Our weekend last weekend

Last weekend I photographed a wedding.  I'd love to elaborate more on that but I am first interested in talking about our drive home from the wedding, which was in beautiful and quaint Shady Cove Oregon.

I had been excited about this trip for weeks, mostly because I love adventures of any sort and this was to be the first out of town adventure we would have had since our little Jedidiah was born on November 6, 2009 at 6:15pm weighing 7lbs 14 oz, and basically took over our lives.

Early in the morning, we took Jedidiah to our baby sitter for which we were very grateful. He did not cry because he was very involved with her cabinet doors, although I might have cried.  But I got over it quickly as we drove all by ourselves without hearing "no, no, no, doggie, banana, no no", for two hours, and it was a very nice and peaceful experience. We loved Jedidiah from a distance that day.

We drove the 2.5 hour drive to Shady cove through some sort of desolate roads and worried the whole time that we were going the wrong way.  If we were going the wrong way that would have been a disaster because I don't think at this point they would have been able to call another photographer.  I suppose that they could have held their wedding off for another few hours, or a few days depending on how lost we really were.

Luckily, we did not arrive late, or get lost.  Our desolate road took us to the right location and once again Isaiah's remarkable map/direction skills truly saved our lives. We arrived at the wedding and photographed from 1-9pm and it was marvelous, I will elaborate more later.

So, we arrived back at our hotel around 9:30 and I had it in my head that we would go out for some fun without Jedidiah.  I was imagining a night out on the town, not even having to worry about bringing Jed to a babysitter. To my dismay the only thing I had energy for was pressing the remote control buttons and pulling the remote from Isaiah's hands.  Besides, we thought about it and about the only thing available at 9:30 at night was a shady gas station.

So we watched T.V. for one hour.  Isaiah and I do not have a television in our house, so when we get our hands on one we have tears of joy at our ability to sit mindlessly and click a remote control for a while. Well, maybe not tears, but you know.  We use cable T.V. primarily to make fun of people.  We watched the food network and saw a bacon-weaved wrapped meatloaf thing that was big enough to feed about eight people and really revolting, and a seven pound burrito baking in the oven with a gallon of habanaro sauce and cheese poured over it.  I decided that it was too much to watch, so we turned off the T.V. and had a very deep conversation about why they didn't just stuff the bacon meatloaf weave inside of the giant habanaro burrito and maybe stuff a pizza inside of it and add some eggrolls on top, and maybe a Cesar salad?

Anyway we didn't really rest well because we were dreaming about weddings all night long and couldn't sleep.  So when we woke up we were completely exhausted, and we had a 2.5 hour drive a head of us.  We wanted to go somewhere crazy, so we decided to stop in Canyonville, a small town in between where we were coming and where we were going and go to a breakfast diner (I know, crazy!).  Isaiah and I have a weird thing for breakfast diners, and we found one we particularly thought would be enjoyable, perhaps because it was the only diner in the town.  Unfortunately, we had to lug our camera stuff into the restaurant because I was afraid that a hillbilly might steal it and that was a scary thought. 

Bringing a bunch of camera equipment into a small town breakfast diner was interesting.  I don't think hillbillies get hippy looking photographer girls (Okay, I am not that hippy looking don't worry if you haven't seen me in a while.  I just don't look much like a hillbilly that goes to small town diners.) coming into their diner and taking pictures of their silverware but somehow I couldn't control myself.  I took about 5 pictures and was satisfied and now after this weekend I never want to take a picture again.

We ordered our breakfast.  I got a waffle with scrambled eggs and bacon and he got biscuits and gravy and we shared a hash brown, and I felt right at home and very comforted by the food and the ambiance of the small time diner.  The waiter was sure to inform me that they no longer served ice cream.  When I asked her why she said something about "Ma'm most of our customers have blue hair, grey hair or no hair. They all are worried about their cholesterol." I found that interesting considering the other menu choices.  None the less that will probably become one of many quotes that we repeat over and over again through the course of our relationship.

Well, we went on our merry way very full and very satisfied.  That was an amazing waffle I don't regret getting.  I could have lived without the scrambled eggs, though.  I decided recently that I am about the only person who can make scrambled eggs I will eat, but I hate washing scrambled egg dishes I think I would rather just throw the pan I used out the window but that might get expensive.  But I liked the waffle.

We took a little stroll around the cute quiet little town.  I felt at perfect peace as I sat on a bench and waited for Isaiah to get out of a man-tool store that he found appealing to look at.  While I waited I saw an old man with a curly white cowboy hat get into a bronco with another old man with a curly cowboy hat.  The mountains in the distanced enhanced the experience, and the whole peacefulness of the town made me feel very happy.  I was also at peace because it was nice to not hear the sound of traffic anywhere, which is a nice change from Eugene where you can hear traffic just about anywhere.

On our way down the street we found a hippy grocery store amongst all the hillbilly other stores. (I guess every town in Oregon is required to have at least one hippy grocery store.)  Isaiah and I went in and discovered that all hippy grocery stores are the same and all of their employees are the same skinny people with long frazzled hair.  We bought an over priced drink for the road and I told him that I wished that going into a hippy grocery store could be just as exciting as it was before I moved to Oregon.  Now its more a novelty to see a hillbilly breakfast diner.

When we left, we had to fulfill one more duty:  The casino.  Isaiah had three dollars left in his wallet and he told me that he wanted to use it to gamble. Don't get me wrong, I do not endorse gambling, but if Isaiah has ever gambled he winds up wining money.  So I didn't mind him wasting three dollars. In the end, those three dollars did not go to waste because we created a good memory of going into the casino and wasting three dollars. 

Well, we finally drove home.  It felt really weird to not have to lug Jedidiah all over and I kept wondering if I left him at the Casino.  Perhaps he was gambling his life away at a young age, hopefully I raised him better than that.

It was a longish drive home probably because we were so tired. Along the way we crossed over some suicidal turkey vultures.  That was the best way I could describe vultures that looked like turkeys that intentionally flew into your car.

Arriving in Eugene was amazing.  There was a yellow sign to a garage sale that Isaiah insisted on following for about 10 blocks.  When we got there the only thing worth buying was a book for Jedidiah that had doggies and babies in it, his two favorite things.  When we finally got to Jedidiah, I was so tired that I could barely be exited about seeing him.  He looked like he felt the same about us.  I was told that he ate a lot of dirt and had such a good time that he was wondering why we don't leave him with a sitter every week.

When we got home, let Isaiah take a nap because he can't handle being tired as well as I can. I fed Jedidiah and we walked up to the park to push Jed on the swings. That was the end of our day.