touristy things

My parents are visiting this weekend. I like it when they come up here for several reasons. One reason is that I get to do all sorts of touristy type things that I wouldn't do on my own. Today, we visited the Japanese Garden up at Washington Park. I don't know how impressed they were with the garden. I liked it but I think that $8 is a bit much to pay. I would like to have a membership there but it would have to be closer to my place because it takes a while to get up there. It's very serene though.

memories of a pink whale

Today, I sold my Pink Lincoln Towncar to a salvage yard. They paid me $400 bucks for it which is a lot more than it was worth as an operational vehicle although it has served me well over the past few years.

I remember Eric from Queer Revolution busting the trunk on it so it no longer eased down. I had to start pulling up the latch on it. It was later used as the sound system in the QR protest against Fred Phelps.

I remember driving it up to Seattle, both for an Infernal Noise Brigade concert and for a rally/march.

I remember packing it with people (our household plus Brenna and Max) for MB and Jemma’s wedding.

I remember it dying on the corner of MLK and Burnside and having to wait for a friend to pick me up in knee-high boots, wings and devil horns.

I remember it failing on Ashes and I as we were taking it to the Schucks Auto Supply on the same corner and the day laborers ran out to help push it into the parking lot.

I remember fake-kidnapping some friends for a party and attempting to throw them into the trunk. You can fit a lot of bodies into that truck. However, I had bottles for recycling in it that day.

I remember using it to push Ashes’ car across the Ross Island Bridge.

I remember moving large amount’s of Blank’s mom’s belongings with it several times to several different places.

I remember picking up Red-Red for the first time in the car and I was blasting 24-K’s “Don’t Go There” like a good pimp car should.

And it was a good car. It held up, despite my lack of care with it and needed very little maintenance over the years. With gas prices being what they are, it’s an impractical vehicle to use often but it has been good for hauling belongings, clothing, food and bodies. I will miss it’s quirks but it’s served it’s time. Rest in Pieces, Pink Lincoln.

up the dumb staircase

When I built a loft last year, I built it with a staircase for my dog. Yesterday, we built a loft for the last remaining "floor bed" in my house. This morning, Dean was wandering around the house like a groundling looking at all of the tree people, asleep and out of reach. He tried climbing up the stairs and ended up stumbling a bit and then he just stopped trying and started whining. I had to jump off my loft, go around and pick him up and set him on the ground. Then I had to build a better staircase.

My new staircase has bigger steps, less of an incline and barely any room between steps. It's practically a ramp. Now he can run up and down them and he can be a tree person too.

the best damn bar fries in town

I've been to the Bonfire before but I've never appreciated their fries like I did today. Plus, I played their Ms. Pac Man machine. It is one of those table top ones and my friend Dominic played on the other side, whooping me by100,000 points. Yes, it was a very hard day.

impacts

One of my friend's is fond of saying that I am actually making a difference in people's lives with my job. It's really nice to hear because, so often, I'm dealing with the same problems and the same behaviors and it seems like nothing is ever going to improve with my clients. And then their moments like today.

I had an annual meeting with a client whom I have just begun to work with. She's worked for my company for 40 years! Holy crap! When someone has been vocationally training for 40 years, you realize that you have hit a wall with them and that they are probably not going to learn any more. However, I got to sit down and have a productive meeting with her and her family this afternoon and go over how I can see her improving at work. She was resistant at first but then I found common ground (dogs) with her and she began listening to me. I could see progress and I'll be damned if I didn't see her actually smile which she doesn't do hardly at all. As an added bonus, her sister works in Salem at a different vocational rehabilitation facility and she seemed genuinely impressed with our meeting.

so gay trivia

I surprised myself today by playing That's So Gay trivia tonight at Crush. First, I was surprised that I would even play. Second, I was surprised by how well me and my teammates did. We didn't win but we came close. The easiest part and the part that I carried us in was the Triviaoke where they tested our knowledge in 80s movie's theme songs. I had to sing the next line in Don't You Forget About Me. The Breakfast Club is one of my all-time favorite movies so it was pretty easy.

Overall, I'm very glad I went and I had a lot of fun playing. I plan on going again but drinking WAY less. I love the chocolatinis though.

doctor's orders

I finally followed Dean's vet's orders and took him to do what Deans do best (aside from eating, sleeping and farting). We went to the Sandy River because it's really the only river I trust around here. There were a lot of other people there, probably because it's the hottest day of the year, but we managed to find our own area.
That in itself wasn't new. What was new was the sign I saw above the interstate on the way out there. It said "Smog Alert. Limit Driving." When I think of smog, I think of LA or Mexico City. However, as I glanced around, I noticed that it was difficult to make out Mt Hood and other distant items. It's scary shit because Portland has a hella lotta trees and this is still an issue. We are so doomed.

the best laid plans

I get worked up easily when I have plans made and I can see them crumbling. Today, I had a zoo trip planned for the ATE clients at work like the one we did last year. It was going to be great. Then we ran into traffic and more traffic and finally we just stopped. I was on a time restriction anyway and I hadn't figured an hour and a half of traffic jam into the itinerary. Fortunately my clients were awesome and didn't complain once. I, on the other hand, was ready to plow the big van I was driving through the cars ahead of me. But I took a cue from them and kept my cool.

After sitting in traffic for that long, we find out the parking lot is full and we're redirected to the shuttle lot. Then we wait in traffic again. Somebody then drives by and yells that the shuttle lot is full. The second Tuesday of the month is two-dollar day and it's the last cheap day of the summer so that probably explains the crowd. At that point, I turned the van around and announced that we were going to have a picnic in the park. We went to the Crystal Rhododendron Garden and had an awesome time, even if it wasn't what we planned.

peace in chaos

All I wanted was a couch and some good vegan/vegetarian food. The Red and Black used to have a couch. Of course, the Red and Black used to be friendly too. Now it's very hit and miss with me unfortunately missing a lot. And still, there's no couch.

I decided to try something different. Lately, I've been hearing a lot about the Chaos cafe so I went there. It is Atmosphere (with a capital A). I could have spent the whole afternoon in there but my food was ready really quick like. Burgerville doesn't give that fast of service. And it was good. It wasn't great but it was really good. I had the Nutty Beat Burger. They spelled beat with an 'a' on the menu so I wasn't expecting a beet burger but that's what I got. Still, it was the best bunch of beets bent into burger form that I've ever tasted. The staff was super-nice and Bjork was playing in the background. I'm definetly heading to Chaos whenever I want to relax from now on.

maximum damage

Today, I served as the foil for my friend Dom on his web-radio show Maximum Damage on Portland Indymedia radio for the first time. We talked about our childhoods. It was fun. I can be a control freak, especially when it comes to being on the radio so it's nice to ride shotgun every now and then.

where everybody knows your age

Tonight, some friends and I headed down to our local pub, the Pub at the End of the Universe and...it was closed. It's never closed. I was dumbfounded. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know why I wasn't notified. Was this a temporary thing or a permanent thing? What brought it on? Where do I go now?

Fortunately, this is Portland and there's always another bar around the corner. I was in the mood for cheap though so I ruled out the C Bar. That left us with Ship Ahoy, my new back-up bar. It was an adequate substitute. It was a full bar, the drinks were cheap, the jukebox was good and the staff was friendly. The only problem was that the music was too loud. Well, that and it wasn't the Pub at the End of the Universe.

doggy dental duty

Dogs can be so expensive, even when everything is going okay. Unfortunately, Dean's still having issues. On Wednesday, I dropped $60 on these anti-inflammatory pills for his legs because he's still limping. On Friday, I took him to the vet to get his rabies shots. While we were there, they suggested he get his bordatella shots as well. Then he ended up needing a plague scraper as well. All in all, it was about $140. And then today I had to buy him food as well. Damn.

But I love him and his teeth were getting bad. Years ago, I dropped $287 so he could get his teeth sonically cleaned. I didn't want it to get that bad again because I didn't want to spend the money and also have him knocked out again. So today, I cleaned his teeth. I should have been keeping up with it but I haven't. Fortunately, I got him in enough of a headlock for long enough to get it done in ten minutes. His teeth look awesome once more. Sixteen bucks well spent.

my life as a marked man

I knew this day would come.

I 've been mostly concerned with getting my first ink job ready this week, which most of my new things have revolved around. Over last weekend, I drew out the design and contacted my tattoo artist, Kim at Primitive Urge. On Tuesday, I went to her for a consultation on Tuesday, prepped my arm on Wednesday and then got tattooed on Thursday. Today my new thing was caring for it. Everyone has different ideas. However, my tattoo artist's instruction mirror most of the instructions I found on-line.

Yes, it hurt but it wasn't unbearable by any means. The underside of my arm hurt the most. I only felt faint at one part when I noticed that my friend's words were coming out of his mouth a bit delayed. It was close to three hours of needles poking into my arm. However, I made it through it. And I want another one.

I don't want to post it's significance to me on-line. I'll tell you about it if you ask me in person but it is a personal thing, not a blogging thing.