Escape from Spokane

Friday, in a fit of Snake Pliskin-like wanderlust, I decided to Escape from Spokane. This would have been easy if the city had not decided to shut down the freeway on-ramps, making it damned near impossible to get out. Fortunately, near impossible was not impossible enough, so I was able to escape without too much difficulty, just lost time. Okay, so in actuality, I was going to the camp in Ellensburg for a training session (I'm volunteering there for a week this summer). I got into camp just as they were finishing dinner. After a bit of hanging out with Stella, Mary, Pat, and miscellaneous sundry others, Pat and I went fishing on the pond. Good god, but it has been a long time since I was in a position to actually hear wildlife, like frogs and the like. It was quite peaceful. After that, we decided to hit town and get some beer. Over a pitcher of Mac & Jack's, we had a good conversation, and got to unwind for a bit. Pat needed to vent, and I proved to be the perfect outsider upon whom to unload all the frustrations associated with living at camp year-round. In the morning, as I was eating breakfast, who should appear but the pastor of my heinous ex. In all fairness, he's a decent guy, and I didn't want to drag him into the whole mess. I hoped that he would just not say anything about the festering pit of hatred between the two of us. However, as breakfast was winding down, he says, "I don't mean to step on any toes or anything, but what happened to the relationship between you and a certain member of my congregation, because I work in her class once a week?" At this point, I could have given an expletive-laden tirade about how much I hated this woman, but I decided that it was best to leave the mudslinging alone and simply stated in reply to his question "It's awkward." And I left it at that. I think I took the moral high road in this instance, and I feel a rather proud of myself for this. I got back Saturday night, and after some BBQ, we commenced to play the WoW. See the next post for that.