bike! bike!!

ooh, boy. i sure have been letting this blog slide, haven't i?

only a couple of big things to report, i guess. one is that stephen's daughter has fallen in love with me. which is *great*, but also tends to complicate things in unexpected ways. we're forging ahead, but this is uncharted territory for all of us.

secondly, i got a bike! i feel like an official portlander now! i went to bike shops and test-rode a couple of different new models, but i ended up buying a second-hand bike from a friend of mine. it wasn't exactly what i was in the market for (i was looking for a hybrid/commuter type thing, and this is a mountain bike) but she only charged me $100, and the other bikes i was looking at were in the $500 range. i'll probably end up sinking some extra $ into this bike (replacing the knobby tires with street tires, for instance) but i'll still have come out ahead.

so i've ridden it to work twice so far. i have to say, this is good exercise. there are several groups of muscles in my thighs that seem quite surprised to be called upon. my legs are always shaky for a few minutes after i reach my destination.

portland is Bike Nirvana. most major roads have bike lanes, and motorists by and large are on the lookout for bicycles on the road. still, on my way home the other night i almost got plowed under by a city bus (biodiesel powered, natch) when the driver didn't think to look in the bike lane before turning right. this is a whole new lifestyle i'm embarking upon. i'm looking forward to taking the bike to one of portland's many bike paths, away from motor vehicles, and just getting used to the idea of being mobile in this way.

oh, there is one more thing i have to report, i guess: i'm doing the on-stage welcome-announcements tomorrow at the big symphony concert hall downtown as part of the opening night festivities of the oregon bach festival. what this means is that i'll be standing on stage in front of 2,000+ people, trying my best to be coherent. egad. i was nervous before the tony starlight thing a couple of weeks ago, and that was only 80 people. thankfully my trusty boyfriend will be by my side once again.

divaville listeners party

ever since i met tony starlight i knew i wanted to partner with him in some way. his club and my radio show seemed to be a match made in heaven.

well, tuesday night tony hosted a divaville listeners party. as many times as i'd been to tony's club, i'd always been there as a patron... not as the focus. i was a nervous WRECK the entire day. god bless stephen, who calmed me down in the most loving way possible. (and to give him further props, he was by my side the entire night, saving me from weirdos and chatting up my friends like he'd known them forever when in fact he was only meeting many of them for the first time.)

anyway, it was a pretty loosely-planned evening. basically a meet-and-greet party... a way for fans to come out and meet me (god, that sounds weird to say) and have some cocktails with other divaville listeners. tony and i chose divaville-type music for the sound system, but the only planned activity was a stump christa game. tony had audience members come on-stage and choose a song from his collection that they thought they could stump me with. i had to guess the vocalist. no one threw me any curve balls, that's for sure... they were hard! i got dorothy lamour and helen ward, but missed carmen mcrae and andy williams (i should have gotten those!). he even played a song by wilford brimley (!) and one by some character named jonah jones. who the hell knows these vocalists?!?

anyway, it was still pretty fun, even though i was in the middle of a spotlight on stage, everyone watching me make wrong guesses. but in the end i "won" a high-falootin' glass of scotch. about 80 or 90 people showed up and i think everyone had a pretty good time.

tony thought it went really well, and he wants to do it *quarterly*. good lord, i don't know if i have a strong enough constitution for that. maybe twice a year. maybe.

this is the oddest place i've ever lived

it's early june. it's 59 degrees. summer has not yet started.

it feels like we had a brief spring in february. a brief one again april. we had a few hot days in may. but in between these brief bursts of sun, it always reverts to cold & rain.

the best thing about this weather (maybe it's the only good thing about this weather) is that i've learned to really appreciate the sun. when it comes out, i run outside, say a big thank-you to the universe and turn my face upward to absorb the rays. we had a surprisingly nice day yesterday, and stephen and i abandoned any instinct to go out for brunch (who wants to be indoors?) and went for a walk along the columbia river. it was so clear, you could see both mt. saint helens and mt. hood. it was glorious to be outside; i never remember feeling that way while i was in north carolina.

filling the void

so, charlotte's visit was AMAZING. it was so so so so so great to have her with me. people! come visit! it's really fun here!

it's so fun that i keep forgetting to blog. i'm taking lots of photos, though, so hopefully that fills the void.

upcoming stuff i'm looking forward to:

- billy bragg on saturday
- a divaville listeners party on tuesday
- more beautiful moments with my boyfriend
- a 4-week pilates class with my friend patty
- portland's glass festival
- our team's (team facts machine!) next pub quiz -- we came in 2nd last week!

i am happy to have found my "sex and the city" friend. kelly & i went last weekend and we both cried our eyes out. i'm blessed to have found a friend like her so quickly. she's also, amazingly enough, my "so you think you can dance" friend. woo!