Portland

For Christmas, my cousin got the part of Snow Queen in the Nutcracker! (Along with several other parts) This seemed the perfect excuse to go visit Portland. As an added bonus, Em was in town AND my brother was headed up there.

So all three of us kids got into the car and drove off toward the sunset. But not quite literally because we left around 10am. We had to stop off in Pendleton to pick up my uncle, and then we were off again!

The problem with making plans as you are currently enroute to somewhere is that they get very jumbled. After hanging out at Fran & Ken's, we all went shopping and I took the MAX into Portland to meet up with Max. I was a bit early, so I wandered around the Pioneer Place mall and bought Liza a nice-smelling present. Then Max showed up.

We went to Le Happy for some food and I had a fantastic drink that was on special. Since I couldn't make up my mind on what to eat due to price, Max paid. :/ After much protestation, I claimed paying for the next meal. Then I showed him the Tube, which was quite chill. We decided to actually DO something and went to the Boiler Room to play pool and watch the silly people sing. There was a party there, so people were dressed up like super heroes! Max and I both played terribly and I lost. :( I need to play him again. *note to self*

We then decided to go out for dessert. After looking for pie on his fancy phone, the Pied Cow became our destination. I ended up having cheesecake, though. It was nomnom! I would go there again. The atmosphere was very fun as well. It was pretty late and I was tired, but we didn't quite want to call it a night. So Max drove around for a while, then we went to Ken & Fran's to drop me off.

But.
The door was locked! I'd forgotten to text Fran what the plan was. So we killed 2ish hours sitting in the car in the driveway talking and listening to music. I called my brother a few times, but I didn't want to call Fran and wake them up because it was my own fault I got locked out. Max was nice enough not to leave me. We went to go get gas and use the bathroom. Then we drove all the way around the loop made by the freeways(highways?) and back to their house. SOOOOO tired at this point, we put the back seat down and laid down together and talked. Well, mostly Max talked. I weaved in and out of consciousness. It was at this point that I began to feel very sick. We made it to 6am and I finally called the house phone, called my brothers again, and called Ken. Ken always answers. Apparently he was on call all night. And he had even answered a call near the house when Max and I had first gotten there. He could have stopped by and let me in!! But, he gave me the code to the garage and I bade Max goodnight. It was kind of ridiculous. I felt really bad about keeping him out, but I'm so grateful that he kept me warm!

I slept for 3 hours.
I had lunch and hung out with the family until it came time to meet Max and Em and Joey for lunch. We all went to the Thai Peacock. Was pretty good, I think. I didn't eat much, as I was still feeling pretty sickish. It was really good to see Em. I wish I'd had more time with her. But we all walked to Powells and Joey got splashed by a rude car. Then Max and I made our way to the S. Waterfront to meet my family for dinner.

My WHOLE family. I mostly just had my head on Max's shoulder. He was warm and comfortable and I did not feel good at all. I drank some juice and tried to eat some chowder. That was a bad choice of foods. We all made it through dinner and drove to the Nutcracker. It was pretty. Some of the angles were a little off, as we were sitting below the stage level instead of above it. Celeste danced beautifully. Max and I tried not too die. All the classical music. The dim lighting. It's a good thing I was interested enough in the costumes and performance. >.<;

We said goodbye to everyone, dropped Max off at home, and then I went to blessed sleep.

The next morning, we all hung out since Pat, Jp, and I were meeting mom and dad in Hermiston for an early Christmas. After a long enough delay, we set out! And.......the tire blew. In the rain. and cold. Luckily, there wasn't much I could do since my two brothers were wanting to take charge. We tried to figure out how to get the tire off and ended up needing a rescue. Apparently there were caps over the lugs that just looked real. Off we went, stopped 3 mins later in the Dalles to fill the spare with air and the Jp drove! Through the rain and dark, all the way to Hermiston. :)