"Smoke pot! Support a lesbian! Go Oregon!"

Three Whittakers and one Wheeler! We all look a little high in this picture, but if I may be vain for a moment, I also think its one of the best pictures ever taken of me. That's Isha, Beckah (who really was high on painkillers, but whose hair looks great), Jill, and me. And for the record, even though the title of this blog and the picture I posted may suggest otherwise, I'm not gay.

Hey howdy hey Blogosphere!

I haven't touched this blog in ages. Time to start back up again!

I'm here in Oregon, visiting the family for Thanksgiving. Probably for the last time, which is really weird to think about. Daddy got accepted by the State Department, so Mary, Dad and Melissa are moving to D.C. in January, and then to some foreign country a few months after that--won't know where until February. So really, this could be one of the last times all 6 of the Whittakers are in the same room at the same time for who knows how many years. What with different colleges, possible marriages, etc, we might not all be together for a long time. How surreal. Also one of the reasons we're having a family portrait taken tomorrow.

Its been a really great visit. Weird, but good. This year, I do know a few more people here, so there's someone to actually go out and see besides my family. I got to see Fune, who I worked with at Playmill this last summer, and I got to see Jillian, and that was great. I went and saw them in rehearsal for "A Christmas Carol," which is also starring...MY DAD! Its so wonderful to see him onstage. He hasn't done anything theatrical like this for at least 20 years. He's so good at it, and it comes so naturally to him, I've always said he should do it more often. He's playing Jacob Marley, and also "Gentleman #2." I was sitting there in the gym with my camera like I was the proud parent. =) Also during the process of hanging out in rehearsal, I've met the coolest family EVER. Several of the kids (from ages 14 to 5 or so) are in the show...Israel, Liam, Avalon, and 2 other boys whose names I've forgotten. A lot of the cast is LDS, but they're Jewish, and your average Oregonian hippies as well. Little Liam is playing Tiny Tim--he's about 6 I think, and he's a riot. I adore this kid. They're all such hams. And Israel does a killer British accent, and he's like what? 12? When their Dad came and picked them all up, he left with a kid slung over his shoulder and all the rest climbing all over him. As he walked out the door, he yelled "Peace!" Which was followed by choruses of "Peace!" "Peace!" "Peace!" as all the kids yelled the same thing after him. I was walking behind them and was already smiling about THAT, when I heard the Dad say "Ok, let's go. Where's Liam? Oh. Hey, quit hanging on my lower arms or I'll break your face." What a fun family. =)

But then again, I've got my own. We're a little different, and we've had (have) our rocky spots, but altogether, I'm loving being with them. The following has occurred during the course of the last week:

My stepmom has tried to marry me off to my cousins.

I've learned to make pumpkin pie and pie crust.

We watched a documentary called "Trekkies" with my family about Star Trek fanatics. We laughed, but the best part was that we laughed half of the time, and the other half of the time discussed our favorite Star Trek characters and Captain Kirk's middle name.

I've discussed music theory with my sisters while doing the dishes.

We had a dance/singing party while trying to make Thanksgiving dinner. Which is difficult since our kitchen comfortably fits one person, maybe two, and there were at least 4 or 5 of us at any given moment.

The family's also trying to sell the house, and we woke up (around noon) to learn that people were coming to look at it in an hour, so we managed to get dressed, eat breakfast, and clean the house top to bottom (vacuumed, dusted, mopped, scrubbed toilets, made beds, etc). Like 4 of us did everything. In less than an hour.

We went over to Jillian's house to watch/help Jill shave Fune's head. He had grown a mo-hawk for the last show he was in, so she just shaved it off.

Melissa has her learner's permit, so I went out driving with her around Union tonight for her to get some practice tonight. Which was a little scary. But okay. Good practice for when I have kids of my own, I suppose.

Watched my stepmom attempt to sing happy birthday to my father in the style of Marilyn Monroe. Which only sort of worked.

Ah, the Whittakers. We're hoping to have a Whittaker Dance Party tomorrow night, hopefully with Jill and maybe Fune as well. Because if anything is a family tradition, a Whittaker Dance Party is one.

Anyway, speaking of tradition, I'll end this entry with a quote and a picture. Although in this case, they're not necessarily related. I close mine epistle with this amusing conversation that took place during the movie "Trekkies" last night:

Me: Is LaVar Burton gay?
Dad: He's wearing contacts.
Mary: Who, him? His name's LaVar.

"PEACE!!!"