Wednesday, July 30
I had to leave work early today to go to traffic court in Tigard for my accident. I was given a citation even though the accident wasn’t entirely my fault. The judge asked me how I plead, and I said guilty with the chance for an explanation. He warmly addressed me, noting my perfect driving record, and informed me that the officer didn’t even bother writing up a report. So, he reduced the penalty, I paid it and was on my way.
It was over much faster than I thought, so, I drove into Portland to finish my notes for my writer’s group. I went to the Everett Street Bistro in the Pearl and grabbed a table outside. For dinner I had the organic greens salad with warm goat cheese and pickled red onions, and then the pommes frites, which were guaranteed gluten-free, that were prepared with rosemary, herbs and whole roasted cloves of garlic. It was divine! I had a glass of pink bubbles with it. As I noshed on the savory frites, I thought it was a good thing I didn’t have a boyfriend! I was going to reek of onions and garlic.
After, I drove over to St. Johns to the Writer’s Dojo for my writer’s group. It was a good night of helping my co-writers. We had lively discussions and, after a mention of ET, even looked up the song Heartlight by Neil Diamond because the group couldn’t believe the song was the theme of ET. We Googled it. By the end of the evening, we were talking about a writing event, where we’d write on napkins – cocktail napkins, linen napkins and then the one dude in the group said sanitary napkins, to which I asked how the name ever came to be. I said, they’re not really napkins and after awhile, not so sanitary. We laughed. And then I said, what about the tampon? Where does that name come from? I’ll bet there was a German guy named Tampon who came up with them. Our token guy, and host, put on a German accent and said, “you shove ze tampon in and it clogs ze flow.” So, we Googled tampons, as well, a word that’s root is French for “plug”. So, naturally, we all started annunciating loudly ‘tampon’ with French accents. Anyway, it was a fun night and we got a lot accomplished. I’m really grateful to be a part of this writer’s group.
