Table Talk - "Did I really just say that?"

"The Baileys lost five chickens this week," I relayed to Jeff after church today, referring to the misfortune of a family in our church. He looked up from the basketball game he was watching with Tyler and Marcus and asked, "Coyotes?" "Yes," I replied, "They think it was coyotes."

Marcus remarked from the couch: "Karyn, did you ever think a few years ago you'd be saying that?"

"Saying what?" I asked, not quite understanding what he was getting at. "About the Baileys' chickens?"

"Yeah," he said, and then he repeated me: "The Baileys lost five chickens this week." He gave the sentence just a twinge of a twang.

I got it...and I laughed. He was right. Five years ago, I would never have said that sentence in reference to any family in my church. What a contrast moving here! I suddenly pictured myself in a gingham apron settin' Sunday dinner on the table and callin' up everyone to the table for fried chicken, ham, collard greens and deviled eggs, saying in that same matter-of-fact tone, "The Baileys lost five chickens this week."

Oh, the charms of country life! It's a whole new world. Sometimes I wonder why I still bother wearing high-heels and a smart skirt to church...I look at myself in the mirror and think, "Do I even fit in?" But I go ahead and wear it because I like it and it makes me feel good...a little bit of city class in the country cool.

Day before yesterday I was driving with two of my kids into Portland when I exclaimed about a twisted, broken guardrail along the highway that had been damaged from a car accident, which had apparently been there a week or so, and then freaked out about all the coyotes in the field, which were really decoys (good ones, too, because they totally fooled me!). Justin said, "Mom, you haven't been out of Newberg for awhile, have you?"

Wow, is it that obvious?

So, I'm doing a big-city injection this week to innoculate me against my small-town syndrome!

After dropping Justin off in Portland to start his trip to southern Cal, Kate and I went shopping for clothes and make-up and then groceries at my favorite Whole Foods store. Next day--yesterday--it was Kate I was driving in to Portland to catch a plane to Denver and then I picked Anna up from campus and we went to a hip food cart in a funky food-cart park for a greasy gourmet burger and then to Stumptown for a classic Portland coffee. Today Jeff and I headed back in to Portland this afternoon to see a movie. And tomorrow I'll be back in Portland yet again to take Anna back to school and pick up Kate from the airport. Hopefully all that will cure me for awhile!

(But I really was concerned about the Baileys' chickens!)

I haven't done a "Table Talk" for quite awhile...sometimes life gets in the way.  But we still pack our dining room table every Sunday for a big dinner.  Today we celebrated Jeff's birthday. In our family, if it's your birthday you get to choose the menu, and I have extended our family tradition to include our PBC gang who join us every weekend. Last week we celebrated two birthdays for John and Lucas.  John chose bacon-wrapped steak and cheesecake. Since Lucas is from Brazil, we gave the menu a Brazilian twist by serving authentic Brazilian cheese bread and dark, rich coffee that I had brought home from Brazil, and I made a caramel banana cheesecake (Brazilians eat bananas with just about every meal, both savory and sweet, for breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert). Today, Jeff chose his favorite: Traditional roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, carrots sauteed in a splash of sweet pomegranate vinegar, lots of butter and pearl onions, salad with bleu cheese (his Danish heritage comes out in his love for strong bleu cheese), and perfect, puffy Yorkshire pudding.   Dessert was a mocha layer cake.   Everything was delicious!