Blurb: Parental Anxiety, torrential Rains | uncomplimentary tastes

"Twenty, Twenty - four hours to go....I wanna be sedated...." [---Sung by The Ramones. ] And inevitably the theme song for my night of Hell.....

Well when I last left the blog, my daughter was very ill. Now, the intermittent fever of 104 ° F had ceased, she was medicated. And best of all she was driving mommy nuts in her oh-so-cute-toddler fashion, which is normal and pleasant. So we were relieved, and feeling out of the danger zone.

And that is why, when a friend invited us to stay at their family beach house in Seaside, Oregon - I gleefully excepted. It was going to be fun : good friends, laughs, drinks - all on the Oregon coast. Oh adult conversation and the like - where could we go wrong?

Yes where? When? Funny how the human body sneaks up on you. After the rainy drive through Portland...



now some of you are thinking , Isn't Portland & the Pacific Northwest in general - rainy? ultimately yes, but we have had a very dry Winter. Also the temperature has not dipped under 55°F in the last month - even elevating to 75°F , with plenty of sun.

....The mists were dense on the mountains and made the coastal forest appear ghostly and mysterious. Water littering the concrete spilled out into the cracks and red clay that made up the forest floor.

Water was streaming up my passenger side window - pushed outward from the sheer force of wind, intensified by the speed at which we were traveling.



We traveled onward, ever nearing the small coastal towns that lined the hilly forest scape, with names like "Mist" and "Veronia".

Once we did arrive in Seaside, the streets were sparsely inhabited. Locals & a few gutsy tourists braved the Gail force winds, plummeted by rain. We arrived at the house - a big beautiful craftsman, with a river stone facade and stereotypical low lying porch with columns. The inside was light and airy, it had a 1930's cabin feel. The kitchen was my favorite - large and tiled from floor to ceiling. There was a large island with range top, overhead a pan rack hung strung peppers, garlic & herbs. Every appliance you would want in a modern kitchen was there. Then you could walk into the dining room - a long heavy rectangular table & comfortable wicker lined captains chairs lined the room. Over head a rustic candelabra hung low, making for an intimate dining experience.

The house was full of windows. Full of big overstuffed Italian leather chairs - inviting you to lounge, while the waves could be heard crashing outside. The View from the Eastside of the house provided a look out onto the sand dunes, beyond was a view of the ocean. Nothing else to inhibit the view.

We settled in to the guest bedroom - complete with it's own living space & bathroom. Everything was going fine. The weather however had made up it's mind to send out the banshees - to howl their mournful, threatening cries. To thrash the waves about, making them swell into a woeful threatening mess. Sand was now a weapon furled at unsheltered victims - stinging flesh.

As the night wore on we made stir fry, unfortunately someone had purchased sweet potatoes & Thai peanut sauce for the dish. Now I have nothing against either ingredient, but when paired together - they do not complement each other, especially if added to a host of other ingredients: broccoli, onions , garlic, red peppers, Tofu, hot pepper. What happened is the sweet potato broke up & the starch encased all the other ingredients. The peanut sauce dampened by the sweet potato was not good at all. It had a bitter after taste.

If I had had my way I would've used teriaki sauce, omitted the sweet potato all together.

My daughter was screaming at the dining table, and I got up to take her to our room. She starting having stomach cramps and intestinal troubles. I couldn't get her to sleep. Finally after 2 hrs of trying,she layed down on the bed and fell asleep. Once she was secured I went upstairs to have some espresso and Baily's Irish Cream. As the night wore down, we realized that the weather wasn't improving, and there was a scramble to get the DVD player connection working. Unfortunately the surround ect. Was much more complicated & we didn't have the correct cables.

My daughter woke up, 2 hours later, screaming and the events that followed were quite scary indeed. She was writhing at times in pain. And her diapers were horrible. I was up with her, trying to settle her until 6 a.m. She would not lay down & would scream violently. We decided to wait it out until the morning - then if she wasn't better we'd go to urgent care. She had no fever, which told me it was something viral.

Sure enough by morning she was more herself - I let her sleep until noon. But even so she still wasn't doing well. I wasn't much for company - I couldn't stop fretting over my daughter's health. Plus I hadn't that much sleep and I was emotionally drained. I told my husband we should leave. We packed and said our goodbyes, I felt frustrated that we couldn't stay. I didn't want such "mommy" duties to get in the way.


Coming home....