Next Visitor--Just as cute as the last ones

There are few things as precious as a friend for life. That's how I feel about my buddy Valorie (also known as Vinnie in private circles). If you were to look way back in the archives of Ohana Goes North, to May 2006, less than a week after we moved to Corvallis, you'd see stories of Valorie's last trip. As a housewarming gift she made our first garden plot (in which everything grew fully and happily) and bought us a half-wine barrel and planted it with lettuces and greens.

The timing for Valorie's last trip was great for our garden (and to help us make that transition from one world to the next) but poopy for her getting to know Ben. (He was born one week after she left.) So for the last couple years she's been saying I've got to get up there and see Ben before he graduates from high school! Also she hadn't seen our new home and neighborhood and I really wanted her to see if before all the leaves had dropped and we move into that stark look of winter. Hooray, she did it and it was great!

[Also I'll back up and say that when Courtney and I went to CA in August and stayed with Valorie and her family before going to Jer's and Pamela's wedding, Valorie sent a couple of boxes of stuff for Ben home with us. One big box was books for his age now and older. The other was filled with train parts and train tracks. And was that a hit!?! From that time on, if Maya was having any problem trying to get Ben to get in his car-seat to go home (sometimes a struggle), all she had to say was train set and he was hopping in that seat, ready to go. It was a toss-up between Ben and Eder for who loved the train set the most, but suffice to say, it was a hit.]

So the night that Valorie arrived she was unpacking her things in Aaron's room and came to get me. You've got to see this, she said, as she opened her suitcase and unfolded out of it the PlayHut below! It was fairly miraculous, but she did it! It had been, like the train set, a favorite of her kids (Forrest and Mirandi) for many years. And the next morning we were assured that it now had a new happy home, because Ben was pretty darned excited when he got inside there.





As you'll see in all three photos Ben is just a blur--he could not stop moving. He made us all go in, through, out, in, through, out--laughing the whole time. Poor guy has a bunch of old people for playmates but we did our best.




The PlayHut now lives in Ben's room, filled with stuffed animals and whatever else Ben can drag through the openings.




The night after Valorie arrived was Aaron's debut on stage as a Shakespearean actor. One of his electives was a class on Shakespeare and that night his class was performing "Love's Labor's Lost". Aaron's role was Dumaine, a lord for King Ferdinand of England. If you were to ask Aaron what's your five favorite things in life, acting on stage would not be one of them. It wouldn't even make it onto his top 100 favorite things list. But he totally rose to the occasion, learned his lines well, delivered them well--a true lord. Needless to say we were all pretty darned proud!



When Maya found out that Valorie and Courtney and I were going to Eugene to see her brother's debut she was not to be left out. So it was the four of us. We went to our favorite spot in Eugene for dinner, Laughing Planet, for burritos and then across the street to Sweet Life for the best treats and coffee. Then off to the theatre!!

Aaron's dad Eric, his new wife Susan, and her son Alex were there too so everyone got to meet and oooooohhh and aaaaaahhhh together over what a great job Aaron did. It's great to know he can always fall back to acting if his other careers fall through.

On the back page of the program was this wonderful note from the director (Judy Wenger, teacher of Aaron's 3rd period Shakespeare class): "The unique thing about this particular class is that some of them did not actually select this class. Having no other option, they toughed it out and I am proud of them. As is often the case in theatre, these students gained much more than simply stage experience. They helped each other learn not only lines but how to cope with deadlines and stress. They gained an appreciation for the hard work it takes to memorize and the courage it takes to be vulnerable among your peers. I thank you for sharing this experience. Please encourage them by laughing and having fun."

Now I don't know about you, but I don't remember any of my 8th grade teachers ever talking to us about being "vulnerable." Anyway, I included that note just to give you a flavor of Aaron's middle school. (Once again I want to thank Eric for his wisdom and generosity in moving from Monterey to Eugene and giving me the gift of seeing Aaron most every weekend. Plus the long hard work he went through to find housing in the right zone so that Aaron could go to that particular school.)

We brought Aaron back to Corvallis with us after the play. So it was the second weekend in a row that I spent much of the time blissed out, with our home full of family and friend. On Sunday night Maya had us all over to her house for dinner. Eder's parents came too, so it felt very celebratory.

The weather held for us, some leaves stayed on the trees, and even though it was cold, it wasn't terribly cold. Valorie and Maya and I were able to take a long walk around campus one day. Another day Valorie and I walked down to the Willamette, along the river and back through our neighborhood. We looked at gardens and talked about ideas, and had lots of down time by the wood-stove. Below is a photo of Courtney's winter garden in the first stages of getting a cover.



But just in case Valorie thought that vacations were all about rest and relaxation, I dragged her off to the Second Saturday benefit concert and put her to work--moving tables and chairs, and collecting money. Almost all of our concerts have been amazing and very rewarding to put on. But this one was especially important to me because the beneficiary was our friend Josh, who works in the South Hebron Hill in the West Bank village of at-Tuwani.

There's lots of ways I could say that night was a success. For one thing the place was packed. We brought in every chair that Sunnyside Up had to offer, and then we brought in the lawn chairs from outside. And still there was always 10-20 people standing in the doorway watching. I gave a very impassioned plea for people to give more money than they were comfortable with and to stuff that donation can while it was being passed around. We raised almost twice as much as any other of our concerts. Josh has strong community support and his community turned out in force.

But a big way in which it was a success was the combination of the two musical acts. During the welcome and introductions, I said that what we were doing that night is exactly the kind of thing we wish to see happen in the Middle East. We had traditional Jewish music (beautiful flute, drum and guitar music, lyrics sung in Hebrew) along with traditional Arabic music (performed by two young Palestinian students at OSU) and very passionate, political poetry written and performed by one of the students, Shady. Both musical groups performed so completely from the heart. There was such a good feeling in the room. So much appreciation for the music and musicians, and strong support for the very dangerous and courageous work Josh is doing in the West Bank.

It was great to have Valorie there that night at the Second Saturday concert--to share the experience with her and to have her included in something that is so important to me. All in all it was a wonderful weekend and full of memories I'll hold onto for a very long time.

Meanwhile, as we head towards the darkest part of the year, remember to light a candle to dispel the darkness. Stay warm and dry and enjoy the winter season. It'll be over before we know it!

Valori