More Catch Up

Here we go, topic by topic.

Portland

After spending the Friday night of my last full weekend in Seattle with Heath, I cruised down to P-town on Saturday to hang out with the Yarris clan and my friend Leah. On Saturday I met up with Jonny and his fam; he had just graduated med school (and Lainie residency) and Lainie's family was in town as well as her friend Dana. We had a little barbecue and I got to check out their new house which was really nice and should leave Papa Jon some cool fix-it-up type projects. Little Jake (almost four) is growing like a weed a looks like a little mini-Jon which is hilarious. Little Ella is just about to walk and so she was cruising around all over the place. It was cool to hang with Jon and his scene - everybody seems pretty happy with everything which is good. Its nuts to think that Jonny is starting residency just as I finish up. I would have liked to have spent more time with him over the past three years, but so it goes. Portland is a great town - its definitely on the short list for places I could live. And it looks like Jonny and crew are settling in there for the long haul.

Moving

Mama Stup rolled in on the Tuesday of last week to help with the moving proceedings. It turned out that there wasn't much for her to do, which was good in a way, because it gave her time to hang out with cousin Cynthia and the rest of that fam. Cynthia, Mike, Heath, Heidi, Justin, Marcus et al have been great during my time in the Northwest. They were sort of undiscovered family prior to my living there, and they always gave me a place to hang during the holidays, etc. And of course Heath is one unique dude - a lot of fun to hang out with.

On the Tuesday night of that week we all had dinner over there. Mama Stup began getting tipsy and started emoting about her kids - one of her favorite moves. Then she told the story of my quitting the hoops team in high school from the concerned mother perspective which was mildly enlightening and also somewhat embarrasing. I felt bad everyone else had to sit through the long story. They were polite, however, and simply kept nodding and drinking. Following that, Mama Stup drunk-dialed my sister at like 1 am which was hilarious. Ah, Mama Stup - we are definitely related.

On the Wednesday night of last week Gwen and I took them all (including my mom) out to dinner at Wild Ginger and treated them to say thanks. It was pretty cool - and I think it was the first time I've ever treated my mom to a meal, which was cool.

On Thursday after the movers had finally cleared out (see an earlier post), I cruised over to Mike and Cynthia's and we had some food, some drinks, and busted out the battle croquet of which I have grown so fond. I got there late, so I was only able to play one full game. Gwen had won an earlier game as a croquet newby, so she was pretty pumped. During my game, it came down to Mama Stup and I the last two peeps battling. I missed her ball by about an inch on the penultimate shot of the game and then she killed me the next turn, making her victorious. It was all very amusing.

X-Country Drive

Friday morning we set off on our drive. Mama Stup and I were in my truck and Gwen was caravaning her in her Honda CRV. Both of us were driving our vehicles cross country. Me to Houston here. Gwen was taking her car to her mom in Chattanooga. Neither of us will be taking a car overseas.

The driver was pretty good, or about as good as could be expected. We did our leg (my mom and I) in about 3.5 days, so not too rushed. We opted for a more scenic route cutting south through Utah and then heading over east. We stopped for the night at hotels in Idaho, New Mexico, Oklahoma City, and then finally got home on Monday the 4th. On the second day we went by Moab and spent a couple hours cruising around Wile E. Coyote National Park (Arches), which is one of the cooler National Parks I've been to. It was hot. See Pics.

The IPOD came in handy on the drive as did the walkie talkies we bought. Mama Stup and Gwen got along swimmingly which was pretty cool. My mom was all hugs with her one night while drinking at Cynthias which was cracking us up pretty good.

On Monday morning, Gwen set off east from Oklahoma city and Mama Stup and I headed south for good old Planet Houston. (Though technically the Stuparich Compound is about 40 minutes north of the city in an all American suburb known as The Woodlands).

I'll get to this in another post, but I must say that the definite highlight of my week to date here has been hanging out with good old Papa Stup. Stay tuned for a post dedicated to the Papa Stup stories of the week. You better believe that they are good, good stuff.

Mick out.