Coffenberry Rocks!

          Jenna had once told me that she thought it would be fun to be in junior high.  I personally never believed that - especially while attending.  I think my brother, Corey, hated junior high even more than I did.  He has been a substitute teacher in both high school and elementary but has chosen not to deal with the misfits of junior high.  Too many bad memories.

          I did not choose to share my feelings about junior high - or middle school as some districts call it.  She'd find out soon enough - or hopefully not at all.  I would just smile and say, "That's great honey." while thinking, "I really hope it works out for you."

           

          Before school started, Jenna was apprehensive about going.  Of course I understand.  I was always apprehensive about the start of school - especially one I had not attended the year prior.

         

          If we were living in Salt Lake, Jenna would still be attending her last year elementary school. But here, in Oregon, she is attending her first year of middle school.  I actually hadn't heard too many positive things about the school she currently attends.  One neighbor drives her children to Canyonville, and I heard of another who makes the drive to Riddle.  But Coffenberry has a music program not offered in Canyonville.

          Jenna has made many friends and loves middle school.  She enjoys most of her classes - especially band.  I love her enthusiasm.  I have not seen her this excited since she was in kindergarten. 

          Of course the youth center helps - though she really doesn't care for the bus ride out there.  She does enjoy being active after school.  And I am happy that she gets her homework done and gets to enjoy arts and crafts and learning skills.  It's so great to have her happy again.

          Last night I took her to the middle school for a family fun night.  The theme was "Finding Nemo" and there was a scavenger hunt, a passport map, jeopardy, crafts, decorating a cookie, the book fair, playing games.  I met a few of her friends as we went from room to room and building to building and she would point to certain areas where she had this class or that.  I met a few of her teachers.  I can't wait for parent/teacher's conference. 

keep on reading

          My impression of Coffenberry has been a good one.  I am also grateful for the opportunities that Jenna has had since we have moved to Oregon.  As a whole, I am so much happier here than I was in Utah.  But then I look at pictures of family members - two that I haven't even met in person, and I get a bit homesick for my family members.  But overall I really am happy here.  I'm especially happy that Jenna is happy.  I'm so happy that she likes school. 

Hot Dogs and Waffles

Just what do you do when you have put the hot dogs on the stove and realize you have no bread? 

 You get creative.

a week's worth of pictures (well, almost)

Initially I had 99 pictures - and that was not all of the ones I took.  I decided that perhaps I should  hold back just a little.

Corey arrived last Sunday just about this time.  I didn't get any pictures on Sunday.  The ones I took on Monday came out in thumbnail form as I was using my phone.  So I borrowed most of these from the ones that Corey took.

First 11 pics are of some of the animals that we saw on the Wild Safari in Winston, Oregon (who would have believed?)

The next day we went to Watson Falls and Crater Lake.  Here are some pictures that I took

North Umpqua River

on the trail to Watson Falls

Watson Falls

Sea Gulls basking at Diamond Lake

Crater Lake

it looks bluer than picture shows

Crater Lake National Park

We took it easy on Wednesday as Corey had laundry to do, posts to catch up on, and of course we played games each night that he was here.  

Our final expedition was to Tri-City where we picked up Jaime and took pictures of the city (I will not be posting the ones that I took of Corey as I don't have permission)

never had food there.  Would like to, but it's out of business.  Yet the sign and boat remain

Tri-City Fire Department

bus yard not far from youth center that Jenna attends

Corey left Thursday afternoon.  We took some final pics of him and Jenna hugging.  

Yesterday Jenna and I went to Riddle.  Took several pictures of the park and surrounding buildings.  This is just a few of them

Riddle High School

Jenna (my scavenger) found this mask 

Coming Out

     If you were to look at the family photographs from my mom’s collection (now in Corey’s possession) you probably would not find a huge amount of photos of Patrick.  He hated having his picture taken.  There are probably at least four times as many photos of Corey and me – the camera hams of the family. 

It seems like at least half the photos we have of Corey, he appears to be wearing these stupid gold sleepers.  Corey was always sick – or at least it seemed he was.  My mom had bought a boatload of sleepers in assorted sizes – though they were all the same color and all for Corey.

Until his tonsils were removed, not a year went by that he didn’t stay home from school with a case of tonsillitis.  I think he may have gone an entire school year without staying home from school with some kind of illness.  But every year after that he would miss out because he was physically sick.

  Corey was skinny for so much of his youth – we had believed that his health and his weight might have been due to being premature.  The sicknesses continued through high school, college, and work – it continued.  He told me that he was always sick while preforming at a local theatre not far from our house in Midvale, Utah.  I do remember one time in particular when he was playing a villain in a show.   

He’d gone to the theatre with absolutely no voice.  He did go on stage while somebody read the lines as he mouthed the words.   It may have been more disastrous that his mouth movements and words were not in sync, but a very talented actress on stage was able to cover it up with telling him that he was so evil that his words weren’t in perfect timing with what was being said (or something to that effect).

Though I have raved about having awesome health and being able to breathe, I developed another sinus infection about two weeks before Corey arrived in Oregon for a visit.  It was not the worse sinus infection I’ve ever had.  In fact, of all the sinus infections I’ve ever had, it has been the least painful.

However the medication has seemed slower at fixing me – and my breathing has sounded exactly the way it had in Salt Lake.  Gosh darn.  Roland kept reminding me that I needed to become well before my brother came – not only didn’t I want to make a liar out of myself – but Corey has always been so receptacle to any kind of germ.

 He would seriously get sick while watching documentaries about sick people.  And it wasn’t because he was a hypochondriac.  It was because he was closeted.  I had actually never made that connection before until he mentioned it the other day.

For more than half of his life Corey had been dealing with the issue of same sex attraction.  He liked guys and fantasized about guys in the same manner that his peers fantasized about and liked girls and woman.  Corey had been conditioned that there was something wrong with his perception.  Thus Corey could never admit to anybody how he felt.  It was an embarrassing secret – one he tried to pray away, one he tried to shake off, one he tried to ignore, one he did feel ashamed of because he’d been conditioned to. 

All that pain, all that sadness, all that fear, all those daily battles within himself, all that constant fighting to change his perception, all of that turmoil and struggle had to come out.  Bottling it all up had contributed to his becoming physically sick.  He told me that after he came out, he didn’t get physically ill all of the time.  He doesn’t get sick.  He can actually be around sick people now. 

His health has been like a metaphor of his life.  When he kept it all in he felt sad, ashamed, angry, beaten and physically ill.  Now that he’s come out he has experience happiness, confidence, responsible, controlled.  Corey is one of my greatest friends.  His coming out has made for a more solid relationship.  Each of us is comfortable with one another and don’t hold back any “secrets” we may have.  And that just makes us stronger.