i took a trip (almost two weeks ago now) that i’ve been meaning to write about, but had to digest it a bit, masticate on it if you will, let the enzymes and parasites (symbiotic) do their thing to it, to extend the food metaphor, before i could write about it.

well either that or i’m lazy… oh and did i mention K has been gone since i got back from vaca?  her to california for work and me back here with mr. puppy.  he takes a lot of time/energy/patience.  makes me glad i have a partner in this doggy experiment. but i digress…

the trip was to the pacific northwest, what i would consider the last “region” of the continental US that i have not been to.  i’ve seen the southwest, both desert (arizona) and mountains (san diego).  i’ve been to the upper midwest (duluth, mn — cleanest american city i’ve ever been too.  eerily similar to munich germany in cleanliness).  of course the “eastern” midwest like illinois, indiana, ohio, pennsylvania, michigan.  been to the northeast (nyc) and midatlantic (dc, balitmore).  seen the south too (florida, louisiana, and texas even).  i guess really the only place i haven’t seen in person is the plains states, but i’ve seen pictures so i think that counts. although from what i’ve heard lawrence, ks is a cool town.

we flew into portland, which is a great town.  oregon in general reminded me a lot of ohio, actually… in a weird way.  portland itself is a lot like ohio towns of similar size (minus the street cars and healthy people - you could probably pick portland up and set it down in ohio and i doubt many people would think it didn’t belong).  just the way the buildings are built and the city was laid out, just somehow seemed very midwestern to me.

the people in portland, well orgeon in general, are a different thing entirely though.  i think you find a lot more “hippy types” out there (maybe “west coast types” is less insulting).  the lifestyle definately appeals to me.  there are more “local” type produce places or grocery stores.  what seemed to me to be a lot fewer fast food joints and a lot more non-chain-eateries.  they’re very bike friendly there as well (i learned ten speed bikes are now called “road bikes” and mountain bikes are “all terrain bikes” or “ATBs” for the concise) which is cool.  i keep thinking i’ll buy a bike here at the bike co-op but then always think it’ll be a waste of money.  again i digress…

we met K’s friend… K2… in portland the evening we got in.  i also met a long time internet friend, D.  (i’ve written on meeting people from the internet before)  again, i was not disappointed meeting this dude in person.  he was very nice, very cool, and had interesting things to say.  i think that overall you are more likely to enjoy someone in person having spent time to get to know them online beforehand.  this is probably because online friendships are so easy to break, so if you don’t share something in common with the other person, the friendship will dissolve quickly.  however, if you do share something in common, then it’s easy to pick that up in person.

ps. portland has amazing donuts.  many people already know this.

the drive from portland to eugene was amazing, even though i spent a lot of it with my nose in a book.  (an aside about the book, i wish i would’ve read it before actually going to portland… c’est la vie)   we spent the day going down the “back roads” and hitting up some pretty good wineries.  i learned a lot about wine that i did not know before, and seeing the countryside and areas surrounding the wineries was very cool.  only one of them was in a semi-urban area, in mcminnville.  they all had good wine and i ended up lugging back 4 bottles in my checked baggage.  i’m amazed it didn’t disappear (more on that in a bit).

eugene was a nice town.  again, very reminiscent of the midwest (to my eyes).  eugene is similar to columbus in many aspects.  college town.  younger population.  lots of culture and all that jazz.  oh yeah, great beer too.  actually, better beer in eugene than in columbus, sadly.  i tried a few new brews there, including one by ninkasi brewing and of course fat tire.  i had a couple others that i can’t quite remember, oh yeah, except that excellent burton barton that i found.  fucking delish.  one thing i did miss though, and this goes back to that whole “west coast type” of people i think, is that they do not have fried anythign on the bar menus.  i wanted some good ol’ fried cheese, motz sticks, but alas they were not available.  maybe you can find something like that somewhere in eugene, but not the places we went to.

our gracious hostess took us to the coast for an afternoon of walking, wishing it weren’t so windy, remarking on how windy it was, hiding from the wind, and eventually going up a “hobbit trail” into the hills that butt against the beach (where there was no wind).  i cannot stress how windy it was.  i mean, this is like a constant wind.  not some puny breeze.  i’ve felt the ocean breezes on the east coast, and while it can be mildly windy for a couple hours, most people would still describe it as a breeze.   i think the correct word for the wind in oregon would be a “gale.”  a fucking endless gale screaming over from the far east, to wrend asunder the great west coast.

wind aside, it was one of the most amazingly beautiful places i’ve ever seen.  the forest runs right up to the water.  there are a lot of rocks and sizable waves that make for some very cool sights and sounds.  the beach itself is eroding from the banks, and there are these ledges, probably 10 or 12ft high, the walls of which are made up of something similar to sandstone that people carve their names into, or pictures, or whatever.  i wish i’d taken a picture of that.

my trip back was mostly uneventful.  i had the typical regret of flying american airlines.  they stuck me in midway for an extra hour or 4, but i did make it home without having to stay overnight.  of course, i did walk through the door to our apartment at 130am, but i’ll let that slide.  in chicago i saw my first drug dog while sitting by our gate (the 3rd of the evening).  i was reading and listening to my ipod when i heard some weird noise. i look up to see 3 cops and a dog directly in front of me.  one of the cops is talking to an african woman nearby.  the woman is holding a small child.  another cop directs the dog to sniff the woman’s bags, while she keeps her children at a safe distance.  the dog sniffs.  nothing happens.  the cops leave and the woman looks very scared.  i wonder how something like that happens. to me she looks like a completely normal person (wearing a headscarf, but normal.  not threatening in any way).  is it possible that some racist or otherwise insensitive person has called these cops on her?  mentioned a head scarf and foreign accent?  it was unsettling to say the least.

let me recount my experience once back in columbus.  i get off the plane, go pee.  the airport is dead (it being like 1230am on a tuesday).  i walk to the baggage claim to get my bag.  the bags start coming.  the bags keep coming.  i’m watching this one goddamn black suitcase that looks a lot like mine go around and around (each time, “OH there’s mine… SHIT”).  i watch the staff come and collect all the unclaimed luggage without seeing my bag.  i’ve played this role before, so i go to the american baggage office to start the tedious process of lost luggage (what color is it, what brand, what was inside, is your name on it, do you have your claim ticket?).  there is a girl there lining up the bags that just now were orphaned.  i decide, on a whim, to look through the bags already there to see if mine… there it is!  nice!  the girl says something like “found your bag?” and i reply with “yeah, it’s weird that it beat me here but i’m glad it’s here.”  her: “yeah, don’t complain!”

i get home.  i figure i’d better check the 4 bottles of wine that i had so carefully packed the night before in eugene.  i mean, i had this fucking system where i think my bag could’ve fallen out of the plane at 60,000ft and those bottles would’ve been secure.  i open the bag and my shit is a complete mess.  the bottles are all crunched down in the bottom of the bag, not nicely secured amongst dirtly clothes with books perfectly positioned to keep them all in place.  “FUCK”, i think to myself.  i check each one, nothing broken, no clothes sopping wet and stained as if by blood.  it looks like my suitcase has been ransacked, then i see this…

goddamn government.  thanks for nothing.  at least you didn’t steal and/or cause my shit to get broken.

by the way, “Smart Security Saves Time”?  are you kididng me?  did this particular crop of beaurocrats just not read 1984?  could they be any more overtly orwellian?  *sigh*

check out some pics here

got back from a nice trip to florida w/the gf. her family lives there (and it’s where she did most of her growing up, having been born in brooklyn, nyc). i have to say, spending christmas somewhere it is 75 or 80 degrees was a bit more disconcerting than i thought it would be. don’t think i didn’t enjoy the warmth, as i’m known to hate winter, but it was very different not exchanging presents while it was cold outside. there’s just something to be said for a christmas in winter.

i think i missed that cold, crisp smell the most. it wasn’t the same going outside and sweating and having that damp, moist, summertime type smell. there’s just something about it. every christmas show, commercial, card, or wrapping paper has some sort of snowy winter scene or snowflake on it. i don’t know why, but it always seems like christmas is associated with snow and blustery winter, even when i think more people probably celebrate christmas where it’s warm.

people like the idea of the comfort of a fire, hot chocolate (even though my gf had that almost every day we were there), and big wool sweaters with snowflakes on them. it’s just the way we envision christmas in this country. i don’t know if that comes from the fact that many of our ancestors came from cold climates or what. for whatever reason, christmas and cold just go hand in hand.

anyway, i had a blast but was happy to return home. the orlando airport was mega crowded this morning at 530am when we got there, lines out the wazoo. we only spent like 30 minutes in line total, which wasn’t too bad all told. CMH was dead as usual. i guess no one flys around here or something. i’ve only ever seen it crazy crowded like once in 10 years. but that’s kind of nice in a way, so i hope that doesn’t change.

i mean, really… does that look christmas-y to you?

i’m not really one for family and all that crap, but i do enjoy the holidays. if you’ve read my blog at all before you know that i love to travel, and traveling is generally a large part of the holiday experience. almost all of my family lives here in ohio, so i usually don’t have to travel far. i tend to like driving though (as long as the traffic isn’t too bad) and have lived here long enough to realize when are good and bad days to drive around the holidays

take this upcoming thanksgiving for example. most of the jerks around here will be trying to get out of town tonight, and get back here on sunday. i tried that once like 8 years ago and i’ll never do it again. so now i drive home thanksgiving morning and come back on saturday. this has lead me to never have to wait in traffic for upwards of 2 or 3 hours (each way).

i generally like the feeling you have around the holidays. yeah, it can be a stressful time, but it can also be very relaxing. i, of course, love the time off work. who doesn’t?

this year for christmas i’m making a trip with the girlfriend to her native lands of florida. it’ll be the first time in my life where i’ve not spent actual christmas day with my family. i’m not really upset about that though, as i’ll be in sunny florida (and i won’t have to attend the yearly christmas eve service my mother guilts us all into every year). i’m looking forward to meeting some of her family and whatnot, and of course spending time in a warmer clime than i’m used to.

along with not seeing my family for christmas day, this will also be the first year i’m flying very near to the 25th. only one other time i have flown near christmas was actually after the 25th (something like the 28th) with a return trip in early january. that experience wasn’t too bad actually. this time we’re flying down there on the 20th and coming back here on the 26th. i’m interested to see what it’s like.

i have a friend. he got married. well, technically i have more than one friend but this one is the only one to get married recently (i have another one getting married soon too, but that’s a whole other thing — oh and one more that recently got engaged *congrats btw*). the wedding was nice. i got to see an old friend from high school that i hadn’t seen in a long time. mostly i’m not intersted in seeing anyone from high school, but there are a couple people i wouldn’t mind catching up with. he was one of them.

getting married is a big deal. i used to be completely, utterly against it. now, i dunno, i think it could be pretty great. i used to think that all marriage did was ruin a relationship, but as i’ve gotten older i’ve come to realize that it can really enhance and encourage growth in a relationship. i think that most people have at least one person who they can be very happy with for the rest of their lives. at the same time i think that a lot of people don’t fully appreciate the challenge it is to be married to someone, and once they do they decide they don’t want to deal with it. i think that’s what leads to most problems. anyway, i’m happy for my friend and i’m happy for everyone else i know who recently did get married or will in the future.

while i was in the airport in charlotte, nc i met this cool german dude. we spent about two hours discussing myriad things, from politics to travel to cultural differences between the us and europe. he told me he was moving to charlotte soon to open a new factory for his company. he’d brought his wife with him to see the area, see if she liked it, whatever. they’d gone out with some of his new business associates and their wives to dinner. talk turned to, as it often does once you’re older, families. now this particular german dude had no kids and when asked he responded as such. to which the first reply was “well, i have a great doctor you can see in town.”

as he tells me this story i can tell that he was taken aback by that comment. he was amazed at the audacity of someone to pry into his private life like that, and seemed rather amused that they assumed there was something physically wrong with him. we talked about the american concern with “family” and “family values.” we talked about the assumption americans make if you aren’t married by the time you’re 35 or don’t have kids that there is something wrong with you, either mentally or physically. i told him not to take it personally, that while most americans are offended if you talk about fucking, they’d love to get down and dirty talking about methods to get pregnant (as long as you don’t stray into cocks and pussies that is). he was a very cool guy, and i always love to talk to foreigners about their experiences in the us and their views on stuff.

so the wedding was in san francisco, a city i’ve never been to before. i love going to new places. travel is always great. my impressions on the city are as such:

1. the hills look great, but fuck living there. and parking on those things? holy shit. also, the city is a lot smaller than i expected.

2. everything there is expensive. yes i realize it’s california, but wtf?

3. where do people work in this city? it just seemed like there were tons and tons of houses, and other than the financial district down market street i didn’t really see anywhere for people to make the hundreds of thousands of millions of dollars it would take to live in the city

4. cable cars are overrated.

5. fucking great sushi.

6. haight ashbury. nuff said.

there are only two things that we didn’t do that i would’ve liked to. take a tour of alcatraz and go to the ripley’s believe it or not museum. maybe some other time. i’d love to go back again sometime though and see those two places, get some more great food, and just wander around more.

all in all, a great trip.