the day

the flight was fine. long. really long. mary & i repeatedly found ourselves remarking on how thankful we were that the cats stayed in durham. traveling is hard enough, just worrying about yourself. plus, we were operating on very little sleep. the flight left at 6am. i woke up at 2:45. mary didn’t sleep at all that night.

so the flight was fine. long, as i said. and neither of us slept more than an hour or so... even on the leg that was almost 5 hours. we felt pretty miserable when we landed. tired. really, really tired.

but all the luggage arrived without incident, and my friend amy picked us up, no problem. she took us to a noodle place where i had a big dish of comforting mac & cheese, and mary had some stroganoff. the manager at the restaurant was sooo friendly, and by the time i’d left she’d given me her business card with an offer to give me & my co-workers a free lunch one afternoon.

and here is where i’ll say that EVERYONE we encountered yesterday was nice. incredibly nice. cashiers: nice. rental agent: nice. neighbors: nice. i don’t mean just looking you in the eye when you pass and saying “hi”. i mean, going out of their way to ask how you are, where you’re from, and if they can help you find the nearest great restaurant. both mary & i felt incredibly welcome from the moment we stepped off the plane.

at lunch i called the driver who is carting my stuff across country. he confirmed that he’d be there the next morning. nice. big sigh of relief.

so after the noodles we met the leasing agent (nice) and i signed a bunch of papers. the agent mentioned how incredibly lucky i was to have gotten this place; it typically rents in mere hours, she said. (one of the neighbors later confirmed this.) it’s SUCH a great neighborhood, with old beautiful houses and lots of great places within walking distance. i do feel grateful to have landed this place. it’s quirky, but it’s a damn good deal.

mary & i then walked the three blocks to the safeway for things like TP and bottled water. when we returned we met my immediate neighbor. his name is blue and he lives in the three-bedroom apartment next to mine. he’s got three other roommates and all are artists, writers or musicians. (one plays in drum corps, which was i am really excited about.) blue is 28, but he seemed older somehow. the sincerity in his eyes was remarkable when he told me he was excited about my new adventure in portland. how reinvention is necessary every once in a while. he offered to show me around town sometime, and told me that another resident in the building is a rollergirl and that she has a bout saturday night. my good feelings about this apartment were being confirmed.

then my phone rang. it was sergey, the driver who transported my truck from albuquerque to portland. he was ready to take me to my car. he drove mary & i to troutdale, a 20 minute ride away. sergey had a thick russian accent and told us stories about moving to the US. he said with his transportation business he travels a lot, and his favorite states are oregon and north carolina. he hates texas and new mexico.

now at this point i find it necessary to comment on how attractive the men are in portland. mary repeatedly commented on this. she said, “it must be a law or something!” blue, sergey, random guys in the airport... all gasp-worthy. later, when mary & i went to a department store for some supplies we just kept saying, “oh my god!” to each other, which was shorthand for “there’s another cute guy!” mary, i think, was in a daze at one point, dumbfounded by all the hotness surrounding her. (or maybe she was still dazed from the travel, having not slept at all the night before.)

ok, back to the car. it was clear the moment i got in it that the car had not been detailed like i was expecting. it was dusty, the carpet was dirty, and there was a big dried splash of something on the *back side* of the speedometer glass. sergey pointed out that i needed new windshield wipers, too. they were falling apart, and being in portland that’s not acceptable. i was disappointed by the cleanliness and the wipers, but was MORE disappointed when i discovered that the driver’s side seat belt did not latch properly. the red release button was completely jammed in, which meant you could slide the buckle in but it would never latch. i just sat there in sergey’s lot, stunned. mary was stunned. we didn’t know what to do. sergey tried to help, but it was clearly a repair beyond his capability.

so mary & i decided to drive towards home and hope to stumble across a shop that might be able to fix it. we first stopped at a gas station, where i filled up the tank. i got reprimanded by the attendant: “lady, you’re not allowed to do that! i could get in trouble!” what? “you can’t pump your own gas. it’s against the law in oregon.” WHAT?!? no one told me this. really?? the attendant reiterated that he could be fined or lose his job if i was caught pumping my own gas. i was dumbfounded. i’m going to have research this... why would oregon have such a law?? mary and i walked away from that encounter with our jaws on the ground, stunned. (or maybe we were just that tired.) before we drove away we asked the attendant about repair shops in the area, and he pointed us in a general direction where we might find some help.

we stopped at a jiffy lube (no help) before deciding to just call 411 and ask for the listing for a mazda dealership. the more mary & i talked about the problem, the more we figured that the repair was probably going to have to be done at a dealership. or at least a joint more professional that a jiffy lube. after a couple of calls i ended up with a part on order and a tentative repair appointment for *tuesday the 24th*. i was disappointed in how long it would take, but also knew that i can pretty much walk to whatever i need.

mary & i then figured we’d stop at a big department store (“fred meyer”) and pick up a couple of fans, a broom... things like that. and as we were sitting at the stoplight we saw on the opposite corner “broadway import auto service”. honda, accura, toyota... mazda. we quick pulled into the lot (but not too quick -- i wasn’t wearing a seat belt) and spoke with a very kind man named houston who then proceeded to spend close to an hour on the phone, tracking down the part i need. he was concerned for my safety (see how nice?!) and wanted me to get the repair done before the dealership could get to it on tuesday.

as mary & i sat there, i just got more and more pissy about the state of the car. dirty, bad wipers, no seat belt. i called my mom (since she had sort of coordinated this whole car thing) and told her of the problems. she insisted i contact lou, the owner of the dealership. so i did, and lou was apologetic. he told me that i should send him the receipt for the repair and that he would gladly reimburse me. as well he should. houston tracked down the part, said he’d have it the next day, and that he’d call me when he had it in hand. “shouldn’t take more than a half-hour to fix,” he said.

by now mary & i were getting hungry for dinner. plus we were both stupidly tired. i looked my watch. 4:45pm. i asked mary, “what time is too early for bed??” we added three hours to 4:45 and decided it probably was still too early, but that we both craved sleep in the worst way. but we were *right there* at fred meyer, and figured we might as well complete our shopping while it was convenient (rather than drive back out here without a seat belt). we did discover at this point, however, that my seat belt would clip into the passenger side latch. that would force mary into the back seat, but no big deal.

at fred meyer, we got out of the car and i pushed the “lock” button on the remote and i heard the WORST SOUND. the motor that drives passenger side lock was fried. it made a horrible grinding noise. mary and i looked at each other and just had these expressions of disbelief on our faces. what else could possibly go wrong with this car? i guess this will be another bill for lou. damn.

i should say, though, that the car drives well. it’s zippy as hell. so that part is good.

fred meyer was a breeze (thanks to all the good-looking men who were shopping or working there) and afterward we went straight to one of my favorite neighborhood restaurants: milo’s city cafe. mary & i both had a glass of oregon pinot noir and a delicious salad. mary had a champagne-braised salmon (oh my god, SO good) and i had pork loin with apples & onions (the stuff dreams are made of). we sat there and ate and ate and ate, and started to feel human again. still dazed, mind you (mary at this point has been up for probably 36 hours straight), but at least feeling like sensible humans.

we decided to walk off some of the food by taking a spin around the neighborhood, and were just in awe over some of the houses here in irvington. the gardens, too. people here adore gardening. we walked for maybe 15 minutes, when we decided we had to go to bed... NOW. so that’s what we did. i pumped up my air mattress, mary laid down her sleeping bag, and we were out.

i slept for about 9 hours. mary’s still sleeping. the movers will be here in a few hours.