D.C. Sculptures and the Middle of August

The Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism During World War II in Washington, D.C. honors Japanese Americans who lived in incarceration camps and those who served in the US military during WWII. We made a point to visit the memorial, only steps from the front door of our hotel. I wrote earlier this year about the incarceration of innocent American civilians based on their ethnic background.

The memorial is somewhat small, but includes a water feature with rocks as though in a garden, and there is a circular plaza. In the center of the plaza is an emotionally powerful bronze sculpture of two cranes entangled in barbed wire.

This post wraps up the stuff I wanted to talk about from Pedro’s work trip to D.C. that I didn’t fit in an earlier post. There are some statues directly in front of the Capitol that we spent some time examining.

For fun I wanted to include this photo from 2007 of two beloved friends of mine, Heather and Kin. We were in training together in Baltimore and came to D.C. over one weekend. It’s fascinating how the scene didn’t change in 16 years. We are still very close, which makes me so happy. Kin now has a wife and two kids (you may recall in a recent post that they drove down to help Pedro and me move) and lives outside of Seattle. Heather now owns her own home and lives with her long-term partner in Portland. I am in a similar comfortable place with a partner. How nice it is to mature and reap some of the rewards of a good life.

And then we went back home for a blessed two weeks of not having to travel anywhere. The day after we arrived home was the Oregon Cherokee Chief’s event that I have attended without fail for 12 years. This year we skipped it. We were exhausted. A good friend invited us to her husband’s 60th birthday bash. We skipped it. Instead, I began working on the Great Spirit church newsletter, which I can’t skip. I also interviewed my former co-worker and new pet sitter, Norman (because it turns out we are neighbors now!), about working for the Board of Veterans Appeals because this was on topic for my next class in Annapolis coming up, and he works in BVA. Pedro buckled down on work stuff that was constantly getting behind because we were gone so much.

The second week in August, I picked up the race “packet” for my relay team for Portland to Coast. Since it was for 14 people, it was bags of T-shirts, coupons, LED flashers, pedometers, a case of drinks, race handbooks, our number bibs, and all kinds of stuff. Sort of like Christmas! I laid it all out and took a photo and sent it to the team. I asked if they wanted a meeting before the race, but they did not – too many meetings, ha ha. So our next meeting would be the evening before the race.

Since Pedro was back at work, I went to his townhouse to meet the movers and let them in and show them what to load up. Then we all drove to the new house and unloaded everything. The next few evenings after work, we cleaned his place, getting it ready for the open house. My house already had a buyer, so I kept making trips out to my place in the country to clean and fix things, and haul more and more loads of stuff to the new house that I couldn’t put into the UHaul earlier, like plants, and the TV and framed pictures on the walls that I had left for staging.

And life keeps going on, right? Even though we had the extra hassle of moving and work trips, we had regular life.

We squeezed in doctors appointments and hair cuts and I found a new veterinarian for Racecar. I met two former relay racers to pick up gear they had that we wanted to use for the race. I drove to the Title company to sign papers to close on the sale of my house, which would be in a few days. We moved the chickens! Poor girls; we moved them on a week that happened to reach 106 degrees (41 C) a couple days in a row. It must have been such a traumatic change for them. The home inspection at my place revealed some mold in the attic! I had to get that taken care of before the buyers moved their small children in.

And then – it was time for my big race. Norman was our saving grace. We introduced him to the chickens, then put him in charge of the pets and the house because Pedro and I would be gone for most of the next three weeks! Blog posts coming soon.