dumplings as comfort food

First Monday of my retirement, I went for a long walk. The 3 miles reminded me with every step how out of shape I am. On the scale this morning, I weighed more than I've ever weighed in my life (not a surprise). But hey, this is a new beginning. I got my butt out there and contemplated the weekend with Leola.

Saturday we spent the whole day going through boxes of her kitchen things, nick knacks and just plain junk. Dave Gordon, our family mover, packed this stuff and how he must have been amused, but then - he's probably seen it all. We unwrapped swizzle sticks from Reno, shot glasses from Vegas and dozens of those little umbrellas you get in tropical drinks. And Leola and Jim are people who never drank! There were dried leaves, rusted nail clippers, dried up highlighter pens, rocks, kitchy handmade Christmas decorations, an aluminum beer stein with the playboy bunny icon on it-must have been left from one of Jim's "naughty" trips somewhere, and many teacups/saucers, many of which had been broken and glued back together. Every item was wrapped in paper and packed in boxes.

There was some dumb stuff, too. Plastic grapes spray painted gold, some of that fake Easter basket grass, bows from long ago opened gifts. We found broken little dolls, 2 irons, 3 massagers, 2 hot water bottles, a douche bag, 3 curling irons, two of which had to be heated on the fire. This was all stuff that Jon had not gone through before the move. Over the last few months he had helped her go through her photographs, letters and such and packed them into managable boxes from Ikea. I doubt if any of this had been gone through 5 years ago when Leola moved from her house Coos Bay.

Anyway, we pitched some of it (some with her approval, some not) and repacked some for a future garage sale. It was sad in a way to see how many of her things were in such bad shape. Lots of chips, cracks and broken repair on many of the dishes she considers "valuable".

On the up side, she saved treasures she found on the beach for all the years she lived in Coos Bay. I loved some of this stuff - really cool small pieces of driftwood, agates, shells, petrified plant material and rocks. There are glass floats from Japanese fishing boats and lots of authenic nautical stuff from Jim's years as a commercial fisherman.

We worked until about 3:30, then got ready for the evening out. I had been invited to a friend and co-worker's birthday party. Chris lives in Boring, OR (I know, it's an unfortunate name for a town) which is about a 40 minute drive from Portland. Jon and I thought it would be fun to take Leola to dinner at Tad's Chicken and Dumplings, since it is on the Sandy River and not too far from the party. We hadn't been there, but had heard about it. It's one of those old restaurants that's been around for generations where the food isn't great, but the view is spectacular. Leola doesn't do too well with menus these days, so she just said she would have what we had - namely the chicken and dumplings. Each portion was enough for at least three people with leftovers for their dogs. She loved the dumplings with gravy. Given that none of are big eaters and we don't have dogs, we had it again Sunday night. Chances are good Leola had been to this restaurant sometime in the past, but she didn't remember.

After dinner, we drove to Boring and found Chris's house - a compound of buildings in a beautiful setting. Leola was having a grand time talking to people and I noticed a little later that she was on the deck teaching another co-worker of mine how to dance. People took turns getting a dance lesson with her!

Sunday morning she had back pain - probably from bending over all those boxes the day before. She was also more confused and once again didn't remember that Jon was her son. She still thinks she has a car and wants to drive to Ilwaco. Jon took a load to the dump, without his mother's knowledge because she never, ever throws or gives anything away. He came back and picked up Leola for a trip to the storage locker and to return flattened boxes to Dave Gordon, our mover. Jon chatted with Dave for a while (he has moved us several times and we've become friends) while Leola waited in the car. When he got back in, she was reading the Subaru owner's manual.

Meanwhile, I went through 3 more large boxes of clothes, sorted into things to keep and things to go to the Goodwill. I found some amazing clothes, like a vintage, beaded flapper dress. Unfortunately it needed repair and the fabric was shredding. Most of these clothes were her "summer" clothes and I knew she would never wear them again simply because she is always so cold, she has to wear sweaters. I know she won't be wearing that black cocktail dress with spaghetti straps or the belly dancing costume. Still, I just had to keep those.

Sunday evening we had our leftover chicken and dumplings and she remembered the restaurant and the party, but she didn't know who Jon and I were. It upsets Jon when she doesn't know she's his mother. She decided she wanted to go to bed, but when Jon and I started to watch a movie, she wanted to watch, too. The movie was "Cadillac Records", so of course she couldn't understand a word. She has had almost no exposure to African Americans, so she didn't get the movie at all. But that didn't stop her from watching the entire thing - periodically saying, "This is the craziest thing I've ever seen. I don't understand any of it." This is her mantra. It works.