Belated Friday five.

Five mall observations, in no particular order:

• Wet Seal and Pacific Sun really ought to sell bathing suits. Especially Wet Seal.
  
• People older than me should not be taking the "Forever 21" store name so literally.
• Hot Topic is NOT punk rock!*
• No, employees of island merchandise stands, you cannot rub something on my hand, ask me what kind of cellular service I have, and/or otherwise interrupt my shoe mission. (I got downright mean at one point.)
  
• Cinnabon is pure unadulterated evil.

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* Another State of Mind, on the other hand, was totally punk rock. I love watching these bands articulate the sad state of worldly affairs and capitalism in completely brilliant and coherent sentences, right before they go onstage and scream unintelligible lyrics into the mic while slamming into each other. Rawk.

"Climbed a mountain and I turned around..."

I really had no intention of summitting Mt. Adams this weekend. At 12,281 feet, it's one of the highest peaks in the Cascade range - higher than Mt. St Helens, higher than Mt. Hood... I mean, look at it:

It's GINORMOUS.

I went along to support a friend. In the weeks leading up to it I got a little anxious... reading all the blogs and looking at all the photos made me pretty nervous, seeing as how my hiking lately involved small day packs on dirt trails with pretty flowers. Not to mention I'd barely been to the gym since blowing my Achilles tendons out hiking in the Bend desert. But I figured no matter how far I made it, a weekend camping on a mountain wouldn't be so bad.

We camped at the trailhead the first night. In the morning we headed up about 2 miles to a nice spot just below Crescent Ridge to camp, acclimate and watch "Mt. Adams TV" - people trekking up the first meaty slope:

I was hurting a little just from that short trek, and was very thankful for the ability to offload most of the weight in my pack and rest up for the big day. Around 4am the next morning we set out armed only with essential layers, gear, food and water on our backs. The air was crisp, the snow crunched under our crampons and the sunrise over Mt. Hood was beautiful:

My first goal was to make it to the top of Crescent Ridge so that no matter how much farther I made it, I could at least try glissading down the mountain. We made it up easily. The next goal was Lunch Counter, which wasn't a terrible hike, but beyond that it was just steep and brutal, and we took it one step at a time. (As one blogger notes, "I don’t think I have ever used as much profanity on a hike as I did on this one" - and I would agree.)

(side view - yes, this is what we were "hiking" up)

At one point about halfway to Piker's Peak, the false summit, I decided I was done. That would've meant that my friend would turn around too and I was there to support her... so I begrudgingly plowed on.

(view of Piker's Peak from below)

Finally we reached Piker's Peak and the real summit loomed ahead. Now? NOW? Now I was DETERMINED. Another thousand feet of moderate, well marked elevation? After 2500 feet of crazy, treacherous, terrifying, unmarked elevation to Piker's Peak? No problem.

And so we made it to the summit, and took the obligatory summit photos and surrounding view photos:

(Mt. St Helens in the distance - it's not erupting, I just need to have my camera cleaned)

Mission accomplished, we donned our waterproof layers and slid down the snow in about a tenth of the time it took us to climb up it. (Glissading, by the way, is my new favorite manner of travel. I'll ride a mule to the top of any mountain if it means I can be a human luge all the way down.)

While I'm proud of my accomplishment, I have to say that I prefer this view of Mt. Adams from now on:


... and it's unlikely that I will ever hike in snow again. Or sand, for that matter.

Early Wednesday three.

Having been pretty successful in my 2Q goals, and still keeping to the 1Q goal of reading more, I am optimistically posting my 3Q goals:

• Take at least two day trips to faraway locales. Day trips are a little stressful - you only get two weekend days, and driving for most of one of them is never that appealing, but I do loves me a road trip, and I think the recent AAA article on Seaside (I mean, really - I've been to the coast ONCE since I moved here over a year ago? Come on!), coupled with the Muppets exhibit at Seattle's EMP, should cover me. But I recently heard about a hike near Bend that offers stellar panoramic views, so I might have to squeeze that in too.
• At least one new restaurant every week. This will likely be a lunch spot because I'm not overly fond of breakfast (and therefore I live in the wrong town) and dinners are more expensive. I'm hoping it won't be dominated by carts during the week because I already have a long list of NE/SE places to try. But the main point of this goal is that I've won two cool things through Yelp! Portland and I really need to increase the volume of reviews to feel justified in winning more free stuff. (I actually think I've won the two contests I've entered because everyone else is too lazy to reply to messages, but... I'll use this as fire instead.)
  
• Five new Portland bands. With the NW Musicfest in September this should be no problem, but I'm really trying to cut back on the bigger "I've seen them 18 times but I can't miss them"* shows and check out the up-and-coming, local, cheaper shows.

And as always, one thing on The List wouldn't be a bad thing, although I've already got 2009 and 2010 covered.

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* The only exception to this is The Decemberists. I will kill whoever I need to kill to see them every time they are in town. That's my official police statement, if anyone asks.

One picture a day - check.

OK, so I may have missed a few days. But still. Some days I took many, many pictures. Overall, "A" for effort, especially since the whole impetus behind this was to have subjects for my Photoshop class, which I ended up having to cancel because Photoshop 6.0 <> Photoshop Elements 6.0 (I could hear the laughter in the reply - "yeah, maybe if you had Photoshop 10.0 the non-Elements class would be okay but your version is SO OLD...").

Anyway, here are some of my faves (that do not involve flowers - spring made it so easy to take a photo a day):

Prineville, OR

Apologetic graffiti artist - Portland, OR

Wrist stamp for Berbati's Pan

From the Broadway Bridge - Portland, OR

Laurelhurst Park - Portland, OR

Near Portland State University

Several "Portland Failblog" shots were also documented elsewhere.

Incidentally, I'd forgotten about the Photoshop 5.5 tutorial my dear friend (erhm, completely legally) gave me when he built my computer for me. Four tutorials later, I can do everything I wanted to do in the first place. In your face, Photoshop Elements at PCC!

One "Portland" thing a week - check.

Week 1: hiking Dog Mountain, which, although not technically in Portland, "counted" according to my friend.

Week 2: baking gluten-free, egg-free brownies from scratch. What? That is SOOOOOOO Portland, people.

Week 3: Mates of State and the Black Kids at Wonder Ballroom, the NE's answer to the Crystal Ballroom (and let's be honest here, it's the better answer).

Week 4: volunteering for a Friends of Trees benefit BBQ.

Week 5: Storm Large's Crazy Enough at Portland Center Stage. Oh yeah, she's Portland. For sure. When her show comes to a city near you, RUN, do not walk.

Week 6: The Shins at the Crystal Ballroom. I know it's not the better answer, but it's THE SHINS. Also this week, Portland's Best New Band show, free at Berbati's. Can't say I was blown away by either.

Week 7: Yelp Portland gave me two tickets to Loney, Dear at the Doug Fir. That's right. Elitism has its privileges. It was an amazing show.

Week 8: I think going to Bend for a three-day weekend is a Portland thing to do. Yep. I do.


Week 9: This is the week I should've gone downtown to the Starlight Parade, part of "the" quintessential Portland thing - the Rose Festival. But there was a hockey game to be watched, and also, I heard that like 250,000 people go downtown every year for this. So I stayed in and watched some of the live coverage on TV after the hockey game. Much better view, 0% of the hassle, and when I got bored with the parade I switched over to House reruns. Win!

Week 10: The aforementioned Canterbury Castle demolition.

Week 11: Hiking in Forest Park to break in the new boots after the Portland Pride parade (where I overheard the best conversation between a gay boy and a man holding a sign saying that homosexuals would burn in hell: "You know what the worst part of this is? YOU WILL BE IN HELL WITH US! Oh my Gawd that SUCKS!" and also saw the best sign held by an old lady marching in the parade: "Better gay than grumpy!" I love Pride parades).

Week 12: I had hoped to go to one part of the "best of" School of Rock shows Saturday, because really, who wants to sit through a whole Floyd or Zeppelin show? So "best of" sounded like a perfect compromise. But part one conflicted with my haircut and part two conflicted with my (apparently much-needed) nap. Later this week I went to an organic brewery for happy hour. That's pretty Portland.

Week 13: Portland roller derby championship bout... followed by a Broadway show. I had a hard time with the transition from one to the other, and my ears are still ringing from both. But it was worth it.

Early Friday five.

Patton Oswalt is a funny, funny man. I saw him at Cobb's a few years ago and recently learned that someone at work had his album, so I borrowed it and have been giggling incessantly in my cube ever since. Five favorite quotes that don't really require hearing the full story, but need a little 'splainin'*, in no particular order:

• "We're thinking of having an invisible kid named '10 hours of sleep a night' " - response to his friends' incessant questioning about when he and his girlfriend were going to have kids
  
• "America is like a giant trust fund kid with nuclear weapons 'this country is nice can we have Disney World here?' ('but this is Paris...') 'DISNEYWORLD!' " - response to the Hard Rock Cafe in Dublin that they probably had to tear down a bar from Ulysses to build
  
• "Every time you eat a steak, a hippie's hackey sack goes into the sewer" - no 'splainin' necessary
  
• "You wouldn't give a crippled crab a crutch!" - from a crackhead who wandered into open mic comedy one night and did a bit, which Patton recreates verbatim, which was probably one of the best open mic night bits I've ever heard
  
• "The Continental was one of those hotels where everything looked like it had been rubbed in ham" - because we've all stayed at one of those...

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* Remind me to tell you the book group story someday. Offline.

Almost too pretty to eat.

Almost.

Penguin mania countdown: 243 days.

Early Wednesday three... Three favorite excerpts from my "Preparing for your adventure ship expedition to Antarctica" booklet I received yesterday, in no particular order:

• "There may be an opportunity for a polar plunge during the voyage, so we recommend that you pack a swimsuit."
• "Our expedition members are independent-minded travelers from around the world with a strong interest in exploring remote regions."
• "Fur seals are usually dangerous, therefore keep a greater distance than 5 meters from them at all times."