memory lane

i am a girl who doesn’t like change. my heart sinks a little when i see a new house going up on an empty lot in portland where i used to see a lovely garden. i picture the children of my pals as toddlers and many of them are entering high school.

i spent 4 summers and 2 winters living in jackson ,wyoming. when i first arrived in jackson in 1981, it was a quaint town in an unbelievably stunning setting. i rode my bike to work, and shared a cheesey apartment with three friends. i spent the next 3 summers there: hiking, riding my bike, working at a taco stand and falling in love with the place. i lived in a tipi by the river . in the winter i lived in a one room log cabin with a billion dollar vista over my desk. i chopped all my own wood and cooked on a wolf gas stove for 100 people every day. in this special place i made several lifelong connections .

i am here this week , attending a conference in the mornings and enjoying the grandueur of the tetons and hospitality of freinds the rest of the day and evening.

i realized on the drive over the mountains, that i have the town frozen in time. in the years since i first fell in love with this place, it has been discovered by the rich and famous. among others, sandra bullock and dick cheney have homes here. there are now 5 golf courses. the median home price is 1.2 million dollars. needless to say, that is quite a change from the days of me living in a tipi, slinging tacos and riding my bike.

however, the beauty of the tetons, the shift of light on the rock, the sparkle of the snake and the smell of sagebrush remain the same as when i first glimpsed this place all those years ago. there is just something about these mountains that calls me and i imagine it always will, regardless of the changes that come to the town.

summer bliss

travel

i did a lot of traveling before ruby and hazel came along. not the passport requiring kind of travel to foreign lands but many road trips focusing on camping, hiking, rafting and exploring. i had a system . i kept the westy packed with coffee , dog food and the basics for a weekend road trip, should the fancy strike me.

i still keep the westy packed, but now it contains a little potty, and boxes of coloring books, games and crayons along with that coffee. weekends away are not the relaxing book reading extravaganzas or exploring new places trips of the past. they are more like kid managing, stay occupied, stay dry and stay happy, no bickering challenges. honestly most of the time it would be easier to stay home. surrounded by the familiar. but what fun would that be?

i say this to comfort myself as i ready my little family for our first big trip together. friday we embark on a vacation to wyoming to see valerie, chip and avery. we fly from pdx to boise, boise to idaho falls, rent a car in idaho falls and drive over teton pass to jackson. our leisurely 10 am flight was changed to 6 am. i am trying to visualize the logistics of 2 sleepy kids leaving the house at the crack o dawn, arriving at the airport, schlepping the car seats, stroller and paraphernalia needed for a week away. juggling a carryon with blankets and bunnies, snacks, crayons and books. i will be solo. did i mention that i am scared?

cape lookout

the weather was lovely. the girls had fun. i learned that camping solo with a 5 year old and potty training 2 year old is a lota work. thank god for friends! even though i am an experienced and hard core camper, i was beggin for mercy and so happy to see sal, dave and mia arrive on day number 2.

picture this: trying to get kids to sleep in the late eve, pretty dark, the campground is noisy. they are excited and don't want to sleep but are overtired from a day of sandcastles, wading in the ocean, collecting rocks and looking for fairy's. oh no- little one has to go poop. you have little potty with you. whew! get out of bed, oops, step on glasses and break them. hmm now really can't see well. grab baby, take off night time diaper ,place on potty. little one leaves 1/2 deposit in potty, half on floor. shoot-
now its dark, your glasses are broken, you have poop to clean up , and 2 kids that are awake when they should be sleeping .pass me the wine please.

yurt photos

kwcw

although i have joined the land of the techno, i remain far behind in some areas. i ‘ve never owned a stereo and i don’t have an ipod. i have a boom box from target which will play cd’s and tapes. i rely on my hip pals to pass on music that they like to me. i am woefully uncool these days in the musical arena.

it wasn’t always so. in college i had a radio show entitled ‘triple nipple”. named by my pal molly to symbolize that there were three of us who had the show together. the oh so cool from marin county eloise, the charismatic molly who grew up in grand teton national park and me. actually, el and i did the show together when molly ended up having many ski meets away from campus.

we had a coveted 3 pm on friday weekly spot. classes were out, people were getting ready for the weekend and we provided the ambiance and music for many an impromptu party. people used to stop me on campus (there were only 1200 students after all) and tell me how much they loved our show.

eloise, the cool one, was from marin california and she knew all kinds of music. between the two of we had eclectic taste and learned how to blend it well. we would take a few beers, a pack of clove cigarettes and head to the studio in the student union on the 2nd floor. the record collection was immense so time was spent pulling albums for our show. at 3 pm we’d cue our first record and spend the next two hours plying the air with our selections. behind the scenes we talked of life: men, school, travel.

i was cleaning out some boxes the other day and came across one of my triple nipple show tapes. i played it on the way to work this morning and was carried back to the smell of cloves and the carefree feeling of life at 19. and it was pretty good if i do say so. some jonathan e, ub40, squeeze,debby harry,grateful dead and todd rungren made for a good mix.