Boldly Go

So this last week was the final week of my mom's visit which has been very bittersweet for me. I hate to see her go, but it's been nice having her around to hang out with Cleo, to see the two of them bond, and for me to enjoy the air conditioning in the RV! I feel confident saying the visit was a success and we're all looking forward to a much longer visit next summer!

To take some of the gloom out of her leaving, we decided to end on a high note by seeing Trek in the Park, which was Cleo's first and, sadly, last experience with this as this is the last year of the event. I'm pretty bummed about it, but I understand. Atomic Arts started it five years ago as a quirky event, it then grew to be a "Portland Thing" complete with a parody of it on Portlandia, and now it's become an institution. My step-father phrased it best when he pointed out that voluntarily pouring your time and effort into a project you are passionate about is one thing, being obligated to do it is an entirely different experience.

Since I worked that morning, I had to relinquish organizational control of the gathering to entirely to H, which was really hard for me. We're talking my mom, step-dad, two dogs, a baby, H, H's mom, and me showing up later. You have to get there 3-4 hours early, so she would need to bring food for all of us, the dogs, and the kiddo. Plus it's Portland so you have to prepare for both sun AND rain.

With the exception of H's mom who wasn't able to make it due to some bad luck, H pulled things together and it went off really, really well. Atomic Arts did "The Trouble with Tribbles" this year and it has felt like half of Portland has been making tribbles for the past few months to help them with this. The production was fun and the guy who plays Scotty stole the show (just as James Doohan does in the original broadcast) and to my personal delight they included the part where Kirk continues to get pelted by tribbles as he is stranded under a pile of them.

My favorite part of the live version though? Not even on stage. It happened when, 10 minutes into the show, it started raining. The show didn't miss a beat and neither did the audience, and my step-dad said in surprise when looking at the crowd, "Wow! No one's even moving to get out of the rain!" Portland. As. Hell!

Most importantly, the parents liked it. Making people wait for four hours in the sun on a blanket with a baby and dogs and then having to watch a show in the rain sets the bar pretty high, but thankfully, I feel like it met the expectations! Thanks for the good times Atomic Arts! Live long and prosper!

Ain't no tribble at all!