Moving to Portland

I am finally a Portlander, for real

2008-09-04T08:24:00.000-07:00

So I got a job. It is in Portland which is awesome because I didn't really want to commute to the 'burbs which is where a lot of jobs in my field are located. I really like the values of the company even though it may not be my ideal job. They give you a bus pass and the HR woman told me they give a financial incentive to ride your bike to work. How freakin' PDXishly awesome is that? It is about 5 miles from my house so it is totally bikeable. I start Monday. I now feel like I actually live here and I am not just on an extended Summer vacation. Which, by the way, is awesome that I got for over three months!

As usual lots of other stuff has been going on that I haven't written about. Since my last post my parents and my brother have come to visit, separately of course. Luckily my parents have a friend in one of the suburbs who let them stay with him because staying in my cave wouldn't have been comfortable. My brother did stay here and I think it was alright for him even though maybe he wasn't that comfy. With my parents I went to Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens. Well we also went to The Dalles, but that is hardly worth mentioning. The Dalles looks kind of like west Texas but with more hill and water. Very brown. We thought there was going to be some kind of real attraction to see there but apparently it is just a museum. Blah. Mt Hood is awesome though and you can visit Timberline Lodge which is where the outside of the hotel in The Shining was filmed. It is quite different inside from the hotel in the movie which I believe was filmed in California somewhere. Very pretty and we saw snow in early August. Not new snow but left over snow. The lodge is at 7000 feet or so and the top of Hood is at 11000 so there was really a lot more area we didn't cover. Mt. St. Helens is crazy. Apparently it erupted in 1980 and you can still tell because not much has grown back. Also the large hole in the top is a dead give away. Sam, my brother, was just here for long weekend and we went back to Mt. Hood. We did some other stuff too and I think he liked it but was perhaps a little surprised by the cooler temperatures. It was actually cold when he got here but it warmed up a bit by the last day.

This weekend I am volunteering as the Recycling and Waste Coordinator for the Muddy Boot Festival which is happening right across the street from my house. How convenient they make it for me. It is a festival about sustainable living and the goal is to have a zero waste event, so I should be busy the whole time. A lot of the stuff will be compostable, which the city will pick up. I love that about this city. There will be live music that sounds pretty interesting and a keynote speaker who is an expert on sustainable agriculture.

Now that I have a job I will start looking for a new place to live since this one was only temporary from the beginning. I really like my neighborhood and I would like to stay in this general area.

Next weekend I am going camping in the Willamette National Forest, which is about three hours south of Portland, with some friends. There are mountains there that are part of the Cascades and it should be beautiful. They say there is swimming there too but when I asked the ranger on the phone he said "imagine it as glacier runoff" and "it is good for a quick dip". So I doubt we will be swimming. I also spoke to a woman there who mailed me a bunch of information with a hand written card wishing me a good trip. How sweet is that? Now to find a tent.

Bikes and 'hoods

2008-07-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

I posted once before about the biker culture I think and at that time I had just gotten here. Since then I have more information and experience with bikes in PDX. This is a very bike friendly city. I believe part of the reason for that is how easily bikeable a lot of it is. There are lots of events planned around biking and lots of roads that have bike lanes. In a couple weeks I am participating in Bridge Pedal which is an event where they close all the bridges around here to cars and allow lots of people to ride their bikes in a planned route around them. There are several options in routes and I am doing the middle one of 8 bridges which I think is 24 miles. I am not really sure how the terrain is to the north most bridge but the other areas I have ridden around already and it is not too difficult. I imagine the ride will be slow anyway since I hear thousands of people participate.

I moved to my own apartment over the weekend. Portland is really big on its neighborhoods. A lot of them (all of them?) are named and have their own personality. Some are more popular (naturally) and fun. Here is a site about the neighborhoods if you care to look at it. There is a map there too somewhere. The city is referenced by directions as in NW, SW, N, NE and SE. Some of those cover a very large area but they are necessary because the addresses count up in each direction from the road Burnside and also from the Willamette river. Until this past weekend I was in NW Portland in the Nob Hill neighborhood. That area is kind of similar to Tarrytown in Austin (kind of). It is very close to downtown and has some pricey living. It is very nice up there and very convenient and hard to park. I was only subleasing up there so it was time to move. I am glad to see my stuff again. Most of it has been packed up this whole time. I decided a couple weeks ago that I wanted to move to SE Portland which is more hippie. SE can mean a lot of area but I want to live close in as is my style. I'm renting, so why not? A friend of mine told me that her neighbor was renting out his basement studio. I talked to the guy and decided to move in. It is working for me right now because I don't have much stuff and there is no lease. It is also pretty cheap and all bills are paid. He told me that he doesn't even need a 30 day notice if I want to move, so that will work out just fine. The area I am in now is apparently called Hosford-Abernethy but I refer to it as Division/Clinton because that is the street fair name that just happened. I have been told that all the neighborhoods, at least the ones close to city center, have neighborhood fairs in the Summer. Last weekend, the same weekend I moved in, my neighborhood had theirs. I didn't experience much of it but there are booths out on the sidewalks and live music and people dancing. Good times. This neighborhood is more residential feeling than my last which is nicer for me to relax. Because I am in a basement it is pretty quiet too which I welcome. I do have two windows so I can see when it is daytime even though I don't get a whole lot of light in there. I kind of feel like I am living in a cave and I am glad it is temporary. The guy I am renting from is pretty cool. He has 5 bee hives that are newly acquired. He said he has yet to figure out how to get the honey out but he will learn that by this fall. I love bees because my aunt is a beekeeper. It feels familiar and like I am at home. Out of one of my windows I have a view of the hives and it makes me feel like I am watching discovery channel right outside. He also has a compost pile in his back yard which works for me too. Just down the street is my new COOP, People's. Love them. They offer so much more than just food. For example they have four yoga classes a week free to members. How awesome is that? They have other classes too and all kinds of events. I was there last night and I found farm fresh milk in glass bottles with cream on the top. mmmm. It reminds me of my childhood when we used to go to a dairy to get milk. I tried to find that kind of milk in Austin but I had no luck so they have major bonus points right now.

I am really doing a lot of stuff that I am not writing about. I do have times that I am not ecstatic about this city or moving but they are outnumbered by the times that I am. I don't have a job yet but I am looking. Summer and recession are not the best times to look for a job in case you were wondering. I miss my friends and family. I wish all of you/them would move up here too. Then life would be perfect.

I just have to add that I am having tea in a coffee shop near my new place right now and it is so pretty. A flower bloomed in the pot!

Hot Springs! and some other stuff

2008-07-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I went to Bagby Hot Springs which is almost 2 hours from my house. Wow! I had heard that there were hot springs around here so I have been wanting to go. I mentioned this to a friend who then suggested this spot. It was so cool there. You had better have good directions though because it wasn't very clearly marked. Once you find the area you park you car and make sure you don't leave anything valuable in sight because apparently there are a lot of break-ins. Luckily yesterday there were some people outside sitting in an information booth about spring conservation so no one would dare breaking into cars with so much audience. After parking you walk on a beautiful trail where you can see streams running through of cold spring water. There are many nice little rapids and bridges. I believe the trail is about a mile or a little more at a very low level of difficulty. Seriously we were noticing that it might be handicapped accessible because there are so many bridges over rocks and such. You eventually get back to some cabins that are boarded up and you can see the water coming out of the ground that is the hot springs. The water is then directed into a long wooden trough and flows past a kind of cabin structure with private rooms and an open area. The hot water is then directed in each room into tubs made out of hollowed out tree trunks that you can sit in. There are a couple larger tubs that are also made out of wood. I think I read that the water is 138 degrees so you mix it with cold spring water to the temperature you desire. It is so relaxing to sit in the warm water virtually outside and after I felt like my skin had been conditioned. Clothing is optional there and there were people either with our without. It was definitely a relaxing environment. If you felt like it you could go get in the cooler spring water after. I am sure this is a great place to go when it is cold outside and I plan on returning later in the year or next Spring.

On another note...I have been looking for an apartment. I may have mentioned before that I have been staying with a friend and subleasing his roommate's room. They have been so nice to let me stay here but it has to come to an end. I have looked at several apartments and finally decided on one that is cheap and will work until I have a regular income. It is in a different part of town that is more like South Austin than where I live now which is kind of like Terrytown in Austin. I am excited to move over there but a little sad at leaving the one area that I know pretty well by now. I think I will move this weekend. The landlord there said I can come any time so that seems like a good time. Luckily this place is still pretty close to downtown so I will still be mostly fine without driving. Have I mentioned that gas is $4.30 here and you can't pump it yourself? Still very strange to me.

Pictures later.

Cherries and Berries

2008-07-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

One thing that was a big deal to me before I moved here was that mangoes and watermelon are less accessible. Yes, they are sold here just like cherries and blueberries are sold in Texas, but they don't grow around here so they aren't as yummy or cheap. The good thing about that is that cherries and lots of other berries grow around here and therefore, are very accessible and cheaper.

So this past week I was walking around the hood and next hood and happened upon a farmer's market that I didn't realize was so close. We went in and I bought a pint of organic blueberries for $4 which is about half the price of the grocery store. That is really a lot of blueberries so I am sharing with my roomie (and anyone else who happens to be here). Then Chris (roomie) and I had plans to meet one of my friends at the big farmer's market at PSU which is about 1.5 miles from our house. We had to get there right when it started on Saturday because my friend had a small time window and you get better stuff earlier. I have to say that I think this was the best farmer's market I have ever been to. I am no expert on these things but this one had so much good produce and the berries. Berries and cherries all over the place. In Austin you don't really see a whole lot of fruit at the FMs and you see a lot of prepared food and crafts. Here it was mostly food in the form of produce, fish, cheese, a little other meat and some prepared foods. My friend and I both love cherries and berries so we were sampling them at every opportunity. We both bought about 3 pounds of cherries each which is really a lot of cherries so now I am sharing those too. I also got some blackberries because there were really sweet and ripe at one booth. I have been told that they grow all over the place here in people's yards because they are an invasive species but I haven't witnessed that yet. I did see blueberries in someones front yard last week. I am sure they wouldn't care if I picked some but they weren't really ripe and that seems a bit weird. There is also a cherry tree in our drive way but I am pretty sure they are the cooking type and not the yummy snacking type. I have decided that Rainier cherries are my favorite as opposed to bing. I don't think you can get them anywhere but here because I think they come from Mt. Rainier near Seattle. They are the whiter flesh kind that I didn't like until I got them here. They are a bit sweeter than bing and I love sweet.

Wow, so this whole post doesn't need to be about cherries.

On Friday I happened to be invited to a birthday dinner for a chick I barely know and we went to a Greek restaurant with a belly dancer. It was fun.

Saturday was the Farmer's Market and nothing else really worth mentioning other than it was hot again.

Today I met some people at a part of Forest Park I hadn't been to before. It was apparently a really popular part because there were tons of people out and a race was happening through there too. We walked for probably about 5 miles or a little less and it was really nice. It was a little faster walking than I like because I like to look around since this area is still new to me but it was still fun. Then this afternoon another friend had invited me to go to Sauvie's Island to the beach again with a group of people and another friend had asked me to go to an equestrian show. I decided to go to the equestrian show since I have never been before and it sounded less sun burn-ie. We drove there and got there right when the show was ending. Oops! It was so hot in her car and outside that I kind of wished I had gone swimming because I am pretty sure I would have been able to get in the water today. This no a/c is hard to get used to. Luckily it is still nice and cool at night and I have lots of cool berries to keep my temp down.

Some other places I have gone

2008-07-07T21:59:00.001-07:00

So the day after we had 100 degrees I went to Sauvie Island with a couple people. Sauvie Island is just north of Portland and it is a lot of farm country but there is also beach there on the river. Well there are really many places that can be considered beach and you can park and go swim. I figured this would be a swim free Summer for me since it isn't so hot and I know the ocean near here is freezing. I am only into shockingly cold water when it is unbearably hot outside so logic would dictate that I wouldn't swim. Anyway when my friend told me we could swim there and it was so hot I thought I would give it a shot. I have heard about this place before and it has been described to me as "God's Country". Who wouldn't want to go somewhere like that? So we took a really long time getting ready to go and drove up there. The drive was probably about 30 minutes. We got there to have to stop and get a parking permit. This is how they make their money from all the people swimming there. We saw a lot of signs for "U-Pick" berries. I want to do that one of these days and I better hurry while they are still in season. I love berries. Anyway the beach was very nice. I could tell they imported the sand and the water was warmer than Barton Springs but not too much and it wasn't really hot enough outside for me to want to really swim. Also they had boats in the river and I just wasn't feeling it. I got in but not all the way. One of the people with us swam a little bit but mostly we were just wading. It is beautiful out there.

Sauvie Berries

Sauvie Island

Justin came to visit last Wednesday for the 4th weekend. We went to the Velveteria on Thursday. The Velveteria is a museum of black velvet paintings. I had heard about it on NPR and Justin heard about it somewhere else. The couple who owns it has several thousand paintings but only enough room to hang about 350 at once so they rotate them frequently. Some of them were hilarious and they have a glow in the dark room where you can go and feel like you should be on acid. It is on the other side of the river from where I live so we went shopping and hung out in SE Portland for most of the day.

Friday we decided to take our own personal Goonies tour. You may or may not know that The Goonies was filmed in Oregon. Astoria to be exact. Apparently several movies were filmed there. The beach where a lot of the beach shots were filmed is 30 miles south of Astoria on Canon Beach/Ecola Park. First we went to Ecola Park which is where Brand was riding the little girl's bike down the hill. It is very beautiful there. It is also where Mikey lines up the haystack rock with the doubloon. We took pictures of us with the haystack. We went and ate lunch (fish and chips since we were on the ocean) in Canon Beach. It is a total tourist town of the variety I dislike. It kind of reminded me of Gruene, TX. After that we drove 30 miles north to Astoria which is also a tourist town, but of the kind I love. It is so cute and darling with its old houses and cute little building that weren't just built there to attract tourists. They were actually there a long time ago probably before it was a tourist spot. We went and saw the Googies House and museum. There is a website dedicated to the Goonies and they have mapped out all the diff sites you can see. The visitor's center in Astoria actually has a map of all this kind of stuff too and a print out from that website telling you where to see Goonies stuff along with stickers of scenes from the movie. I guess they get this a lot. I was also informed that there will be a Goonies reunion in 2010 and that I need to come back.

That's the haystack rock.

That's the Goonie's House

After we left there we drove back on the Washington side of the river and it was beautiful. When we got back to Portland we went down to the water front for fireworks. We were so close to the fireworks that they launch off of barges in the river that we were getting ash in our eyes. It was awesome!!! They actually have two bardges in the river launching explosives for about 20 minutes but it is really fast and there are A LOT going all at once. So many, in fact, that I couldn't believe that they pyrotechnicians could still see what they were doing through all the smoke.

Saturday we borrowed Kristy's bike for Justin and rode down the water front and then down that same trail I mentioned before. It is called the Springwater Corridor and we really didn't go very far on it. After that we went to Saturday Market. It's kind of touristy but kinda cool to see what the local craftsmen have to offer. After that we were tired so we came home and watched ... The Goonies.

As usual more photos.

100 Degrees in Austin VS 100 Degrees in Portland

2008-07-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

We actually had a day over the weekend that was 100. It felt a bit different than that kind of temperature does in Austin. The main difference is that you DO NOT need to bring a jacket with you to restaurants here. In Austin everyone has air conditioning and people tend to way over use it in the Summer. Here no one has air conditioning and they just live with it. Yes I have seen fans and everyone opens their windows but unless it is a large business there is no a/c to be had. I went to a restaurant and they were cooling it down somehow but it was not cold as I was accustomed to in Austin restaurants (especially Kerby Lane at all times of the year). It really does cool down a lot here at night but a night after a day like that is still pretty warm. We are now down to highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s and it is pretty nice.

So other than that one really hot day we had a couple other days in the 90s. The humidity here in the Summer is pretty low. It did rain over the weekend which gave more humidity than normal but it seems to be gone now. I have found out that thunder/lightening is rare here and they don't have fireflies (thanks kdaisy for that sad info).

I am making some friends but I really miss my Austin peeps. It is kind of hard to live in a city of new people at times. My Justin may be coming to visit tomorrow but we really won't know until he gets to the airport since his friend with the pass is super flaky. We haven't seen each other in 1.5 years so it's high time.

I am now really seriously looking for a job. I have had enough free time since I don't have unlimited money. If I had that I am pretty sure I could keep not working for quite a bit longer. I will still be OK for a while but it is on my mind.

Catch UP

2008-06-22T23:57:00.001-07:00

So really a lot of stuff has been going on, but I just haven't taken the time to write it up.

I had a friend from Austin in town for part of the week that ended with the 13th. She was on tour and had a show at a little bar in SE Portland. I went to her show (pictures) and it was loads-o-fun. She played and I missed half of it because I went to a graduation in Gresham (30 mile east suburb) for Carl (Ann's brother). When I got there she only had three songs left but still good times. Then a band played after her called Advisory and they were so much fun. I was excited to see people dancing to the music. That doesn't really happen in Austin and I assume that is because of the saturation of good live music there. This was so much fun and it reminded me of the shows I used to go to in Lubbock where everyone was so excited that they couldn't help but dance. The venue reminded me of that too. It was a night of nostalgia with a new band. I can't remember what happened on Saturday. Then Sunday (the 15th I think) I went on a long walk around my neighborhood and then to Forest Park again. It was wonderful and my feet really hurt after that. Chris (who I am living with currently) and I went and saw "The Fall". It was excellent and you should all see it especially if you liked Pan's Labyrinth or Tideland. Fantasy from the perspective of a child.

The next day Ann was in town and we got to have some fun. She was actually here longer than that but was spending time with her family in Gresham. We had good Indian food went on a really nice hike in Forest Park (pictures) Tuesday and another shorter one the next day in a different part of the park. That park is effin' huge! I have read that there are 70 miles of trail and it is over 5000 acres. We also did a little shopping and had some delicious dessert. A strange thing happened the last night she was here. We went to a little bar so she could have a glass of wine and I could have some tea. We were sitting outside because it was nice. There are large windows in this bar so you are almost sitting next to the people inside. Well the table next to us inside had a lady sitting there who was obviously drunk and with her two older male friends. She kept (very obviously) turning around to gawk at us. She would stare at me and then stare at Ann. At one point I looked at her and she began attempting to talk to me through the glass. She motioned that something was funny and that we should come inside with her. I shook my head no and tried to ignore her. She kept starting for quite some time and then switched places with one of the men. Then as we asked for our check she came outside and said that she was an a-hole and she had won a bet and that she would pay our tab. She had a Texaco jacket on and I asked her why she would want to pay our tab. She said that she just had loads of money to blow, so I asked her if it was because she worked for Texaco and they were charging us $4.50/gallon? She laughed and said no that she had won a bet but she refused to tell us what the bet was. Then she went away and came back to ask how much tip we wanted to leave. Now mind you, my part of the bill was less than $2 so I didn't care that she was paying for it; however, Ann's was probably $13 so she was happy. She left a nice tip and then went away still refusing to tell us what the bet was and as she was leaving she told the two guys at the table next to us that they should be hitting on us. What a weirdo! A few minutes later the two men who were with her came outside and strolled past us and then pretended that they just happened to need to walk half way down the street and stand there for a minute and then walk back. Bunch of weirdos! I figure that they thought Ann and I were a couple and she was actually a lesbian and somehow proved to them that we weren't. It was very strange. I told Chris that story and he said "Welcome to Portland". Haha.

Wednesday night was an event called Ignite Portland that Chris and I went to. It is an event that happens every quarter I think they said and it is 2 hours of 5 minute presentations. Each presenter has exactly 5 minutes and they get to use slides that change every 15 seconds or so. If they aren't finished talking after 5 minutes they have to leave anyway. They can choose any topic that they want to talk about and they are prescreened. There is free food and an intermission. The topics were random and included things like nuclear power, hobo train riding, how to buy a car for less than $1000, recycling/garbage/compost, community and some kind of primate

Ann left on Thursday and then Friday my friend Risa came into town. Risa was in Seattle and rented a car and they gave her a convertible. Saturday Risa and I drove around a bit in the fancy neighborhoods and looked at the fancy houses and a bit through Forest Park and then she asked me if I wanted to go to Eugene and of course I said yes. We drove down there with the top down and I didn't get burned. The sun was out but I guess it is just less intense and my sunscreen did its job. On the way there we saw a sign that was advertising a berry farm. There was pretty much no way we could not go to the berry empire so we went off the highway. As we drove on the signs were much smaller but we found our way. It was 4 miles off the highway so we had some time to get really excited about what we would experience. A lot of different kinds of berries grow in this area so we had reason to be excited. So we finally get there and all we see is a booth with strawberries and a guy in it. We go up to the booth and ask the guy if this is all they had and he kind of grunted that the season was late. We asked what else they usually have and he told us about marrionberries and raspberries and boisonberries all of which will be ripe in the next two weeks. Dammit! We asked him if there was anything more for us at the berry empire but he wasn't sure. We bought some strawberries, which I might add are pretty darn good, and headed back to the car. Then we saw another guy who looked like he might have more authority and I asked him if there was anything more and he looked a little confused too. Then I told him that we wanted the full berry experience and could we look around? He said that we could drive down this dirt road but warned that we would probably kick up some dust into our convertible. He also told us that nothing was ripe but we didn't care. We went down the road and saw some lovely vines and some bees. My aunt raises bees so it was kind of cool for me to see them in their man made hives. We took some pictures that you can see. We then continued on our journey to Eugene and found our way to the University of Oregon. I kept telling Risa that it looked like plants just puke everywhere here because there is so much green happening and so many SO MANY flowers. We walked around the campus a bit because Risa is thinking of going to grad school there. It was just beautiful and the city is larger than we thought it would be. I thought it would be about 30k but it is actually about 150k. Then we ate dinner at a sushi place and played with our food. We sat at the bar that had a conveyor belt with rolls that you could choose from. We ordered too much food and found it quite humorous to put our leftovers back on the belt for other patrons to enjoy. Pictures too.

Last night I went out with some people on a bike ride and then we went and saw Mongol. It is about Genghis Khan and was a pretty romanticized version of his life but it was fun to watch nonetheless. There is a cute little movie theater right down the street from my house where we saw that movie. I think it only has one theater and it's no Alamo but still good.

I am such an American

2008-06-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

I really enjoy not having to go to work, but I have this underlying guilt for being unemployed. it is a societal thing too because people have been telling me things like "do you know the state of the economy?" and "you moved here without a job?" and "it is hard to find a job here." Maybe I am crazy, but I am just not that worried about it. I have saved some money so that I could move here and not be stressed. Why do I feel (somewhat) stressed? It is weird to not have that major part of my routine of going to work but walking around enjoying the city is very nice. This place is cool because I can walk around to a lot of the places I want to go. I am in the part of town that is apparently very popular because you have to park your car blocks away. It is annoying enough to find parking that people don't want to take their car because finding another space will take a while. The cost of gas is really high here too since it is illegal to pump your own gas. Yes, that's is true...you can't pump your own gas. They have attendants at the stations who do it for you which adds about .20/gallon. The price I saw this morning for regular unleaded in this area was $4.29. That also helps people not want to drive. A day pass on TriMet is $4.25, so if you are going just about anywhere it is worth it just take public transit/walk/bike.

Today is the first day of Pedalpalooza. I haven't decided what I am doing yet, but I am planning on participating in some of that. What a great city.

Know what else makes this city great? Recycling. If you know me you know that I am a bit obsessive about it. They have the one bin recycling at your house now where you can mix everything together except glass. How cool is that? It is a big ol' trash can that you can put everything in. Know what else they have? Compost. They pick it up at your house in a similar can. On top of the can it says "Portland Composts 'It's The Right Thing To Do.'" How could I not love a city like that?

The Rose Parade and a Lovely View

2008-06-07T15:36:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to the Rose Parade. I am staying in the NW Hostel right now while one of my housemates (if that is accurate) has her parents in town. A girl I met in the hostel asked me if I wanted to go and I had some time so I walked over there with her and another guy from the hostel and we walked up right when it seemed to be starting. There were tons of people with their chairs and blankets parked along the side of the street. This was quite possibly the slowest parade I have ever experienced. It kind of had a feeling like they just formed a group of people and sent them on their way then another group might form and they went along a little later etc. for a couple hours. We were there for about 30 minutes and I saw two small groups of people march along. There were many people in costumes but a very relaxed environment.

After that I went to meet a friend and she took me up in an area of town that has a great view. It kind of reminded me of driving up to Mt. Bonnell in Austin but many many more flowers and a mountain in the background. Beautiful I tell you.

More pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthie.marx/RoseParadeandView

Rose Festival

2008-06-05T21:59:00.001-07:00

So this week is the Rose Festival in Portland, Oregon. When I first heard that I imagined a parade with lots of floats with roses on them. As I am here longer and I keep hearing more about it I am finding out lots of interesting different things.

It started last Friday (I think) with the fireworks that I posted about the other day. It appears that there is a kind of carnival down by the river too. OK I just checked and it started May 29th and ends June 8th according to this site http://www.rosefestival.org/ Anyway the first I heard about it was at the fireworks. The next day they had some kind of parade that was all lit up floats at night. I didn't actually witness it, but I did see the blocked off parts of downtown. The next thing I heard about it was yesterday when I was getting a tour of the neighborhoods around the center of town and we saw that a lot of East Portland had their streets blocked off for a Junior Rose Parade. All of this sounds nice and family friendly, right? Well then yesterday I started to hear about the sailors. Apparently a bunch of sailors sail into town and create a bunch of drunken raucous and, according to my nice tour guide, nine months from now there will be a lot more babies in Portland. HAHA! I laughed really hard when I heard that. She said all the unattractive girls come out and get it on with sailors and have their babies. Well then last night I heard some more people's take on it and they told me that the sailors come out but that this even attracts sex workers from all over the country. They know they can get a lot of business here right now. I guess they have all the boats down on the river right now. When I say the river I believe I am speaking of the Willamette. There are two rivers here that converge - the Willamette and the Columbia. You pronounce Willamette Will-am-et NOT william-ette as you might think. I haven't made that mistake outloud to anyone, but I hear they don't like it. :)

Tomorrow I am going to go and check out all the sailors on the shore and maybe even see some roses.

PS I love it here and I am even making some friends.

Forest Park Part 1 (I am sure)

2008-06-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

Today I was going to look for a job but then this crazy thing happened. The sun came out. I couldn't bring myself to sit on my computer all day while I was missing lovely weather. I have to add in here for all the Texans that I think it was in the 60s today so still a bit chilly for my unacclimatized self. I have been wanting to go to Forest Park which I keep hearing is the largest urban park in the WHOLE COUNTRY. Boy, did I move to the right place or what? So I looked on the map since I have heard that there is an entrance close to downtown and I a close to downtown so I figured that I could just walk there. Well it turns out to be true. I am so lucky to be staying where I am. I think it was probably about a mile walk and I was at the entrance. I didn't have much time by the time I got there so I only stayed for about 30 minutes but it was just what I needed. Here are some pictures of what I saw:

More pics here: http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthie.marx/ForestPark

It's Getting Realer

2008-05-31T23:18:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got to Portland or even since I left Austin I have been feeling like I was going or was on vacation. Today Cathy left and now it is really starting to feel real that I don't live in Texas anymore and I won't be going back there for a while. I have changed my address on all the important stuff and have talked to a couple people about living accommodations. I got a bit sad today from missing people but it went away when I had an awesome time this evening...details below.

Over the past few days I have been running around a lot. The coolest thing about that is I have hardly even driven my car at all!!! It is not hot and lots of things that I want to do are within walking distance. The things that aren't are easily accessible via TriMet (the public transit here). I will just call it TriMet since that encompasses the light rail/bus/trolley system. Cathy and I went over to the Hawthorne area which is where I have been thinking I want to live. It is a popular area to live and a bit cheaper than where I am staying right now. Of course that also makes it much harder to find a place there. It is on the SE side of town. This city is referenced by locals according to the directional location. The street Burnside divides the North from the South and the Willamette River divides the East from the West. Right now I am staying the NW Portland and Hawthorne is the SE. You can look on a map and see that area where the street Hawthorne is located. It is a trendy shoping area but feels a bit less cityish than NW where I am now. This area is also very cute and there are lots of little shops around but just a bit more pricey and brand oriented maybe. These are just quick observations I am making. There is good food all over the place and no sales tax makes buying stuff nicer. Of course there is state income tax so that will be a pain when I get a job. We went to the Rose Test Garden yesterday which was beautiful but not all that many roses were in bloom. We also went to see Sex and the City and that has nothing to do with Portland, but a very good and emotional movie that anyone who liked the show will love. Last night we went and saw fireworks on the river. This weekend is the Rose Festival so they had fireworks and a carnival looking thing going on. Today they had the Rose Parade but I didn't go to it.

When I was here last month I met a cool girl at the hostel and she was the one who took us to the fireworks last night. This evening I had plans with her to go for a bike ride. She had told me where we were going, but I have a hard time remembering stuff I hear unless I see it. Where we went was down south from where I am in NW to the river and then down to this cool bike highway type trail thing. It was very cool and even though we were in the middle of the city I felt like I was on a country road.

This led us to an amusement park type place with a roller rink where we could see the roller girls skating. I took some pictures that I am uploading to my picasa site. The part of the trail we went on was about 3 miles and not a hard ride at all and I believe that it is used for commuters a lot. I am not sure how far it goes since we turned around 3 miles in and came back. This is the kind of thing that makes me love this city. When I was riding back home I was riding in a way that I have heard a lot of people in Austin complain about. I don't run lights but I do tend to switch back and forth between pedestrian rules and car rules. By this I mean that i will ride on the sidewalk and cross when the crosswalk sign says to and when it is easier I will get back on the road. While this really behavior pisses off Texans it seems to be common and embraced here. Another thing that is strangely accepted and seemingly expected is jay walking. Cars not only don't try to run you over for this, but if they think you might want to cross they will just stop. This happens even if they are in the middle of a road going fast and have no traffic signal telling them to stop. It's freaky, but nice!

Here are more pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ruthie.marx/MovingToPortland

I'm here!

2008-05-28T23:22:00.001-07:00

I got to Portland this evening. It was raining but that shouldn't surprise anyone. I think it is going to be sunny on Friday so hopefully Cathy can see the city in the light. It was beautiful coming through the mountains in Oregon and a little scary at the end of Idaho. Now not only do I not know where my usb cable is but I also have a dead battery in my camera. Hopefully I will resolve these issues tomorrow after some sleep. Driving 2300 miles is tiring!

Packing and Travelling

2008-05-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

I don't have a whole lot to say about packing except that it is really much more difficult than you might think to compact everything you own down into a space that will fit in a Honda Civic.

My friend Cathy is driving with me to Portland. She is flying back to Austin on Saturday and we just left on Sunday when she got off of work. This doesn't leave a whole lot of time for sight seeing along the way which is fine. The planned route is Sunday Austin to Lubbock to see my parents. Monday Lubbock to Boulder to stay with a friend there. Tuesday Boulder to Twin Falls, ID only because it is half way between Boulder and Portland along the highway route. Wednesday Twin Falls to Portland. Since it is already Tuesday when I am writing this a good portion of this has already happened. I am in Twin Falls right now. Today was our longest day in distance and time. We didn't leave Boulder until noonish because my friend there wanted to show us around. It is really beautiful there. I will post pictures later. I have been taking pictures along the road for comparison purposes. So far it has been flat in West Texas, Oklahoma and the eastern part of Colorado. Once we got into Denver it started storming and we got poured on through Boulder. Last night we went to dinner with one of Cathy's friends who just moved to Boulder and with my friend who has lived there for a while. This morning we went and had coffee and walked around the mall there. The mall isn't like malls in Texas in that it is open and has lots of cute little shops with musicians and other entertainers sitting outside. Lots of people walk around in Boulder and it is is definitely a place I would like to visit again. My friend thinks I should move there but it is a bit too chilly for my taste.

Leaving Boulder had nice scenery but then it got boring again until the west side of Wyoming where the mountains began (at least I think that is where they started). Utah is unbelievably beautiful and it seems unfair that the Mormons have a monopoly on the space there. ;) It was getting dark once we got into Idaho so I can't really comment on the scenery here yet but I will know more tomorrow.

We just got to the hotel a little while ago but before coming up to the room Cathy wanted to get something to eat so we pulled back out and went to a fast food joint where she promptly got pulled over. Apparently she forgot to turn on her head lights but she figures it was bad karma for eating fast food. I just brought my cat up to the hotel room where there is a sign on the door that says no pets. If pets aren't allowed in hotel rooms what are pet owners who move across the country supposed to do with their babies? I really didn't want to fly her and I know people drive their animals around a lot, so what gives?

We have about a 9 hour drive tomorrow (according to Google) and this hotel offers some kind of breakfast. I sure will be happy to be out of the car tomorrow night. I will then be staying with a friend in Portland until I can find my own place. I will try to do that as quickly as possible even though I am unemployed. I like my own space. I will also post pictures on here when I can get to my usb cable.

Last Day of Work

2008-05-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

I am officially now unemployed. It hasn't quite hit me yet and it probably won't until I am in Portland. I will be homeless in two days which is kind of stressful but also exciting! I have been feeling kind of numb until last night when I had somewhat of an emotional breakdown. Lots of things are happening all at once. Boring is not a word to describe me life right now. Two days to take off.

About to move

2008-05-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

In about 1.5 weeks I will have moved to Portland, Oregon. Some people already know this and I have been getting a lot of love from my friends and family in Austin. I will miss everyone terribly although that doesn't really seem real right now. I have been planning a move for about two years and I decided on the location last summer. Portland is a beautiful place that seems to be inline with my ideals. People have been asking me all over the place to send them updates after I move and that will be way too hard via email or any other method, so I decided to just post it in blogs. This is the first one. Right now I am really looking forward to the break from work. I haven't found a job up there yet and I honestly I haven't been looking that hard since my last trip up about a month ago. I decided that I wanted a break and I can financially do that for a bit right now. What time is better than the present? This is going to be a life changing thing for me and I can't wait.