butterflies

as you have probably noticed from my flickr photos, stephen & i went out of town last weekend. the weather report predicted snow and sleet and all kinds of awfulness, so we bagged the idea of camping and took the advice of a friend, who recommended a cute little hotel at the beach. we figured we could at least take advantage of the oceanfront view and hole up in the warm hotel room all weekend.

well, as soon as we checked in, the clouds parted and we had the most amazingly sunny two days. we did spend a lot of time indoors :) but went on a couple of amazing walks, too. we ate picnics (both inside and out), drank scotch, talked and smooched, and it was one of the most romantic weekends of my entire life.

he's really busy this week with his daughter, who is playing an orphan in her school's production of 'annie'. my free time has been spent hosting tony starlight on divaville (fun!), going to a chic mexican restaurant, and enjoying the music of one of my favorite local bands, swing papillon.

this weekend i get to start hanging out with him again and on sunday we'll see mahler's 9th at the oregon symphony. the swell season is monday, and the this american life HD broadcast is thursday. if all goes well, perhaps stephen and i could even get out of town for at least a day next weekend, too. we have fantasies of hiking the waterfalls in the columbia gorge.

don't hate me because i'm happy

i wish i had something more substantive to write. all i've got to say, though, is Things Are Good.

stephen & i celebrated his birthday earlier in the week. his favorite dessert is cherry pie, and in honor of his big day we engaged in part two of the Great Cherry Pie Trials. last month, in the midst of a particularly stressful time for him, i ordered what was promised to be 'the most delicious cherry pie on earth' from grand central bakery. they weren't kidding; it was spectacular. i never knew cherry pie could be like that.

but i wondered if there were other great pie restaurants just waiting to be discovered. so for his birthday i went to random order cafe and got one of theirs. it was amazingly good, too. (whereas grand central's crust was like a dense croissant, random order's was like a light scone.) anyway, we have now vowed to continue our pie quest and search for portland's greatest cherry pie.

we met some of his friends after work on tuesday for a pub quiz. i'm not great at trivia, but i knew where napoleon was exiled so at least i earned my keep. and we had fun, too. stephen named our team "the facts machine" which i thought was adorably clever.

i'm still enjoying my little dining group, though we've reduced in size from 5 to 4. last night we met at a sushi restaurant, which was outside my comfort zone... until i realized that the key to enjoying sushi --at least for me-- is to have someone else order. i'm so inexperienced that its helpful to have someone look out for me, to make sure i order only the most delicious stuff on the menu. i can now confidently say that i don't hate sushi. thanks, lessie!

this weekend stephen and i were planning on going camping, but there is actually snow in the forecast. instead, i think we're going to get a hotel on the beach and go on a few day-hikes. it'll be fun to get out of town with him for a few days.

good shit

the last couple of days have been amazingly great.

the sun is out. it's 70 degrees. that alone is worthy of note. the winter didn't get to me, really. i was pretty good at ignoring the long, gray, wet months. the sun is out now, though, and i'm *totally* noticing that. i'm eating lunch outside, humming to myself. everyone is happy.

yesterday i met stephen's daughter. this is a big deal. he never really introduces her to lady-friends. so, yeah, this is a big Indicator. things are progressing nicely. the meeting was nice; we all got together for dinner (imported bullock's barbecue) at kurt & amy's house. hannah & i had some quality time together, poring over her flickr page. she made me a flickr buddy (and vice versa) and she gave me a hug at the end of the night. i think she liked me.

(later that evening, stephen and i conferred over the phone, and we both agreed that the night went really well. i also confessed that seeing him as a father for the first time made me fall in love with him all over again. we talked for an hour and a half -- about us, hannah, our relationship, and countless other silly things. i swear, i am totally cuckoo for this guy. and he's nutso for me.)

stephen and hannah went camping this weekend as part of a school function, so they're both at the coast. i went out to dinner tonight with my new friend, kelly. we had an amazing dinner at simpatica, which is basically a catering company that opens as a restaurant a couple nights a week. you don't choose what you want to eat; you choose the *night* you want to come, based on the published menu. everyone who attends that night eats the same thing. the food was great, the communal dining experience was great... everything was great.

this is all good shit. all of it. i'm stupidly, embarrassingly happy.

home?

I just returned from a 4-day visit to North Carolina. I was brought there by my former employer, and my time in NC was largely theirs. The few free hours I had were spent with just a few folks... I didn’t want to make a big deal of my return like I did last fall.

Because Portland feels like home now. 9 months in, I can finally say that I’m building good, lasting friendships here. I’ve got a boyfriend who loves me dearly, and tons of listeners who know and care about me. So, truth be told, I wasn’t really looking forward to returning to North Carolina this time. I was almost dreading the trip. I wanted to stay here --in Portland, at home-- and not be bogged down by reminisces of my past. It’s hard to describe these feelings. I love and miss all my friends in NC, but reconnecting can be painful and almost undermine what I’m working on here. It’s emotional whiplash. So yeah, I kind of wanted to just breeze in and out and be somewhat undetected.

My dread wasn’t wholly unjustified. The work-stuff got pretty bad. The atmosphere there is just really negative, and during those few days I felt like a life raft for a lot of my former co-workers. One even cried on my shoulder while I was there. (“We miss you! We need your buoyant spirit!”) I don’t need that pressure or responsibility. I did that for 9 years; I’m done now.

But the friend-stuff was really nice. I saw only a handful of people (maybe two handfuls), and had a good time all-around. It was really nice to offset some of the work crap with a few casual, friendly gatherings. It was fun watching the Carolina game with honest-to-goodness Tarheels, too. (Well, the game itself wasn’t fun, but you know what I mean.) I ate some barbecue and Locopops and even a couple of frog legs. I bought some rockin’ footwear at the Wide Shoe Warehouse.


But then I flew out early Sunday morning under the cover of darkness.

I probably won’t be back in this particular capacity again. I need to cut the ties to my old station eventually, and this fall is a good time to do it -- I’ll have a scheduling conflict with my current employer, who is sending to Europe in October. So next time I return it’ll be in a purely *fun* capacity, and will be with my boyfriend. (He’s dying to see where I spent 15 years of my life.) I’m not sure when that particular trip will occur, but it will definitely happen.

In the mean time, please come visit ME! I’ve got 2 spare beds and boundless enthusiasm for Portland.