Greenbelt

For those not in the know, the Boise Greenbelt is a 25 mile tree-lined (although not so much after you get out of the city) path that follows the Boise River.

My mother was the kind of mother who planned outings for us during the summer and so I have happy childhood memories of walking down the Greenbelt to find a nice place to play in the Boise River.  And the memories just keep on coming.

Here’s the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial that was built after I left town.

Before that section of land was claimed for Human Rights it used to be a dead end street with a lot of parking spaces.  I spent way too much time watching a certain boyfriend skate.  Which was boring even then, and I liked him.

I can remember after they got the new bridge built and this became a pedestrian bridge how we marveled that it had ever been big enough for two lanes of traffic.
 
The Greenbelt is heavily utilized, as evidenced by these mirrors, handy for merging.
 
First sight of the river.  It has a smell to it I had forgotten about.  After I grew up into a teenager, we started floating the river, first with parents, then on our own.  And one very hot night, sometime in high school, four of us came down in the pitch dark and went swimming.  It was an exhilarating relief.
 
Despite the heat, it’s pleasant to walk beneath the trees.
 
I had completely forgotten about these signs and was happy to see they are still here.
 
The Discovery Center placed them to scale along the Greenbelt. As you walk you get a sense of how far apart the planets are.
 
Walking back to the hotel, I learned that my current hometown band will be visiting my former hometown quite soon.
 
And I could not resist taking a picture of this green car which was revving his engine in a very familiar (and still annoying) way.
 

Before and After Before Midnight

The Flicks!  Still the same!  Still has video (and now DVD) rental!  Still has a cafe!  Still has two theaters where I saw so many very good movies! (Secret of Roan Inish, Jeffery, Kids, Dazed and Confused, Emma, the list goes on.)
 
Sara and I in front of the movie poster.  We saw the first movie in the series together (with Cindy at Cindy’s house) and it was her idea to wait and see the newest one when we were in Boise together.
 
After, Shawn met up with us and we went to the Modern Hotel Bar for some cocktails.
 

Findings on the road. Road collage

I love this space-age sink at one of the rest stops on I-84.
 
Stopping in Bend, I see that a historic building was once owned by the Woodmen of the World.
 
I first learned about them last year when Matt and I were on vacation and found one of their distinctive tree-stump gravestones in a cemetery.
 
Random photos from the road.  No looking because I was driving. I just pointed and clicked.  I can’t get enough of the high desert.  It’s so beautiful.
 

Packing

I’ll make it fit!  The kitties are observing my packing from a calm position, having no idea I will soon trap them in their carriers and drag them over to my Aunt’s house.
 
On the way home from dropping off the cats, I stopped by my mom’s and got an important item for the drive to Boise:  Kenny Roger’s 20 Greatest Hits.  That was the tape (it was a tape then) that my mother played every single time we made the drive. And 20 songs last a very long time on the road.

Note from the future.  I played it and I can report that the word “greatest” is perhaps a bit overstated.  Maybe they should have stopped at 10 greatest hits.  The “Scarlett Fever” song was particularly hideous.  But I did get to sing along to “Lucile,” “The Gambler,” “Ruben James,” and “The Coward of the County.” So who cares if I skipped the last three songs on the disk?

45RPM: TMBG Birdhouse in Your Soul.

Where I match a song to a specific memory.

Theme from Flood

   
Birdhouse in Your Soul
 
There are periods of respite in the high school band schedule.  One of them is the point before winter break after the holiday concert is done.  It was senior year Drum Corps and we were counting down to the break.  In the fall semester, Drum Corps had their own class, separate from the rest of the band, so the drummers could work on their very important drum things.  Secretly, I always thought it was because it was easier to work with the rest of the band when the drummers weren’t always rat-a-tat-tating away on their drums, because they never shut up.  But no matter! It was nearly break and we had an entire class of nothing to do.  We brought in music and played it while we gossiped, did homework and played cards.  At one point during the hour, someone changed the music and the glorious intro of Flood played, followed swiftly by the opening notes of the “Birdhouse in Your Soul.”  Soon the syncopated rhythms and odd tonal qualities that are They Might Be Giants were filling the room.  Our band director paused in what he was doing, and his eyebrows wrinkled together, listening.  “Who isthis?” he asked incredulously, befuddled and amused once again at the quirky nature of the adolescents he was charged to shepherd through life.  We laughed, delighted to introduce him to the magic of They Might Be Giants.

Crepe finished! It’s a dress!


Things I like:  the sweetheart neckline, the back, the fun sleeves, the length, the material, the fact it’s a wrap dress that wraps in the back.

Things I don’t like:  it’s a good standing dress, but it gapes when I sit, which I’m not thrilled about.  Also, I have miles to go on the fitting thing.  The bodice is too loose.

Overall:  Very happy with it.  It’s so summer!