shoes, houses, shirts

ok, let's see. i'm falling behind in my little daily diary here. the new boy (let's call him "S") and i are spending every available minute together, which doesn't allow much time for blogging. so here's some catch-up:

one of the gifts S gave me for my birthday was a book of hikes at the oregon coast. (you may recall this was what we did on one of our first dates.) the problem here is that i didn't own any hiking boots. well, in my continuing quest to become a True Portlander, i have now rectified that:


first chacos, now timberland boots. i am being assimilated.

i have been continuing to look for a house. my realtor is probably getting frustrated with me. he's shown me nearly a dozen homes, only one of which really knocked my socks off. (i made an offer on that one, but quickly got outbid.) i told S the other night that i'm looking to be thunderstruck by a house, much in the same way i've been thunderstruck by him. i'm looking for the S of houses.

this one i looked at yesterday:


it was in a great location, less than a mile from where i live now. it was totally in my price range, and in fact had been on the market long enough that i think i could have probably made a low-ball offer and had the sellers accept it. but it was a quirky old house which had been updated oddly. it would have required refinishing the floors and adding interior access to the basement. i would have wanted to tear down this wall between the kitchen and the living room, too.


long story short, i just don't think i'm wanting to spend my time, money or energy on renovations. i was ready for it when i lived in durham, but i'm not in the same mindset here. so despite the fact that this house had so many items in the "pro" column (location, lot size, double-driveway, replacement windows, new copper plumbing, new electrical panel) the cons, as few as they were, were too big and expensive.

this is the obstacle i face with most houses here in my price range. there aren't a whole lot of houses in my price range to begin with. the ones that i can afford either require too much work, or don't require work at all and i get outbid quickly.

anyway. the search continues. i'm not desperate to be a homeowner, but conditions are certainly favorable to be doing it right now. we'll see what happens.

i went to a book reading at powells the other night. the author was dan kennedy, and he wrote a book called "rock on", about his stint working at a record label. he's also a contributor at mcsweeney's. his book is funny, the reading was funny, and i just had a hoot. (it's probably worth mentioning that my friend lessie and i hit two different happy hours before the reading. and at one of the happy hours i had home-made bacon tater tots. so i was already primed for a good time.)


at the end of the reading, dan said he had a t-shirt to give away. "this isn't a problem in, say, cleveland, where only one person shows up for the reading... i just hand the guy the shirt and say 'thanks for coming'. but there's, like, 80 of you here tonight." so he decided he'd have a trivia contest and the winner would get the shirt.

he thought for a minute, wanting to come up with a difficult question. he finally said, "ok, none of you are going to get this, but i'm going to ask it anyway: the band 'the dBs' were formed by peter holsapple and who else?"

ha! i shouted "chris stamey!" -- at the same time that another guy in the front row shouted the same thing. dan was blown away that someone --*two* someones-- knew the answer, and his jaw dropped. he decided he'd have to ask a tie-breaking question, but neither myself or the other guy knew anything about the bass player from Big Country.

so he asked a third question: "what was the title of the arcade fire's first album?" at first i said "arcade fire!" but everyone laughed. (this is the correct answer, by the way.) then i quickly shouted "funeral!" the other guy didn't know the answer at all, so i was the winner:


oh, and did i mention that we're in the middle of pledge drive here?

bday

so, mom didn't come after all. there's a relatively long and boring story surrounding that decision of hers, but suffice to say i did not have a weekend house guest. of the motherly variety, anyway. *wink wink*

the new boy was incredibly sweet and generous and kind and thoughtful and giving all weekend long. i really cannot say enough good things about this man. seriously. he rocks. he picked me up for the party, flowers in one hand and a bag full of presents in the other. so many presents, in fact, i still haven't opened them all. (those i did manage to open, though, were all dark-chocolate-covered-foodstuffs. see what a good guy he is?!?)

the party was very fun, and he took care of me there, too... buying drinks, making sure i had a sandwich at the appropriate time, protecting me from a drunk bisexual man with kissing tendencies. this new boy is a good care-giver. he should be. he has a 7-year-old daughter who lives with him part-time.

the thing that impressed me most about the new boy that night is that he had managed to buy a really decadent cake (dark chocolate, naturally) and get it to the bar ahead of time so it would be waiting for me (surprise!) when he brought me later in the evening. given that he was with his daughter until 6pm that night (and he picked me up at 7) i was pretty impressed. he must've driven like a bat outta hell.

anyway, yes, it was a fine birthday celebration indeed. very fine.

we're gonna have a good time

my birthday is saturday. over the past few weeks i've been spending a lot of mental energy trying to figure out how i want to celebrate. if i were still in NC i'd be throwing a giant party. i always loved surrounding myself with tons of good friends at my house...

but i'm not in NC. i'm on the other side of the country, surrounded largely by mere acquaintances. even if i wanted to throw myself a party, my apartment holds roughly 4 people, so it would never work. and i don't really know that many people that well yet. so who to invite?

the whole thing gave me a headache, so i sighed and chucked the whole idea aside.

but then... did i mention i'm seeing a new boy? this new boy is really something else. wow. yeah. he's great in so many ways. he asked how i'd like to celebrate my birthday, and i regaled him with the whole 'to party, to not party' dilemma. i told him i didn't know how a party would work, and i suggested maybe we could just go out to dinner instead, the two of us. that would be perfectly lovely.

he must've heard something in my voice, though. he asked whether i would let him organize a party for me. after i picked my jaw up off the floor, we talked for a couple of minutes about logistics, and less than 24 hours later a location had been secured and the invitations had been sent. he and a co-worker of his totally wrangled the whole thing up. amazing.

and here's where the story gets really goofy. this co-worker of his (who is also a friend of mine, and is the one responsible for boy & i getting together) is the one that emailed the invitations. she included a line like "and hopefully xta's mom will fly in, 'cause she kicks ass." i thought that was a funny line, and forwarded it to my mom. instead of a response like "ha ha, isn't that nice", my mom opted to respond by actually buying a plane ticket. she'll be here saturday afternoon, go to the party, then fly home sunday afternoon.

please don't ask me how i feel about this.

the thing that's most entertaining about this whole story is that in the span of about 2 days i went from not having a party at all, to having a party *and* having a weekend house guest.

aah

i was originally intending to drive up to the seattle area this past weekend and visit a whole slew of people. i ended up, though, making the decision to stay home and finish my recovery. try my hand at relaxation instead. besides, no one wants a snotty house guest.

the *new* boy heard me mention my desire for a stress-free weekend and he whisked me out to the coast on sunday. it was probably one of the most perfect days i've ever had in my life. the scenery was spectacular, and we just sprawled out in the sun (in mid-february!) and basked.

and it worked. i feel great.

cookie power

i'm feeling better. i'm about 80% recovered, i think. went to work today, and the 4 hour shift wiped me out. (having to wake up to an alarm had something to do with my exhaustion, i'm sure.)

and maybe it's because everyone was just delighted to see me looking fairly healthy... but i got a lot of cookies today. ted gave me cookies, dan gave me cookies that paula had made, and mom sent me cookies in the mail. there were valentine's cookies at work, too, but they weren't for me specifically, so i'm not counting them in the haul.

maybe it's because i still look puny and weak (the scale says i lost about 5 pounds during my bout with snot), i don't know. but i've now got cookies coming out my wazoo.

it's been a long time since i've been this sick

i've slept for probably 40 of the last 48 hours. even watching 30 minutes of TV wipes me out. bed is the best place to be. walking downstairs to the kitchen is a rickety affair. i have to hold on with both hands.

i had a particularly scary moment yesterday. i think it was yesterday... i've been sleeping so much i can't really remember where yesterday ended and today began. anyway, i've been fighting some serious congestion. (if you're squeamish you might want to stop reading right now.) i've been hocking up big green loogies and blowing some equally gross stuff out my nose as well. yesterday it all collided as i found myself literally suffocating on phlegm.

a big gob of it got lodged at the top of my windpipe, and since my nose was plugged up too, i couldn't get any air in or out for a frightening minute or so. i wheezed and i gasped for breath, unable to dislodge the stuff from my throat. i was bent over the kitchen sink, panicked, trying to generate enough air to force this thing out of my throat, and with each second that i couldn't breathe i felt my eyes start to bug out a little. all i could think was, "i'm going to die. i can't breathe. i'm going to die from phlegm."

then suddenly, i was ok. i can't even remember what happened. i was so beside myself with fear that i'm unsure as to how the situation resolved itself. but i could breathe again, and i was shaking. being this sick, alone in this apartment... pretty scary.

i'm getting better but i'm still really really exhausted. i've already called in sick tomorrow, too. i feel so limp, even if the phlegm has largely subsided.

i need some z's

I am completely exhausted. All the way down to my bones. There is so much going on in this town, and I’m involved in so many activities, that sleep generally takes a back seat to everything else.

I think I’m coming down with a cold because of it. I’m here at work right now, chugging tea, swallowing something called Umcka and sucking on lozenges. I’ve got tickets to see Rodrigo y Gabriela tonight, Eartha Kitt on Saturday, and the opera on Sunday.

I think I need to slow down a little.

i should take more photos

charo reprimanded me for this just last night. she's right. i've been negligent in my photo-taking.

tonight would have been a good opportunity to do so, too: i made my first ever indian dinner. curried fish filets, aloo dum, and masoor dal. i also had some store-bought naan, but it was wholly unremarkable. still, i should have taken a couple of pix, just to show you what i created.

i cooked up portions smaller than any of those recipes so i had to kind of futz with the proportions of spices, but overall everything came out really well. the fish was the runaway winner, with the potatoes a close second. (which is funny, because i thought the lentils would be my favorite.)

it took probably 1.5 hours for me to make all of it, but now that i know what i'm doing i think i can probably whittle that down a bit next time i get so adventurous.

i was rewarded for my efforts with a generous sampling of a really nice bottle of scotch. as i try more and more of these single malts, i'm developing definite preferences. highland scotches are some of my favorites, though i have also noticed a strong tendency to enjoy the speyside varieties, too.

mmm... warm scotch on a cold, drizzly portland night. add some spicy indian food, and you got yourself a pretty blissful situation.

things i'm doing

let's see... what have i been up to?

i'm playing again with the awful orchestra. after this concert, i just have to quit. i'm happy to be playing my horn, but this whole experience is just too painful.

the reel music festival is ending this weekend. the slim gaillard films were quirky and fun. i saw chet baker's "let's get lost" last night and while i recommend the film you need to be prepared for a big downer. today i'm watching a film about nina simone.

i made an offer on another house. it was far and away the nicest house i've seen so far, and i was really really really excited about it. i saw it within the first 18 hours of it going on the market, and by hour 36 the house was sold. it was a bidding war amongst 4 potential buyers. i bid higher than i probably should have, and still didn't get it. i'm kind of bummed about it -- the house had a lot of space, and was right across the street from a fantastic park in north portland -- but i guess i didn't get it for a reason. right?

i'm heading out right now for brunch at roux. new orleans-style food for mardi gras...