Urban Baby: A Capitol Good Time

Road trip to Olympia today. Practice for next week’s road trip to Cannon Beach (a good 4.5 hours from here), solo, with just me, Potamus, and possibly Taylor Swift. Because I can’t stop listening to her sappy pop country songs.

While waiting for my bestie, Ruth, who was meeting me halfway (she’s in Portland, I’m in Seattle, so Olympia cuts the difference for us!), I took the opportunity to make my baby into an urban/hipster/hip hop/rap/wannabe cool boy. Actually, I just like the look of well done graffiti art, and he was having so much fun walking on his own that I though I’d let him explore this painted-up alleyway. Yeah, I’m the mom who lets their kid explore the piss-filled alley behind God knows what establishments. Meh. At least he didn’t try to eat any cigarette butts, right?

he looks thrilled for this photo op

I particularly think that a few of these could be used on his someday-future-released CD. Or, when he’s a nerd in high school I can show him that, at one point, he was hip to the lingo and fashion of the day? All speculation, really…

this mom enjoys some graffiti

I imagine 20 somethings taking the greyhound ironically…

from college to once-a-week (at minimum) phone calls…for the past 7 years…

 

they both love waving…and stripes…

We ate at this cute little shop that was bought-out by McMenimans’s, called Spar Cafe. I had the amaretto french toast. Delish! Potamus was less-than-behaving, though I was aware that gallavanting during naptime might prove to be a bad combination. He mostly held himself together thanks to lots of practice walking in the park.

boulderin’

 

When we walked the length of the boardwalk, Potamus wanted to climb down the rocks toward the water. Ever the adventurer. It was a good time except for him slipping in the mud. Not sure what is mixed with this mud, but it was sludgy and hard to wash off.

those faces. he’s clearly a teen already

Sagittarius mama. Sagittarius baby. Always the adventurers.

 

swingin’!

first person to find my arm in this picture gets a prize…

 

It was SO nice to catch up. While we talk weekly via phone, there’s something so refreshing about being back in the same city, face-to-face (well, in this digital age, I guess I mean IN PERSON, haha). We’re both going through some similar things, and it feels so nice to have someone who can relate without judgment!

So, if you’re ever in the Seattle-area, you should drop by the state capital! It’s a sweet little spot with lots of eclectic shops and eateries. And today, it was full of sunshine!

two friends, two cities

Gold Friends

make new friends,
but keep the old,
one is silver,
and the other’s gold

When we first met we were both awkward, she had spoken up in Bible study saying that she was lonely, had no friends, and after the Bible study was over, I said, awkwardly, “hey, you want to go get coffee, I don’t have many friends either,” or something to that effect. What proceeded was two blissful college years where we spent hours upon hours talking (even racking up a $1,000 phone bill one summer when I was across country). Friendship with her was so easy and made me believe in soulmates. I firmly believe, that if there is reincarnation or past lives, that she and I have known each other in some capacity for thousands upon thousands of years.

But friendships aren’t easy after college. Our weekly phone conversations turned to monthly turned to quarterly and then dwindled to maybe every 6 months when I was lucky. And, honestly, I felt that I made the effort most of the time. I kept calling, leaving messages, and she seemed off in her cool little life, rock climbing and doing major wilderness trips, and I assumed that we had just fallen out of friendship. It’s something I’ve agonized over, but I don’t have time to pursue a friendship where it doesn’t seem reciprocal.

I put up a boundary in my mind: I’ll gladly reconnect if she contacts me first. I love this girl, but I can’t keep putting out the effort.

And that lasted for almost a year, with being busy as a new mom and with a new job. But then I saw that New Mexico was on fire and I sent her a quick text saying “I hope you’re okay, I hear it’s on-fire down there.” One simple text led to more texting lead to her saying she would call this week. I didn’t hold my breath, knowing she’s said things like that before in the past.

But she called.

And we talked. And talked. And talked.

I know that we had so much catching up to do, but we fell into an easy conversation. And it turns out, that she’s been going through a lot of stuff, both health-wise and emotionally wise. A lot of stuff I could relate to.  And she’s been reclusive and talked about that and it was simply so nice to hear that she had withdrawn herself from friendships. While it wasn’t an apology, per se, it was this breath of fresh air to my soul. I can pursue a friendship to the end of the earth if I know that other person wants to be my friend, even if they can’t put in as much effort because of life stuff happening.

We have plans to talk again next week. I’m hoping that this is the restart of something beautiful.

Friday Friend-day!

THAT FACE. Seriously. He has stolen my heart.

Last weekend a good friend of mine had her bachelorette party…in Vegas (she lives there). Clearly I was not in attendance, with bronchitis and a rambunctious 14 month old running around my ankles. Also, I felt too old and tired to do much partying IN college, let alone at 30. So I passed on the festivities…but was bummed because Marie is one good friend from high school AND college (we were roomies for 2 years).

But I learned she was going to be in town this weekend for wedding planning, and I jumped on the chance to take her out for a “bachelorette luncheon” that was more my style…burgers in our college town. Granted, it was a 4 hour trip for me, (2 hours for her), but it was SUPER fun and Potamus was quite the awesome road-trip buddy! I’m quite pleased that this experience was so good, because it’s been hard as a mom to keep my friendships with the child-free types.

We love taking pictures, so here was a few from our spontaneous road-trip fashion shoot!

already quite the ham. junior high is going to be awesome…