We almost didn’t make it to see Chris. On the last hill on the way to his house, the bus decided that she was tired and couldn’t move anymore. So we just sat there in park for about five minutes, and I guess it was a good enough rest, so we were able to continue on. Chris drove us to lunch in his new sporty Jeep that he had just bought (Dad: “Is this a Hummer?”). Our second vegetarian lunch was literarily named Soylent Green. “Awesome,” said dad. After Chris graduated from Tulane, he married his sweetheart, Kendra, and the two of them moved all over the country: Vermont, San Francisco, Florida, Eugene. Twelve years later, they had Sam, who is now four, and loves big vehicles, including our bus. Turns out, their family recently visited ESA, had seen the bus on campus and took a tour of it then. This time, Sam sat in the driver’s seat and Dad showed him how to work everything, including the PA system. He told us to “sit down and shut up.” Just like a bus driver.
Before we met Sam and Kendra, who had spent the day blueberry picking, Chris took us on somewhat of a tour of Eugene, including stopping at a bank to let Isabelle deposit a check. We drove up into a park that was bursting with rhododendrons (ok, we saw a bunch of leaves) and we got there right as the sprinkler system got going. I have to admit that I dozed off in the car, so when we found Pre’s Rock, I was vaguely aware that this person had graduated from ESA, was a great runner, and died in a car accident. Most of this is true except for the ESA part. Anyway, Dad was into the memorial, and after considering how to take a picture with it, said, “Oh! This is how all the grade girls do it!” Isabelle and I have started a daily tally on how many times he compares himself to a woman. Our favorite might have been, “I feel just like a 9th grade girl!” after Emily Johnson offered to pick us up in a car in Portland.
(Dad posing with Pre as a teenage girl)
Chris now works at an almost brand-new hospital in internal medicine, but works on a salary so he doesn’t have to worry about whether his patients have health coverage or not. That said, he doesn’t think that the health care bill went far enough. I was surprised—I think he may be the first doctor that I’ve met with this opinion. This may be due to living in the south, because Chris said he was not alone in his thinking.
I’m really sad that we forgot to take a picture of the entire family, but here’s what Chris said about them, “We have so much fun, the three of us.”
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