I headed back down to OCF today for meetings and more work. I gotta say that it was difficult to prepare myself for another five hours in the car and another shower in bug spray. I'm also sick of sandwiches. Fortunately, during fair, we will be taking the RV and there will be some awesome food available (vegan philly cheese steak!!!!).
Again, I feel a bit of apprehension. I don't know why because these are some of the most unpretentious folk around and some of the most accepting. It's just the idea of something new and the fact that I can't just go home and chill with my dog. But I'll get through it. I'm sure that once I'm there and have something to do, I'll be fine. Aside from the bugs, I haven't really heard anything negative about. Of course, that's all been from social individuals. I'll have to wait and see how I adjust.
However, we did have a full booth meeting and a full community village meeting so I had the chance to meet and talk with several people that I'm going to be around during the majority of the time and I didn't get a bad vibe off of one of them. The people in the photo above are the people that are going to be working in the Doors of Expression booth with us. It's a lot of people for a small booth so I guess we better all get friendly. Fortunately, I don't forsee that as being a problem.
Today was my first day working at the OCF. It doesn't start for a few weeks but there's a lot of prep work involved as it's a big event. I was prepared to work and I ended hauling my share of bamboo but I feel I could be doing more. However, since it was my first time there working, I thought it was best to not take the lead on too many projects and just go with the flow and be a bamboo mule.
The mosquitoes were horrendous and we needed two separate doses of Deep Woods Off in order to protect ourselves. I got a chance to meet some of the people that we will be working with in the Community Village and they all seem so nice. I'm hoping it will be okay. I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was feeling like I did in sixth grade when my parents forced me to go to Boy Scout Camp. I feel nervous and apprehensive. However, if I can survive for a month in a van with a punk band, I think I can make it a week in the woods with hippie folk.
My tribute to the King of Pop
Nico and I in various MJ stages 
Dance party on Alberta Street's Last Thursday Art Exhibition 
Spinning to the beat! 
Vaudville dancers! 
Belly dancers paying tribute
My sister's second cassette tape (after Toni Basil's Word of Mouth) was Thriller. My sister and I would spend hours upon hours listening to it. We would sing the songs on road trips which is probably why we got put into the back of a covered, carpeted pickup. I thought every song on the album was a major hit because that's all we listened to.
Despite whatever became of Michael Jackson's personal reputation, the man was still the King of Pop. The legacy he left cannot be denied. From the Jackson 5 to Thriller, MJ made an unparalleled impact on the world's pop culture. Only a very small percentage of people have not heard his music and have not danced to his beat.
When I found out today that he died, I was in disbelief. It seems so strange that the world is without Michael Jackson. I found out that there was going to be a Michael Jackson Memorial Bike Ride today (organized within hours of the announcement of his death) and I knew that, despite whatever I had planned, I was going to go.
Despite my flat tire (thank you Seven Corners for continuing to be so awesome and getting it fixed lickity split), I was able to join around seventy other cyclists for the ride. Before we took off, we danced to "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5 in the Peace Gardens on the eastside of the Steel Bridge, overlooking downtown. It was a feeling of complete joy mixed with sorrow in a way that I don't think I've felt in a long long time. With three sound carts on the ride, we headed up to Alberta Street's last thursday with a few stops for dance parties along the way. Normally, I would hate last Thursday. However, crashing it with a bunch of cyclists and forming an improptu dance party was awesome.
Today, I took a mental health day from work and needed to escape. I couldn't decided whether to go to the woods or the beach so I did both. I checked out a Prius ZipCar for the day since I doubted my car could make it (it needs a tune up) and found a spot on the beach less than 90 miles from my house. It needed to be 90 miles or less because ZipCar will start charging you when you exceed 180 miles in a day.
We went to Cape Meares. It was wonderful. We had a great time with the hike through the woods to the beach and back. It's not the most relaxing beach around but it's always good to see the ocean. There's a lighthouse overlooking the cape too which adds to the allure of the spot. There was also just the right amount of woods to venture through before reaching the coast. The hike wasn't daunting but it was deep enough to drown out the sounds of traffic and allow one to feel like they're getting away from it all. The mental health day worked wonders and I feel I'm able to make it to the weekend!
Plus, I love hybrids! It's definetly a nice break from driving a big ole Lincoln Towncar around.
I can think of many other ways to spend a Sunday but when I heard that my friend Jen needed help painting her place, I didn't even hesitate to say I'd be there.
Maybe it's my immaturity but I always think back to, "What did my parents do at my age (besides deal with three kids)?" and I remember that they used to help their friends all the time. They had a dependable core of people, the Burns', The Christensens', the Bernhardts', who they would always be there for and who would always be there for them. They would move each other. They would work on houses together. They would also have regular card playing nights and take vacations together but I think they really bonded during the working times.
And, you know, my friends here are like that. I know certain people that I could always count on to help pitch in and I like being one of those people too.
Jen moved across town when she used to be my 'down-the-street' neighbor. While this move does mean that I'll see her less (sigh), I still want to reinforce those bonds. Hell, my parents moved away from their friends at one point in my life and they'd still drive six hours to help them out. I think I can make it sixty blocks.
This was the highest scoring soccer game I've ever been to and fortunately we were the team that was scoring so much. Portland played Minnesota today and just stomped them. It really really made the game worth going to. I was high-fiving strangers and all that. It was just a damn good time. Once a few of their players got red carded, it was pretty much in the bag.
It was also the teddy bear toss game. It was quite funny seeing everyone tossing bears onto the field after the first goal. Quite a few got tossed the second goal too. There were a handful on the third goal. Hardly anyone held onto them for the fourth and fifth because how often do we score that high? I was just glad that I chose to go to the game at the last minute, mainly because I have a shirt in the Timbers green and yellow colors that reads, "Goodbye Minnesota."
I pushed my scooter from Hawthorne to Holgate today. It doesn't seem like much of a chore until you hit the uphills then it sucks beyond the telling of it.
I picked up a Papa J's pizza by bike cart today. It wasn't revolutionary but it was one less use for my car! Whoo-hoo.
I have several different nicknames. Some people may find that annoying but I find it helps to separate groups of friends; community college friends, Kearney work friends, activist friends, work friends, family friends, etc, etc. I don't usually have friends cross-over. Maybe it's just because different people know different stories. Maybe it's because I worry about personality types clashing. Maybe it's completely unfounded and neurotic. That's probably it.
Anyway, one of my friends, Jessica (from the University of Nebraska at Kearney [hi jess's brother]) was up from Nebraska today and we went out for drinks at Crush. There, we ran into one of my Portland friends so we just all hung out and talked. My worlds collided and it was really really nice. I also got a chance to meet one of her friends (and also went out to eat at Lemon Grass Thai for the first time) and found out that we probably took college courses together. AND I found out that another one of her friends moved to Portland and into an apartment complex that I lived in. I guess it is a small world out there so I better get used to friend groups overlapping. I think I'd like that to happen.
Tonight, I gave more high fives to people in one bike ride than I probably have in my life. I also had more people see me naked than I ever thought probable. And it was one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.
Portland has a fine tradition of putting on the best World Naked Bike Ride. I've participated in it once before but it wasn't nearly as big and I kept my undies on that time. Nakedness is subjective and people are allowed to disrobe at whatever level they feel comfortable with. This time, I biked up to the ride which had just kicked off and saw a thousand naked people biking towards me. I parked my bike quick, stripped everything off and proceeded to hit the town. We bike nine to ten miles, through downtown and across the bridge. People were spilling out of the bars and lined up on the streets to gawk. We bottlenecked when going by most of the bars downtown so we were basically slowly walking while hundreds of people on every block took pictures. It was insane.
Afterwards I headed to the party at a warehouse and danced with a whole lot of naked people. I wouldn't say that I've ever really been comfortable with nudity. I have my hang-ups and my self-consciousness. However, it's difficult to be embarrassed knowing most of the Portland barflys have seen your woo-haa. I feel great after doing it. I cannot wait for next year. It'll be bigger and better and all Portland!
Options are wonderful but this was difficult today and a touch ridiculous. To the left is the Bombay Chaat House, "The best chaat house in Portland" and to the right is The Original Indian Chaat House. These two Indian food carts are on the same block downtown. Bombay had a five course special for $5.00. The Original had a six course special for $5.50. It was difficult to decided but it came down to seating. I liked the Original's seating better so that's the one I went with.
The food was great and the atmosphere (the seating and the music) made the experience better. Maybe it was just the fact that I was taking the time to eat outside for lunch downtown. Maybe I'll try Bombay next time.
I've tried to be good about not being preachy about what other people eat. I've even been sort of good about not going off of the religiously-minded. But it is getting more and more difficult to hold my tongue when it comes to gas-hogs. It's getting harder and harder to see the other side of the river in Portland. Coming over the railroad track overpass on Holgate, I can look over to downtown and it's veiled behind a haze of smog. It's heartbreaking that it has become accepted and it's even more difficult to see intelligent people burning fossil fuels out of laziness.
Pedalpalooza is coming up which is always a great time to promote bike friendliness. On Monday, I decided to get a head-start on becoming less petroleum dependent and went to Tigard to buy a bike cart out of an office. It was a tad sketchy but I'm sure that it was legit. However, I'm hesistant to post the name of the place here. Write me personally and I'll give it to you. The bike cart was primarily for Dean but he has only managed to get out of the driveway before jumping out of it. Therefore, it'll be used for eliminating my car.
Yesterday, one of my new things was a Honka Hoota, the new bike "horn" I got from Citybikes. It's a great little thing that looks like a kid's toy. If you zoom in on the picture above, it's the thing that looks like a tumor growing out of my handlebars.
Today, I took the cart out on its maiden voyage to, of all places, a car shop. My house had a spare car battery that I was going to get recharged for a potential bike-cart-sound-system this weekend. The battery was heavy as they tend to be so walking was out of the question. I was going to just scooter it over there but then I thought, "This is exactly why I got the cart, so I don't have to use the car to haul heavy or akward shit." It rattled and the battery bounced around a bit but it worked and it cost me $0.00 0/10 in gas to do it.
I got to go behind to the scenes of PGE Park today. I had some clients who were interested in going and I was definitely interested in getting a tour of the place and getting out of the office for a morning so I arranged a tour for 14 participants (and five staff). It was cool. I was hoping to see locker rooms or some of my favorite soccer players but I did learn a bit more about the park to make me appreciate it more. For example, they use green products for all of their cleaning. Also, there are 10-15 cats living in the park who have their own area there. They keep them around for mice control.
I went to Gladstone Coffee today for the first time even though it's really close by. It was nothing remarkable but it was nice and I'm sure I'll go again now that Funky Door is closed on Sundays. However, I wouldn't have even posted anything about it except for this cute picture of Dean.
Portland has so many awesome businesses that it's rather difficult to visit each one. For me, I have pretty much pledged allegiance to Seven Corners Bike Shop because Corey (the owner) has been there for me when I first got my bike, when I've wrecked my bike and when I've asked for donations. However, today I decided to explore other options and check out Citybikes.
Citybikes is a worker's collective bike shop. They have a new bike shop and a repair shop with a multitude of parts and unique accessories. I left my bike at work, locked outside for two days. When I went to retrieve it today, I found that the right handlebar grip was removed and someone had stolen my horn. Corey's shop didn't have any handlebar grips I liked so I went to Citybikes and found one that matched my bike perfectly.
I spent the day biking and walking around and ended up visiting two other collectives as well. I love Portland.
For my homework assignment yesterday, I wrote about one of my clients who went on a tour to a brokerage agency and picked up an application while we were there. I also wrote about how I don't do job placement (I do job training). However, today I just found out that this client GOT the job! I'm so thrilled for her. I can take some credit for it because I introduced her to the agency and took her on the initial tour. After that, our Job Connection and Employee Career Enhancement staff worked with her on developing her resume and preparing for the interview.
She's said for a while that she didn't like working here and wants to find an office job and now she finally has one. It feels great to know that I have made a significant positive influence on someone's life.
Work was actually quite stressful today. Yesterday, one of the participants was told that the chair she was going to sit in was someone else's. So she picked up the chair, screamed and threw it across the room. Today, while checking her incident report, I felt like doing the same thing. Instead I decided to handle it more maturely and I left the office for vegan corn dogs and a drink.
At the Hungry Tiger Too, they have vegan corn dogs for a dollar on Wednesdays. The corn dogs are homemade too (not the Morning Star brand). I was very impressed. The drink was nice too. (Yeah, I started drinking again but it's okay.)
I actually left to just do my homework for my last NCES class and I finished it. It was necesssary for me to escape in order to do this and have no broken chairs required.
I headed back down to OCF today for meetings and more work. I gotta say that it was difficult to prepare myself for another five hours in the car and another shower in bug spray. I'm also sick of sandwiches. Fortunately, during fair, we will be taking the RV and there will be some awesome food available (vegan philly cheese steak!!!!).
