Tonight, I went to the C Bar to drink. It's not a great bar and the drinks aren't exactly cheap but they are big and the appetizers were awesome, specifically the steamed edamame beans. But what I really went there for was the company. I've been loving my Tuesdays because they've been my Sophia days. It's happy hour all days on Tuesdays at Crush but we decided to hit the C-Bar instead. Like I said, I liked it but I miss Crush's chocolate martinis.
As a kid, I used to have a rotating selection of babysitters. My sister and I were relentless with a few of them. Collette, my best friend's older sister would always invite over her boyfriend so we would be super obnoxious to her. One night, we took turns running one food item after another downstairs to them, offering them everything from sugar to bananas. Eventually, the boyfriend chased us back to our rooms.
Fortunately, I'm a cool babysitter. I like doing kid things. I wanted to go see Wall-E so when my roomies asked me to watch Raven so they could go on a date, I was looking forward to it. My expectations for the movie were pretty high and the movie ended up being so much BETTER than I anticipated. I absolutely loved it. We went to it at the Avalon so Raven begged to go to the arcade afterwards. And he really didn't have to beg that long either. I 'heart' skee ball. Plus, I played Jumpin Jackpot (for the first time) which is a game where a light spins around an oval and you have to 'jump' over it when it gets to you, like jump rope. Unfortunately, I wasn't that good at it. I guess I'm not as young as I used to be.
As evidenced by this blog, I'm always open for new things. However, there are certain things that I have just accepted I will never do and never learn. Most of those things have to do with cars but a growing amount of them have to do with computers.
HTML is something I have never grasped or had any desire to. However, today I found myself needing to update a web-page which required me to use HTML. I'll admit, it's all still gibberish to me but I was able to use the existing information as an example of what I needed to do. And it worked!
Also, in related news, I started a new radio show today along with my roomie Ashes. It's called Mass Historia and you can check it out here!
After my friend Shawn moved out of Nebraska for Minneapolis, he came back for a visit and remarked how everybody just seemed so awesome and he just wanted to run up and meet everybody. When I initially moved to Portland, I was overwhelmed by the same sensation. Suddenly, I wasn't alone. There were other people who thought the way I did, did things I liked and found their home in Portland.
There's a campaign in Portland that's been active for some time, "Keep Portland Weird." I don't know if I could survive here if it wasn't so weird. Well, I guess I could survive but I wouldn't want to.
Today, on my bike ride home, I ran into a stand where bike activists were handing out mocktails to cyclists. This didn't strike me as odd or anything. I absolutely love seeing this type of activity but I've also become accustomed to it. And that's a good thing. I wasn't going to stop because I was in a rush but I got stopped behind a light anyway so I decided to indulge in a virgin strawberry margarita. While I was stopped (maybe five minutes) I saw no less than 40 cyclists come by. I love that. I love that weird is normal. I wouldn't have it any other way.
Today, I took two of my participants to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) for a community business tour. The point of a tour is to ask employees there about job and see if the participant would be interested in building skills that could one day lead them to a similar occupation. I called OMSI time and time again to arrange for a guided tour of the facility but never had my call returned. So I decided to do the guiding myself.
Some people may say it's wrong to just walk into the place and to not pay but I really wasn't there for the museum experience so I don't think that paying was necessary. My participants didn't have an issue with not paying either. Actually, they were very cool with the whole thing...which maybe I should be concerned about. Still, it's not like I lied. I went in, asked if this was the way to the cafeteria and was pointed through the turnstile. We went to the cafeteria and then we just kept going. Truthfully, it was a lot of fun and I feel more guilty for getting paid for it than for not paying OMSI.
I like my brain and I don't want anything to happen to it. I think the brain is one of those things that people often take for granted when they are doing crazy stuff that could injure them for life.
I went to a Traumatic Brain Injury class today where we learned just how damaging an impact to the skull can be. Interestingly enough, on the way to class, I was discussing getting a motorcycle with one of my co-workers. Then, we get to class and have to endure multiple cautionary tales about motorcycles. Motorcycles and bikes get a bad rap a lot of times because of cars. If cars weren't on the road and driven by a multitude of incompetent people (and there are some real bad drivers out there) then transportation on two wheels wouldn't be nearly so hazardous.
One other thing that I did walk away from the class knowing is that the frontal lobe of the brain doesn't fully develop until 22 years of age. No wonder being a teenager can be so confusing.
I need to understand more about the economy because apparently a lot of bad shit happened yesterday and it had several of my friends concerned. One friend was certain that there was going to be an emergency rush on food so we went to Bob's Red Mill today between Clackamas and Portland to stock up. I was terribly overwhelmed. There's a lot of neat items there in bulk but I didn't know what I'd need or want. I need to get more prepared for the eventual collapse of the economy.
Today, we escaped the confines of the city for a picnic while viewing five mountains (Hood, St Helens, Rainier, Adams and Jefferson) and a river (Columbia). We stayed there to watch the full moon rise over Hood. Unfortunately, it rose quite a bit to the left of Hood. Still, it's always a beautiful site and it was a nice trip back and forth. I love Oregon.
Athlete and athletic supporters (he he) have always made me at least apprehensive. A 'dude' mentality, complete with homophobia and sexism, seems to flow freely through the sporting circles, at least from my viewpoint.
I have heard more than my share of disgusting slurs from drunken sportsfans but I don't think that it applies across the board. There are some fucking awesome people, both on the fields and in the stands. Some people can sit back, enjoy the sport for the sport and be rad to be around. Then there's who see the need to figuratively wag their penis around in order to secure their masculinity while rooting for their team. We ran into those guys tonight.
I knew that it was going to happen. We went to the Portland Timbers last home game of the season and the stadium was packed. We sat amidst the Timbers Army too which is generally the rowdier section. In front of us, there was a guy who looked like Pacey from Dawson's Creek who started off yelling things like, "You Dick-Ass" and soon came up with "Cock-sucker" which led to "You pussy faggot." After Charleston ended up scoring a second goal to our one goal with only two minutes left in the game, we decided to leave. We didn't go fist-to-cuffs because the drunkard wasn't worth engaging and we were deep in hostile territory. Another fan somewhere behind us yelled "Beaner" and another guy threatened the person sitting next to him because he wouldn't stand up to support the team. It felt wrong leaving early because people were being assholes but then again, I had no desire to stay any longer.
I think that I could like sports if it wasn't for the fans. Like the picture above, taken in while we were stranded in Cannon Beach, I can enjoy pure appreciation of the game.
Also, as an additional bit of related information, I found out last week that the homophobic 'church' group, the Westboro Baptist Church outta Topeka, Kansas will be attending the Nebraska Cornhuskers Games. However, they will be protesting, not supporting, the Cornhuskers. These are the same people who run the GodHatesFags website. Apparently, they believe that god hates Nebraska because Nebraska recently seperated Church and State in its courts. These people will be starting with the Virginia Tech game in Lincoln, saying, "Thank God for the Shooter" because god hates Virginia as well. But I wouldn't take it personal. They also say that god "definetely hates Kansass."
Seventeen days ago, an elephant in the zoo gave birth. Today, I got paid to go see this little guy. He's seventeen days old and weighs 322 lbs. On our first successful zoo trip of the year, we got to see a lot more than we did last year. It was awesome. I love my job.
I am thirty two and today is the first day I have paid for my own insurance. Yes, it should have happened before now but why would anyone WANT to add on that much more of an expense every month?
I've had insurance up to now but I've always been on my parent's insurance because it's always been their cars. However, today, I transferred the new car Moby into my name, bought insurance, got it DEQ tested, registered it and ordered plates. I feel so grown up and broke.
Today, my dad wanted to see Mt Hood. I figured the best way to do that was to climb up the base. I drove to Timberline (without a guide for the first time) and my dad and I hiked around the trails behind the lodge. I've been to Timberline a few times but never really for hiking purposes. We usually just go to the lodge for some hot cocoa and then head back down the mountain.
I felt bad for a while because there was pretty consistent cloud cover and my dad seemed legitimately disappointed that there wasn't a good view of Mt Hood. We hiked up for a bit, although it was a steep incline in high elevation, and we waited. We sat down and talked about mountains we climbed in Colorado when I was young. Eventually, blue sky appeared for a while, long enough for us to get a picture of the mountain at least. It looked like it was close by and it was tempting to keep going. However, that would have taken a long while and a lot of energy and we were just grateful for the view we were given.
As a kid, I used to have a rotating selection of babysitters. My sister and I were relentless with a few of them. Collette, my best friend's older sister would always invite over her boyfriend so we would be super obnoxious to her. One night, we took turns running one food item after another downstairs to them, offering them everything from sugar to bananas. Eventually, the boyfriend chased us back to our rooms.
It feels good to do-it-yourself, whatever 'it' may be. In this case, it was picking my own wheat. Despite my Midwest upbringing, this was a new thing to me. And it was fun. I enjoyed getting 'out-on-the-land' and I loved seeing the farm animals, especially the goats. I attracted one goat in particular that ended up getting his head stuck in a fence. With their horns, goats' heads are like barbs so I had to have Ashes help me coax the goat out of the fence. It was funny and fun and I'd do it all again.
I like my brain and I don't want anything to happen to it. I think the brain is one of those things that people often take for granted when they are doing crazy stuff that could injure them for life. 
I need to understand more about the economy because apparently a lot of bad shit happened yesterday and it had several of my friends concerned. One friend was certain that there was going to be an emergency rush on food so we went to Bob's Red Mill today between Clackamas and Portland to stock up. I was terribly overwhelmed. There's a lot of neat items there in bulk but I didn't know what I'd need or want. I need to get more prepared for the eventual collapse of the economy.
Today, we escaped the confines of the city for a picnic while viewing five mountains (Hood, St Helens, Rainier, Adams and Jefferson) and a river (Columbia). We stayed there to watch the full moon rise over Hood. Unfortunately, it rose quite a bit to the left of Hood. Still, it's always a beautiful site and it was a nice trip back and forth. I love Oregon.
Athlete and athletic supporters (he he) have always made me at least apprehensive. A 'dude' mentality, complete with homophobia and sexism, seems to flow freely through the sporting circles, at least from my viewpoint.
I am thirty two and today is the first day I have paid for my own insurance. Yes, it should have happened before now but why would anyone WANT to add on that much more of an expense every month?
