Big City Adventure

Today Molly visited a big city for the first time that she can remember and she learned that we certainly weren't in Montana anymore. Since I'm starting at Portland State on Monday we decided to head downtown and check out the campus. Molly and I parked and rode the rail transit system "MAX" into Portland. The ride downtown was uneventful except that Molly was AMAZED you could stand up on these trains and even walk while they were moving. She was not impressed however that I wouldn't let her try out walking while the train was in motion. I know, I am such a kill-joy.

Once downtown, we got off right at the PSU bookstore where we went in and did some shopping. After picking out some new highlighters (for Molly of course) and some PSU souveniers (like pom-poms...again for Molly, I swear) we headed out to find my classroom for Monday. This part became extremely bbooorrriiinnggg for a six-year old. Especially when I stopped to talk to someone in the Education Grad School Department. The eye-rolling was quite excessive along with the sighs.

After finally deciding Molly wasn't the best campus touring companion we headed out to find something to eat. Since we missed the train back north, I decided to hoof it the few blocks to the shopping center instead of waiting 15 minutes for the next train. Molly thought all the statues in downtown were scary and insisted on drinking out of the water fountains on the sidewalks, which I'm sure the health departments would deem "highly suspect". Then she complained that her "ribs and hips" hurt and asked if I'd carry her. Yeah, right.

We did make it to the mall, found the food court, and went up and down the escalators multiple times. I never realized how deprived a little girl from Montana could be since our mall doesn't even have one escalator. This activity proved to be the biggest hit of the whole day. However, our ride home from the city was truly more memorable for me.

On the train back, a man sat across from us that was literally eating a styrofoam cup. He had bits in the corners of his mouth and he was actually chewing and swallowing the thing. The more Molly watched him the closer she got to me until all of her six-year-old self was in my lap. Then, he started talking to himself and saying things like, "Stop talking to me."..."Leave me alone."..."I'm gonna kick your a**." Preceded by joking with his alter ego and then finally I heard him start talking about Molly referring to her as "That little girl." I didn't hear what "they" were discussing but I think it had something to do with the fact that her big brown eyes were staring at him with huge concern. I promptly decided that if he didn't bail at the next stop we would. Luckily, he stood up and departed. Unfortunately, his pants were around his knees and we had a full up-close view of his...underwear (thank God.) Molly informed me later that he was "totally freaky". She was totally correct.

Once arriving back at the car we had another surprise awaiting us. My car was COVERED in white spots. In a crammed parking lot, not one car around us had a speck of white on it. At first I thought I was a training target for a flock of geese, but now I'm not so sure I wasn't a target for a punk with white paint balls or something. I still haven't concluded this investigation. Luckily, the man parked next to me had windex on him and he helped Molly and I clean off all the windows on the van. While visiting I wasn't surprised to find out that this considerate stranger was born and raised in the one and only State of Montana. There is no place like home.