KINK Sunday Brunch is my favorite block of radio. From 7:00 am to noon, Peggy La Point plays a variety of interesting songs, old and new. A good 80% of them hit my sweet spot. Like this one. Which I cannot recall, but know that I liked because I had google search it and then took a screenshot of the name.
I’m listening now and am still liking it. YouTube seems to not be giving me access in the way I’m used to, but maybe this link will work?
While I’ve not yet used the mason jar McMenamins places in each hotel room so visitors can bring beer back to their rooms, I did note that the jar was not a mason jar this time around. I assume that the global supply chain and COVID-19 are to blame.
I lazed about in my room, ate breakfast and lunch, and then headed home on a bus and two trains. It was a good vacation.
I got up early and headed out to a coffee shop to get some breakfast. On my way, I caught the sun coming up in this reflection.
And here is the sunrise from the other direction.
The coffee shop’s website said it opened at 6 a.m. and when I walked by the previous evening, so did the hours posted on the door. I got there at 6 a.m., though and no one was about. Employees unlocked the door at 7 a.m. While I understand that there might be some barrier to updating a website, I think posting a sign with current hours on the door is something that was doable. At least there was a chair outside for me to sit in while I waited.
However, the breakfast sandwich I ate was delicious (as was the tea) and all was forgiven.
I ate my breakfast in the Magic Flute room, one of my favorite at McMenamins. I also caught up on correspondence.
I’m nearly to the end of this batch of notecards, which is too bad, because I love them so much. They were a very good find at Scrap. It’s fun to see how many things have changed. On the right side of this drawing, you can see the Armory is still painted white. It hadn’t yet been taken over by Portland Center Stage.
9:15 a.m. was my soaking pool time. I had to reserve the time before I arrived. This was a great soaking pool experience, because no other people appeared. My reservation for 8:00 p.m. the night before, I skipped. I went down at my appointed time, but there were much too many people and too many people without masks. Today it was just me. I swam. It was a head-above-water breaststroke, but swimming nonetheless.
The chickens and I chatted for a bit before I went on a walk.
The movie theater is closed, which was to be expected. I took a closer look at the posters.
From the future, I can tell you that Free Guy was really released on August 13, 2021, not July 3, 2020.
Onward probably did play at this theater, because it was one of the last big releases before everything shut down. The Woman in the Window was released on Netflix on May 14, 2021.
I wondered if these two Forest Grove High School graduates knew each other. Were they neighbors who ignored each other or best friends? There’s a YA novel in this photo.
Here’s a Mondrian-style truck and camper. Very cool.
Aside from the fact I forgot to start my activity tracker until after I’d already walked an hour, this was a lovely walk.
5 movies watched.
February. Where I did not make much time for movies.
Click on any linked title to read the full review.
Recommended double feature: Stop Making Sense and this.
Recommended double feature: 13th and this.
Recommended podcast companion: Filmspotting’s 40s Noir Marathon.
Recommended triple feature: The Rider, then Songs My Brothers Taught Me, then this.
Recommended triple feature: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, then P.S. I Still Love You, then this.
I squished in a mini-vacation to celebrate my new job and used my $600 stimulus check to pay for it.
As you can see, my transportation to McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove was first class. Two trains and a bus and I was there! This is also my first time on public transportation since September and my third time on public transportation since everything shut down in March last year. That’s three public transportation trips in about a year. I think the last time I had so few public transportation trips was in 1995.
I am wearing official swag from my employer. You can’t really see the logo because my jacket is fuzzy, but the logo is there.
The crocuses were up at Grand Lodge.
I caught some great cloud cover.
Part of spending money was taking advantage of the services at Ruby’s Spa at Grand Lodge. I got a massage and a body wrap. It was my first-ever body wrap. I liked how it left my skin so very soft. If the government keeps sending me money, I might just book another one.
The website said the movie theater was closed, but I smelled movie theater popcorn. It turned out the theater was open. Alas, it was showing Tom & Jerry, a movie I had no desire to see. I stopped by the movie theater bar to get a pint of cider, and while there, I inquired about the popcorn. I decided not to buy, but the bartender sent me off with a pint cup of popcorn. Very fun.
This is My Brain in Love
I.W. Gregorio
Read for Librarian Book Group
This book gets all up in the emotions of its two protagonists. It’s also a solid love story with realistic complications. Win!
Just Patty
Jean Webster
Given that for my first 21 years, I was called Patty, I grabbed this Little Free Library find for the title. I found a delightful collection of stories about three friends attending St. Ursula’s, a progressive girls boarding school.
The book was published in 1911, and my copy was from 1911, so I got to delight in typography that has gone out of fashion (so many spaces!) and also thick paper and illustrations. I wonder if Maud Hart Lovelace was inspired by this book when she wrote her Betsy-Tacy series?
Given its age, there are surprisingly few moments to wince at. A chapter about the Irish-American family next door with oodles of children and a father that drinks too much was firmly ensconced in stereotype. And there’s another chapter where the girls dress as “gypsies” and are very mysterious. But other than that, it was teenagers being teenagers, back before they called them teenagers.
I’ll see if I can track down the other book Jean Webster wrote featuring Patty.
All the Days Past, All the Days to Come
Mildred D. Taylor
Read for Librarian Book Group
Just as long as its title suggests, this meander of a story is not a young adult book. The main character is finished with college, for gosh sakes, and the book covers her 20s and 30s.
This is a (kinda) character-driven novel, but mostly it takes many asides so the author can explain who a historical figure is or give us details about a historical event. There was no reason for it to end when it did or to go on for as long as it did.
I gather that this continues the story of a character or characters in books I haven’t read. Perhaps it would have been a more satisfying read from that standpoint. As it was, this was a long slog.
Everything Sad is Untrue
Daniel Nayeri
Read for Librarian Book Group
A YA book* destined to be shelved in the wrong area and never found by the readers who need it the most, Nayeri’s tale of life in America and Iran dazzles with matter-of-fact recounting.
*Just because the narrator is twelve doesn’t mean it belongs in the middle grade section! The themes are too mature for middle grade readers! This means that most kids who do find this book won’t be old enough for it, and older teenagers will pass it by.
They Went Left
Monica Hesse
Read for Librarian Book Group
We know many stories of the people imprisoned in concentration camps during World War II, but what happened after?
Zophia’s quest to find her brother sheds light on one story.
If These Wings Could Fly
Kyrie McCauley
Read for Librarian Book Group
As a resident of a town where crows have flocked, I loved how McCauley wove the birds’ appearance with the escalating abusive situation in this novel. I found the magical realism to be less successful.
It was nice to see toxic masculinity defeated by something other than toxic masculinity.
Never Look Back
Lilliam Rivera
Read for Librarian Book Group
Duel narrator retelling of a myth I’m not overly familiar with Great magical realism elements.
Legendborn
Tracy Deonn
Read for Librarian Book Group
When a fantasy novel can capture this reluctant fantasy reader, you know it was written by a gifted author. Bree’s discovery of odd things afoot at her Early College program is just the beginning of a wild ride. I’m looking forward to a big long series about her journey.
There’s a small Twilight callout that had me chuckling.
Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom.
Carole Boston Weatherford & Michele Wood
Read for Librarian Book Group
Poetry and pictures bio of the enslaved man who mailed himself to freedom.
How We Got to the Moon
John Rocco
Read for Librarian Book Group
Having lived in the long, long shadow of the baby boomers for more than four decades, I felt I had absorbed more than enough about the moon landing. But then: this book.
John Rocco looks at the cornucopia of problems the US needed to solve to get to the moon and he lays out a solution for each problem. His big picture viewpoint highlights many people behind the scenes including the seamstresses who made the parachutes that deployed after the astronauts reentered earth’s atmosphere.
Rocco uses illustrations rather than photographs, and I thought this was a brilliant decision. The illustrations convey the many small details about the bits and bobs of the infrastructure that was part of the US Space Program. Highly recommended.
The Cat I Never Named
Anna Sabic-el-Rayes with Laura L. Sullivan
Read for Librarian Book Group
Like most of the rest of the world, I didn’t pay much attention to the war happening in what we used to call the former Yugoslavia. Even though I knew two people from the area. So it is a gift to have Anna’s story of her time in the Bosnian town of Bihać during the war.
The horrors of the war are not glossed over, but they aren’t so explicit that a reader will check out. The humanity of everyone involved is shown again and again.
Catherine’s War
Julia Billet & Claire Fowel
Read for Librarian Book Group
A graphic novel about one of the many Jewish children hidden in plain sight in Vichy France.
Itzak: A Boy Who Loved the Violin
Tracy Newman & Abigail Halpin
Read for Librarian Book Group
Picture book that caused me to wonder if this is the only picture book I’ve seen depicting a child with polio.
I liked the colors.
Oh my god, all the slighted-in-love teen feelings!
I love how it builds to the refrain and then that descending series of notes with minimal accompaniment! The best!
From the future, I can tell you that a lot of other people felt similarly to me. This song has been played a lot. And I still like it.
Antares spends most of his days under the comforter on my bed. If only I could get him to come out by changing the wifi password.
The snow started on February 13, and 15 days later, it’s still in evidence.
I have a soft spot for parking lot snow piles, even as gritty and gross as they are. My parents used to let me scale them when I was little. To a five-year-old, they were huge mountains.
This morning, I’m loving the way the sun hits the garage across the street, and the orange contrast to the gray skies.
