Oops

I've been out of commission yet again. This time, not because of any illness (I think I might have conquered Portland's microscopic beasts), but because of an active social life. Yay! I'm meeting acquaintances and starting to partake in more activities. I went to see Fire Walk with Me which is the prequel to the Twin Peaks series late on Wednesday night at one of my favorite movie theaters, The Hollywood. Thursday, I went to Laurelwood Brewery and then a zine reading at Reading Frenzy (where I won 6 free zines of the readers that were presenting!). Finally, Friday, which turned out to be an epic night. I went to the North American Organic Brewer's Festival and met up with a guy I'd met on the Max when traveling home from the movie on Wednesday. He insisted on being the proper tour guide, so we quite literally ate and drank our way from Northeast Portland to Southwest, where we both live. I'm sure you've figured out how Saturday went: Nursing an epic hangover. Today was zine day with Helena. Now that I've chronicled the past few days for you, here are some observations from my time frollicking. Unfortunately for you, dear reader, this blog is becoming a dumping ground of all my random observations, while I use up my finely honed writing skills (ha-ha) on the zines I am writing (I have finished writing one, by the way, so I'm moving on to publishing). Let the dumping commence: 1. No one in Portland is actually from here. That's not entirely true, but mostly. Basically what this means for me is that Portland is this wonderland where most of its occupants conciously moved here and contributed to a community that accepts many different lifestyles. There is a bit of a "chicken-before-the-egg" scenario here, since no one seems to know if progressive people transplanted here and changed the face of the city or if the city planted the seedlings of progressivity and there was an "if-you-built-it-they-will-come" movement. 2. The tans here are awesome. No there not. I'm one of the darkest people I've seen here. 3. This one's all about me and my accomplishments. I can now ride my bike with no hands while pedaling and on slight uphills for an extended amount of time. Now I'm teaching myself to dismount the bike while it is still coasting by swinging my leg over the back instead of looping it over the cross bar. Yes, these are the goals I have set for myself. 4. I'm never really alone here. I'll have moments of loneliness, but I never get to fully indulge. Every time I start to dip into self-pitying homesickness, some very lovely person strikes up a conversation with me. And people don't shy away from the intense stuff here, either. I met a man who is old enough to be my father at the brewer's festival and we started talking about the beers. We started out just chatting when we passed each other and then kind of paired up, while I was waiting for my friend to show up. By the end of our conversation, we were talking about public education and raising children. I apologized for preaching, but he said earnestly "You're passionate about it, so I enjoy hearing it." There are many more examples of this, but I won't bore you. 5. There is a lot of gender and sexuality ambiguity. I mistake women for men because of the way they carry themselves or I see an otherwise obvious male wearing hot pink lipstick. I read a man or a woman as gay or not and then I found out I was wrong. This only makes me laugh because in Colorado, I considered myself extremely progressive as far as gender and sexual identity were considered. Not here. I'm beginning to understand how far I need to come to be truly progressive. However, since I have decided not to take much of anything serious, I find most of these situations comical because I'm generally the ass who says something and then realizes that, oops, I was wrong. 6. Finally, I'm gayer out here. It's weird and cool because people are much more likely to read me as gay, and I like it. I think because people live more in the gray or even the colored areas of life here, I just feel like I allow more of my creative and alternative side to show itself. Those are some observations. Maybe someday soon, this blog will start to take a distinctive shape, though a doubt it.