So. This week. It is the overs and where the frack did it go? I’m serious–I kind of would really like it to be Monday again just so that I can, I dunno, manage my time better or something. How the heck did it get to be a quarter to ten on a Friday night?
Today was a busy busy day. There were some chores to be done in the morning (there are chores to be done every morning). Then my Sister in Law arrived to get her car worked on (believe it or not, it actually was worth the three and a half hour drive to be able to get her car fixed at half the price it would have cost her in Seattle) and to spend the day hanging out. This plan was hatched just a couple of days ago at the last minute so yesterday was spent in a blind crash panic of “omg, I have to get all this work done because my week is ending a day early” but that’s another story. Where was I?
Oh yes. Sister in Law arrived (Hi SIL!) and we spend the day hanging out and showing Beth some of the finer points (for me, anyway) of downtown PDX. (Hi Beth!)
Beth is the very first person that I have met in a hang-out-and-get-to-know-each-other capacity from the internet. See, she posted a comment over on Wil Wheaton’s blog (Hi Wil!) about how she had just moved to town this past week and in a moment of big sisterly, “I know what it’s like to move somewhere you’ve never been and where you know no one” compassion/whimsy, sent her a comment back offering to show her around a little and help her get to know the awesomeness that is PDX.
I? Have reeeeeeeally poor impulse control sometimes. But! It worked out for the best! Because Beth is very nice and we had a very good time doing all of my staple “I’m in downtown, let me share my love of it with you” things. SIL and I met her in Pioneer Square and then I walked everyone ragged as we had Chinese Food for lunch allllll the way up at Panda Kitchen at PSU (NOM) and then walked alllllllllllllll the way back down to Voodoo Doughnuts (NOM) and then allllllllllllllllllll the way over to the Multnomah County Library (book NOM). I’d have taken us to Powell’s too, but it was super crazy hot out and Beth had already been there. We also found the bathrooms in Pioneer Place Mall and walked past the food court of food carts on lower 3rd. It? Was a full afternoon. But there was good conversation and good company to be had so I didn’t even mind that it was blazing hot out.
And then? SIL and I came home and crashed in front of the Bert (the Portable Air Conditioner for those who haven’t yet met him) and watched Season One Episodes of Leverage until Will came home from work. There may or may not have been some napping in there as well.
So. Yes. Oof. But a good oof!
Tomorrow and Sunday Will and I are going to be helping some friends of ours move from an apartment on the Park Blocks to a house in North East Portland. I suspect that will be an oof of an entirely different variety.
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Man, just hearing about that excursion makes me want to pass out from heat exhaustion. ^_^ Sounds like it would have been a wonderful time if it hadn’t been OhMyGodWHY hot outside.
Much love for downtown PDX. One of our mandatory “experiences of Portland” is going to The Roxy. Of course, it’s more fun if you’re there around midnight, but still a good time in the middle of the day. Also, the Ben and Jerry’s store over by Pioneer Place/Courthouse Square is pretty awesome.
While people tout being an Original Oregonian like a badge of honor, I think there is a point of pride to being a Portlander by choice. I don’t think one can truly understand how much living anywhere else sucks horribly if they’ve had the pleasure of living here their entire life, like my husband. He’s visited my hometown, Monroe, Mi, all of 4 times in the 11 years we’ve known each other, all for a week or less stretches. He gets the idea that he wouldn’t want to spend a considerable amount of time there, but he doesn’t know the true hell of being a permanent resident by force, and how wonderful he has it by comparison. He’s never had to deal with lake effect snow or windchill in the winter. He didn’t live in constant fear of Tornados in the spring and fall. He doesn’t know how impossible it is to calculate how hot it is really outside between Fahrenheit and humidity. It’s 80, but it feels like 105, and why can’t I breathe? I won’t even get into how jacked of a city Detroit is.
I appreciate Portland. I love it here. I spent three years prior to moving here permanently being homesick for it. And since 2002, I’ve been proud to officially call it my home.
Anyway, welcome to the Portland area, Beth! I hope you come to love it as much as the rest of us!
By Vallie in Portland on 07.10.10 7:17 am | Permalink
I’m actually glad for all the walking we did, worked off the doughnuts, I’m sure.
That’s okay, my impulse control in saying yes was even worse than yours in offering. “Hey, let me have a complete stranger lead me around a town I don’t know very well, weeeeeeeee!” (in my head, that was a very Wil-mocking-Wesley “weeeeeeee”) Personally, I’m glad no one was a serial killer (except maybe Missy, we’re not sure…) and that we got along so well. I have very few Portland friends (the kind of very few you can count on one hand) and I’m glad I can count you amongst the numbers.
See, Wil Wheaton’s blog is very good for vetting out the crazy people.
By Beth on 07.10.10 7:47 am | Permalink
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