The weekend actually started out really well; raced Rachel to ballet Saturday after spending the morning getting the house straightened up, then stopped at the farmer's market and picked up half a flat of strawberries (I eat them every morning for breakfast so we go through them pretty quickly), sausage from Olympic Provisions, some artichokes and raspberries (which we finished as we were walking through the market) and cherries. Ah, Oregon produce. Nothing beats it.
Then we went to the graduation lunch of a friend of mine from Oregon Health Sciences University. She's actually more of a friend of a friend; her husband and I are friends through Facebook, he keeps inviting me to political events that he's involved in and I keep refusing, so this graduation seemed a good time to make up for all my absences. Plus, it's graduation from medical school -- a big deal, I can't imagine doing that myself -- so I'm glad I went.
The woman who graduated, Alisha, is one of only two black psychiatrists in Oregon. She was a member of the first class of "I Have a Dream" kids who got full rides to college back in the 1990s (she went to Stanford and George Washington University Medical School, and now has finished her residency at OHSU), plus she was Rose Festival queen. Quite a resume. She also has two kids. Her husband is from Angola, and I can easily see one (or both) of them running for elected office in Oregon someday and winning.
Anyway, it was a lovely event; several black preachers and teachers talking about Alisha and how she was special from Day One; Alisha thanking everyone for their support including grandmothers, siblings, relatives, etc. I was struck by the very strong message of "it takes a village" to raise up and mentor someone like Alisha, who continues to pay back everyone who helped her by volunteering in schools, mentoring young kids, etc. The black community in Portland is very small, and it was really touching to see the fierce closeness of the people surrounding Alisha. At least one of her mentors has attended every major event in her life -- high school graduation, college graduation, med school graduation, and now residency completion. I hope to go to more of those events in the future.
Afterward I discovered I had a flat tire, so I gently drove the car to the nearest gas station, pumped it full of air, raced home and baked a quick batch of chocolate chip cookies and headed to our friend Sarah and Michael's house (her son Noah was at his dad's) for dinner. We had a fine time drinking hard cider and eating dinner and my cookies were a huge hit (sorry, Drew, that your cookie baking superiority is being challenged).
This morning I woke up with a horrible headache that persisted throughout the day, leaving me nauseous, exhausted and grumpy. The tire had gone flat again, and during Rachel's haircut I called AAA, had them pump up the tire again, went to a tire store and was told that the tire is useless and I need a new one. I got us home on the spare tire, fed Rachel some lunch and plopped her in front of a movie while I took a 2 1/2 hour nap. Then we went out to dinner because I didn't have the energy to cook. What didn't get done today: picking up the computer I bought two weeks ago; getting a pedicure; grocery shopping; playing outside; cleaning the house. Guess I'll have to take care of all of it tomorrow.
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