Signers and Thai food

Here’s an afternoon shot for you all(oops, I originally mistyped “shat” but hopefully this piece will be more reminiscent of espresso that crap).

Things are beginning to fall into a rhythm here at the Palmer Place. Roy no longer freaks out when we leave for work, I’m getting more used to my job, we haven’t had any major bouts of crazy weather, and we finally made it back to Bethany Community Church last Sunday.

We sat upstairs on the balcony, with a nice view of the stage and large screen and the people below. The main pastor was out of town, and the stand in was not quite what we had hoped. 

He somehow tied faith and boldness to apples and apple juice, and then said we could even be “saucy” as he held up applesauce. Um….hm. When’s the pastor getting back? Other than that, my entertainment was the front row. On the right hand side on stage was a lady who was signing for another lady who was deaf. At the end of the sermon there was worship and the pastor encouraged freedom to lift your hands or come to the front. 

A young man walked towards the front, and out of all forty feet of stage stairs he had to choose from, he headed over to the right and knelt directly inbetween the signer and the deaf lady. 

The deaf lady (sorry if you’re offended I call her that but that’s what she was and I didn’t meet her that night so I don’t have a name) leaned way over to the left and scooted a bit so she could continue watching the signer. The young man was having a difficult time, and soon his wife or girlfriend joined him—on his left side…further blocking deaf lady’s view. She sat straight up and as the couple was kneeling managed to see the signer over their heads. 

Then we were all invited to stand and he view was completely blocked. 

With infinite patience she motioned to one of the prayer volunteers and moved her hands apart and pointed to the couple. The prayer volunteer (who had been standing about two feet to the side the whole time), whispered in the guys ear and he looked behind him, and moved about a foot to his right. This left a gap in between him and his girlfriend who, upon seeing him move over, stepped to the right as well and closed the gap again. 

The deaf lady sighed, and sat down.

Then there was our first visit to our favorite Thai place. It’s called Thai Kitchen and is in an old house right on Queen Anne Avenue. I say first visit because we’ve ordered take out a few times, and it’s always been delish. We walk in the super squeaky door and are kindly seated in between two other couples at small tables so close that by me turning sideways my butt still brushes our neighbor’s table. I sit on the booth side only to find, as further evidenced by the awkward expression on the other two ladies sitting on the booth, that the height of the seat is about 25 inches. For your information, an average comfortable height for sitting is between 18 and 20 inches. I remove one pillow and sit (rather lean) on the seat, then hop/scoot myself back until my feet are dangling like a 5 year old’s. I’m towering over Matt and say something mildly funny like “I don’t really mean to look down my nose at you” when the lady to my left exclaims “I KNOW! These are so high! I can’t touch the floor!” The other lady on the right agreed, and we returned to our awkward silences. The food was as delicious as always, but I think next time we’ll be ordering to go.

Roy’s latest antics have included finding anything tissue, toilet paper or paper towel-like to shred when we’re gone. It’s not that we don’t wear him out—Matt took him on his longest run ever before he proceeded to shred three rolls of paper towels—he just loves the feel of it in his mouth. So we have a living paper shredder and an aspiring dancer. Yes, when I’m seated he now loves to walk his paws until they’re right on my shoulders and look me square in the face. If I stand up he leaves his paws there and we dance a little jig until he loses his balance. Don’t worry—a video will come soon.

Last tidbit of fun is I booked my flights today to come to OC (sorry, just for a day…less, actually) and then my mom and I are headed east to see Ammah and spend a few days with her. We’ve got big plans to eat brownies, watch movies, and maybe take a daytrip to Sedona.

Last but not least we have Skype and would love to say hello to you! Our name is PalmerPack (too cheesy? I don’t care) so drop us a line sometime. ‘till next time—keep boppin!