Provocative Lookbook #2: Own

A Columbia River getaway and NRE with myself

August 15-16, 2021 - The Lodge at Columbia Point, Richland, WA (Thanks, Google Maps, for your Timeline feature.)

In my small town, we don’t have too many places to go back-to-school shopping. It’s better now (woah, Old Navy), but we usually make the trek to Tri-Cities when we’re hunting for specifics. Not as fun as a Portland or Seattle shopping trip, but when you have three kids, sometimes you just need them to try stuff on in person at a Dick’s Sporting Goods (“Run… now walk… walk for real now.”). Mom’s not playing games.

Though it’s one of the fastest growing places in the PNW, “TC” does not appeal to me. It’s like three (technically, four if you count West Richland) no-personality Atlanta suburbs stuck together. Quarterly trips to TC are a necessary evil, but I suck it up like a good American consumer and indulge in what our family calls “The Tri-Cities Trifecta”: visiting Target, Panera, and Krispy Kreme.

During this particular summer in 2021, my husband suggested I go back-to-school shopping on my own and stay the night as a form of self-care. I was about to start my second COVID school year in a special education classroom as a paraeducator, so I welcomed the idea. Also, my kids were young enough to not really care much about what I chose for them.

(Reader, nowadays with my kids in 4th, 7th, and 10th grades, there is no way I would embark in choosing new clothes or sports equipment without them in tow. It’s an overanalysis that involves pickiness on an insane level. I complain about it now but will surely miss our bouts of aggravation outside of Zumiez and Hollister dressing rooms.)

I was excited to get a good deal at such a beautiful property on the Columbia River. This was the first time, the beginning of many getaways, where I could write, sleep, and masturbate knowing I would be uninterrupted. An idea popped into my head: bring the new tripod and ring light.