Jan's Journey

Tuesday June 17, 2014
Once again I am behind in blogging. All last week I stayed with Charlene Jarvis, a dear friend of my sister. She was really more a sister to Sandy than a friend and with the passing of Sandy, Charlene's and my bond has strengthened. Charlene had a total knee replacement on June 3rd and so I have been helping and staying with her when I can.
However, prior to helping Charlene I did attend the 50th Botkins Carousel on Friday, June 6th. The Carousel is the town festival and for the 50th celebration around 39 former queens returned of which I knew a couple. The festival lasts all weekend but on Saturday evening I had a better offer. My brother took my cousin Jeff, my nephew, Johnny, niece, Mary, and me out to a steak dinner in Lima. Unfortunately cousin Jenny had to work and so was not able to join us. Sunday found Jenny, Jeff and I back at the Carousel for breakfast and after church John picked me up and he and I went over to Huntsville and visited with Jim and Sandy Duff. Upon returning to Jeff's house I drove down to Charlene's for the week.
Well, now it is Thursday morning, 6/19/14, and I have been distracted each time I have started this entry but determined to finish today! Is it a surprise to any one that I have a touch of ADD? Dah!
On Friday the 13th I left Farmersville at 1PM and drove to Indianapolis, Indiana, to catch a 5 PM flight back to Portland. I was flying back for the weekend to attend an OSU (Oregon State U. not Ohio State U.) graduation. It was a 2 hour drive to Indianapolis, which I did not realize when I initially scheduled flight and since it was cheaper I went with Indianapolis opposed to Dayton, etc. And one must remember it was Friday the 13th! And to prove this point upon arrival in Portland at 11:30 PM, I get on bus that takes me to Thrifty Rental and discover as I get off the bus that their computers are down. Irrate customers were demanding the bus take them to Dollar Rental Comany. I figured I might as well "suck it up" and stay with Thrifty since I had already prepaid. It turned out not so bad, just had to physically complete form old fashioned way, and since I am of the old fashioned vintage this was not an issue. After 20 minutes I was in my little Soul Kia and on my way. (Just FYI, the Kia didn't handle as well on wet roads as my Rav4.) Well by the time I arrived to my apartment and settled for the night, it was 1 AM. At 6 AM I was up and 7 AM in the car driving another 2 hours to Corvallis for the college graduation. This was Melanie Fulmer's graduation. She is the daughter to Lisa and Norman Fulmer, my good friends I visited in Southlake, Texas. Also in attendance was Megan, Melanie's younger sister, who attends college in Buffalo, New York. I had not seen Megan in probably 20 years! What a delightful day and memorable experience! The ceremony was grand and held in Reser Stadium which was filled to near capacity with family and friends. Over 3000 graduates were in attendance with over 5000 who actually graduated. What was interesting is that OSU takes great pride in presenting each graduate with their actual diploma as they come to the stage instead of just a piece of paper stating they will receive it in the mail. It is my understanding only a couple universities still do this. The logistics involved in getting the correct diploma to the graduate is quite interesting when you have 6 stations handing out diplomas.
The humorous part of the ceremony came during the commencement speech when over the Oregon State Beaver Stadium flys a small plane carrying a banner behind it reading, "Go Ducks". The University of Oregon, the Ducks, is the chief rival to the Beavers and is in Eugene, Oregon, forty-five minutes south of Corvallis. After the commencement speech, the president spoke again and had a good response. He said, "Leave it to the Ducks to send the plane to the wrong stadium!" Of course the response was followed by an approving applause. See the photo below. After the ceremony we met up with Melanie and took some pictures. After dinner I drove back to Battle Ground.
I had set aside Sunday to spend time with my "adopted" sons. These young men were all housemates and good friends of my Jeffrey. At 9:30 AM I was at their house in Vancouver visiting with Robert, Travis, Sandy who is Robert's mother and her partner, Dr. Bob. We had a delightful visit and of course Sandy worked her magic in the kitchen and fixed a wonderful breakfast. Late morning Travis drove with me over to visit Tommy in Portland. We briefly visited with Dan, another friend of Jeffrey's, when we picked up Tommy and it was so good to see him. Tommy took us down to a delightful area on Mississippi Street. We checked out all kinds of quaint little shops including a nursery with the funniest little moss/algae balls that live in water for decades and just roll around. When we walked out back to look at the nursery stock we found chickens wondering around. Tommy thought the one with feathers on its feet was especially interesting. View below some the other interesting spots we visited.
After dropping off Tommy and Travis , I met Jeannie Snow, another dear friend and my lead nurse at school, for coffee. It is always good to catch up and share what is going on in each others lives. From there I drove over to visit Donna Shrider who is taking care of my place and mail while I am gone. It was also good to visit her husband, Elliot, and children, Sarah, and Jacob. After the end of another great visit I was beat so went home to rest up for a busy Monday.
Monday at 8:30 AM found me out at my "adopted" mother's, Erma Kelley, for tea and birthday cake. Erma turned 92 on flag day, June 14th, and so she shared some cake with me. From there I moved onto Starbucks in Vancouver to meet with Janelle Kountz and plan her baking a cake for Jeffrey's birthday on August 18th. Travis and Robert also joined us and helped with some of the decisions. After spending a couple hours getting my stuff packed for plane I met Becky Blick, Jen and Mitch Taylor at Mill Creek Pub at 4. From there it was off to the plane. It left at 8 and changed planes in Phoenix and arrived in Indianapolis about 5:30AM Tuesday. Back to Ohio! Flying across country, leaving you own car at a strange airport and flying to your home airport and renting a car and returning is a little disorienting. It made me appreciate how disorienting it can be for people who travel all the time for their job. Well I will close this blog since it has taken forever to finish this entry! Enjoy the pictures below.

These two pictures are of my beautiful flowers at my apartment this year! I have never seen them so spectacular! Of course it is the summer I am not home.