Where are the tomatoes 🍅

I haven’t actually done a huge amount since my last update, although somehow I have managed to remain extremely busy anyway.

Most of my time lately has been some combination of doctor’s appointments, physical therapy, work, daily walks with the dogs, longer hikes on the weekends, and the occasional attempt to leave the house for something that doesn’t involve either a medical professional, a badge, or a leash.

A couple weeks ago, I drove up to Washington for a hike I’d been wanting to do. It’s only about 50 miles away, which sounds like it should be a pretty easy trip, except apparently Washington and Oregon had other plans. Between traffic and road closures, it took a couple hours to get there.

The weather was also… different. When I left the Portland area, it was just on the warm side of cool. A little cloudy, but nothing particularly interesting and no real indication that it was going to rain. Then I got up into the mountains and spent quite a while driving through the trees in this incredibly creepy, misty weather.

And it wasn’t really fog. And it wasn’t really rain. It was both. Sometimes it was definitely raining, and at points it was raining hard enough that the rain was basically moving sideways because of the wind. Other times the rain would ease up, but there was still so much water in the air that it felt like I was walking through a cloud. There were tiny droplets just kind of floating sideways around me. It was like being inside a cloud that had forgotten whether it was supposed to be fog or rain and decided to do both.

Which was particularly funny once I actually got ready to hike, because I had picked this trail specifically because it has a beautiful view this time of year. I saw approximately none of that view.

Still, it was pretty spectacular in a different way. The mist was moving around us, the wind was absolutely ridiculous, and everything was so dense and wet that it was almost disorienting. The hike itself was wet, rocky, and generally pretty otherworldly.

My socks were soaked almost immediately, and I ended up hiking the entire route in soggy shoes and socks. I also managed to develop blood blisters on my toes, although I didn’t really notice them at the time because it was only about 48° and my feet were cold enough that they weren’t exactly sending me a lot of useful information.

The boys, naturally, thought the whole thing was fantastic.

I don’t think I can officially cross that hike off my list because I never actually saw the thing I went up there to see, but it was still a pretty interesting experience and at least now I know what that trail looks like when the mountain decides to hide itself.

I also finally went to a tomato festival. I was extremely excited about this, which is probably a little nerdy, but I refuse to believe I am the only person who gets excited about a festival dedicated entirely to tomatoes. There is an entire festival. For tomatoes. That seems like a perfectly reasonable thing to be excited about.

I went with a friend I’ve made here named Eve, and we managed to have a very successful afternoon in the sense that we did attend a festival.

Just not the tomato festival.

Parking around festivals is always an adventure, so we drove around for a while trying to find somewhere I could actually park the van. Eventually we found a spot and walked up to the festival.

There were lots of little vendors, everything smelled good, and we found a place doing cookie tastings and another vendor selling fermented hot sauce. The hot sauce was fire. Or bomb. I don’t know what the kids are saying now, but whatever the appropriate word is, it was really good. The fermented flavor was fantastic. And after tasting all 8 flavors I definitely had a couple favorites.

We wandered around for probably more than an hour. Maybe more than two. And eventually I realized something. I had seen zero tomatoes. Eve agreed It was strange.
So I gathered up the courage to ask one of the vendors, “Okay, I’ve got a really weird question for you. What is this festival?”

It was not the tomato festival.It was just some other community festival.The actual tomato festival was another ten or fifteen minute walk down the road.

At this point we were both getting hungry, and there was food everywhere, so we decided to get a German sausage to share. We figured we could split one, walk down to the actual tomato festival, and then get more food there so we could try a bunch of different things.

This was a reasonable plan. Unfortunately, Eve and I are both very chatty people, and once we start talking, apparently there is no natural stopping point.

By the time we finished eating and talking, the tomato festival was closing in about ten minutes. So we never made it. We did, however, get given plums by the vendor we’d asked about the festival as a sort of consolation prize for our confusion. Tomatoes are obviously the superior fruit, but I suppose a plum is a pretty decent apology gift.

Work has also been keeping me busy, and I am absolutely loving subbing.

The special education classroom I’ve been working in has basically snagged me up on a regular basis. It serves students from second through fifth grade, and they tried to get me to take a full-time position. I can’t commit to full-time right now, but apparently that did not stop them from booking me for basically as many days as possible while they go through the hiring process.

It is an absolutely wonderful classroom. The team is great, the students are great, and I genuinely really enjoy being there. I’m going to be pretty sad when they hire someone permanently and I’m not there semi-daily anymore.

I’ve also somehow made a friend there. One of the para educators is absolutely lovely, asked if we could be friends, and got my number. She is 71.

I genuinely have no idea how she has that much energy. She is happy, positive, fantastic with the kids, seems to know absolutely everybody, and somehow manages to be everywhere all at once. Basically, she is superhuman.

I love working with her and getting to chat with her outside of work, and I’m really glad I met her.

I also recently went contra dancing, which I haven’t done since I was probably a teenager or in my early twenties. I did it a few times back then and remember really liking it, so when I found out there’s a pretty big contra dance community here, I obviously had to go.

I took Eve with me, and she seemed appropriately enthusiastic about the idea.
It was ridiculously fun.

It was also extremely entertaining watching Eve try to figure out the dancing. She struggled a little with the coordination and directions, which I found adorable because dancing has always felt pretty natural to me. I don’t know if that’s because I grew up doing Tae Bo and various exercise dance videos or if it’s just a me thing, but apparently my body understands being told to move around in patterns better than it understands a lot of other things.

I’m definitely planning to make contra dancing a regular thing.

My one complaint is that this particular dance, which is only held one night a week, requires everyone to wear face masks. There is contra dancing happening around here all the time, but apparently the one night I picked is the one where I have to try to dance and breathe through a mask simultaneously. Which is fine. I just prefer breathing.

The next couple of weeks should be a little calmer work-wise, although I’ve apparently already filled that extra space with other things.

Today I’m heading back up to Washington for a Halloween costume exchange to see if I can find anything interesting. I don’t actually have a Halloween costume to contribute, but I do have a shorty wetsuit and an extra set of fins and goggles, so I figure somebody might be able to turn that into something.

Halloween is my favorite holiday, and Portland apparently takes it seriously, so I’m looking forward to seeing what I can find.

Next week I have a consultation in Bend, which is about a three-hour drive each way, so I’m planning to take the day before and the day after off from work. Mostly because I will be gone for a pretty long time and I want to make sure the boys get a ridiculous amount of exercise before I leave them.

The pet sit is also getting close to the end, which is going to be bittersweet. I’m going to be genuinely sad to leave these dogs. They are wonderful, and they are basically adventure gremlins who think woods, water, mud, and anything remotely outdoorsy is the greatest thing that has ever happened to them.

I am also looking forward to having some free time again. The homeowner of my next pet sit, which is two cats, also gifted me a guitar, so apparently I’m learning to play guitar now.
I have no idea how long this one will last, but I’m going to give it a shot.

I have missed being able to go on hikes that aren’t dog-friendly, or disappear for several hours without having to calculate how much exercise two extremely energetic dogs have already gotten that day. I’m also looking forward to spending time with some cats again, who generally have the much more reasonable attitude of “you can leave the house if you want, insignificant human.”

So that’s pretty much what life has looked like lately.

I’m hiking through mountains in sideways rain-cloud-fog. I’m accidentally attending the wrong festivals. I’m getting handed plums as compensation. I’m dancing. I’m making friends with 71-year-old superhumans. I’m working with kids from second through fifth grade. And now apparently I'm learning guitar.

Honestly, I have no idea what I’m doing half the time, but apparently I’m having a pretty good time doing it.Read more