Trek in the Park

Back in 2008, I wrote about a group of actors preparing to put on a live show of an episode of Star Trek called "Amok Time." The actors, part of a company called "Atomic Arts," had come up with a wonderfully original idea of re-creating episodes from the original "Star Trek" series in a Portland Park, for free. They'd choose one episode a year.

Well, my story got picked up nationally and "Trek in the Park" is now in its fourth season. This is the closing weekend of the 2012 season and they did the episode, "Journey to Babel" aka the first episode where viewers meet Spock's parents. The show has grown so popular that the actors moved it from a small park, Woodlawn Park,  to the larger Cathedral Park under the majestic St. Johns Bridge (the most beautiful bridge in Portland, really). Drew has been dying to go, me less so, and tonight seemed the best night since he's working in Seattle tomorrow and Monday.

Well, we ended up having a terrific time. The actors were hard to hear at times because of the rumble of traffic on the St. Johns Bridge, but it was a lovely day, quite warm, and Drew brought a bag of water and snacks, I contributed the picnic blanket (I was running errands this afternoon so we ended up meeting at the park) and he got there in time to get a decent place on the grass. (Remember that the evening was free). Rachel was quite well-behaved and cheered lustily at the end and clapped hard at all the right places. After the show, a sister act called the Double Clicks came on to play for a while, and they were GREAT. At the end of the act I told Drew that although there are many things about Portland that frustrate me, seeing a group of actors perform Star Trek episodes followed by a girl group isn't one of them. "That's what happens when you live in a city with underemployed young people," he said, right on point.

No doubt contributing to my good mood was the fact that with Rachel's help, I cleaned out all the crap that has been accumulating in her closet, on her table, near her bookshelves, etc. We got rid of an entire box of old toys, books, Play-Doh, etc. It all went straight to Goodwill and Rachel now has a clean, orderly room that is likely to stay that way for a while because her toy bins in her closet are almost completely empty. Yay! I cannot relate how depressing it was to walk into that room every day, see the clutter, and totally despair of it ever getting cleaned up. This morning while Drew slept I marched into Rachel's room because I just couldn't take it anymore (she was already up), after Drew mentioned last night that he couldn't find the mesh bag that fits into her laundry hamper. Rachel was quite accommodating and I was surprised at her willingness to toss stuff, but her room is now, at last, clean. Until the holidays, of course...