A nice article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on books to read about the Pacific Northwest, both fiction and non-fiction. I’ve read a number of them, and the rest of them have just gone on my Hold queue at Multnomah County Library.
Am planning on writing on here hopefully more frequently. Between a really nasty cold that put me out of the running for over two weeks and some bouts of a minor depression, I haven’t wanted to document a lot of complaints :)
If you haven’t seen this yet, here is a really cool short film called Alma from one of the Pixar animators, Rodrigo Blaas. It’s only online for a short while, so if the link is dead, it’s too late.
I shouldn’t be looking at vintage postcards of Portland hotels, it is making me really, really want to drive across the U.S. I wonder how many times I’ve driven across the U.S.? The epic drive was when I was a kid (obviously a passenger), when we drove from Salem, Oregon to West Bend, Wisconsin to Florida. Did the whole thing in reverse too.
Not that November is a great time to be driving through the plains or over the Rockies, but holy man, seeing postcards of hotels from the 50s and 60s, and remembering staying in similar hotels in the 70s, I just want to go!
Disturbing bus encounter yesterday.
Now that I have a bus pass to go to school, Brian and I are taking the bus downtown more often. It’s nice not to play rock-paper-scissors to determine who is driving.
So last night we wandered downtown to meet my cousin for dinner and drinks. We were near Lloyd Center Mall, and a woman got on as a different woman was asking a question of the bus driver. The bus driver caught that the first woman hadn’t paid a fare, and told her to come back to the front.
The woman went up front and proceed to argue with the bus driver for a long while (over paying $2). We were sitting toward the front and caught a bit of the conversation, though not all of it. The bus driver was saying things like “You know you have to pay it. We’ve been through this.” At one point the woman must have said something about taking the bus to the hospital (we were on the 8 which goes to OSHU), and the bus driver said, well, I can call you an ambulance then. The woman flat out refused to pay and refused to get off the bus. She kept leaning in on the bus driver (who was also a woman). The bus driver said sharply, move back from me. You stand over there while we talk.
Finally, the bus driver called the cops, and told the bus that we were locked up (not going anywhere). The crazy woman sat down next to her purse, pulling out what looked to be a bible at one point to read. I kinda felt bad for her as she was obviously mental, but holy man, just get off the bus already, especially before the cops arrive.
Bus driver finally drove to the next bus stop and told us she’d let us know when the next 8 bus was coming. I didn’t really feel like sitting on the bus in close proximity to the crazy woman, so we got off and the rest of the people who hadn’t left got off with us too. As did the crazy woman, who stood stoically in front of us. Yucky. One of the passengers was talking about how loony she was, and what an inconvenience, etc. I kept giving the bus driver sympathetic looks.
The bus driver asked if we were all okay for our transfer times, and offered us all day passes. Brian decided to take advantage of it, and climbed back into the bus to get it. He chatted with the bus driver for a bit.
So the next 8 comes, we get on it, and predictably, just as we were going to pull out, someone on this bus decided to get off after all. Which allowed the crazy person to get on. I’m not sure if this bus driver (a guy) decided to ignore her lack of fare in interest of getting things moving again, or if we were actually on the edge of fareless square now, or what.
We continued on our way. The crazy woman was one seat up, and on the right side of the bus from us. She calmly took out a newspaper from her bag, spread it out on her lap, and proceeded to take out, oh forty or fifty Best Buy giftcards. She sorted through them, deftly setting them up and removing packaging. O lord. A thief too. Great!
It wasn’t until we were walking to my cousin’s hotel that Brian told me that the thief was a man. Clearly a well made up man – I had noticed that “she” was wearing a good amount of make up (foundation, eyeliner kinda thing) but it was expertly done. The kind you see from a wealthy woman, so it didn’t strike me as odd. She was wearing a few diamond rings too, so it fit.
Looking back on it though, I don’t know why the woman’s height didn’t strike me (he was probably close to Brian’s height). How completely bizarre! And what a good way to avoid getting caught on camera for stealing – he obviously normally doesn’t look anything like how we saw him. Brian said the first bus driver called the cops because the nutjob was threatening her. Creep-py.
O the things you see on the bus!
My least favorite thing about communicating on the internet (wow, that’s an awkward sentence that I am too lazy to fix right now) is the bad writing habits I see over and over again. I secretly fear that I am picking some of the common misspellings up.
The one that galls me the most is the crazy way some people use apostrophes. I’m not asking anyone to get an English degree before commenting on a post, but c’mon. It’s not hard to look at what you wrote, maybe even read it outloud to see if it makes logical sense. Cat’s? Cat’s what? Cat’s paw? You certainly don’t mean two cats. Drives me up a wall.
Anyhow, here’s a good chart showing when to use apostrophes. I’m posting it here so I remember it and yes, I may snarkingly post it when someone talks about you’re car’s.
Portland, OR is not as safe as Milwaukee, WI. That gave me a quick HUH? moment, having lived in both of them. I’ve wander through most of the neighborhoods of both places too, and I’ll tell you while I know I am in a city and hence watch my back appropriately, I’d happily wander Portland over Milwaukee, where some scary shit happens.
Scary things happen anywhere, I mean, but I definitely saw much scarier things in Milwaukee than in Portland. I also know many, many, many more people who have been mugged, held up, or had their car windows smashed in in Milwaukee than here (including an outdoor BBQ that was held up. SIGH). Could be just the group I ran with then versus the people I do now though. Just an observation on why the ranking surprised me.
It makes sense though when you look at the rankings – Milwaukee was dinged for violent crime, whereas Portland ranked much higher on natural disaster.
National Geographic Travel article on Portland.
Only one error in the article – nudity is not illegal in Portland unless you are aroused. Although equally as true – how are you going to stop 5000 naked bicyclists?
My friend Darren (Ellen’s husband, if you know Ellen) from WI caught a bank robber in New Haven, CT!