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Write In My Journal

Everyone has a story to tell

PieDecember 22 2008

My wife, son, sister and I went home to Oregon for Thanksgiving. I absolutely love being in the house I grew up in, visiting old haunts and enjoying the general green splendor of my home state.

There are certain traditions that must be followed whenever we go home to Oregon (usually about twice a year). On is going to the Marrakesh for dinner.

The Marrakesh is a Moroccan restaurant downtown Portland. Patrons sit on the floor, eat all five courses with their hands (everyone gets a bath towel for a napkin), and get a rosewater hand rinse afterward to cover up the scent of the food. It’s a great experience, although we were worried about taking my 18 month-old son because…well…he’s 18 months old. He ended up doing quite well and thought it was a lot of fun to peek out between the curtains behind our table and look at the passersby on the street, his little head barely poking above the seat.

Sure enough, people walking past started noticing him and smiling. One person even stopped to take a picture. I stood up and ran outside. The photographer, “Pie” (she asked that I not use her real name), thought I was going to get mad at her for taking pictures of my son. In

Amy LynnDecember 3 2008

If I wasn’t a klutz, Amy Lynn and I wouldn’t have met.

We sat facing opposite directions on those rows of chairs so common in airport boarding areas. I set my wife’s water bottle on the seat next to me, but it fell between the seats. The lid popped open and the bottle rolled toward her duffel bag, water pouring out of it. I stood up and sprinted around the row of seats, kicked her bag out of the way and grabbed her boarding pass which was sitting nearby.

I’m sure she probably thought I was nuts - some guy with a social disorder, running around airports kicking people’s carry-on luggage.

I explained what had happened and apologized. She was very kind about it and wasn’t upset in the slightest. After returning to my seat I asked her if she’d like to write in my journal. Her teammate/friend piped up: “She’d be perfect for that!”

Sure enough, Amy is an avid journaler and pulled out her own journal to show off. She ended up getting on the plane before me (with my journal). When she was done, she sent my journal back to me via a flight attendant. I didn’t get a picture of her until we landed in Oregon and I tracked her down at the baggage claim.

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A WIMJ update - on a personal noteNovember 19 2008

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve posted a new story. Please know that I haven’t forgotten about the project!

The good news is that the reason I haven’t been out and about as much is that my wife and I are expecting our second child! We’re very excited for the new addition (due in late May).

However, having a pregnant wife along with a very active toddler who is running around, drawing on my iPod, throwing my computer mouse against the wall and generally acting like a normal 18 month-old means fewer outings. I’ve also been driving to work more often (instead of taking the train) due to hectic mornings wrangling my son and helping my morning-sick-feeling wife. In addition to all that, the entire family is just getting over nasty head colds.

It’s been an eventful few weeks.

Things are falling back into a routine now, and I hope to have some new posts up shortly. I’ve also realized there are so many stories out there waiting to be told, and I obviously can’t collect them all, so I’ve decided to open up Write In My Journal to contributors! I think it would be wonderful to have dozens (hundreds?) of people out there collecting stories that can be shared on this site.

Interested in participating? Check out the new Contributors page for all the details, or feel free to email me with any questions.

Get an up

CrystalOctober 30 2008

It was just after 7:00 am and Crystal was standing behind my sister and me in line at a university bookstore. They were having a sale on Apple products (educational discount plus no sales tax!) and we were both picking up new laptops. She asked me about the preinstalled software on the machines she was buying. Being a bit of a geek, I’m always happy to talk tech, and so our conversation began.

Crystal is getting her undergrad in exercise and sports science and will pursue her master’s in the same. She teaches yoga and is an avid outdoorswoman. When I mentioned that I’d never skied in Utah (something nearly blasphemous when living in this state) she asked, slightly baffled, “What do you do if you don’t spend time outdoors?”

I never would have guessed that Crystal had the difficult background she wrote about based on interacting with her. She has been proactive overcoming her trials and is now trying to help others do the same.

If I had to come up with a single word to describe Crystal it would probably be genuine. She’s one of those people who makes whoever she’s around feel important. Crystal would be a good friend: fun, sincere, and outgoing. It was a pleasure to have met her.

An update from VickyOctober 20 2008

I got an e-mail from Vicky the other day. I received enough comments and e-mails of concern about her that I thought it would be appropriate to pass along the happy news:

Good afternoon David,

It’s Vicky Johnson. I haven’t written you in quite some time. I’ve been really busy trying to get my life together.

So basically, what’s been going on these past few months is:

-I started school at East High about 3 weeks ago. A little late, but I did it. The reason I didn’t start on time was because my dad didn’t want to register me. He assumed that because I didn’t do so well in school the years before, the same would happen this year. So I talked to the VOA drop-in center for homeless youth, and they taught me that because I am homeless, I could register myself for school and due to a law they have (i don’t at this moment remember the name of this law), they cannot refuse me. So I registered myself for school, without anyones help. And I’m doing pretty well. I just get really anxious