shapes of wood labeled “blankets”, “dishes”, “coffee”, “your mother’s china”, “books”, “ammunition”, etc. You had to see what you could fit in the wagon. Mom’s china had to be left behind, of course, as well as things that I had deemed essential. Of course, all the glowing reports of the paid guides never were entirely true. I think that in particular the women had it the worst. At least the men got to off and have riding sport and the fun of hunting, if that’s your idea of a good time. And they didn’t have to wear those long dresses and bonnets. Death and major illness were more common than not. No Thanks. I guess I just don’t have that pioneering spirit.
We really didn’t stop again until just before Portland. I had made reservations(thru Travelocity) at a motel near a truckstop in Troutdale. My thinking was that we didn’t want to have to navigate Portland after dark on our first day. Well, we drove around this loop about 5 times before we finally found the motel; it’s marquee name didn’t quite match its name on paper, but we finally found it. I confidently strode into the lobby, clutching my precious confirmation number.
“Sorry, Ma’am. We have no record of a reservation for you, and the only rooms available are smoking”
Which was TOTALLY out of the question!
No probelm; I’ll just call Travelocity and see what they have to say about this; after all they gave me a confimation number and everything! Well, Travelocity is a busy place, apparently, because even though my call was “very important to them” it took me about 30 minutes on hold to reach an actual person. I explained my problem. “Well,” said Josh, “I will check this out. I will just put you on hold…........”
Finally, the family, hungry and weary of waiting in the car watching storm clouds gather in my face, drive to a nearby “Wendy’s” to seek refreshment. I waited in the car alone for a while, but finally went in and made everyone take turns holding my cell phone to their ear so that I could eat as well. Johnny took a picture with his cell phone camera of me slumped on the table with my face in my hand holding the phone on my ear. Though not my most attractive portrait, it so entirely captured the mood of the evening. FINALLY Josh came back on “It was the motel’s fault. Their main office didn’t fax the reservation. The only rooms they have available are smoking”. WOW, News flash!
No, I couldn’t talk to his supervisor. No, I couldn’t talk to anyone else. I could only file a complaint online. That was it.
Fortunately, there was a Motel 6 in the area with a room available, though the beds were Double instead of Queen. Needless to say, we were all ready to squeeze into those too-small beds by this time.
To be continued….............
I committed last night to 40 days of daily reading; I am going through Rick Warren’s “A Purpose Driven Life” with some close women friends. Maybe I’ll be sharing some of my insights along the way. I’m also going to commit to writing daily on this site (unless I am out of town) for the same period of time. Today I was reminded that God created each of us for his purpose, and that without him, the question of life’s purpose will be empty and like aimless wandering.
When someone asks, “What do you do?” they want to know what work I am pursuing to earn money enabling me to purchase food, lodging and “the extras”. “Bank employee” doesn’t begin to define me as a person, however.
While I’m at it, I’d also like to commit to 40 days of keeping my food journal and daily exercise…........maybe too much commitment even for such a disciplined 
person as myself….........TTFN
I started thinking about this week of vacation quite some time ago. Since Johnny would be graduating this year, and Jim planned to transfer up to northern Idaho for school next year, this might be the last chance we had to spend some quality time together and I was determined to make it happen. I put in early for this week off of work, but true to form, didn’t start actually thinking about where we might go til about a month ahead of time. The boys mentioned, vaguely, that they might like to go to Canada. John stated, emphatically, that he did not wish to return to Las Vegas. So, the Oregon Coast seemed like the logical choice (Yes, I know, not many people can follow the brilliant path of UltraMom’s logic, so don’t feel too bad)
Jim mentioned that it would be fun to camp the whole time. Johnny mentioned that it would not. Since we really didn’t have camping gear, we opted for the motel route, though staying in a yurt did sound intriguing…............
So, Ultra Mom got busy on the computer. The time frame started coming together. Jim went to an outdoor fair in Boise and talked to some people who book fishing charters from the coast. Johnny found culteral events in Portland and got us tickets to see the famous Andrew Lloyd musical “The Starlight Express”. Travelocity seemed to be the cheapest way to go for booking motel rooms along the way. Different routes were mapped on Rand McNalley endlessly til Ultra Mom had dark circles under her eyes and a permanent Mouse-holding conformation of her right hand. Reams of paper were employed to print maps and information. Of course when the time came, UM had printed all the wrong things, mapped out all the wrong routes and had not gotten the information we actually needed. I think its one of those Murphey’s Law things. It semed that most everyone I talked to had fond memories and favorite places on the Oregon Coast. One friend loaned an Froders Oregon travel guide. Another, a copy of Oregon Coast magazine and a waterproof hooded sweatshirt. A lighter water proof windbreaker found its way into the suitcase from another pal, and yet another loaned a map and brochures. The planning really was a lot of the fun.
We had a week and two weekends to complete the trip. Figuring a full day of travel there and back, and a day or two in Portland and we would still have 4-5 days on the coast. The boys had it a little easier; Boise is on the way, so they could stay put and avoid 4 hours of the trip. Finally it came time for UltraMom to stay up half the night packing and set her alarm for 5:30 the next morning. The great adventure was about to begin! Stay tuned…....................
to be continued
UM and I have agreed to try a new system to make sure that we write on this site more often. Since my writing is already without flaw, and hers can use some real improvement we have decided on the following:
I will post a topic each day, and she will try to write about it. I will generally try to give topics that can be of any length depending on how much time and inclination to write she has, but since out public has been demanding it I guess I need to start off with this topic:
My Spring Break Vacation
Just listening to Condoleesa (sic?) Rice’s testimony live on AirAmerica’s Internet radio stream, at the same time as there is live (unconfirmed) coverage patched in from Aljazeera of three Japanese nationals who have been abducted in Iraq with demands that the Japanese Self Defense (sic!) Force withdraw from Iraq.
What a sad time. Bush is to blame for all of this and must go! I beg you if you are American, for a second abandon your ideas about what Democrats and Republicans are, and what you think the biases of the media are, and look at the facts that are not in dispute and decide whether you really think the world can afford another 4 years with this (in Condi’s words) global menace.
