A driving story

When we first moved to Portland from the Seattle area, it seemed like all drivers could do was honk.  It was seriously annoying.  As I have lived here longer, either I have stopped noticing it or it suddenly came to a stop.  More on the honking in a second.

This past weekend I was talking to someone who also had lived in the Seattle metro area, and he was complaining about the traffic up there, but how at least people knew how to drive.  Here in Portland is not uncommon for only a car or two to make it through a light.  In Seattle, 10 people would have gone!

So back to that honking part.  Today I was at a red light, and the person next to me kept honking at the car in front of them to turn right.  I don’t know if they could see the person crossing at the crosswalk or not, but you could tell they were pissed this other driver was just sitting there.  After a couple more honks, the first car makes the turn.  The car behind doesn’t even bother to stop (the light is still red) and zooms down the road.  The license place on the honker…Washington!

The morale of this story is that people in Washington are dick drivers and are always in a hurry.  Portland peeps should follow their neighbors to the north lead a little and at least have four cars could make it through the light...

Photo from freefoto.com

Won’t you be my neighbor?

The day we moved into our house, we had to park down the block as the moving trucks took up the whole street. While we were walking to the house, a lady and her daughter stopped us to find out if we were the new neighbors. They introduced themselves and said that they would stop by later. I figured, sure you will. Neighbors like that only exist on TV shows. Fast forward to later that evening and there they were at my front door wanting to know if I needed anything from Trader Joe’s. Whoa, these people were for real. She gave me a quick rundown of the area, and asked if I preferred chocolate or wine. Easy question, bring on the booze! A few days later she returned with her husband and a bottle of wine as a welcome to the neighborhood gift. I was so impressed by the whole neighborliness of it, in fact I still am.

Yesterday I was out working in the yard, and the neighbor across the street came over to bring us some cupcakes. She apologized for not coming over earlier to meet us. She seemed really nice and told me if I saw a lot of traffic coming in and out of their house it was because they run a home business, and aren’t selling drugs! The chocolate cupcakes were a great addition to the bottle of Cabernet we were drinking later that evening (not the bottle the other neighbor brought over). A few people asked us if we were going to move after the house got broke into, and we said no we like the neighborhood. And having neighbors that actually care just makes me like it more.

What is the nicest thing as neighbor has done for you?  Or are you the "nice" neighbor?

Redeemed

Thank you for a lovely Friday afternoon. Why can't you be warm and sunny everyday?

Look what just showed up!

Granted I had to call them again, but at least it's here.

When I looked at the date it was yesterday's paper!

A couple of bright spots on a gray day

You know that saying “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all”?  Well if I followed that saying, I would never say a word!  I thought after my “you suck” post to The Oregonian, I would try and talk about a couple of place in Portland that I went to yesterday and really enjoyed. 

First stop was Swirl Frozen Yogurt.  I don’t know the last time I went out for Fr-Yo, maybe when I was a kid?  We got to the place right before they were opening, and the guy working was nice enough to let us in as it was raining.  I don’t think the guy realized what he was getting himself into, five double BOB strollers and 11 hungry kiddos.  The kids were running around grabbing cups and pretty much just being kids.  Once they opened we got a cup of blueberry/strawberry yogurt with granola and chopped almonds.  It seemed pretty healthy until the 3-year-old requested we add marshmallows.  It was delicious and I was sad that we decided to split it.  A second visit is on our agenda for this weekend.

The second stop is the only place that I would consider us regulars at, Laughing Planet Café.  When we were first checking out our house, the landlord recommended this place and I almost wish he hadn't as we are becoming addicts!  The food is super good and beyond reasonable priced.  Last night we had two burritos, a kid burrito, and a side of beans, a bowl of chips, two milks and two beers for less than $30 bucks.  Awesome deal huh?  I don’t think that we have ever had anything bad there and we eat there at least once a week. 

Where are you favorite places to hit up?

A pre-breakup letter to The Oregonian

Dear Oregonian,

I think we are about to say good-bye, I know that we haven’t known each other long but you suck.  Prior to you I had a wonderful relationship with a paper, every Sunday my husband would walk to the driveway and there the paper would be, waiting to be read.  Granted sometimes I was too busy to read it, and it sat by the front door for too long but that’s not the point.  I had paid for it, so it was up to me to decide what to do with.  Wait, you seem lost.  Let me explain.    

I give you money, and in turn you show up on my doorstep three days a week.  Granted I only wanted to get you one day a week, but I was told that wasn’t an option.  Pretty easy to follow right?  So why is that in the almost month I should have received you, you have only shown up on two of the days I requested and that was only after calling in and complaining?  I have no idea what it takes to get you on a regular basis but here is what I have done so far in attempts to win you over:

3/13-E-mail

3/18-Automated service

3/19-Called in (paper delivered after speaking with someone)

3/20-Called in (paper delivered after speaking with someone)

3/20-Supervisor or the likes also calls me and advises that I will get my paper

3/25-Left message with distributor and according to the message I would get my paper within an hour

3/25-Leave the house and return almost five hours after the message was left and still nothing, yet another message

3/25-Completed delivery service satisfaction survey, not to positive

You might wonder why I might still want to get you and come tomorrow if you aren’t here, I am sorry to say we are done. 

Sincerely,

Paperless in 97202

Reasons I don't like Portland this week

1.  The Shamrock Run.  The race was fine but whoever setup the road closures should be fired.  Don't lead people to believe a road is open only to find out it is closed and there is no place to turn around.
2.  The Oregonian.  In late February I gave you money for home delivery, where is it?
3.  911.  If what I call about isn't an emergency, instead of transferring me to a line that tells me the non-emergency line number just transfer me.  If I called 911, I am probably upset and not wanting to dig around my purse for a pen.
4.  Punk ass bitches who brake into your home.  Actually this is something I hate, and would love to inflict pain on this person.  I think I would go finger braking with a hammer like I saw on Justified the other night. 

All the colors of the rainbow

I know that people all over the world dye their hair; I have dyed mine on plenty of occasions. One big difference though between me and the people of Portland is I stick to natural hair colors, not crayon colors. A few weeks ago at Fred Meyer, I saw three different people with three different shades of pink hair. So far I have seen pink, purple, blue, yellow and orange. Odd that I haven’t seen green yet, maybe as St. Patrick’s Day gets closer. What I really find interesting is the range of ages that partake in that colorfulness, I have seen pre-teens to ladies in their 60’s. Maybe when you live in the gray for half of the year, a little pop of color is what you need between caffeine intakes to make it through the day.

Is it causal Friday again?

I was getting my haircut yesterday at a very nice little local place (glass of wine included), and the hairdresser asked what I thought of PDX so far.  I paused for a little too long I guess, and said we were still on the fence.  Even though Portland and Seattle are less than 200 miles apart, they seem a world apart.  In talking with her, the word casual came up to describe Portlandians, and it totally rang true to me.  Portland peeps are just that, causal.  It is fine to leave your house in whatever, and offer no apologizes and why should you?  Hell, I left the house in a half Bouffant and pigtails and no one looked twice.  Maybe people in the Seattle area were too concerned about appearance?  I looked around our music class today, and must of the moms looked causal and happy.  They got up and danced, and no one worried if their hair got out of place.  I am not sure I can completely embrace this causal lifestyle but I am trying to look at in a different light.

      

This video speaks for itself