Yesterday started off with a bike ride. I haven't ridden one of those things in about six years and I had forgotten just how FUN it is! Grinning and sweating, I pedaled furiously through the nature park down the street from my apartment. It's an ok little place for being out here in 'burbia. When I reached a dead end and turned around, I paused to catch my breath, looked up and saw a bald eagle. Really! Out here in the souless suburbs! My six-year-old former self would have been appalled at my lack of basic skills, though. I took corners like an old pickup with bald tires driven by an 86-year-old woman. Oh well, the scenery was great, the wind through my helmet was great, the air was clean.... I really didn't think the day would get any better.
I came back, sweaty, legs made of rubber. I had barely caught my breath when I remembered that Jenn invited me out to this place called Beulahland for lunch with a few friends from back in the Corvallis days, eons ago. After figuring out that Beulahland started with a B (it sounded like she was saying Lalulaland or something), I MAX'd/bussed across town to find what may be the perfect diner/coffeeshop. My art school grad friends scoffed at the artwork and scoffed at many other things but I'd have died three times over again to have found anything 1/10th as cool as that place out in hellhole Watertown, NY. These people have NO IDEA how lucky they are to live in Portland.
They had Dead Guy on tap (!) so I sucked down beers while everyone else got jittery on their bottomless, $1 cups of coffee. Seriously, I didn't think people could actually get drunk off of coffee, but these folks did it. Once again, I felt like the weird one in the corner, but they're nice people and with enough beer I don't even notice those things anyway. Rowan (an Anthropology major, too!) and I talked about our upcoming school-related travels and Jenn talked about her future squatting endeavors in Europe. I think I got Jenn excited about going to Antarctica one day. Or maybe that was just the beer giving me hope. Seriously, if I die without having seen a penguin in the wild I'm going to be very upset. (No, I don't know how exactly I'm going to be upset when I'm dead, but I'll manage, thank you.)
After figuring out the nearly nonexistant bill (6 people over 3 hours and the tab was in the single digits), Rowan, Jenn and I set off to wander the streets of SE Portland. As we walked (Jenn and Rowan hopping every now and then, me staggered and swaying) and looked at the fancy houses we'll never afford to live in, I thought about how the three of us - three kids from Philomath, OR - had made out pretty well so far in this big, bad world. Our combined travels have taken us to nearly every continent (have any of us been to Australia?), Jenn actually has one of those fancy degree things, Rowan and I suffered through various forms of military hell for years (and, consequently, don't have one of those fancy degree things) and all get by some way or another in the lovely city of Portland.
After Rowan left, Jenn and I sat around in her bus, listening to folk and bluegrass and looking at her pictures from Spain. She then took me to get giant burritos that made me so full that I needed to go home. Immediately. Enroute, I remembered that Gogol Bordello was to play later on. So I hurried home, checked my grades quickly (B MINUS in Environmental Sustainability! grrrr!) and took off again.
to be continued......
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1 comment:
Sara, it sounds like you had the best day ever. Sometimes it happens just like that. Bike rides are great, I haven't had one for years...no excuse, just haven't...but you see and feel so much more.
I love burritos, tacos, nachos, advocados, sour cream mmmm, see it was a good day, its made me think about what we're having for tea.
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