oh-sweet-pea
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July 16, 2002 - 8:50 am
how can i sum up a weekend that was truely, truely great?? it'll be damn hard, so don't expect a great read or anything.
portland is my new favorite city. hands down. the people are friendly, the beer is fantastic and the city is clean.
day one: our ride to portland from seattle was with becca, a great girl who does small chapbooks. she was amazing. kyla and i were both afraid that we'd be stuck with some wheat-pasting vegan anarchist activist for the ride down. we weren't. until olympia, that is, when we picked up hib. she didn't like us very much. i think she snarled at our lays bag of cheddar bbq chips.
we stayed at the best hotel ever, the white eagle. it was clean, beautiful and had a chennile bedspread. did i say clean? very important in a cheap hotel. once we were all showered up and looking half way decent, we decided that it was time for beer. kyla knew of some bar on the other side of the northeast quadrant, so we walked over an hour to get there. it was so worth it. we stopped off just before midnight for some yummy cuban food and mexican cokes. (mmm, mexican cokes are my number one new favorite coke!) the bar was a block away from the restaurant and there was a dj spinning desmond decker and other jamacian ska. it was pretty sweet. the cutest and best dancer boy in the world came up to our table and grabbed my hand to pull me on the dance floor. i was too shy (and not drunk enough) to accept his offer, but i was flattered. a short while later, another cute boy came over and started talking. his name was adam and he was pretty sweet. we met his friend moe from north carolina and we all decided after last call to head over to her place and smoke a jay. adam said i was cute, so i was instantly won over (what can i say, i'm easy that way!) kyla and adam bickered constantly (but in a good way) and kyla definitely liked having a sparring partner. it was a good night.
day two: the zine fair. okay, remember the wheat-paste/vegan/anarchist/"soy not oi"/activisit fear i had? well, times that by three hundred and you had a portland zine symposium. becca, kyla and i huddled ourselves at the back, drank coke slurpees and did lots of laughing out loud. we were the surly, older ones who didn't have to reduce our politics to stupid sticker slogans. it wasn't all bad, tho we were mostly anti-trade (just cuz we didn't want to trade our hand screenprinted, special paper, cut out handmade inserts with 17 year old's doing their first zines), i did manage to get a few interesting zines and meet some good people.
after the zine fair, we escaped to "dots", where we had cheeseburgers and beer and enjoyed every meaty bit. becca headed back to seattle and kyla and i decided to explore the hawthorne district. went to powells, had a beer at a great bar just round the corner from the most beautiful theater ever, the bagdad. we also had beer and pizza at the bagdad while watching 'kissing jessica stein'. beer and a movie. did i say how much i love portland??
day three: the best americano and chocolate crossant ever at (i think) "ken's bakery" in a yuppie but not overly annoying neighbourhood. lots of thrifts and nice boys who looked over all my purchaces with curiosity. we ate taco bell chalupas for lunch in a park before we caught our train back to seattle. the train ride was beautiful during golden hour and we saw people swimming and canoeing in lakes. i loved the train. our bus back into vancouver was delayed at the border and we didn't get home until 3am sunday night. when i got back home, my bed was unmade and my apartment was messy. i felt a bit sad. my total american purchases added up to a little over five dollars.not bad for a girl who loves to shop.
the short list:
- starbucks coconut mocha frappachino devoured in the hot hot sun in seattle. if only the wheat-pasters could have seen us.
- the vanilla icing candle at anthropologie. smelled like heaven.
- becca. the coolest girl i could have hoped to meet.
- the white eagle hotel. nuff said.
- mexican cokes. american coke isn't as good as canadian coke. canadian coke isn't as good as mexican coke. and with a slice of lemon? mmmm.
- friendly boys who ask you to dance. hell, just friendly boys.
- the organic cherries from the farmer's market outside the zine symposium.
- the people who smiled everywhere.
- the bagdad theater. beautiful. $2 movies. beer.
- the patch of grass outside the train station. plush and bug free. my own magic carpet ride.