michigan winter sunset. pink & icy!

hello again & happy 2011.

living in portland, I talk and am conscious of the weather a lot more than I was in michigan. I think it's because it fluctuates so much - and because I'm constantly around new people and that is the thing upon which all can relate. today, it's almost balmy; it's great for january! even though it's drizzling, it's not a heavy rain and biking is still pleasant. speaking of which, I finally got my bike tension & derailer adjusted (because I sorta messed it up trying to adjust it myself). it's SO nice! I can down shift when I bike up monstrous hills. hurray!

if you are interested, I took my bike to the Bike Repair Collective, which is down the street on Belmont + 45th. I like it because it seems old men work there and thus, there is no pretension or talking down. also, they are genuinely knowledgeable and helpful. it only cost $10 too!

in other news, said goodbye to 2010 in seattle w/ ryan, nate, and elise. it was super nice to visit seattle and see what a cool city it was with such fun people. oh, also, the MOUNTAINS! we saw them all, due to an amazing amount of sunshine and clear skies. I can't wait for the monumental camping that will arrive with summer.

ryan + i with the olympic mts., i think...

on the subject of new years, I suppose I should recap 2010. so, here's a list of tens:

:: 10 things ::

.roadtrip to LA w/ mads & seeing friends :)

.being out of school for a year!

.visited family in CO + good eats + snowbrding

.best job ever, working in the community gardens

.pickled peppers! yes, that is a complete sentence.

.lived with awesome friends in Lansing, to much enjoyment

.moved to portland

.lived in a trailer for a week, haha

.happy snail mail times, keeping in touch

.keeping compost worms! as close to a pet as I can currently afford.

:: 10 books i read + liked ::

.the girl with the dragon tattoo series Larsson

.breaking open the head Pinchbeck

.nausea Sartre

.house of leaves Danielewski

.dali lama's autobio

.hotel iris Yoko Ogawa

.sirens of titan Vonnegut

.valley of the dolls Susann

.pride and prejudice Austen

.atmospheric disturbance Galchen

:: and of course, 10 things to do in 2011 ::

.have a piece of art in a group show/ gallery

.design websites for friends (do you want a site? let me know!)

.a drawing a week or collab. project with cory

.join a csa + possibly one of the food co-ops 01.17.11.

.be involved in the community garden scene + community in general 01.19.11.

.go on a midnight mystery bike ride (midnight just feels so late these days!)

.do a pdx crit mass & possibly the naked bike ride in the summer

.snowboard at mt. hood + summer camping

.whale watching... via a kayak? yes! or learn rock climbing

.obviously, get employed!

and then, I think what I said at the end of 2008 is still relevant for me:

live freely, openly, happily, and without consideration of convention

today i made good soup from homemade turkey broth (ie. boiling leftover thnksgvng turkey carcass in water). i bought fresh bread to go with it. yum.

recent drawings. feels nice.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Hope everyone had a relaxing & enjoyable day with way too much food! Here are some fotos of the day.

bathin' the turkey.

ryan before he carves the bird.

the spread.

thanksgiving 1.0 portland edition.

that stuff that grows on trees here.

Portland is cold! yup, it's true, winter times are almost here. I already have my hot cocoa, so I'm feeling okay about it and winter jacket is on it's way here in the mail.

Today Ryan & I went to Forest Park. We took a short hike on a .6 mile trail, the name of which I don't remember. It's so peaceful and green! I wish this was my backyard. some photos:

fern friends & tree frames.

ryan only takes my picture when i look like this. yum chocolate.

After blasting through 4 interviews in a weeks time, I remain unemployed 2 months in to my Portland life. Sigh, times are tough. Worry not, it's obviously a sign that it's time to re-design my website and learn jquery or wordpress things. Hibernating with the computer.

Also, last weekend, Seattle friends came to visit us! Really fun times. All the Portland usuals: Mt. Tabor, Belmont food carts, MAX, Saturday Market, Powells, Voodoo Doughnuts, concert at Doug Fir, Trade Joe's dinner feast extravaganza, Hawthorne. Ate brunch at Cup & Saucer on Hawthorne, super good! They do the organic, free range thing, yum. And vanilla scones! I'm gonna do a post soon with all my (cell phone) fotos of food.

christmas card 2010 @ mt. tabor

my family came to visit this past weekend! the weather held up; it didn't rain until saturday night. i took 'em to all the sights: downtown, voodoo doughnuts, my apartment, mt. tabor, hawthorn district, cathedral park, belmont & 43rd food carts, pok pok, and i finally found the door to the Lloyd Center. we didn't make it to Powell's though, we were too busy buying a toaster! yeah, toast!

Michelle is adventurous and tried the maple bacon bar at Voodoo Doughnuts.

ryan & i climbin' around @ Cathedral.

it was nice to go to Cathedral Park, I hadn't been there yet. Ryan & i tried to bike there earlier in the week, it's 10 miles away all the way up in north portland. we didn't make it via biking, as i got hungry and it got dark out. it's a pretty bike ride, if it's not raining.

in other news, i applied to The Gap at the Lloyd Center (which is a mall in the NE). I have a group interview next week. it'd be nice to work part time because I admit, I want a discount. I also have an interview this week with a web development firm in downtown Portland. pretty excited- i would really like the job. the company seems cool and the work seems interesting. hur-rah.

also, Elise, Nate, & Oliver are all coming to visit this upcoming weekend from Seattle! yay! I'm so happy to have all these visitors. Portland is a fun city, but it's way more awesome when you have people to enjoy it with.

hello. so since portland is a relatively new place to me, i'm probably going to update often about the new places i find (ie. grocery stores, shops, places to sit). so, for today, two places:

BUI'S NATURAL TOFU

520 NE 76th Ave, Portland, OR

This place is pretty awesome! They make, from scratch, tofu. There are lots of tofu flavors, like green onion or mushroom. There are also tofu meats - not to be confused with fake tofu meats. Also, hella cheap soy milk & other vietnamese foods, like spring rolls or sticky rice. Everything is relatively cheap/affordable. The spring rolls have shrimp, tofu, basil, & vermicelli noodles and are dipped into a peanut sauce. Quiet delicious.I'm not a huge fan of the soy milk yet, because it's not fortified with any vitamins and it sorta tastes like tofu. They have a sweetened one, so I'll try it next. Excited to try all the tofu flavors. It's relatively close to my apartment too and almost right across from the laundro-mat. Good place.

+

KNITTIN' KITTENS

7530 NE Glisan St, Portland, OR

Everything in the store is vintage. Which is cool because it means someone bought it, didn't use it, & you get to buy it for a lot less. Also, awesome because it's the first place I've been that has colored elastic! Sooo cool. You could make belts, suspenders, waists to skirts, bookmarks, or bento belts for your lunchbox. I went there to find knitting stuff, and the circular needles are really cheap - $3 and they're wooden. I also go 200 g of "high quality" wool to knit myself leg warmers (oh yea, it finally got cold & rainy out here). I originally wanted to do burgundy to add color to my other wise neutrally colored wardrobe, but there wasn't enough & I didn't want to do stripes. So yes, I picked a heathered grey. I will probably be going to this store a lot.

Yesterday I did yoga at TABORSPACE. Another really cool, new place to me.

5441 SE Belmont St. Portland, OR

It's run as a non-profit community space. It's a coffee shop in a church & the menu is priced on a sliding scale. It's really beautiful inside with tons of big comfy chairs & tables for everyone! There's also rentable community space for conferences, art, yoga, etc. It's $10 an hour for some of the rooms! I'm pretty impressed by how truly affordable they make things.

The Trip.

us.


the fam at 9am.


the car.

The Route.

9.18.10. Omaha, NB
Icky and rainy the whole drive out of the midwest. A rather dull beginning and this Super 8 was pretty groddy. But, I did drive the manual car on the highway, success!

9.19.10. Nederlands, CO
Stayed with ryan's cousin at their awesome new house in the mountains. Nederlands is 30mins outside of Boulder. Super cute town, with apparently rad mt. biking trails. Lots of good coffee shops and the Carousel of Happiness. The story goes- a guy hand carved all the animals for the marry-go-round and it took him around 20 years. The carousel just opened 4 months ago, so we had the luck of good timing & got to ride it before we bounced out to Steamboat. p.s. yea not sure what I am doing in this foto.

oh yea, double rainbow! saw that on the way to ryan's aunt's house in Steamboat. All the aspen trees were changing colors, too! Colorado is definitely a great, great place.


9.20.10. Steamboat Springs, CO
Us by an infamous spring.
We stayed an extra day in Steamboat Springs & Ryan's cousin took us out to lunch and gave us a tour of the cool new library she works at and her new home. We, also, went for a short hike to Fish Creek Falls.



9.22.10. Boise, ID
Stayed with a couchsurfer in Boise. We walked around downtown & got tasty food. Hope I get a chance to visit Idaho again and do some biking or hiking. Also, made me wanna watch My Own Private Idaho again to see if I recognized anything (though I don't think any of the movie takes place in Boise).

The Destination.

Quick stop in Pendelton! In my imaginary world, there would have been tepees & undisturbed Native American tribes and culture. Instead it was sorta desolate, or just another small, small town. But the mill was cool and one day I'll be able to afford a blanket and maybe some flannel shirts.


9.23.10. PDX, OR
we made it!

Thanks to everyone who hosted us. It made the trip awesome getting meet new people & hang out with folks.

I have not updated for some time & now I'm not sure where to start. Lot's of catching up. So, Ryan & I moved from MI to OR on Sept. 18. We've now been living in SE Portland for about 3 weeks. We really like our apartment & I'm quiet happy with having gotten the majority of our furniture for free. People are moving a lot or cleaning a lot, i dunno, but they just put things by the dumpsters or trash cans & its a free for all. Pretty awesome because we've gotten an Ikea couch that we're re-upholstering, a wood dinning table, a side table, a dresser, & a tall wine rack that we use as a shelf. it's a bit harder to find chairs, which sorta renders the kitchen table a bit useless, ha.

I like our location, we're a couple blocks away from Mt. Tabor, an extinct volcano. I went for a leisurely bike ride there- i think i wore my break pads out the whole way down & I only climbed a quarter of the way up. So, that's one thing, it's hilly here - so different from the midwest. I am horrified of bombing down a hill and then getting rammed in the face by someone opening their car door (since bike lanes & street parking often overlap in limited space). Back to location, we're also a few blocks away from Laurelhurst Park. This is a really pretty park with beautiful trees & apparently a cool pond, but that part is under construction currently. Hawthorne, Belmont, & Laurelhurst districts are only a few blocks away and all of them have sweet $3 movie theaters + beer options. People here love beer & cats. Every street, there is a cat on the prowl. Oh, and food trucks at Belmont & 45th... so tempting.

For another post, I'll throw some fotos up from the trip & such. More fotos of the apartment as it comes together.

Miss all you Michigan folk!

a loose & jumbled list of things to do once in portland.

• visit apts. - sign lease - move in done 09.30.10
  
• visit 17 list places from dirty cheap guide to pdx
  
• turn in SNAP application to DHS01.03.11
• send postcards home done 10.10.10
  
• explore the neighborhood: find grocery, coffee house, theater, parks, comm. gardens/csa i'm partial to: Coopers Coffee shops (SE Stark + 60th), BiPartisian Cafe (SE Stark + 79th), & stuff on SE Belmont + 34th

• buy cheap commuter bike CL (>$100) probably not going to do this, because i realized my bike is sweet!
  
• get a bus pass too expensive. i'll just pay per ride!
  
• freecycle furniture still need chairs!
  
• buy a bed done 10.02.10
  
• find yoga, tai chi, taekwondo montavilla yoga studio, represent!
• sign up for at least 1 pcc class
• join a club? knitting circle?
• volunteer - once a week? (farm/csa, tutor) i start tomorrow! 10.13.10
  
• shop at the farmers market
• find a favorite food truck belmont & 47th creme de la creme
  
• tour psu art grad program - actually maybe Urban Studies or Natural Resource Policy instead
• do app. for grad school?
• update website, new pgs yea! done!
  
• finish '08 bike zine
  

portland was great & i need to go to sleep now because i am expected to do school things again come monday.

portland was great beacause...
no one really showers all that much
people are truly friendly & helpful
even when the weather sucks, its better than here
less car traffic in the whole city than in east lansing
biking! its more accepted as actual transport
and public transport goes everywhere, just about
you can wander the city all day & better yet, forest park
oh yea! SO many independent & local businesses
vegan & organic food galore
hostels there are well cared for & happy
i was well cared for & happy.

ryan likes vegan doughnuts.

forest park was the truly stand out part of the trip for me. tall tall mossy trees and a clear cold stream and muddy path to follow.


the houses looked loved & lived in. prayer flags & bright orange curtains on balconies, bright vibrant colors & gardens!

the only scary part is unemployment. i've been running into capitalism in literature so much. no one ever writes anything positive about it, well i guess i never come across that aspect. but that's for another post.

much love to portland.

i couldn't be more sad to be back to the drugery & obligations of college life and east lansing. at least the weather might be getting better.