The Porstrom Moms

The First Decade in Pictures

2010-01-18T05:49:00.000-08:00

Payton Clark @ 9 months

Josh learning to walk again 2001

Singapore Skyline 2000

Kori & Brad Clark 2005

Bali with Amie, Dean, Shane & Janese 2006

2005 - Kori's wedding

Shane & Janese - Singapore 2006

Carol Benedict 1952-2003

Family Cruise 2000

Climbing Mt. Batur in Bali 2007

12 grandkids -- 2008

A New Decade

2010-01-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

The older we get, the faster time goes by. It's pretty amazing. Our oldest grandkids have their learners permits and are driving! Our newest grandbaby who it seems was born just yesterday, is now 9 months old and crawling all over. Maybe the oddest thing about getting old is that I don't feel old. I look at pictures of myself, or look in the magnifying mirror (thanks Kori!), and wonder who that wrinkled face belongs to :) I still feel like I'm 18. I still want to experience everything that life has to offer.

Ten years ago, we were living in Singapore, and celebrated Y2K at the Boom Boom Room, watching a drag show. Then we went down to Orchard Road with 500K other people and cheered in amazement that the world hadn't ended at midnight after all.

The last decade whizzed by and was jam packed with lots of major life events-- moving back to CA, Josh's accident, moving to Portland, new jobs, new grandkids, new kids-in-law, new grand nieces and nephews, new friends, fabulous vacations with old friends and family, enjoying 2 years without working to explore the world, and the loss of Shaun's sister Carol and best friend Nanny. On March 4, 2004, Shaun and I got married! And a few months later, got our $60 license fee returned and our marriage voided.

Our hope for the next decade is continued health and safety for our friends and family, that our grandchildren who will be old enough to choose life partners pick someone who will fill their life with love and laughter, for peace, for continued adventures and the opportunity to experience the world, and for our right to legally marry. We've been together for almost 12 years now, it's time!

We're baaaaaaaaack!

2009-10-10T13:08:00.000-07:00

"The Girlfriends" - Tijuana, Mexico 2008

Virgin de Guadalupe, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico December 2009

Shaun dancing with Joan & Bill's (our friends we were housesitting for) neighbors in SMA at the Festival Virgin de Guadalupe

Dancing at the Festival Virgin de Guadalupe in San Miguel de Allende

Payton Clark, grandbaby #13, 5 months Sept. 2009

Mom and her new "boyfriend" Jack at 87 and 89! - Sept. 2009;

Mom and Jack with Payton

November 2008 - posing for Xmas photos

I went back to work in March 2009 for Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield where I am doing Strategic Planning for IT. It was just too scary being retired in the midst of financial ruins and I decided I needed a paycheck and benefits again for awhile for my mental well being :) After 30 years of management, I thought I'd try something different and do a staff consulting role. It's a very time consuming job, and many days I feel like the energy expended < the results!

Shaun has been babysitting Payton, grandchild #13, and the only one who lives in the Portland area, 2 mornings a week. We are loving being able to see her often and watch her grow week by week. Shaun is also writing a book about her fascinating life, though it might become a work of fiction so if it does, act like you don't know it was based on her life :)

We haven't traveled much the past few months....work is getting in the way of life. We miss it terribly. We are planning a trip to New Orleans for Thanksgiving week and look forward to that.

My Mom came to visit with her new "boyfriend" Jack in September. She is 87 and he is 89 and both are blessed with good mental and physical health. They are like 2 teenagers in love. It's wonderful.

I spent last weekend with "The Girlfriends" hanging out in a hotel in Portland. We got together in the spring in Hood River, OR and will meet again in Palm Springs (or somewhere else warm and sunny) early in 2010. We have been hangin' since we first met at HP in 1985 in Palo Alto. We have been through births of kids, deaths of parents, marriages, divorce, empty nests, comings out, cancer and just about everything life has to offer. I am so thankful that I have these wonderful ladies in my life.

I recently reconnected with my BFF from high school days. We aren't sure how long it's been since we were last in touch. I thought she still lived in NYC and she's been in LA for 16 years, so it's been a long, long time.....maybe 20-25 years. Anyway, it was great to talk to her today and catch up a little on a lot of years.

Tourists

2008-11-26T10:00:00.000-08:00

We decided this trip to do a "photo essay" on tourists! Here are some of my favorite shots. (Note one of the photos is how tourists should look!) Whether they are posing for group photos, wearing his and hers matching outfits, wearing bathing suits which provide way too much information, taking photos on a cyclo ride , or wearing an entire hat collection on the airplane home, it's fascinating to watch people.

More on Viet Nam

2008-11-25T10:12:00.000-08:00

Shaun and I traveled to Ho Chi Minh City in 2000. We fell in love with it. We loved the charm of the city and the people and loved seeing the local school children and women in their beautiful ao dai dresses. We have wanted to go back to see more of Viet Nam which we finally did in November 2008. We spent time in Hanoi and Halong Bay. If you travel to Hanoi, be sure to use either CP Taxi or Hanoi Taxi, because many of the taxi companies attach their horns to the meters. Needless to say, there is lots of honking going on!!! The houses are very tall, deep and narrow, because taxes are assessed on the width of the home only. Houses are painted only on the facade (the expensive part) . The local paints wash off in the rain, so the people who can afford it buy "paint in cans". We saw several young couples taking wedding pictures since it was an "auspicious week" in their lunar calendar (which also meant that twice in that part of the lunar calendar month, the locals would be eating dog). Zoe Marie just doesn't know how lucky she is to have been born and raised in the Pacific NW, USA. She could have been somebody's dinner in Viet Nam, or an untended street dog with mange in Bali!

Viet Nam and Maslow's Hierarchy

2008-11-25T09:15:00.000-08:00

In November we traveled to Hanoi and Halong Bay, Viet Nam. We were greeted at the Hanoi airport by Hnuang, a charming young woman who would be our guide for the entire week. She took us to points of interest and helped us understand the culture and daily life in Hanoi. Removed from our daily pursuit of self actualization, we were reminded of how much we take for granted in regards to our physical safety, a very basic human need.

A recent helmut law was implemented because more there are more than 1000 deaths a month on scooters. To enforce the new helmut law, the police were shooting offenders with rubber bullets while they were riding!
There are hundreds of overhead electrical wires. They are heavy and frequently fall on passerbys during high winds and rain.
Pedestrians, motorbikes, bicycles and cars coexist on the same roads. We just closed our eyes and walked when we needed to cross the street. The traffic moves slowly and everybody (well, obviously not everybody or there wouldn't be so many deaths!) weaves around slower moving objects! Our guide hit a pedestrian on her way to get us one morning while on her motorbike. She said that the woman was "walking too fast". So apparently, there is a speed limit for pedestrians too, though it's not posted.
Clearly we don't need to buy gas guzzling pickups. Motorbikes carry families of 4 or 5 at a time and also big loads of cargo.
The air quality is awful. Most motorbikers were face masks.
Returning from Halong Bay to Hanoi, there was a torrential rain, one of the worst in 25 years. The bridge into Hanoi was under water, so after observing others and ensuring they made it across a flooded area, our driver took us through 18" of water to get to a new bridge that hadn't yet opened. We drove across that bridge, and at the other side, there was an accident blocking the exit ramp. No problem, we crossed over traffic and exited from the on ramp where other cars were also beginning to cross the closed bridge! We made it back to the hotel and safely back to the Hanoi airport the next morning because we had a very resourceful driver who knew the higher roads.

We're off to Asia!

2008-10-23T05:50:00.000-07:00

This morning we are leaving for 3 weeks in Singapore, Viet Nam and Bali. We look forward to seeing some new places (Hanoi and Halong Bay), and visiting old friends in familiar places (Singapore and Bali). We will publish posts along our journey to keep in touch. Our friend Trink, will be joining us next week for the Bali portion of the trip. The picture was taken on a sunrise climb up the Mt. Batur volcano in Bali in 2007.

Fall in Portland

2008-10-23T05:41:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about living in Portland is the fall. When Shaun, Josh and I came up on a "preview" trip before moving here, we came at the peak of the foliage season and loved the beauty of the city and the crisp, clean air. We fell in love and never even went to see the other "candidates" for our next place to live. We bought a loft and six years later, we are still here and still in awe of the beauty and kindness of our surroundings. Last week, we drove to Multnomah Falls with our friends, Sheryl and Oliver, and enjoyed the scenery there. The tree is on NW 23rd Ave.--one of many amazingly beautiful ones.

The Girlfriends

2008-10-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

October 10-13, I went to Lake Tahoe with "The Girlfriends". We are 5 friends who met while working together at HP in 1986. We started off having lunches together, and quickly decided that an hour wasn't enough time, so started going out for dinner. In 1996, we decided that wasn't enough time either, and started spending a night away. We're now up to 3 nights at a time! We have been through marriage, birth of kids, kids off to college (with one about to graduate ), divorce, coming out, illnesses and deaths of parents, cancer, and just about anything else that life has to offer. We have been there for each other through all of life's challenges. We have spent weekends in Half Moon Bay, San Diego, Lake Tahoe, Portland, Seattle, a cruise to the Pacific NW (Vancouver and Nainaimo BC), Las Vegas and others. It really doesn't matter where we go because most of the time, we are just hanging out talking, laughing and keeping each other humble. Good friends are truly one of life's kindest blessings. These "guys" are the best friends one could hope for.

Race For the Cure

2008-09-21T11:19:00.000-07:00

This morning Shaun, Kori and I walked and ran in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Portland is one of the top 3 events in the country in terms of attendance and they were expecting 45,000 people today. Not bad for a town of 600K people!!!

Shaun ran the timed 5K race in a little over 26 minutes (she thinks). She will have her unofficial time by 5pm tonight. She really is a stud and I'm very proud of her. She worked hard preparing. After she ran her 5K, she met Kori and I and we walked the 5K with our friends and neighbors from the Pink Pearls. The Pink Pearls, sponsored by Hoyt Realty Group, is a social and philanthropic group of neighbors and friends. Hoyt Realty hosted several fund raising social events and raffled off a pink bicycle (which I didn't win in spite of buying 75 tickets!) this morning at a delicious brunch after the race. Thanks to Marilyn Anderson and her team at Hoyt Realty for creating this opportunity for us to come together for good causes and to meet our neighbors.

It's always gratifying to participate in this event. It's heart warming to watch the breast cancer survivors walk through their special lane at the finish line. The costumes are always interesting. Shaun and Kori customized our standard-issue t-shirts with fancy trim, belts, hoods, yokes, darts, and whatever else they could think of! Participants wear signs and ribbons honoring those they know who have had or do have breast cancer. One lady carried a big sign that said "Boobs for Obama"!

As we walked, we were mindful of our friends who have battled breast cancer. Ella, Rebecca, Linda, Leslie, Diana, Nancy, Dotty, Isabel and others.....your spirits and determination encourage us daily.

It's also a day to remember what a difference just one person can make. Susan G. Komen's sister, Nancy Brinker, started this event to honor "Suzy's" memory, educate women, and to work for a cure. Look what the "power of one" has become!

St. George, UT Labor Day Weekend

2008-09-03T14:11:00.001-07:00

August 29-September 1, we gathered in St. George, UT with Kori, Shane & Janese and their 8 kids, and Amie & Dean and their 4 kids. It was an incredible weekend. The kids are so much fun to be with. They are all their own people and personalities now and it's amazing to see how much they have all grown up. Tyler and Hailey, the oldest of the pack, are both 14 this year, with Hayden and Ireland the youngest at 5.

We had great fun playing Laser Tag, hiking in the red rocks near St. George, swimming, playing kickball, playing Mexican Train, and just hanging around Amie & Dean's beautiful home in St. George having fun and getting caught up on each others lives.

Hannah and Megan hid under our bed one night and jumped out to scare Shaun and me. We enjoyed the next couple of hours with them telling stories and giggling while we all tried on each other's clothes. They both promised to come visit us sometime and hang out in Portland.

There were a few glitches-- Shane and Janese blew a tire on their van both coming from and going to Denver. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in either incident, though both were a significant investment in time and money. I cut my finger grabbing a knife while doing the dishes and had 6 stitches in my right middle finger. For a couple of days, I had a large lime green bandage on my middle finger. Otherwise, it was smooth sailing. The kids all enjoyed each other's company and played well together.

The pictures were taken on a hike we all (19 of us!) did near St. George in the red rocks. It was beautiful and a fun way to spend a day. The kids caught frogs and polywogs, climbed trees, climbed rocks using a rope (which required lots of courage for some of them) along the trail.

Shaun and I flew in to Las Vegas and spent a day there before St. George and after. We didn't win, but had fun playing "Hot Shot" penny slots and eating strawberry shortcake at the Grand Luxe Cafe.

Jason & Santi's wedding

2008-09-03T13:52:00.001-07:00

On August 23, Shaun and I were honored to attend the wedding of Shaun's nephew Jason and his partner, Santi in Berkeley, CA. Jason and Santi have been a committed couple for almost 11 years, and are wonderful young men. It was important to us personally both to honor them as a couple, and to support the progress that is being made to allow gay couples the same legal rights as heterosexual couples. California will be deciding in the November election whether or not to overturn the right for gays to legally marry. Hopefully California will be victorious, as was Oregon, in maintaining equal rights for all residents. The issue is about granting the same rights to ALL humans and not denying basic rights to gay people that other Americans have. As Shaun and I get older, it's important for us to have the right to make medical decisions for each other, have fair inheritance and tax rules apply and to be eligible for each other's social security benefits. Our hope is that in November, candidates who support equal rights for all Americans will be elected and we can start focusing on the economy, ending the war, ending poverty and homelessness and other things that really matter. In the meantime, CONGRATULATIONS Jason and Santi!

Whitney's Summer Vacation

2008-08-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

We have been totally enjoying Whitney's visit. She is such a joy to have around. We have kept busy the past 10 days doing all kinds of stuff around town as well as coloring, singing and dancing at home. Her favorite thing was singing karaoke at Josh's pool hall. She sang Bette Midler songs in her Bette t-shirt (that Shaun modified from a plain old blue t-shirt--isn't it amazing!???!!) and hat. She could hardly contain herself at the movie watching Mamma Mia--every once in a while, you'd hear her burst out in song, and the whole row was shaking because she was dancing in her seat!!!

10th Anniversary

2008-07-24T15:28:00.001-07:00

On July 19, Shaun and I celebrated 10 years together. Wow! Time flies when you're having fun. We went to Tacoma, WA to see glass art and then went on to Port Angeles, WA where we took the ferry to Victoria, BC for a couple of days. We visited Butchart Gardens which was just beautiful, and enjoyed exploring downtown on foot.

Vespas

2008-07-24T15:14:00.000-07:00

Last week we sold our Vespas. It was very sad. We let our practical selves rule over our sense of adventure! We both had less than 400 miles on our bikes in a little over 3 years, so we figured it was costing us about $100 a mile to ride them! We also decided that since I'm always an accident waiting to happen, even walking on flat ground, we were flirting with disaster every time we got on them (after all, there was the broken leg in motorcycle safety class!).

It was a good time to sell. Scooter dealers can't keep stock, so demand for used scooters is high. A young man, Scott, bought mine to use as transportation. It took him 4 days to borrow all of the money he needed and he was thrilled to have a way to get to work. A lady named Kimmy bought Shaun's pink and white unit....mostly because she loved pink and she thought the matching jacket and helmut were just over the top!!!! It took her about 90 minutes to borrow all of the money at 9:30pm from her relatives. They were all small business owners and cleaned their tills for her that evening. Kimmy was clearly about the recreation and fashion so we related well :) The evening was bittersweet--we loved the Vespas, but in our retirement we're making tradeoffs in how we spend our time and money and what risks we are willing to take.

"The Cleanse" and Rockin' Moms

2008-07-08T06:02:00.000-07:00

So, if you are wondering what it is we do when we are not on the road, here's a little snapshot!

After returning from Las Vegas, we did "the cleanse". All of the kids did them, so just like blogging, we felt compelled to not be left behind. For 7 of the 11 days, we drank protein shakes and ate 1 meal a day (400-600 calories). The other 4 days, we drank this awful cleanse drink and ate "snacks" -- Six almonds and a "chalk-o-late" cleanse wafer. We both made it through and lost about 4-5% of our body weight each. The bad news, is that for each of the next 4 days, I put 25% of that back on, so by day 5 after the cleanse, I was back where I started! I lost a couple of those pounds and stablized lower than I started at, but it was a lot of agony for 2-3 lbs. of weight loss! I guess we have to look at the bright side--clothes fit better, and our cells are all purified of the toxins that had infested them.

On a "normal" day of retirement, you are likely to find us playing Guitar Hero on the Wii. We have aced the "easy" level, but can't seem to get "medium" down! Since Shaun can't rotate her left arm or hand, we had to set up a rig for her guitar using a keyboard stand. She uses the lack of arm rotation as her excuse for not mastering medium, I just lack basic hand/eye coordination and can't keep track of more than 3 notes at a time! We sit for hours in front of the game rockin' away. Shaun reads a lot, I surf the internet, mostly planning trips or doing investment research. Shaun works out every day, usually twice. She runs by herself, then goes over to Josh's and lifts weights or does more aerobics with him. I walk a lot and continue to do my 10K + steps a day and have gotten back in the bike saddle. We take advantage of all that Portland has to offer, including attending the Waterfront Blues Festival (and seeing Phoebe Snow live), going to a play "The Little Dog Laughed", going to movies, walking around town, having coffee, lunch or happy hour with friends, reading or whatever. The days go by really, really fast! This week we are attending classes at the Intercultural Institute Summer Conference at Reed College as guests of our friend April.

So mostly, we do a little of this and a little of that. It's so nice to sleep until we wake up (usually between 6-7 instead of 4-5 like we did when we were working) and just take life as it comes.

Las Vegas

2008-07-06T09:28:00.001-07:00

After returning from NYC, we did our laundry and packed for Las Vegas. We spent 5 days there with my Mom who is 86 and going strong, my sister Barb and brother-in-law, Bill. The 3 of them have been vacationing in Vegas for several years and usually spend a week at a time walking up and down the strip, taking the bus downtown, taking excursions to Laughlin or other nearby places, enjoying good food and of course gambling. None are serious betters, but enjoy playing penny and nickel slots. Shaun and I got addicted to penny slots called "Hot Shot" and won enough jackpots on our 15 cent bets to fund our gambling for the few days we were there. We enjoyed good company, good food and good weather. When we got home, Shaun got called in to work for a week, while I relaxed and worked on a multi-year backlog of projects! Shaun is continuing to work on-call for Multnomah County where she is a project manager for the Department of Human Services. She works when they need her to create Requests for Proposals (RFPs), contracts, biennial plans or whatever.

Retirement 2008

2008-07-06T09:09:00.000-07:00

On May 16, I resigned from my position of CIO at Multnomah County Oregon. It was a good 4.5 years--I learned a lot and met many wonderful people, but I was just plumb tired. It's a hard job trying to keep 6000 customers and 170 employees happy every day! Immediately after leaving (like real immediately on May 19), Shaun and I flew to New York City for 2 weeks where I had a very interesting consulting engagement with the City of New York Division of Mental Hygiene to do a current state assessment of their IT organization. The people there were very smart, motivated and helpful so it was a great gig. We LOVED NYC! Shaun spent the days exploring museums, parks, and neighborhoods. In the evenings, we explored neighborhoods together, mostly in the area of Tribeca, SoHo, Little Italy and Greenwich Village and ate great and greater food! My niece, Janet, took the train up from Baltimore for a couple of days and she and Shaun spent one day in MoMA and all 3 of us spent the next day exploring Greenwich Village. We were fortunate to have one of the IT managers take us to the rooftop of a 35 story building right next door to Ground Zero. It was fascinating to look at NYC from that vantage point. Looking at the enormity of Ground Zero was a very emotional experience.