auld lang syne

Happy New Years Eve!

New Years Eve has been one of my more likable holidays. I've had bad ones before but I think that I've had my fair share of good ones too. I would call tonight a good one albeit tame. Several friends came over and we drank and played Apples to Apples (not the kid's version). It's amateur drinking night so we didn't really want to be on the road or pay outrageous cover charges. This was pretty much just what I wanted to go. It's a nice way to start off the year!

by the horse's neck

Somewhere along the road, I think I gave up. I became one of those people who go to bed by 11pm and who rarely go out on a work night. When did that happen?

I used to fight my way to get a workshift that would start at 11 AM at the earliest and wouldn't get over until around 7 PM, if I put in a full day. When I first moved to Portland, I took that shift at the thrift store because nobody else wanted it. I also spent at least four out of the seven nights out at bars. Now, I usually only go out on the weekends if I go out and I head to bed sometimes at 9:30 PM. WTF?

Tonight, I decided that my job is not that demanding that I need a full eight hours of sleep to do it. We went out to the Bonfire for dinner and to a movie afterwards (Zach and Miri Make a Porno which was well worth it!). At the bar, I had a few Horse's Necks, which are basically just whiskey gingers with a lemon peel. Still, the drink was something new and the night was a throwback to something old.

c'mon, get chatty

Today, I joined Twitter...why did I do that?

I have too many social malfunctions already. Why would I add one more?

Technology has replaced basic human interactions. Obviously, it hasn't replaced them completely for most people but it is slowly chipping away at our ability to look someone in the face and carry on a proper conversation. Cell phones, particularly texting, have reduced conversations to acronyms and boiled language down to two to three words sentences. Kids bully each other in chatrooms instead of on the playground where they are able to be so much more screwed up. Myspace allows people to collect friends and gain a false sense of social behavior not to mention broadcast the tastes, desires and associations to the whole world. Now, calling someone or even directly texting one other person is a little too passe. Now we have twitter.

I don't know. Maybe my technophobic nature is just swelling or maybe I will end up enjoying it. One good thing I can say about twitter is that it allows you to catch up with people in a simple and sweet manner and make you feel a little more connected...even if it is to an electronic device. Oh and at least it's not myspace.

Anway, if you want to follow me on twitter, my name is topherdarling.

it's time to celebrate hanukkah

I don't consider myself a christian but I still celebrate Christmas. I don't consider myself to be pagan but I still celebrate Solstice. And I don't consider myself to be Jewish but I will still celebrate Hanukkah. I think I'm just always up for a good celebration. Today was our house's first Hanukkah hosting. Happy happy hanukkah for all of those who celebrate it no matter what you believe.

the walkabout

What a day!

Despite the fact that we got several MORE inches overnight, I still got up at 5:30 am to begin walking to work today. Fate smiled on me and put a bus right in front of me on Holgate which allowed me to bus close to work. I just had to walk 1/2 mile in. Hell, I got there early. The Holgate bus was more like a rollercoaster though. I sat in the middle of the backseat and watched through the windshield as we fishtailed down the overpass! Weeeeee!

I stayed at work for a few hours, got a little bit of work done and a lot of blogging accomplished. After Ashes joined me, we decided to head downtown to finish shopping. After walking on the bridge (in the middle lanes where no cars were going) we headed on a trek around town, almost completely on foot. Our main destinations were the Lloyd Center, the Hollywood Fred Meyers, Alter-Nation on Hawthorne and then back home via walking down 39th. We began walking the sidewalks but soon decided the roads would be easier and took over one of 39th's four lanes. A few other walkers jumped off of the sidewalk and joined us. It was like a pilgramage or a moving herd. I was tired and cold by then but I loved all of the pedestrians!

By the time we got home, I was dead tired. I'm skipping work tomorrow!

the holgate rollercoaster ride

moby in chains

One good thing about the snow is that it gets people walking. As it should be, cars are rare. We walked today to Schucks to get tire chains for our cars. Luckily, they had my tire size. Yet the universe still didn't want my car moved. Ashes put on one chain and showed me how to do the other side. We didn't even get Moby fully backed up before the driver side chain decided to wrap across (not around) the tire. When we managed to get that one off, we still had to try to get the car back into a parking spot. Then the other chain came off. While we did get it in a spot, it's not going until the weather gets a lot better! Oh well, I hate driving anyway!

acclimation

I pretty much accepted today that conditions weren't going to improve and I was gonna have to get in touch with my Midwestern roots and go play in the snow.

I've been putting off my holiday shopping and walking Dean until the snow melts down but we got dumped on again today. Before noon, I got out there and started shopping. I got most of it done on Hawthorne and then walked down to the liquor store and got my peppermint schnapps (to complete the mood). Then I walked back home. Dean and I headed to the park and he was thrilled. He ran up all batshit to other dogs at Reed and they bounded around each other, all excited over the snow. He hasn't seen that much snow in his life. We only spent one full winter in Nebraska together before moving up here. He LOVES it although I could easily see it wearing thin after a while. When we returned home, he had snowflake eyebrows and icicles hanging from his chin. But he had a big grin on his face too!

i-panick

I am not a materialistic person but there are a few possessions in this world that I can't survive well without. My i-pod is one of them. While driving around to my stores yesterday, my i-pod shuffle ran out of power. I ran home quick and grabbed the charger. However, I forgot to bring it into the office when I headed back to work. That night, I went to plug the i-pod in and I couldn't find it. I tore my room apart and search all of my jackets and pants. Today, I searched my car, my office and even drove home in the middle of the day to look in the driveway but I couldn't find it. I was pissed.

I hate hate hate losing stuff. I bought the shuffle at Goodwill so it's not like I paid a lot for it but I use it a WHOLE lot. Compared to my last I-pod, this one has been pretty indestructible which made it highly valuable to me. It bugged me so much that I shopped around on the internet and I found a comparable i-pod at Freddies so I decided to go buy it new.

I don't like it as much. You have to plug it into a stand which in turn plugs into your USB port. My old shuffle plugged right into the USB port with no additional device. But it's all I got...until Sophia came over. My housemate picked her up in my car and brought Bastard and her back to our place. When she got out of the car, she spotted my shuffle on the ground. It survived overnight outside. I'm returning the new one tomorrow. It has more memory but it's not my old shuffle and any little music machine that can survive in the snow outside over night is the one for me!

crazy little thing called pub

I love the pub. I've been trapped inside for the past several days except I'm getting out for work. None of my clients came into work on Monday, several of them were there on Tuesday (but the weather was too bad for me to go to any of my stores) and most of them called in again today.

Anyhow, we decided to hit the pub at the end of the universe after work today just to leave the house. The pub is like a warm little sanctuary. To make the place even more homey, we met the owner tonight. She's owned the pub since 1979. She was awesome. Victory asked if she could make anything like a hot drink and the owner came up with hot chocolate and irish creme wine. After she checked with us to make sure it was okay, she said she was going to put it on the menu. I love this place!

snow dogs

Snow is typically a rare treat in Portland. Therefore, it's more enjoyable and also more of a hassle. People aren't prepared here for it and tend to freak out. (Dean freaked out today but in a good way!). Ashes pointed out to me today that around 48% of the people living in Portland aren't from Portland but around 70% of those people are from Cali so snow in town is a foriegn concept to a lot of people around here.

While it's beautiful, it also made regular tasks very challenging. I picked up the food donations in the midst of snow for the first time. Fortunately, I'm a cyclist and so is my food partner so we were able to figure the flattest path to the store and the drop off site.

boppin' bo's

A free meal is a free meal but I've gotten spoiled by work Holiday dinners in the past and was looking forward to something nice this year. However, I got a fifties retro restaurant in a strip-mall in Vancouver.

Today, I went to Boppin' Bo's where I had a veggie sandwich which was basically a salad between two pieces of bread and some decent fries. I gorged myself on a blackberry malt and could have been rolled out of the place. As unappetizing as the place was, I still enjoyed myself. I love hanging out with my co-workers and I am truly grateful to them for saving this meal.

back to school

My boss walked by me today and told me to come see her before I leave. Instantly, I'm thinking that I did something wrong and trying to come up with excuses for everytime I was on the internet or the extra errands I ran on my way to visit stores. It turns out that she wants me to get CRC (commission on rehabilitation counselor) certified. In order to do that, I have to have a Masters in counseling. Therefore, my work is going to give me a scholarship to go back to school.

I still have nightmares on occassion that it's close to the end of the semester and I just remembered that I had a class (usually biology) that I forgot about and it's too late to drop and now I have to face the professor. I'm not sure I'm ready for this.

However, I was reassured by my boss that the university that she wants me to attend has a great classroom structure and it won't interfere too much with my life or my job. And hell, in this economic market, it's not only reassuring that my boss and the president of the company thinks highly enough of my work to give me a scholarship but it's also comforting that they are going to invest more in me which will make me more of an assett and harder to let go.

So I'm going to do it!

you are about to enter...the cal-zone

I haven't done a food post in a while so I figured I was due to try a new recipe and this one turned up. I made calzones tonight. I found a similar recipe on-line but with different ingredients. Basically, I made it up. I had veggie steak strips from the food box last week and decided to get creative.

I used Trader Joes' pizza dough for the crust and filled the calzones with the veggie steak strips, portabella mushrooms, black olives, pizza sauce, shredded asiago, provolone and parmasean and artichoke hearts. Once I got the dough flattened, it really wasn't that hard.

I also got some different kind of brandy today. Lately, I've become addicted to Hot Toddys.

recent regional history

Today, I went to a showing of 'Battle in Seattle' at the Red and Black cafe. It was great because a few people that were at the packed showing were in Seattle and could say what parts of the movie were right and which parts were wrong and what was left out. I got to meet several new people as well.

It's nice to be able to get a taste of local recent history from people that were actually there and not just from some major movie release. However, I did like the movie. It was overly dramatic at parts and the love story was crap but it came across with a good message and Jennifer Carpenter from Dexter was in it!

road trip

I love getting out of work. At the video store I worked at in Nebraska, the big outing was going up the street to take accidentally-dropped-off videos back to the competition. When I was working at the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument, our great outing was to North Platte to a tourism conference which was mostly a wine tasting. Although there was drinking, it was still work because I was surrounded by people that I usually wouldn't be social with. Today, I got a fun road trip with my housemate on the company dollar to Eugene.

It wasn't even planned but I just asked my boss if I could go along when Ashes went to check out the stores in Eugene to see how they provide work for their participants and she said it was no problem. We even got to take the company jeep (mmmm, heated seats) and have lunch on the company dollar. I love my job!

Lately, the boys in the band :) have been giving me static about putting my job before touring but with the economy and the job market the way it is, I can't afford to lose this job. Plus, I don't want to. It's rewarding both in a-sense-of-accomplishment sort of way and with the money and perks. I'll never go back to retail!

stagbitten and riot cops' return

Riot Cop made their debut tonight with their new bassist. They sounded awesome and it was good to see them at it again. Also, I managed to load up my white whale with the band equipment and still have room for the singer. Damn, that car's big!

Also, I had the pleasure of watching Stagbitten for the first time. The song I recorded wasn't their best song of the night and that sound is all distorted but their performance was fuggin' awesome! I know I have my issues with punk but it does seem to appeal to me when there's a female vocalist. I think it's the punks and not the music though. Maybe it's just because I don't get into as many disagreements with female punks as I do the males. Or maybe the bands I know with female vocalists just sound better. At any rate, Stagbitten was great. Their energy was contagious and their timing was perfect. I will be seeing them again!

in recovery

While back in Nebraska this summer, I had a friend mention that I need to give up this whole misanthropic thing. I've been trying. I really have. It's just so damn hard to not despise humanity, especially the blonde attempting to block my shot in the picture above, when they're so damn horrendous.

At kareoke at the Galaxy tonight, I almost got up and walked home. The bar was filled with all varieties of obnoxious people. There was the table that looked like extras from the bar scenes of True Blood who I thought would get all aggro if I tried to sing a gay man's song. Then there was a table of dudes that looked like models for the St Elmo's Fire crew when they were in their prime and most despicable.

Yes, I'm bitter. It did get better though. The VJ came up to our table later and requested that we do songs because she had some spots to fill before she called it a night. It was nice to feel appreciated and eventually the SEF crew left and the TB table got drunk enough to be pretty nice.

I think that a lot of my attitude had to do with a lot of environmental issues that have been weighing on me as of late. That and I just watched Hellboy 2 which had a nice misanthropic message. I need to avoid those catalysts if I want to recover and develop a better sense of humanity.

studying ms spears

Today, I studied the life and career of Britney Spears. I'm starting to get serious about That's So Gay trivia. And I'm not the only one.

Today is also Britney Spears' birthday and that's why she was the dominating topic of trivia night. I got an e-mail telling me that ahead of time from the trivia hostess Michelle because I signed up for her list. I notified my teammates and we actually went to Britney's wikipedia page to study up on her. Hell, I even made myself a cheat sheet of her discography. Alas, even with boning up on our Britney, we still weren't quite as queer as the rest of the crowd. We came in third...again. However, all of the scores were higher so I think that the other players are starting to get more prepared as well. Or maybe they're just more tuned into pop culture.

The shame of it all is that it's called gay trivia but it's more celebrity gossip trivia. True, a lot of queer culture involves a lot of celebrity pop culture but we're more than just an audience for the tabloids. It'd be nice if gay trivia would have a history category. Of course then it might not be as tounge-in-cheek fun but it'd make me feel better about my studying.

i said Dance!

It's dance time again.

We had our annual Christmas party of the participants at my work again this year. Again, I did the macarena. However, this year I took more of a MC role in the whole thing. It's one of my favorite things all year and I just wanted to make sure that it went off smoothly. It was a job well done if I do say so myself. Ashes and I brought the music and the fun. That's our job.

the bar hop

A gay bar hop used to mean going down the street. As insular as a gay ghetto may be, at least it meant that everything you were looking for in a night was all in one neighborhood. Of course, that did have it drawbacks when it meant that you may pay $20 per person in cover charges one night just because there were so many good bars in one quick walk. Now they're a little more spread out. Still, I was determined to make a go of it.

I don't feel comfortable at the bars anymore. I don't know what my problem is. I guess a lot of it has to do with the fact that my two favorite gay bars (Silverados and Eagles) packed up and moved this past year. Now they are the great unknown to me. Embers has also undergone some interior changes and I've never liked the Red Cap. It was weird realizing that I didn't have a bar downtown to go to where I could feel completely comfortable. I think that Silverados has the most potential out of all of the bars. Tonight, I tried Caseys which was occupied by maybe twelve patrons and two very bored looking go go boys. And the Eagle downstairs was heartbreaking. The Eagle used to be a place where I could always count on a lot of people hanging around but there was NOBODY there on a SATURDAY night! Plus the interior is just weird, as evidenced by the picture above. Why would you have that behind the pissers?

Really, I just want to go back three years when my bars were still the same and Embers still had goth night but I guess we all have to change at some point.

it's mii!

Meet my mii.

After playing the wii so much at work, it was pretty much inevitable that we were going to get one at our house. We bought it the Wednesday before Harvest Dinner but we didn't unpack it until today.

I haven't owned a video game system since the Playstation 2 which I sold soon after moving to Portland. I realized that video games were a form of escapism that I didn't need anymore. I've always been partial to Role Playing Games like Final Fantasy. While I had my characters climbing mountains or running along beaches, I realized that with a short drive, I could be doing that.

However, the wii is a bit different. We only have the sports wii game. I will never box in real life but it's really fun on the wii and it gets you active. I was all sweaty after a couple of rounds. Also after a night of playing tennis, my right arm aches like I just worked it out good. I'm going to have to figure out how to play left handed so I don't end up all Hellboy.

In the picture above, my mii is just about to bowl a six-pack (six strikes). That's something I've never done and probably never will do but it's fun to seem like I did it. Plus it's a lot cheaper than the golf course or bowling alley.

the most wonderful time of the year

Traditionally, the most wonderful time of the year is Christmas. However, I'm not a traditional guy. I absolutely love Harvest Dinner. We counted 60 people at the dinner this year. There was a record number of tofurkies this year as well. I broke with tradition and brought a vegetarian ham log instead of a cheesecake (although I didn't cook the log myself). I think that I'm catching whatever bug is going around but I wasn't going to miss out on this day for anything. Also, I'm happy that this is my 400th post.

the food court

Today, I got paid to be a mallrat. There once was a time where I would have said that is totally awesome. Of course there's also a time where I would have said the same thing about Milli Vanilli. Now I know better. I don't get paid enough to hoof it around the mall for hours.

One of my participants at work really really wants to work at a clothing store in the mall so I took her and her boyfriend there. I ate at an overpriced mediterranean food court restaraunt. The people were cool but the food was mediocre. This trip could only be saved if something like the above video happened.

Food Court Musical from ImprovEverywhere on Vimeo.

one more try

I want to like the Paradox cafe. I really really do. They seemingly have a great menu, alright staff and a great location. However, their food just isn't very good. I haven't been there for a while and tonight I remembered why. They've expanded since I was there last and added an extra room on the side which is cool because seating there has usually been an issue. Also, now you can use their bathroom without having to walk through their kitchen. But it's not enough to make the place a good choice.

I had a vegan chili cheese dog with sauerkraut tonight. It was edible which is more than I can say for their homemade vegan sausage patties. However, it wasn't anything special. I may give this place another try some time down the road...way down the road.

won't you meet my neighbors?

Today, while eating at the Red and Black cafe, we met our neighbors. We know a few people around us such as our neighbor to the right and left and directly in front of us but those are the only people even on our little street whose names I know. Today, I met the residents of the house around the corner. We call it New York House because a lot of their license plates were from New York.

New York House seems like a pretty cool house of people that I'm frankly surprised we didn't meet sooner. I know that our friends have crashed their house parties but proper introductions were never done. Their names, so I can look back here and remember them later, were Tom, Emily and Adam. Obviously we have stuff in common as we met them at the Red and Black. It feels good to tighten up the neighborhood.

the things my art teacher never taught me

I used to love art class in school. I loved various mediums, from ink to watercolor but I was particularly fascinated with etching on mirrors. It seemed so neat, to be able to take a plain mirror and put an image on it that would never be removed. Maybe I liked it better than paintings or drawings because mirrors could also be useful. Practically every house has at least one mirror. You might as well put something cool on it.

As of the last few years, I've been applying that mantra to t-shirt printing. Besides the fact that I basically have unlimited palates with the clothing donations, I like to have funky shit on my shirts. So far, I've been a part of the designing, printing and drying process but there are a few steps that I've been avoiding. So I'm all DYI, I decided to tackle one of them tonight, Photo Emulsion Remover. This isn't always necessary in the process of making a screen for screen printing but I hate to have shit sit around and I had at least two screens that I'm not planning on using again. I went to the Columbia Art Store and got me some emulsion remover. With this, I can clean up some older screens to reuse. There's always the possibility that the screen can't be cleaned but I at least wanted to try. Maybe I'll have two new screens to test my art on!

my grandpa's tools

My grandpa passed away 13 years ago. Last year, my grandma moved off of the farm and into a retirement home. Earlier this year, my family went to clean out their stuff. They asked me what I wanted and, aside from Grandma's car, I really didn't know. I basically just asked for some of his old tools just to remember him by. I wasn't actually thinking that I would use them. However, they came in really handy today.

We rearranged the living room today and used different shelving for our entertainment center. That meant we had to drill holes for cords. We tried the electric drills but they were out of batteries. We were going to wait for a while but my housemate remembered the old tools we had sitting in the back. I was really happy to actually use them. I've never used an old fashioned drill before but it worked really well!

hamilton mountain and the pool of winds

Today, I took a sick-of-work day and climbed a mountain instead.

First, we went to Rodney Falls and the pool of winds. The pool is a pool of water in the middle of the waterfall, where water fall into and wind and water visibly fly out of. It was awesome.

Along the hike up the mountain, we got several great views of the Columbia Gorge

which Dean enjoyed as well.

From the top, we could see Mt Adams and Mt Hood.

And then we made it to the top. That's Mt Hood Behind me. I've only been hiking in Washington one other time. In the picture of the Gorge shot, you can see a rock bordering the river in the middle of the right side of the picture. That's Beacon Rock, the only other hike I've taken on this side. This one was way more extensive and it felt good to do a considerable hike where I was the prepared person who found the location and the route (and also brought fire, a compass and extra clothing in case we got lost). We only got momentarily lost once when we got to talking and blindly following Dean. Fortunately, he had taken us to the path that we wanted to take in the first place. It's good to have another waterfall under my belt too. I love this area.

apple poop

One of my favorite articles on Indymedia ever was the DIY fan article. You should read it if you have the chance. It's a simple article about the rewards of doing something yourself instead of just running out and buying it.

Today, I helped make apple juice. I've done this once before but not with this type of equipment. First, we used a large apple press that could have been mistaken for a torture device used in the Salem witch trails. That produced juice and a lot of apple bits. We drank the juice and put some of the bits on a tray for dehydrating. We also had to fix the dehydrator, using a fan from the back of a computer to replace the fan in the dehydrator. We ran the rest of the bits through a juicer which gave us apple poop and some more, thicker juice. We spread the poop onto a few more trays and ran the thick juice through AGAIN which gave us apple sauce and some thinner juice.

Overall, it was an extensive project that used practically all of the apples and turned them into various products that will long outlast the shelf life of an apple. The best part is we did it ourselves and we will do it again!

hideaway

When I was a waiter at Red Lobster in the mid-90s, our jackass boss kept getting on us about how people don't come there for the food, they come for the service and the atmosphere. And that's why I went back to Chaos today. Work has been hectic and I needed a getaway and I'll be damned if Chaos didn't do it again. There was different staff there at a different time. I sat in a different chair with a different view and ordered a different item (the roasted goat (cheese) wrap) and was completely satisfied. The environment and the staff were absolutely divine. I love this place. It feels so inviting. The food isn't drool-worthy but it's good for the price. The food is secondary to the place though. It's convenient that I can use lunch as an excuse to go there but honestly I could just sip on a coffee and be content as well.

polly wants his wings back

Today, we had a speaker come talk to the clients (My work can sometime seems like a daily school assembly). Its human said that it could say 300 words but most of all, it said "four." It was kind of funny because the human was trying to get it to count, sing and whatever but it mainly just said, "four." What wasn't funny was what the human said.

I love pets. In my hometown, I could tell people what the names of the dogs were in town before I could tell them the names of the owners. I've had at least one pet my entire life. However, that has been dogs and cats. Birds, fish and rodents are another story. They're cute sometimes but I really question their quality of life.

Take our fine feathered friend for example. This bird's wings were clipped, probably at an early age. Its humans decided that it didn't need to perform the most natural action for a bird because they wanted to keep it. Dean and the cats have free roam of the house and the yards. Growing up, our dog and cats were completely independent outside. That's always been the difference between pets as property and pets as companions to me. I don't understand keeping a rodent in a glass cage with minimal items to entertain it or to give a fish the same cubic feet of water to live in it's whole life.

It's just not natural.

just one new president

I'm not a democrat but I feel like I just got out of a bad eight-year long relationship.

Bush was bad, really bad. He fucked this country up proper and we are so much better off without him. Obama may screw things up as well but it's difficult to believe that he could work against the people's interests as ferociously as Bush did.

I watched history last night. Like it or not, it was history and at a very crucial time. I know that Obama will give people a somewhat false sense of hope but it's what's needed right now. People need to feel good again. The upcoming Depression isn't just financial. If people can be hopeful and positive for a while (until they realize not much has changed) then so be it.

unnatural (s)election

In 2004, when Bush was reselected, I went out for coffee with several members of Code Pink, a relatively radical group, comprised primarily of older women. There was going to be a protest later on that day and we were meeting to strategize. When I got there, one of them announced that the Democratic Patsy had just conceded. I don't think that whats-his-name would have been great but after four years of the Bush, it was appalling that people were going to let him have another four years. We sat around the table, held hands and said some words. It wasn't a prayer necessarily but it was a call to Mother Earth to give us strength. It may sound hokey but it's the only thing that really got me going that morning and for the next four years. I'm worried now because I'm not meeting with Code Pink tomorrow.

I think that Obama will get the majority of the vote but I believe that McCain will steal it. They're already having problems with the voting machines. I voted today at the library instead of the election office (pictured above). At least in Oregon, we have paper ballots which are more difficult to alter. Whatever the outcome, I just want this to be done now.

the night the lights went out in portland

I think it's the soap opera influence but I've always been keen on disasters. I don't want anybody hurt but I love something that shakes things up, especially when it used to get me out of school/church/work. Portland's weather is so damn mellow that any little shakeup is a welcome change of pace.

Tonight, the lights went out in whole neighborhoods. Street lights, businesses, residences and street signals all lost power for an indefinite amount of time. It wasn't a blanket blackout and it fortunately didn't last for more than a night but it was pretty damn sweet seeing a busy street like Hawthorne completely dark. I was picking up clothing donations at the time and the store went dark with very very minimal window lighting. I was prepared though as I had my headlamp for my bike in my pocket. I'm always ready for a little chaos.

gettin out of the house

On Halloween, we stopped at Palio's coffeehouse in Ladd's Addition for our mid-trick or treatin' break. As per normal, I hung outside with Dean while all the adults and kids went inside and got properly caffinated. Dean can usually hang outside by himself but Halloween is probably really freaky for dogs with all of the people out at night and all of the masks. After my crew started to come out, I left one of them with Dean and went inside.

If I have a superpower, it is the ability to be overlooked by wait staff and to have the prep people/cooks lose my order. After I saw one guy walk in two or three people after me and get his drink pretty much instantly, I asked if mine was coming up. The guy acted pissed I asked but the dude that took my order apologized a lot. Still, the coffee-making guy made the other guys drink first even though we both ordered an irish cream latte. I must have looked visibly pissed because I got a free drink card out of it. So today I went to cash that in.

I barely left the house yesterday. I didn't have any coffee either because it was a mellow mellow day of sitting around and getting thoroughly confused by The Prisoner. Therefore a four mile quest for coffee with the dog was in order. Normally, that would be an excessive walk with very little payoff but a free Huckleberry Mocha was totally worth it.

samhain

It's All Hallow's Eve. I started the morning at 5:30 am, putting on a grease paint mask for my Robin costume for work. After a day of not itching my face, we went trick or treating with Dean as my Batman. Dean loves following the kids but I really think that he wanted to head up to every doorstep with them. After that, we went out to dinner and were surrounded by Fruit of the Loom characters. Then it was off to the party.

At this point, I could have probably called it a night and had every intention of leaving early but I was there to support my friends and there was the promise of fire. After a few bands and a DJ I wanted to help along, the Burning Truth Tribe-Ritual performed. This was awesome. The fire dancing was great, the costumes were fun, the story pulled it all together and they had a diggerydoo. I love diggerydoos.

I ended up walking home at 3 am which was probably one of the high points of my night as well. It was a beautiful autumn night and my cape was flowing in the wind. I love Halloween (Samhain, All Hallow's Eve, whatever) just for the fact that it's socially acceptable to wear a cape.

tea time

I know what you're thinking but this is tea. I bought it at Limbo (for only 25 cents!). It's called Sleepy Time tea. It has lavender and a bunch of other herbs in it that hopeully will knock me out tonight. I've been waking up at 2 am for no justifiable reason consistently. So I went for a long walk, had some amaretto, I'm going to make some tea and hopefully I'll sleep like a baby.

Funny packaging for tea though.

mcvegans

In Berlin, there was rumor of a vegan McDonalds. I hate McDonalds but I was interested in checking out a vegan German McDs. Unfortunately I couldn't find it but today my friend Dom decided to make us some vegan Big Macs here stateside. I can't believe I ate the whole thing. Absolutely wonderful.

second hand heaven

When I was going to college, I used to scan the Friday newspapers and set up a route of the garage sales I wanted to hit. When I moved to Portland, I was shopping at the retro-stores at least weekly. Then, when I got a job at a thrift store, my wardrobe started to really expand. Now that I do the clothing donations, it's hard for me to actually purchase clothes. However, I could drop a lot of money at my new place for today (and actually leave with a lot of stuff).

Today, I went to the House of Vintage on Hawthorne. My housemates wanted to go to a nearby shop for a Halloween costume and the HOV had clothes out front so I went to check it out. Then I stepped inside and went through one room and another and another and another... The place just keeps on going! And they don't have all of their men's clothes together and all of their furniture together. Each room is like a cool garage sale of it's own. It was more enticing that way to keep wandering. I saw some clothes there with a mark from the thrift store I work at. The HOV only had the item marked up one dollar. The stuff there was relatively cheap, especially for Hawthorne. If there was one store I'd love to locked in at, it's this place.

the lost highway

I don't know for sure where this is. I do know that it's definitely not in Portland.

I had an overwhelming urge to get out of town last night. I'm actually amazed that I didn't just get in the car and go yesterday. I was bored and feeling caged in. When I got that feeling in Nebraska, I used to drive to Kansas just to cross the border. Then I'd come back. I looked at train schedules last night but decided that I wanted to be in control so I grabbed Dean this morning and headed out.

I used our trail bible, "Doin' the Northwest With Your Pooch" to find a trail. It had to be close by and at the beginner's level because Dean is still healing. I found Pansy Lake, outside of Estacada in the book and we headed off on this fall morning. There were clouds in the sky but no real chance of rain. Past Estacada, the forest is always gorgeous but it was especially nice with the leaves changing colors. It took me a while but I found the right road. However the road was closed. I thought Dean and I could keep going on foot but the road was blocked off well behind the trailhead. Still we walked in the middle of a highway on a majestic fall morning in a forest in the Northwest. It was so serene. We hiked past several downed trees and I wondered if they were the reason for the road closure but then we saw that they were just an additional effect. The cause was half of the road falling down a small cliff. It was very 'Life After People.' There were several trees, leaves and even animal droppings in the road. I even saw a spiderweb on the highway. It was gorgeous. We didn't find Pansy Lake but that just means we get to try again soon.

my new favorite 'fat kitty'

I love the guy in the pic above but I've fallen for a new Fat Kitty because it has falafels! I have been eyeing the Fat Kitty Falafel stand for years now and I just visited it for the first time today and I only regret it because I know I will be going there a LOT now.

I could probably eat falafels every other day. I absolutely love them and this place serves up a great falafel, even if it is $5. But what I'm going to go back for is the guy there. He is probably the coolest person I will meet this season. He's an older, heavy set guy with raspy voice who really really wanted to talk and had a lot to say. He opens with his opinion on people thinking Palin is a breath of fresh air. Then he starts talking about Chem-trails and Karl Rove's blackmail list. This guy was fucking awesome. My original intention was to grab the falafel and go but I ended up hanging out for a bit longer but it was obvious that the dude really likes talking to people and doesn't have nearly enough people coming by. Well, I'll be fixing that!