The Gorge is the most amazing music venue on earth.
You know how sometimes you go on a vacation that has lots of potential, but then it actually winds up being stupid and boring and a huge waste of money and time, but instead of actually copping to that, you make up stories about how wonderful it was?
My vacation was the exact opposite of that. :)
I was worried.. we had less people coming than usual, we're all older and have more responsibilities, I was hanging out with a married couple - third wheel syndrome, anyone? But none of that mattered... we picked up right where we left off. Three stooges. So many moments that were hilariously perfect.
I could write probably 50 pages, but noone would ever read it, right? So, probably randomly, I'll just offer up tidbits as they come to me.
The first one is not about the trip, really, but something interesting on the plane ride home. On the last leg of my long journey home, a man entered my plane. He was, quite simply, a giant. A true, living, breathing giant. Now, I may be short, so many people are "tall" to me, but this man was bent in half as he walked down the aisle of the plane. I'd never seen anything like it.
I immediately thought of how annoying that may be, to have a physical characteristic that truly sets you apart from every single other person and makes people stare. I may be fat or short or anything else that defines me, but I know I'm not THE fattest or THE shortest or THE whatever that anyone has ever seen. I wondered about his life, and the challenges he has to endure.
This entire trip was my first time in first class. I had lucked out on a promotion where I got the ticket for free. I decided that first class isn't all it's cracked up to be. While it's nice to have extra room, it was room that I didn't need... my feet barely touched the ground and I could have barely touched the seat in front of me if I stretched out my legs. So as I sat there in my first class seat, thinking about this man, I was overwhelmed with the desire to go back and ask him if he wanted to switch seats so he could have the room. I thought about it and thought about it. I'd love to end the story with me having done it and him having eternal gratitude, but of course that's not the case. My natural reserve and dislike of calling attention to myself overrided the desire to do it - and, I wasn't sure how he would react. Would he have been offended? I'll never know.
As we waited for our luggage, I got my first good look at him standing up. He had to duck as he came through the doorway of the large baggage claim area! I found the second tallest guy in the room who looked to be about 6'5 and this guy was clearly heads above him, so the giant was probably closer to 8'0 if not over. He was in his 30's, very good looking. I watched as the 100 or so people in the room pretended not to be staring (just like me, I'm ashamed to admit). Again, how weird that must be? Although if you've never known anything else, maybe not?
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