Making like a tree

My family and I moved to Spokane 2 ½ years ago so that I could attend graduate school.  My oldest daughter started school here, and so did my son.  My youngest was practically still a baby when we moved.  We hadn’t planned on what would happen after my MFA completion, other than that we’d move anywhere I could get a job. 

Some of these are mine and I miss the rest.  The kids wished
for a magic closet door that would take them from
Spokane to Billings or vice versa anytime they wanted. 

          Turns out, I couldn’t get a job, or a new one anyway.  I applied fervently for several months and received not one bite, and so decided to stick with my work-at-home job in medical transcription.  I work digitally so that can follow me anywhere.  After I had trouble finding a new and exciting job in the world of writing, my partner and I decided we wanted to move back to Montana.  My kids have many cousins there and I love all those kids so much.  I want to be around them, I want my kids to be around them, while they’re still young.

                That was the plan, to happen this summer after the kids finish school.  It turns out, though, that we’re going to be moving much sooner than planned – next week, in fact, we’ll be leaving the Evergreen State for the Big Sky State.  My partner and I have experienced a lot of the great things Spokane has to offer, like Pig Out in the Park, the Spokane Pride Events, Riverside Park, Centennial Trail.  But we haven’t done a lot of things, too, and that’s why we decided to put our Spokane Bucket List into high gear for our final weeks.  Here’s how we fared: 

IMAX.  We took the kids to see a program called Arabia.   I had thought the IMAX was 3D, but it’s not.  The screen was big and took a minute to get used to, but the show was beautiful and informative, and the nachos were fabulous.  Bonus:  The show was 40 minutes, short enough that the kids were able to enjoy the beauty of the ocean and desert and the amazing gathering at Mecca and eat their snacks happily and without a trace of bored fidgeting.  

Poetry reading / Uncle’s Games.  My former poetry professor, Chris Howell, released a new collection recently, called Gaze, and I was happy to be able to attend one last reading in Spokane, where I also attended my very first reading, and at the same place that first reading took place – Auntie’s Books.  I’ve been to Auntie’s any number of times, but my partner had not, and I’d actually never been inside Uncle’s Games.  So while I nestled into my MFA community at the reading (amazing!  Check it out here!), my partner and kids explored Uncle’s. This one was a two-fer!   

Dick’s.  The partner had been begging to get a bag of burgers ever since we moved.  So off we went to Dick’s, and with my partner’s instructions to get a “bunch” of burgers, I got 12 plus some other good stuffu like shakes and onion rings.  My partner can EAT, folks, and he only ate 4.  Dick’s was a success.  Yum.   

Milford’s.  We needed some good seafood before we headed inland, and we heard this was the place to go.  Fancy-gorgeous salads.  Mine had very thin green apple slices drizzled in some sauce with sea salt, with kalamata olives.  Partner’s had orzo pasta salad and olives.  I got parmesan crusted perch which was really really good, and he got fried catfish in kind of a sweet and sour sauce.  Loved the atmosphere – we were very close to the front and the door, but the way it’s set up we didn’t even notice and, get this, I didn’t freeze my butt off like I usually do at restaurants.  There was a huge Valentine’s red and white flowery burst right in front of our table, and we both loved it a whole bunch and left our server a big tip.  

I was lost, but then I was found.

Hide & Seek at Manito.  My kids, partner and I have played over there a handful of times.  In the early summer we played in the Lilac gardens there, crouching behind the purple or white bursts, ignoring the other park goers walking through, waiting to be found with a squeal.  This time we had a friend with us, fellow Alala Mama Rhea’s daughter, who’s the same age as my oldest, and we had a great couple of games near the rose gardens. 

Book Traders.  Up in the Garland district, we’d seen the small storefront in passing, and last summer we finally got a chance to visit.  We’d just gotten married and left our kids in Montana to have a stay-honeymoon here in Spokane.  So we visited Book Traders last summer, and loved it so much I knew I had to stop in once more.  I found five more fabulous books, including one of The Black Stallion series.   I love a book store that’s slightly dark, maybe a little musty, and bursting with books.  This place has so many that boxes of extra books line the floors at the bottom of every shelf.  I spent an hour there and only after that did I come upon the poetry, literature, and biography sections, my favorite sections.  Bonus:  There’s a sign that says you can volunteer there and earn books!  Even bonuser:  Both times I patronized this store, I paid less than expected because they give you discounts if there’s even a tiny bit of damage.  A great place for a book lover.  

We didn’t make it to Mount Spokane or ride the gondola at Riverfront.  We didn’t get to eat at Mizuna or The Melting Pot, or hear my friend and MFA buddy Liz Rognes sing and play her guitar once more.    I promise to visit, though, because I love some of the people here, and maybe I can still scratch some of those off the list.   I’ll be sure to tell everyone back home, because it has come up more than I thought—it’s Seattle that is supposed to rain a lot, and Spokane’s weather is pretty much identical to Montana’s.  Thanks for having us, Spokane. 


Cross-posted at The Spovangelist.