A 26-Hour “weekend” in the “big” city

I’m riding back from a fabulous weekend in Portland. I love that city. I was there for little more than 26 hours, but I had a great time.

There were several reasons for my trip.

1. I wanted to visit Shane and Jim, two of my favorite people, where they lived in Beaverton.
2. My friend David Horton was having a musical/dance performance in the city.
3. I like to get away from my crazy grad school life.

It ended up being quite successful.

When Shane and Jim picked me up from the train station, they drove me out to Cup and Saucer, a cute café on Hawthorne. It was sweet. Their veggie omelet was delicious, but the vanilla scone was by far the best. We chatted as we consumed our food things and then walked on over to Powells which had just opened. I’d never been to the Powells on Hawthorne, but it was nice. It was much less busy than the City of Books in the Pearl District. I liked it.

The whole area down by Cup and Saucer was pretty groovy. The buildings were so colorful and sweet looking. The metal bit with the shiny windows didn’t do anything for me, but I guess modern development will always be on the stainless steel side of things anyway.

When we left there, we went to the casa de mis Shane and Jim. I tried to write a bit of my story for class, but I just couldn’t. Doing homework and hanging out with people has never worked for me. I ended up giving up on the creative craft all together and settling in for a little TV on DVD action.

First, we watched Better Off Ted. After two episodes of that, Shane and Jim went upstairs for a bit. I put in the beginning of Glee. Shane joined me for that while Jim went out for a bit. He came back with series one of Clatterford, the latest addition to their BBC television series collection. It was spectacular. We pretty much watched the whole set of six or so episodes. I think Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French have to be two of the funniest people in all of Britain.

Shane and I took the Max into Portland for David’s dance and music performance. It was pretty grand. I have never seen modern dancing before. I was definitely in an unfamiliar world, but I enjoyed watching the dance and the music, as always, was spectacular.

This morning was typical. Get up, go eat breakfast, and chill until I was to leave. They drove me to the train station and went home to get ready for USA vs. Canada hockey.

I’m writing this on the bus.

My weekend was pretty awesome. I love taking time to spend with my family and people close to me. I’ve realized that if this is our only life we get, we’d better take advantage of every opportunity and make every minute count. And although a majority of my Saturday was spent in front of the TV, I was with some pretty cool people. I wasn’t alone. And that means everything in the world.