Last weekend we went up to Seattle. I got to see the fish tossing and all of the "Singles"-esque of the city. I spent my entire teenage years wanting to move there, but once I got there I felt like it was a mess- a victim of poor city planning. I would never want to live outside the city because I have been to the suburbs and hated them. The main city was just lacking that spark I felt when I saw Portland for the first time. I guess I am saying I made the right choice. I will surley go back there and visit, but I learned that my car hates driving there, so the bus or the plane will be needed for next time.
Thursday night I had the pleasure of seeing Wrath of Khaaaaaaaaaan on the big screen. Few things are as fun as watching a film with people who are on the same page as you are, and are not afraid to express themselves. When the entire theater cheered in unison at the penultimate scene, I was the happiest camper that ever geeked out at the Laurelhurst.
The rest of the weekend was spent in preparation of our incoming carpet. We finished painting the upstairs and the downstairs hallway. There is something very cathartic about painting when you don’t care if it gets on the carpet! We are nearing the house being in “done” stage… I would say I am 70% comfortable with how it looks, and what I still know needs to be done, others wouldn’t pick up on. If only I knew where to get my hands on some giant vintage magic posters for cheap…..
- Currently:Work. Forever.
Speaking of meat, this morning Joe and I ate at Meat Cheese Bread. I don't know how you could possibly go wrong with a title that that, so I just had to give them a try. The dining room is small and open, and they were selling someone's art like every other eatery in the Portland area. Has anyone ever actually looked over mid-meal and said, "I need to buy that $1,000 tree painting! And I need more ketchup!"
Anyhow, we weren't there for the sparse ambiance, we were there for meat, cheese, and bread. We both had the flank steak on a roll with blue cheese and an egg. They also put on some kind of creamy mayo goodness for extra heart attack-ability. I normally hate egg on top of steak, but this was great... actually it was freaking amazingly awesome. The flank was cooked perfectly, and the blue cheese was just strong enough to make a taste bud appearance without overwhelming the egg or the meat. Could I make this at home? Yeah, but for only $6.50, I got a nice morning out and someone else to clean up after me. If I could ask for one thing it would be for them to add a slice of bacon into the mix, so I could truely die of a heart attack, but I will live with this sammich and like it.
I also got a brownie to go. I am eating it now- it is super dark chocolate with salty goodness running through it. They make them there. Do not skip the brownie or your soul will go straight to a hell where there is no chocolate because you denied the Meat Cheese Bread brownie.
- Currently:Home
My first reaction I have inherited from my mother; I want to swoop in and help. I want to win the lottery and throw money at the problem. My second reaction is from my father; I want to loathe them for falling so far. And neither of these feelings are a good idea- I am so far removed that it is both none of my business and !!None of My Fucking Business!! Half of these people I haven't even talked to in years- maybe it is just because so few of them escaped Vegas that it feels like everyone I knew there is still so damn interconnected while I am not that it is maddening.
So I guess the only thing I can do is wish them all well and hope it turns out better.
But what it comes down to is that 2008 does not deserve any more of my words or reflecting on it.
Sometimes I think it is ok to let your inner emo show and ponder how things were and learn from any mistakes you made and just Grieve.
And then sometimes you just need to say "fuck this, I'm done." and start in a new direction. So no lists and no other posts on 2008 unless I use any event as allegory later. Last night I had a fantastic time with my friends and I laughed, ate grapes, and generally felt pretty good about the world.
So here is what I am looking forward to in 2009- in no particular order:
Travel: I'm going to Vegas soon, and I will either see Tennessee or San Fransisco for the first time in many years.
Food: I will become a better chocolate snob. Portland has these chocolate tours I am dying to go on, and I really have no excuse not to visit the awesome chocolate places we have here. I also plan to attend a dinner at Beast at least once (hopefully it wont close before I get there). I am looking forward to the taste of good prime rib, and the grilled foods of summer.
Creative: I already have two sets of invitations lined up to design for people, and I am planning stage 2 of the condo goodness. I have a forest to paint in the hallway and ideas for a better bathroom. And the upstairs is not quite done!
Writing: It is time to finish The Book.
Reading: I have a whole True Blood series to get through, and I am looking forward to re-reading Silence of the Lambs with 30 year old eyes to see what has changed since I was 13.
Work: It is time to embrace my inner Peggy.
Mind: There was this priest what used to remind us that "Christians only seem to pray when times are tough" and that doing that pissed god off. He went on about a daily relationship with god, blah blah blah. Anyhow, I find that I am just the opposite. When times are tough, I find myself too single minded to stop and feel the Darkness. I am too busy being upset or trying to fix things. This year I will really connect further. The groundwork has been laid; it it time to build something significant.
Body: It is time to embrace my inner Joan.
II'm sure there will be more to come, but things are off to a good start.
- Clearly:
contemplative
Four of us went this year, and we all had a great time getting sick of eating apples. With the world in as much trouble as it is lately with the economy and all, it is cool to find a free event where you can have free apples, free cider, and free popcorn as well as good entertainment.
This year it was bright and sunny and packed with people.
I tasted some new varieties of apples- Northern Spy and Elstar were my favs... but of course they were all sold out in the bins by the time I got there. We also stocked up on the rare meadow foam honey and some actual honeycomb. This is really one of the best free fall events in Portland!
And next year I am making a damn scarecrow!
Some pics:
Jen in the long apple tasting line.
No one liked the pears.
One day my top 2 choices will still be for sale.
October is the month of Things I Wait All Year to Attend in Portland. This year I tried a few new things, and here are some reviews, so you will both be envious of my get-out-ed-ness, and laughing at the calamity of the time I have wasted:
Oktoberfest
Oaks Park, September 19
Cost to get in: $5.00 Free anything? Entertainment Food Costs? About $20.00 for 2 people.
Im not German, and I have no connection to the German people. I hate kraut and am afraid of wiener dogs. Having said that, I actually enjoyed the quaint family fun of the Oaks Park Oktoberfest. I laughed at the chicken dancing contest, and I could watch hot dog puppies race all day as long as they don't break though the barrier and attack me. I liked watching Good Christian Children fail miserably at May Pole dancing. I'm still not crazy about Oaks Park, but it wasn't a bad time. The only bad part was that it cost money just to get in and you had to pay again if you wanted to ride anything, but since we stayed off the rides and stuck with the free entertainment it wasn't too bad. I liked my braut, but Joe was not convinced with his spicy version. I did learn the goodness of German Potato Salad, while lamenting the absence of fondue.
Possibility of Returning Next Year? 60-75% chance.
Halloween Bazaar
Memorial Coliseum, September 27th
Cost to get in: $5.00 plus parking. Free anything? A goodie bag filled with random crap. Food Costs? No food.
So lemme get this straight: pay 5 bucks to park, and then another 5 just to get in the door to......spend more money? I am paying $10.00 to shop from vendors that are in Portland anyhow, which I could walk in their brick & mortar stores, or visit online for free? Huh? Why not charge the vendors to have tables there and make it free to the public? The Halloween Bazaar was an unnecessary expenditure. While I was happy for Madam Talbot's posters being there, where they were actually giving deals, I did not see anyone else giving out special discounts to the shoppers, nor did I see anything I could only buy at the festival. I mean, couldn't all those vendors get together in a school or public parks place and not have the cost of renting the space under the Coliseum? Next time I am just going to the Gorey Shop on Hawthorne and saving my money for actual product.
Possibility of Returning Next Year? 10% in hell, unless they get some very awesome vendor. Like maybe this guy.
Polish Festival
North Portland, September 27th
Cost to get in: free. Free anything? Entertainment Food Costs? We didn't eat, but prices looked similar to Oktoberfest.
I am Polish, but it is a faucet of my heritage that I don't often identify with. While my mom's side of the family is all about Polish food and the midnight mass, I have never had a like for boiled meats and doughs or the Catholic Church. Its funny how I spent so little time with my father's side of the family, but through my grandfather letters I can see how much their customs and such mirror what I like. Anyhow, the Polish Festival was very crowded. They call it The Best Kept Secret of Portland, but I think the secret is out and it is time to find a bigger location. We watched some kids dance on the stage, and walked among the booths looking for something unique. Unfortunately I noticed that people seem to think Polish gifts are either random overpriced crap with the word "Poland" written on them, cook books, or painted eggs. They also had a ton of other European countries' swag, but I didn't see any tradition paper cut art or anything that really made me think it was made in Poland, or by someone Polish.
Possibility of Returning Next Year? 50%, depending on if I have Polish guests in town.
HP Lovecraft Film Festival
Hollywood Theater, October 3-5
Cost to get in: $15.00 Free anything? A very well done program. Food Costs? typical movie theater food.
I love this freaking festival. I love the people watching. I love the pretentious art-school films. I love the funny films. I love the opening blessing. I love seeing basement geeks mingle with Church of Satan members. This year we went for both shorts blocks on Friday night. This year's stand outs included AM1200; a film that was very well done, and reminded me of something Eric Nichols would have made, Casting Call of Cthulhu; which is just plain fun, created by someone with a great sense of sarcastic humor, and The Amazing Screw-On Head..... you cannot go wrong with Abraham Lincoln and a zombie protagonist. Low lights were a horrible music video, and a collection of Lovecraft's stories done in miniatures that looked good while we were reading about it, but once we were watching it was like a slow boat ride to nowhere. As each new miniature-based short ended the collective energy was drained out of the theater. Had they not ended the block with Poe's Morella, I would have fallen asleep.
Possibility of Returning Next Year? 100% unless I am dead. And maybe still.
My excuse to go down there was for a coworker and friend. She takes care of a child and the real mother has been less than honest since she was arrested a while back. I was there to see what the outcome would be and report back. So I grabbed my notebook and took notes in the courtroom through a few cases, pretending I was there for some class. I watched a guy burst into tears when he would have to serve community service hours for getting caught dining and dashing on a $27.50 bill. I watched a lot of DUI cases get dismissed, which scare me. I watched a lot of cases get set back weeks or months just so the person could wait even longer to face the music. I watched a lot of public defenders that had too many case loads. I saw people handcuffed. I saw people cry. I saw entire families come in to support their own for minor infractions. There isn't exciting "chung-chung" noises between scenes and a lot of it is standing around and waiting, but it was an interesting time and I learned a lot.
Something I noticed that you never see on TV was the personalization of spaces. For instance, the coffee stand inside the courthouse is only accessible via a glass window that was covered in baby pictures. The judge's assistant's space was decorated with sports items, that you could see clearly from the public seating area. On television everything always looks so cold and rank and file.
I think my notice of it goes with how I have been thinking about spaces in the condo. I saw this house in a magazine and I very much want the office and possibly the bathroom with this feel to it, but I need to look into where to start. Thank goodness we are staying here for a while because there is so much to do.
Actually I could go back even further and recall my 3rd grade music teacher playing us music from Phantom of the Opera and me being very intrigued with it. I watched the various film and tv adaptations, but always missed the live show. Every time it came through I was either broke or with some jackass who was spending all of my money, so cheers to Joe for actually making it possible that on Friday I finally got to witness the spectacle that is the live musical version of Phantom of the Opera! I am a musical theater whore. I refuse to apologize for this.
The first thing I did was walk directly in and purchased a t-shirt. In high school my best friend had an awesome Phantom shirt that was worn to that lovely ultra soft t-shirt stage. It fell on me in all the good places and in my completely vain teenage mind I swore the small details in blue made my eyes look better. It was one of those select pieces of clothing that makes one feel unbreakable and beautiful and like you can get away with anything. I know most girls feel that way over an expensive coat or purse, but I grew up in the low income section of Vegas, so I had that shirt. I lived in that damn shirt... lived. Did I mention it wasn't mine? ooops.
I played this cat and mouse game with her and the shirt, because while I loved her and we both loved the shirt very much, I just Had To Have the shirt. I am sure I fell asleep during the "coveting is a sin" section of Wednesday night Catholic school. When she would come over the shirt would be "in the laundry" ........and then I would wear it the next day. Then it would obviously have to go back in the laundry! I think I kept it for the better part of 4 years as it slowly accumulated tiny holes and faded. I can't honestly say if when I left Vegas it was in mine or her possession.
On Friday I debated buying her one and mailing it to her but I doubt she would want it. So I bought a new one that I can wear until it literally decays from my body! It is nice to finally have that crossed off of my list.
(Simulated flame...but I assure you it was on fiiiaaahhh)
Impromptu vacation: A+
B&B: B+
Sunburn: F
I've been doing major root watering lately, only I hadn't noticed it until this week. I'm going to continue to just let things come to me instead of going on this "inner child" planning parade. So moving on from X-Files, this was officially Chicago week.
I haven't been to Chicago since my grandfather died when I was 17. Coincidentally I remember I was in the middle of trying to dye my hair Dana Scully red, and I was planning on skipping prom in lieu of my date and I dressing up as FBI agents and having our pictures taken down a dark alley, X Files style. So I guess it was the natural progression of things to move from X Files to Chicago- related goodness.
It was a fellow Chicago ex-pat coworker's birthday, so him and I decided to splurge. For $75.00 (30something each) you can have a Taste of Chicago box sent to your house containing deep dish pizza goodness. Do I have better, more important things to spend money one? Yes, but I live for self indulgence. We ordered the 4 pizza kit. It arrives via next day air in a bright red and black box that says "someone must like you" on the side. I was thinking, "why yes, yes I do like myself." It was cooked up on Thursday night, and my two are already gone (for the record, they are smaller and I did share with Joe). I really missed this pizza. The crust. The cheese. I can't get anything close to that here or in Vegas, so I was happy to invite it back into my tummy. I did decide, however, that this is a once a year splurge.
Today I continued my Chicagothon by finally seeking out and visiting a Chicago Hot Dog eatery in Portland. Las Vegas has one that is as good as anything you'd find outside of Wrigley Field, so I had hoped Portland would eventually have one. I was happy to find that Waynes Chicago Redhots was indeed a copy of anything I would have found in Chicago, and my hotdog was amazing!
Now all I need to do is fly in a cheesecake to complete the trifecta..... and then check myself into the hospital before I have a coronary.
( The truth is in the cut: )Besides the "Pin the abductee" game, we played 3 rounds of Scattegories, but I made the categories all FBI, paranormal, and XFile related. Between the games and pizza we watched 4 episodes, chosen by the group. Our chosen four were:
7X21 Je Souhaite
5X12 Bad Blood
4X14 Leonard Betts
3X04 Jose Chungs from Outer Space
It was a completely awesome time. I think I am ready for the movie now.
So McDonalds used to sell cookies in cardboard boxes before they went snazzy with fresh baked cookies, and the world was not amused that lard was a key ingredient in all American foods. (Side note- who is holding on to boxes of cookies for 30 years?? We didn't have Ebay 30 years ago, so they wouldn't have known someone would buy them.) Despite how bad the chocolate chip ones probably were for me, I really loved them. They were crispy, buttery, and just plain yum. I discovered these at my local grocery store of goodness and they taste quite similar but somehow better and I cannot. Stop. Eating them. I can't even stop buying the damn things, they are so good. If you have them by you, get some ice cream and make sammiches for added diabetes diagnosis fun.
When we moved to Las Vegas I continued to watch HBO. They were running short films and my favorites were this one about the man-eating videotape and this one, which was an adaptation of a Ray Bradbury story. I also developed an affinity for The Wrath of Khan, but it disolved after watching a few Star Trek episodes and realizing they all didn't deal with Khan.
As my mom was a teacher, I spent a lot of time after school at a babysitter's house watching her suspiciously large collection of beta tapes. The baby sitter was a stoutly redhead who had too many cats and a house that smelled like canned spaghetti sauce. She would yell at me for wearing out copies of The Last Unicorn, The Secret of Nimh, Dot and the Kangaroo, and this depressing version of The Little Mermaid where everyone died and no one was happy. I'm not sure if she actually noticed what I was watching, or that she didn't care because they were cartoons and all cartoons must have been ok.
To counter all of these slightly sad films, my mom made sure I was fed a steady diet of Muppets. This culminated in her taking me to my first theater experience, The Dark Crystal, afterwhich I decided that I would someday grow wings and own a pet named Fizzgig. Unfortunatley we didn't have a vcr or a beta machiene around this time, so I could not watch the film over and over again, as was my preference for things I enjoyed watching, and I was stuck with what came on TV.
On the upside, Mr. Henson stayed with me, because while I still enjoyed The Smurfs, occasional veiwings of The Electric Company, and randomNickleodeon goodness, my number one tv love was Fraggle Rock. The day my parents got divorced I stayed at a friends house, watching every episode she had on tape........
.........in between screenings of The Pirate Movie- the only live action film I had seen to that day that had made me so happy (I'm sorry, Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan).
To be continued.
Someone posted a clip from one of the performances- I hope more pop up.
The good stuff first:
- Disneyland, bitches! I will never get enough Pirates and Haunted Mansion and you can't convince me otherwise. For my wonderful 4 day vacation I did everything I wanted to do- a great way to turn 30! The weather was awesome and the crowds were few. I also ate at the Blue Bayou twice and I am not ashamed of this. I need to figure out a way to wire lanterns from my bedroom ceiling.
That was a short list.
- On the last day in California I got sick. Not slightly sick, but "I can barely stand" sick. This went on for an entire week, and I spent my actual birthday hovering over the toilet and waiting for my ear to pop from the flight home. I missed seeing anaisninja, and I could barely enjoy my mom while I had a layover in Vegas. I call a do-over.
- I somehow missed Walpurgis Night. I have no idea how this happened.
Babies, babies, babies, death, death death:
- My cousin is engaged and pregnant, as are several other people I know. I am countering this trend in the universe, having happily found a non-hormonal IUD that is removable. Apparently they just now decided to let non-breast feeding, never had a kid before women use this. Why they kept this from the rest of us for so long is questionable. Why keep women drugged up if they don't have to be?
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gargleminky's fantastic cat, and several grandfathers have passed this month. This bothers me as I can not seem to get a hold of my grandfather, who is in his 100s and my last connection to my father's side of the family. Who knew May would be so filled of comings and goings?
Some things to look forward to:
I feel like summer and fall, and parts of next year are already mapped out before me. There are X-File movies to see, Phantom of the Opera to attend, and I just found out Waiting for Godot will be playing in Seattle next February! I also just discovered that they do chocolate walks in Downtown Portland. And the Halloween party approaches. So while it may have been a crappy May, I am hoping the rest of the summer shapes up. Hope all of you have been well.
Anyhow, our team is Team ARRRR! Join us or give money!
The actual URL is "ilovebigals.com"
And I keep reading it as "I love Bi Gals . com."
How this domain has not been taken by eminent domain for the porn industry is beyond me, but whatever. I just want to bowl.
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haplesschyld- Natalie