June 2024 Life Update

Do you remember when I used to blog about every random little thing that flew into my head? I miss those days sometimes. Not often, though.

Anyway. Here’s a life update if you’re interested.

Where I live

I came to Oregon in mid-April to

• Hang out with Amy while she was visiting from Thailand
• Go to Dolly’s Wedding
• Be around when Ashlie had her baby

And then never bothered going back to Houston. After all, I knew I wanted to be in Oregon for the summer, and flying back and forth all the time is expensive and uncomfortable. So I’m here through the summer.

Red Barn Coffee Hour

Last summer I started a tradition where, every Thursday morning, I hosted “red barn coffee hour” in our red barn loft.

The idea came to me in a dream one night, and when I woke up, I thought, I should do that in real life. (If this sounds familiar, it’s because I did a similar thing back in 2015).

So every Thursday morning at 8:30 am I made coffee and tea and invited anyone and everyone to stop in and share a cup.

It ended up being the highlight of my summer. It provided a way to catch up with people without the tediousness of endlessly asking people when they’re free to get coffee. I just put the word out there and people showed up if they could make it.

If not this week, maybe next week.

Anyway. Everyone is welcome. It’s at 8:30 am every Thursday morning and usually goes about two hours. You’re welcome to show up late. See you there!

I had to take a pic of Dolly’s cute outfit last week

Smucker Reunion

This June we had a Smucker reunion up at Drift Creek camp. Something like 73 people attended.

Being in your 30s is strange. I used to think “feeling old” meant “oh no, I’m no longer young and cool.” Instead, I find I don’t particularly miss being young and cool, but it’s deeply unsettling to realize how quickly time marches on and see the generations shift before your eyes.

For me, the reunion was what it’s always been—a chance to hang out with my cousins. But for my cousins’ children, who are becoming teenagers, it’s one of those big reunions full of people they don’t necessarily know.

I sat down next to my cousin Kevin’s daughters, and Erin was surprised that I knew their names.

“How many people here do you know?” I asked, out of curiousity.

“Oh, probably ten,” she said.

Despite my existential crisis about the nature of time, it was a wonderful weekend. It’s always interesting, as I get older, to connect with cousins I never connected with before due to our age gap, locational differences, etc.

For example my cousin Esther, who is 20 and grew up in Wisconsin, came to red barn coffee hour the Thursday before the reunion and then we hiked together that Saturday in the mountains.

Here’s a picture a stranger took of me, Esther, and Ben on the rock below drift creek falls.

Yoder Reunion

I guess this is the summer of reunions. The Yoders are gathering in Minnesota this July, and my parents and brothers are taking a classic Oregon-to-Minnesota road trip to join them, just as we used to do in our childhood.

The Yoders have not procreated quite as prolifically as the Smuckers. Also, the cousins aren’t as close, and many are skipping the reunion altogether.

Still, summer on the lake in Minnesota is wonderful and I’m looking forward to the small family reunion just as much as I looked forward to the big one.

Baby Oliver

Another summer preoccupation is baby Oliver, Ashlie’s son, who was born the day after Dolly’s wedding.

A few days after his birth.

My most recent pic. Look at those chubby cheeks!

Harvest

At the Smucker reunion, Aunt Rosie wanted us to go around and let everyone know what we’ve been up to. When it was my turn I explained where I’ve been living and that I’ve been working as a writer.

“And you’re also a combine driver!” my Uncle Steve piped up.

“Oh, yeah, but I don’t really think of that as a job job,” I said, which may have slightly offended the Smuckers as grass seed farming is our ancestrial livelihood.

So yes, for those who are wondering, I’m working in the harvest again this year, but only part time, so as to hopefully keep up with my writing tasks as well.

Train Trip

Finally, I wanted to talk a bit about the train trip I took last year.

I have this odd trait where I feel a huge compulsion to write everything down, but I only want to write it down once. Which means that if I blog about something I don’t write about it in my diary, and vice versa.

Before my epic train trip of 2023, I bought a very cute diary to record the trip in. At the time this seemed like a delightful thing to do. In hindsight, I might have been better off scrapping the diary and blogging instead.

Anyway, this May as I kept thinking wow, this time last year I was in such-and-such place, I decided it was time to blog about the trip. Better late than never, right?

Unfortunatly, I left the travel diary in Houston. Matt and Phoebe will bring it to the Yoder reunion with them, so you can expect to start reading train stories by the end of July.

That’s all for the updates. Hope you’re having a fantastic summer!

P.S. The featured image at the top of this post—the one with the red coffee pot and two steaming cups outside of some red barns and outbuildings—was generated by AI. When I went to upload a featured image I saw a “generate with AI” option and decided to try it out. I didn’t enter any prompts, the AI just read my post and that’s what it came up with. Interesting, huh? I guess that means the “Red Barn Coffee Hour” section was the most outstanding feature of the blog post?

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