Decompressing...

Got back from the R-Up yesterday. Jim took a shower, piled several boxes and torn paper bags of crap on the counters and floor (exclaiming at the time "how easy it was to unpack!"), and then hopped in the car for a 6-hour drive to hunting camp. Madeleine stayed in Pendleton an extra day with Granny, so Quinn and I have been busily cleaning, washing clothes and putting away food etc. Or not. I drank a Bridgeport and he made sure all of the bags of crap were equally scattered around the living room. Round-Up was a measured success, by which I mean there was much Let'ErBucking, toasting, eating, dancing, laughing and yelling. Yelling across the Rainbow for another Bloody Mary, yelling above the whine of the Tilt-O-Whirl for cousin Owen to help Madeleine get in the Octopus, yelling for the red team in the Indian Horse Races, and yelling Let 'Er Buck just whenever.

I've made three attempts at encapsulating the event in tidy sentences and paragraphs, and each attempt was worse than the previous. This is all I got: it's a yearly gathering at my nearly-90 grandfather's house for my family and friends and 50,000 other people that happen to like fun stuff. In addition, this year's festivities included an early birthday party for Grampa DaDa at the Elk's Club, replete with a slide show presented by one brother, a bizarre but not unusual performance in drag by my other two brothers, and a song written for DaDa, sung by all in attendance, accompanied by my mom on fiddle, brother on ukelele, and step-pa Jan and friends Scott and Max on guitar.

If you weren't in Pendleton this year, I'm sorry. You would've liked it but would be cursing right now as you tried to get the slivers out of your ass and the Let'Er Buck Room stickers off your boobs. If you were there and you're reading this, you're welcome to comment with your favorite moment. Mine was during the slideshow at DaDa's party, a picture popped up of him dressed in all white with my Grandma in some kind of witch's outfit. When he was asked in front of the group what his interesting costume was supposed to be, he responded, "Well, I got into that ladies pants..." at which point the laughter drowned out the rest of the explanation.

Here are a couple shots, and the rest are on Flickr... have at it.... orrrr, not... fucking Blogger. Anyway here's the link to the photos. I'll try to put some up here sometime when I've got nothing else to do and lots of free time in front of me...