Heading south for the winter.

Last weekend I headed out to see what Klamath Falls, Crater Lake and some other nearby old towns were all about. Turns out, not much.

Crater Lake is pretty, for sure:


And they have a nice gift shop, and they keep the road plowed to the rim in the winter, and the post office at the visitor center closes at 2pm. That's about all I can say about Crater Lake. Other than, I hear it's lovely in the summer.

Earlier that weekend I headed a bit farther south on my way to Lava Beds National Monument and ran across this sign:

... and I got a little nostalgic. I then bought a couple of postcards and got charged sales tax, and the nostalgia went away. (I suppose if I'd pumped my own gas I could've brought it back?)

I did have a lot of fun in the caves though. There are about two dozen that they just let you wander through with a flashlight. The other caves I've visited (Sacramento, South Dakota, Colorado) required guided tours, but for this one I showed up, alone, around noon, and asked the gal at the front desk what she recommended, and she sent me off with two flashlights ("just in case") and a map with some stuff circled. Because it's winter there, the park was empty... and as a result the whole experience was pretty amazing.

Most of the caves are upright-walkable. Some you have to crouch in places, and a few require crawling. I didn't do the crawling ones out of respect for my knees (and my closet claustrophobia), but I definitely got deep underground in a few.

(Golden Dome)

In one of the earlier caves I was about 200 feet in, and I turned off the flashlight and stood in the dark listening to the silence. The wind was loud and gusting outside, and as a result the temperature was close to 25 degrees and close enough to freezing to my non-acclimated body. Inside the cave it was a balmy 55, slightly humid and... absolutely silent.

It was amazing.

And then I was reminded of recent mountain lion attacks in the area and I freaked out a little. "Surely they wouldn't just let people wander around solo if mountain lions were in the area. Surely. Right? I mean, this is a national effing monument after all, they can't afford bad publicity." And all was right again.

And then 25 years of pop culture kicked in. I saw a flash of the Indiana Jones scene where the water comes gushing through the tunnel, and I freaked out a little more and turned the flashlight back on. And then I saw flashes from The Lost Boys and I jerked the flashlight up to make sure no vamps or bats were lounging over my head. And then I remembered the cave scenes from The Goonies, which I'd watched on fuzzy cable the night before at the cheap motel, which is soooo not a scary movie but some of those scenes!... And then another two dozen scenes from Buffy ran through my head, and then...

And then I laughed at myself, appreciated the adrenaline rush, and moved on to the next cave. And? That night on fuzzy cable? The Lost Boys! I have seen it half a million times and could recite the lines in my sleep, but there was something serendipitous about the timing which resulted in my eyes being glued to the set the whole time despite having the next day to plan and Christmas cards to glue and emails to write. (Thank you, Joel Schumacher and the Coreys. Sparkling vamps my ass.)

These weekend trips have been experiments. I'm testing my tolerance after this recent revelation... So Eastern Oregon I planned pretty well. Southern Oregon, I knew where I was staying (and generally speaking, what was in the area), and I took some guide books, and that was the extent of the plan. Crater Lake was planned. The Lava Bed caves were not, I ran across them in the book the night before and they ended up being my favorite part of the trip.

The whole reason for the Southern Oregon adventure had to do with something I read in a guide book about 500 bald eagles nesting there in the winter. I'm not a big bird fan... Well, I'm a Big Bird fan but I'm generally not into birds. The bird refuges just across the border in CA did not excite me but they did interest me and I approached them as an opportunity to relax and to test my camera's sports/action mode. I ended up marveling at dozens of species of those amazing creatures - watching raptors float mid-air on their way to doing nothing, being guided through the auto tour by the same gorgeoous golden eagle, reminding myself to just sit back and observe and not worry about the perfect picture. That day I encountered three of the nine bald eagles recently seen in the area. Two are here:

Grungy and scrappy and scavengery and therefore worthy of being our nation's emblem? Sure. Creepily watching me as I ate my sandwich while taking tons of photos of them? Definitely.

So overall, I think the plan is working well. In a few weeks I'm heading down the 101 to Coastal Oregon. Other than having a few places of interest I'd like to check out, I'm going to wing it. And it's going to be amazing. This is the start of a whole new perspective, and I'm loving every minute of it. (I know, I know - I don't know who she is or what she did with Jen(n) - but I'm also not complaining...)

Friday five.

It's that time, well it was that time yesterday, so today's Friday five is about things I am particularly thankful for right now:

• my family, whose health has had many ups and downs over the years but who have been holding steady at "relatively healthy" lately
  
• my car, which doesn't complain too much about going 1000 miles in 4 days twice in a month when it's usual average is 10 miles/week
  
• my knees, which allowed me to run 9 miles Wednesday night also without much complaint (4 to go!)
• my town, which has been very good to me over the last year and a half
• my friends, who are mostly older and always wiser, who put up with me, make me laugh out loud (a lot), and challenge me to be a better person inside and out

And here's the cheese... it's not even good stinky runny cheese, it's the kind that's shaped into a ball and rolled in almonds that's on sale around the holidays, but it kind of spoke to me last weekend:


Like the spirit of Christmas, keep yesterday with you all through the year. Gratitude is a very powerful (and empowering) thing. Happy holidays!

My very own IMMD.

I've been following this site pretty religiously lately, as a way to find humor in life's little whatevers and whathaveyous. Most of them induce a smile or an "awwww!" and make me want to ignore reality in favor of those brief seconds where it all makes sense.

Today I had the opportunity to play the Buffy video game. I should note that I haven't played a video game (other than Super Mario Brothers for about 5 minutes recently and Zaxxon using my keyboard's arrow keys several years ago) in approximately 20 years, and I'd certainly never played with such a complicated controller. Once I got the hang of it, though, it was a lot of fun. The cast commentary was about half-authentic and certainly less than stellar (Willow is not dumb goddammit! and where the hell is Giles?) but after a while I was staking vamps like nobody's business.

And then my friend and I checked out the multi-player options, and there was one where we eventually realized we could just beat the crap out of each other (as Spike vs Buffy)... and while I abhor violence on general principal and would never wish physical harm on this person... it totally MMD.

"So look, I don't hate children. I don't know how that rumor started."

I stole that from a David Cross bit, where he goes on to describe his friends who've had children and how their most interesting stories revolve around their children staring at grapes.

I actually love the offspring of my friends. They are adorable and charming, and they do far more interesting things than stare at grapes. Like make pirate faces on command, or sit contently in my arms for many minutes at a time, or finally giggle at me after many encounters of shyness over almost two years.

The children I do not enjoy are the ones who throw temper tantrums at airports.

Grocery stores and toy stores I totally get and support, at least to some degree. But airports? Really? I get airplanes - the ear pressure and turbulence and bumpy landings and scary mean flight attendants and no food and all - and I have no beefs whatsoever about kids screaming their lungs out on airplanes - but airports?

I had one of those last night out of Oakland. Someone's 3(ish)-year-old ran around the terminal for 20 minutes pre-boarding screaming "BUT I DON'T WANT TO GET ON THE AIRPLANE!!!!!!!!!!" at the top of her lungs. Yeah, we don't want you to either, kid, I kept thinking. The older gentleman in line next to me saw my scrunched up face and said, "oh, but they're not always like that," to which I instinctively replied, "maybe so, but I still don't want any," to which he replied, "oh, but it's so rewarding, I have 4 grandchildren, wouldn't trade them for the world, [blah blah blah]," at which point I felt bad for being a grouch...

And then 30 seconds later I heard a couple my age a few feet ahead of me (who could not have possibly heard my conversation with Grandpa over the 3-yr-old tantrum) say "wow I am so glad we agreed not to have kids." And then I didn't feel so bad.

However! A brand-new online community that I am happy to promote has made me see the light. Temper tantrum advice here. Some of this is funny, some is sarcastic, some is spot on. And there is much more life enriching advice throughout the site. Including consumer electric advice! Now how much would you pay?

I've been a Dooce fan ever since I learned you could get fired from writing about your job on the Internet (she did - I aspire not to, though I'm sure I'm capable of doing so if my intentions were good). Her daily creativity, whether it be humor or photography or design or people-interactions, inspires me. She and her husband approach parenthood, and life, and married life with the same gusto-coupled-with-world-weariness that I expect I would in that situation. (And she mocks Mormonism. I mean, come on. You've gotta love her just for that.)

So, please click away and enjoy, and rack up the ads for her... Because I haven't bought any of her books yet and I feel a little guilty about that. Dooce and I thank you in advance.

Progress.

I had a long talk with someone today about these quarterly goals and whether they are helpful or harmful. In the end I decided they were helpful, except for last year around this time when I had the exact same running goal and ended up not meeting it due to a dying cat and hating work and general world-weariness that did not put me in a good space to be running 13 miles, yet I got as far as 8 at one time, yet I beat myself up about not making that goal. This year, though? ALL OVER IT. Six miles down as of Monday, seven additional to go. In eight weeks. Eh, whatever, it's been done... and if it's not done again, this year I'm simply not going to care. (But it will be done. Mark my words.)

In other goal-related news... October's Fugitives & Refugees attempt was a bit of a bust. The Wilhelm's Portland Memorial, which would've been a great Octoberish activity, is now closed to the public except during specific, sporadic tour hours. (This is most likely due to the book. Thank you, Chuck.) Mount Gleall Castle, Portland's equivalent of the Winchester Mystery House and also good around Halloween time, isn't accessible to the public, it turns out. And I'd really intended to go to Powell's rare book room, where the ghost of the founder allegedly hangs out on Tuesday evenings, but there was yoga to be done. Much more important for my psyche this quarter.

But! The Sauvie Island corn maize was taken a step further - I went to the haunted version and it was ridiculously awesome. (Next year I am working there. How fun would it be to walk 4" behind people dressed as a zombie? Hell, I'd volunteer my time for that.) And I went to the Roloff farm, not featured in Chuck's book for many reasons, the main one being that it wasn't around when he wrote it. But this?

Spooooooky!

Besides. Not that I'm competitive or hold myself to stupidly high standards or anything (ahem) but I've done plenty in the book already. Wild Abandon, Fuller's? Check. (Yum and meh, respectively.) Hippo Hardware? I love their hippos. The underground tour? Yup. The "getting off" chapter? Ummmmmm... no thank you. When the vegan strip club closed before I even moved here, the sordid life left nothing of interest to me.

Anyway, never fear. October may have been only moderately successful, but there is plenty of F&R in store for November and December. I may not even have to plan November's, if all goes well. Have I mentioned lately that I love this town?

And as far as The Plan, well, it's coming along. More to figure out this weekend, and more conversational Spanish to learn. Stay tuned.

Thought o' the day.

There are worse things than bonding with your older male boss over the virtues of the Twilight series.

 

(There, are... right?)

Get over it.

If I can't tolerate maintenance guys outside my window every morning disrupting my morning routine for the third week straight with at least two more weeks to go (no, property management people, I am not a day sleeper no I am not home all day LOOK YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT they cause me to shut my windows and they make a lot of noise during my dark, quiet time and I don't like that!), how the heck am I going to tolerate not knowing where I'll be tomorrow or the next day or the next week? 

 

Time to stop whining, accept a little mold-breaking and spontaneously deal with the situation at hand. 

 

Any thoughts on how to make that easier?  This creature of habit is a little concerned.

A haiku for my new toy.

no spots when I zoom

vibrant hues, options a'plenty

{hearting} this camera

Eco-lazy.

It's become a personal challenge at this point. How high can I pile it before I need to take the 20 foot walk to the recycling bin outside?

Ahhhh, single living.

I am sure living in SPAIN had nothing to do with it...

... but still, a good reason to whip up some hummous or splurge on that feta cheese for the salad, especially as winter and the darkness starts to set in.

Rockumentaries.

First was The Devil and Daniel Johnston. This was recommended to me, though I can't remember by whom, and going into it I had no idea who he was. It was ironing day so it didn't really matter. Anyway, early on they identified Johnston as the guy who made the "Hi How Are You" tape, which was made into a t-shirt, which Kurt Cobain wore every waking second after that, apparently.

Johnston follows the path of Brian Wilson, writing a lot of really good music and making great art before declining into mental illness. Along the way he also finds religion and preaches to audiences about the devil in between songs about desire. Ironic or poetic, I'm not really sure. The people around him watch his decline and finally get him somewhat back on track, and that's good, because he really is talented. It seems that I just missed his Portland show in September but I'll keep an eye out for him in the future. You should too.

And in keeping with the religious, musical and "Daniel" themes I watched Danielson: A Family Movie. It was interesting, but there were only two things that stuck with me. One, their music was like no other "Christian rock" I've heard. Considering that along with their general attitudes and respect for each other and actually seeming to lead a "Christian" life, I ended up unexpectedly liking it, and them, a lot. Two, at the time of the documentary Daniel Smith was mentoring a then-unknown Sufjan Stevens. The mentee has surpassed the mentor in this case, but the mentor shows no resentment. Refreshing.

There, I just saved you three hours. Next time you can do my ironing, mmmmkay?

I must know.

Never mind that other question I want to ask Colin Meloy the next time he signs my poster. Now I just want to know if "that wretched girl Dawn" is an homage to Joss, in some way.

Inspired.

I watched Autism: the Musical last night. A big part of it was about the kids, and their stories, and their day-to-day life and interactions with each other in rehearsals for the musical. They each had different severities of the disease, and struggled with different things every day, but they all had ways of communicating their needs and fears and hopes. But the other side of the story was about the parents and how they coped with having children who weren't treated as equals to "normal" children (their air quotes, not mine).

It was heartbreaking and heartening all at the same time, and I laughed and cried (sometimes both at once) through the whole almost-two hours. Highly recommended.

October is here already? I suspect a conspiracy.

OK, so a wrap-up on last quarter's goals:

• At least 2 road trips - check, check.
  
• New restaurant every week - I'm pretty sure I was successful in this endeavor. My favorite new find is Sweet Basil, just a few blocks from my apartment, where they serve the best crab ranggoon appetizer and the vegetarian pad thai is so earthy and hearty. And? Happy hour drinks all day Sunday, how can you beat that?
  
• 5 new Portland bands - check, check, check, check, check. Favorite new PDX finds: Blind Pilot and Morning Teleportation. Lots of great stuff out of the overall PNW at the music fest though.
  
• Anything on The List - #10, check. (I knew it was on the list somewhere.)

And so, the goals for the next few months:

• Three things/month from Fugitives and Refugees.
• Run 13 miles by December 31. Yesterday I ran for the first time in months and it felt great (although it was a bit painful). If I increase a mile a week, 13 miles in as many weeks will be gravy.
• Figure out "the plan." Um, yeah. More to come on that.
• Anything on The List... although I'm two years ahead already, soon to be three. Perhaps I should enjoy the moment and slow down?
  

Will probably need more than nature to get over this one.

I did something really stupid recently, so to temporarily take my mind off that move I decided to seek solace in nature. (But just some quick solace - I had other shit to do today.)

I ran across some information about Carver Park. Close by, and where some of Twilight was filmed. The movie was wretched but the scenery did exemplify Oregon, so I decided to check it out.

Not much to it. Also, empty. I sat by this stream for about an hour and didn't see a soul:

Walking out I was still kicking myself, but despite that I was able to appreciate the beauty of lush, green Oregon.

I could live there. Right there. It's hard to do stupid things to trees.

HA-ha!

(Was that mean?)

Friday five.

Five things I am excited about as a result of recent events, in no particular order:

• Watching east coast hockey face-offs at 4:30pm.
• A temporary halt in screenplay idea additions, but actually having time and energy to work on the damned screenplay. (And/or novel. Whatever.)
• Fall in the PNW.
• Testing the limits of my frugality.
• Getting my priorities straight, my shit together and my act figured out. (And/or having lots of fun. Whatever.)

It's gonna be the BEST. FALL. EVER.

Astrology shmastrology.

Monday's horoscope: You might get carried away with your feelings now and announce them at work before you consider the consequences of such an emotional disclosure. It's not that there is anything inherently wrong with sharing your inner process; it's just that you cannot take back what you say once it's out there. Today is one of those days when saying fewer words is surely better than talking too much.

Tuesday's: Although you are quite focused on your professional development now, you can also step back to take a longer view of your goals as the Sun enters your 9th House of Future Vision. However, balancing the fantasy of your ideal situation with your current responsibilities may not be all that easy. Pushing anything too far today will only make it more complicated.

Today's: Others might see you as less stable than usual, but that's just because they don't understand what's driving your decisions. You have an unorthodox approach to life and you are able to rationalize your eccentric ideas. Unfortunately, your co-workers might not share your perspective and the more you try to convince them you are right, the less they understand. Don't push so hard today; letting some things ride for a day or two may be your smartest strategy at this time.

Why is everything telling me not to push and to be cautious? That's how I've been my entire life. I think it's time for change. Change I can believe in.

Things that are free.

The Multnomah County Library system. Most trails in the PNW. The MAX to downtown Portland, conveniently located 10 blocks from my abode. The Portland Art Museum on the last Friday each month. (Lots of museums, actually, dates/times vary.) The occasional show at Mississippi Studios. Samples at the farmer's market. The wiener dog races. Shows and movies and food via Yelp for us "elite" folk.

Teh intarwebs, given the right equipment and location, can be free. iTunes has a free download each week. And if the "right location" is Starbucks, that's another free weekly download.

Writing. Watching, observing. Listening. Volunteering for worthy organizations. All free.

I'm just saying. I could live a good long while on free stuff. Might come in handy soon. (Note to self - maintain that Yelp elite status... will be interesting to do without spending money but I bet I can find a way.)

In other news, I found a new blog to follow religiously.

MusicFestNW, Day 5.

The only option tonight was the Crystal Ballroom for three bands leading up to the end of Musicfest NW 2009, Modest Mouse. I love their recorded stuff but as of yet, hadn't seen them, and figured I should at some point. I really wasn't feeling it - especially given all the negative feedback I'd heard about Isaac Brock's performances (drunk, unintelligible, a waste of time) and the fact that I rate the Crystal Ballroom as the worst venue to see a show in Portland.

So in case I decided to opt out, but to keep with the "musicfest" theme, I saw a matinee of It Might Get Loud. WOW. Jimmy Page, The Edge and Jack White talking about making music and playing each others' songs together? With rarely seen old footage of Page and Edge's early years? Fans of any of these three, or even just of the guitar, or music in general, should see this. It was quite entertaining to watch Jack attempt to be so nonchalant about the meetup even though it was clear when they were all talking and playing, that he was pretty stoked.

And so I was inspired, and the Crystal show would essentially be free (what with the pre-paid wristband, which had already paid for itself). I killed some time in a local record store, got a quick dinner and headed in.

OK. I'm a little concerned that all my MySpace links have left some kind of "virus disguised as an anti-virus" on my computer (how annoyingly clever!), so I will just say without links that Morning Teleportation was probably the most surprisingly entertaining band I saw all weekend. You can find them on YouTube. I think they hit almost every genre in their set, and they definitely had such a great time doing it all. Best set of the night, hands down.

This was followed by Mimicking Birds, who, in another venue after not following the aforementioned energetic-bordering-on-Riddlin-requiring band, might have been pretty enjoyable. They were quiet, and the sound at the Crystal is awful so I couldn't hear a single word he said, and it just seemed like an inappropriate booking given the other three acts of the evening. I need to give them a second chance at a more appropriate venue though.

Next up was Love As Laughter. If they were opening for another band I wanted to see, that would be OK, but I wouldn't seek them out specifically. Which is not to say that they were bad. I just wouldn't pay money to see only them again.

And finally, Modest Mouse. It was everything I hoped for... a couple of random songs followed by a brief, unintelligible rant by Brock, followed by several more songs...

Followed by a longer unintelligible Brock rant having to do with wanting to be paid in jet skis because then he could visit places he really wanted to visit, only they would have to flood first because that's the only way he could use his jet ski there... This went on for about 4 minutes and when someone(s) shouted "just play a song!" (I was not one of them but I was definitely in agreement) Brock then went on a 5 minute tirade about how he never felt comfortable talking in front of large groups of people and everyone should just respect the fact that he was talking because he felt like he should be talking even though he didn't really have anything to say... and so on and so forth and finally, the inevitable "Oh, fuck it, let's just play a song."

(At least I think this is what happened - between his mumbling, his possible/probable drunkeness, and the terrible sound at the Crystal, he could've been telling us a story about imaginary butterflies in the Amazon who led the ghost of a medicine man to the cure for cancer, and no one would've known what the hell he was talking about either.)

ANYWAY! At that point I was thinking, "just play Float On so I can go home, OK already?" and two songs later they did, and I felt fulfilled, and I went home. I'm sure I missed a great cover of a New Order song or something equally random, but I got what I needed out of that and won't need to pay to see that again.

Only regret this year: I didn't see Sunny Day Real Estate. But I saw Jeremy Enigk last summer, and seeing them Friday would've meant I didn't see Nurses at the Doug Fir, and that would've been sad. Otherwise, I'm OK with how this all went down. And now the wristband has been severed and I sleep. Back to real life tomorrow. Must work on that.