Walking down MLK yesterday afternoon a girl in the passenger's seat of a big white pickup stopped at a red light yelled to me, "Aren't you a tall drink of water?" I kind of smiled but didn't say anything and she said, "Don't you recognize me?" It was MS. SU'AD! I haven't seen her forever and to be honest, didn't recognize her. Her hair was kind of magenta colored. She said, "SMILE!" as the truck sped away. The funny thing is I think that "tall drink o' water" comment was the first thing she ever said to me years ago when we both slaved away in front of the keyboard at Bates Private Capital in Lake Oswego. Ahhh, how I miss those days.
NOT REALLY.
One problem with living in a town so superabounding with ultra-creative people is that no one has enough time to enjoy or appreciate everyone else's artworks and projects. I'm as guilty as anyone. I try to support other peoples' work - I'm volunteering again at the Love Show closing party on the 20th - but to get things done I find I have to devote the majority of my time and energy to my own goals. Another thing that bugs me about Portland is the low motivation rate or general slow pace of life here. I sort of don't fit in that way. Except when I'm flailing in a despondent rut, I am a high-energy, fast-paced, goal-oriented person, and sometimes - especially lately, with the new health regimen - I exist in a state bordering on mania. The sluggish response rate of other people, their failure to communicate, really bugs me. Of course, I haven't been working lately, but the truth is when I work (like, at a real job) I get even more driven and focused; my energy only ramps up when I'm in full-throttle getting-shit-done mode. Maybe I will have to move to a fast-paced city like New York eventually. My slacker days are ending. I'm actually looking forward to having a job again, if I can find one I like, but it doesn't make sense to start that hunt until I get to San Francisco. I'd love to work for a community media center there.
Speaking of community media, when I was at PCM yesterday telling Pam about my goal of starting an art collective in San Fran, she asked, "Why can't you do it in Portland?" Well, my love affair with Portland has been long and lurid (going back to 1990, if you count junior high/high school in Hillsboro, when I would occasionally escape to Portland and long to ditch the suburbs for good and live in this enchanted metropolis), but I'm not ready to give my life to one town just yet. There's a lot more of the world I need to see. And as great as Portland is, it starts to feel kind of small and suffocating after a while. I don't even see or speak with most of the people I used to be friends with here. It just feels kind of over to me.
Onwards and upwards!
I've moved past the basic pilates exercises now and have reached the intermediate section, and it's getting harder! But the beneficial impact on my body is already visible when I look in the mirror in the morning. Pretty soon I'll have the sort of belly you can eat cake off of.
I got my name on the cover of Just Out one last time, thanks to my awesome editor, Jim Radosta, to whom I will be eternally grateful. Mike, Kevin and Pat ALL thanked me for my articles the day the paper came out. That's always gratifying.
I went hat-shopping at Bearly Worn yesterday, but strayed to the T-shirt section and found this funny "Drama Queen" shirt, it even says San Francisco underneath, but I didn't buy it, just snapped the photo above.
Anthony called to ask if I remembered Viola, the crazy woman who lived across the river from us back in our Minnesota youth, who ended up driving her car into the river. We're certainly going to have a lot of fun recalling the highlights of our tragic, trashy, hilarious childhood. There is rich material there, to be sure. He also said he's recruited a friend of his to be the "bear" for our comedy sketch show, so we have three men, now we need some fabulous ladies to join the troupe! I picture us getting high on the beach and brainstorming ideas for comedy sketches.
I can't wait to be in the water again.
I'm watching "Loins of Punjab Presents" which I'm reviewing for Just Out. It's really funny, sort of the Bollywood equivalent of a Christopher Guest mockumentary.
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