When Getting Lost is Better than the Original Plan

Someone emailed me a newsletter describing an art event with an address on SE Grand. I tried to find it and didn't. None of the shopkeepers I talked to in that area knew what I was talking about. Whatevs, then.

But I did get to meet Richard at Shoppeople. His card says 416 SE Oak, and Google says this coffeeshop is 422 SE Grand. Guess that's because they have all that art production space- do check out their website for the story.


This is a lovely and cool place well worth getting lost to find. Coffee, comfy chairs for serious lounging and art for sale all around the room.




Big windows for people-watching as they have the corner store. Funny and nice mix of music playing at the perfect level for solo listening or to talk over without shouting. Winner.


I'm having a refreshing latte while owner Richard commiserates with me on being lost. And their boffo iMac I'm typing this on is a wayback machine with a hockey puck mouse. Yesterday's technology today!

PS All the parking immediately around this cool area is one hour or half hour (!). I can't get anything done in a half hour. But go a couple blocks east and south nearer the auto repair shops and it's 2-hour.

Update 2: I never did find that other event.

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Movie Date for One Doubles in Size

There's magic at the movies, if you can just believe...

Saw "Romance and Cigarettes" last night at Cinema 21. I hadn't seen anything written on it, so went in blind. Then I had to adjust myself to what I was seeing. Now I need to know if that's really Susan Sarandon singing the Janis Joplin cover, and I'm reminded that going on a date with Eddie Izzard is on my "To Do" list.

Anna was behind the ticket window last night.











After I succumbed to her sales pitch and was buying the requisite large buttered popcorn for one, Anna told me a story.

Seems there's a man who also frequents the Cinema alone, of that New York type. Anna radiates a gentle kindness and humor, so when she was imitating him it was like watching a ballerina with a jackhammer.

The guy likes to ask (demand?) of her if he's going to meet any women there, to which she replies that you never know. So when he actually made his love connection, it played out right in front of her. He was doing his schtick, bantering with another woman "who was just as loud and obnoxious as him," and it ended with the two going out the door for coffee. Or began, depending on how you look for it.

I asked if they'd been back in as a couple, and Anna said not yet that she'd seen. We can only hope.

I like this story. Something similiar once happened to me.

I ran down the aisle of my hometown movie theatre literally as the lights were dimming on a packed house for the premiere of "ET." A miracle seat on the aisle was open next to a handsome young guy who was there, as it turned out, alone. The movie was enchanting. The handsome guy's murmured asides were witty and made me laugh. By the time the movie ended, I felt like we were already friends.

He was an EMT in the Coast Guard, one of those guys that goes out in the chopper on those hairy Search and Rescues, when people on fishing boats are injured and the ship's in trouble. Adrenaline junky. He took me for a ride on his motorcycle and we started one of those "Mr/Ms Right" romances. It ended when we both left, I to start college and him to become a heart specialist and marry a nice Jewish girl but the point is just like Anna says, you never know.
That's why I buy the large popcorn.

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A Bicycle for Christmas

I'm getting into the holiday spirit this evening. Got me thinking about a (true!) story of mine from a few years ago...

I was working at a hugely awful place and the one bright spot was a woman who I'd see for a couple hours every day, as our shifts overlapped. She had this lovely kind heart. She also read and loved my romantic comedy feature film script (then freshly written) and was a big supporter long before anyone else was on board.

Her son was about 9 or 10 years old and the sweetest kid. They didn't have much money left over after all the bills were paid and I got this sneaky idea I was going to buy the boy a bike for Christmas. I scoped out a rough and tough boy's bike at Toys R Us and they had some excellent stuff to go with it, like cool screw-on air valve covers that were skull and crossbones, and a "real" license plate stamped with the boy's name. I was really having fun getting this bike and wheeling it to the cash register. Everyone around me was grinning at me and catching the vibe. I told a couple people what I was doing. We had a pretty jolly checkout line.

I had the bike at home for a couple of days and got all the stuff put on it. Just as an off the cuff idea, I then made a big card out of construction paper and wrote a poem to the boy from Santa. In the poem, I wrote (taking dictation from Santa, of course) that Santa was so impressed with what a good boy this child had been and how proud his mother was of him- you know, in that vein. Wish I could remember it as the rhyming was pretty tight and I was happy with it. I tricked it all out with silvery ink and glittery things and signed it "Santa."

None of this was known to my friend. On Christmas Eve, I put on my Santa hat and drove over to her apt, then phoned her from the street to come down alone. She did and I told her I was working for Santa, then popped the hatch and pulled the bike out of my car. She burst into tears and gave me a big hug, which was pretty great and very moving. I gave her the card and she went sobbing and wheeling it back to her apt.

I thought she'd have to give it to the boy right then, but she told me later that she'd managed to get back inside and hide it out on their balcony and then he got it Christmas Day.

Here comes the best part of this story. Get out your hankies.

The best part of the present, in her son's opinion?

The card to him from Santa. She said he marveled at it. Carried it around all day and kept looking at it.
--
It's not often that I get to be great, seems like. Most of the time when I check in at the Church of the Bathroom Mirror, I'm reminded that I know I could do better and yet I choose not to give things that little extra push. That's a flincher moment. So, it's nice when Santa has work for me and I do the job right. Gives me hope.

Hope you are enjoying your Christmas shopping this year.

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Is This Your Snowbank?

Perfectly cold out tonight. I'm watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer on DVD. And Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I own em all and just got the box out today.

I got the Grinch and of course Charlie Brown.
So funny all the years melt away when I watch these stories and I'm a little kid in my flannel feetie pajamas in front of my grandparent's TV. My brother and I waited all day for the magical broadcast.
Now it seems magical to own these and be able to watch them whenever I want.

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Geeks, a Treehouse and Alex's Great Story

A Treehouse and cavorting geeks were in abundance at the Innotech-hosted Brain party. If you saw it on Upcoming you should've been there. Zowee. Thank you, Innotech!

The event was held in the very cool Backspace Cafe, it of the mostly famous treehouse and game rooms that I'd wanted to see after reading about it on another PDX blog. I met several great people at the event, most notably Web Designer and Technical Writer Dan. Once we started talking about the Matrix, my plans to network and get some business cards were not looking doable. Things really went to hell when we got onto the Animatrix, and I didn't even get to the part where I confess my love of Shinichiro Watanabe... I love talking to clever people. I took Dan's picture but my camera flash scotched it. Hopefully, there will be another opportunity!

Other people were clearly not who they appeared to be. There was Jonathan, with the tiger hiding under his shirt.












Behind the bar was Alex, who told me how he'd come to live in Portland.

Alex's description of Florida culture had the same dreary cast of castoffs as Los Angeles: self-elected Kings of Consumerville living far beyond their means; breathing in perfectly innocent air and rendering it useless. Alex told me it was clearly time for the journey Away to commence, but to Where? Deciding was done with a coin toss. I was so impressed by this that I forgot to write down where the other city was. Might have been Albuquerque. As we know, Portland won out. He told me he'd only been here about two weeks, when he "felt like someone had given him a present."
I can second that, while wishing I'd put it so enchantingly myself.

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"More" Telephone oh *Yeah*

I've been playing the beejeezus out of this 2-Disc album since buying it at EM last week. But Telephone's "More" has got me completely hooked. Y'know how a playing a song brings back the image of wherever you were when you first heard it? "More" sounds like taking the nighttime I-5 South past this lovely spit-shined city, zooming past the skyscrapers like George expletive-deleted Jetson.

It reminds me of early Cars without ripping that sound off. And I love the way it's shaped; again reminds me of the Cars and how Ric Ocasek seemed pushed back in the mix and in front of it at the same time. *MMMmm*

(And, how polite of these fine artists to play into the theme of my yakky little blog.)

Congratulations, Hank Failing! Genius album.

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