rainshine

portland oregon is the place and raining would be the best word to describe it.

i have been here for exactly 42 hours and 38 minutes and it has been raining for every single solitary second. i cant say this is exactly heart-warming given the whole living-in-a-van-down-by-the-river thing, but i am happy to announce i am pulling it off.

barely.

i am guessing that approximately 1 foot of rain has fallen during my time here. this causes problems all around the table really. my shoes have been wet for three straight days, the truck topper is starting to leak, one jacket is soaked through and will not dry, etc etc. once things are wet they do not dry in the truck because portland happens to be the moisture capital of the universe.

awesome.

precipitation.

awesome.

my first night in portland i had the enormous pleasure of attending the boots 'n all annual holiday party. oh boy was it delightful.

boots 'n all is an online organization that feels more like a community. its basically a giant family of like-minded travelers that help each other out with planning trips, reporting on conditions in countries, rants and warnings about certain locales-- you get the point. they are based here in portland and have been having holiday parties every year for the past five years.

well, it just so happened that this year's party corresponded with my arrival time in portland.

go figure.

i walked in to a mixed bag of jolly people aged anywhere from their 20's to their 70's. there were plenty of portlanders but also a good chunk of foreigners and road trippers like myself. it was pretty amusing and encouraging talking with about a dozen different people that were supportive of anything that involved an expensive plane ticket and some light packing.

questions/comments you do not hear at a boots 'n all holiday party:

1) how are you paying for all that travel?
2) what about your career?
3) ellllll, maybe not a great idea to travel there-- i hear that place is dangerous.
4) how do you pack for a trip that long?
5) WHAT?!?! you are sleeping in your TRUCK?

talk about some encouragement. jesus! i was in heaven.

i had the pleasure of talking with a couple that plans to hit the road in june when their daughter graduates from high school. they have been saving for a few years to head over to europe, buy a VW westfalia campervan and hit the road...

TO ASIA.

crikey! i got pretty excited.

we chatted for about the last half of the night about all their thoughts and ambitions for the trip.

the bar was open for the whole night. and FREE. we are not talking about some little harry half-ass occasion. there would be no dixie cups filled with some old stale PBR-- oh no! they were serving pints (in nice glasses, mind you) of lucky labrador's (this being the brewpub where the event was held) finest ales.

delicious, i tell you. delicious. a splendid evening.

given the rain and inability to do much outside here in portlandia i am trying to get creative with my time here in the city-- or perhaps out of it.

my buddy blake from back in michigan is flying out to portland arriving sunday, 9 december and he is traveling with me down the pacific coast and back home to michigan for christmas. it will be nice having company again and a cohort to do the long road stretches.

so 9 december presents something of a dilemma. do i suck it up and try to get through the rain, or do i proceed forward to another locale and a life of dryness? the issue is that if i leave i would need to come back to portland and pick up blake at the airport.

time to brainstorm.

conversing with mark this morning via instant messanger, he gave me some interesting ideas on how to take care of the situation:

mark: go to eugene and check out the oregon university campus.
me: not a bad idea....
mark: take out a duck caller, sit in the middle of the quad blowing it and screaming "come here oregon hotties!"
me: HHAHAHAHA
mark: "quack quack quack"
mark: girl will ask "ummm what are you doing?"
me: priceless mark
mark: "trying to get you to talk to me...waaasup girl"
mark: honestly not a bad idea
me: hahaha

so looks like heading to eugene could be an option. may need to look in to purchasing a duck caller.

or not. haha.

weather.com shows no mercy in mother nature until thursday when it will be partly cloudy. but honestly, i am wondering if partly cloudy just means occasional sun with rain all day. maybe it is just given that it always rains here. other than that little spurt of sunshine, it is all showers until sunday.

awesome.

for a good laugh, pull up the precipitation map for portland and the surrounding areas. there is rain EVERYWHERE. from here all the way down to northern california and even as far west as bend.

people warn you about the northwest winters, i guess i am now getting ridiculously rich, first-hand experience.

given the rain, i have spent at least 80% of my time in a cafe. to be more precise, thus far this time has been spent in either tully's coffee, the fresh cup or starbucks. each one has a very unique feature that serves me well at different times during the day.

the fresh cup has a horse's share of power outlets which makes using my laptop for hours and hours very easy because i can plug it in anywhere. plus, the coffee happens to be quite tasty as well. i actually discovered while ordering one morning that there is such a thing as flavored san pellegrino sparkling water. sounds delightful.

(uhhh mom, christmas time? mmmm flavored san pellegrino water. mmmmm tasty)

tully's coffee is soulless, but they have really good (CHEAP) peppermint tea which is nice after i have eaten anything. fact: peppermint tea calmes the stomach after eating. see, i even attempt to remain healthy on the road although as mark pointed out that is complete bullshit given my through-the-roof sodium intake.

my diet consists of PB&J (middle of the line sodium), ramen (through the roof sodium), canned chicken (through the roof sodium) and canned green beans (middle of the line sodium).

balanced diet no more.

starbucks is option three because it has those enormous multi-colored couches strewn all over the place and they are open really late. so i can sit in comfort for the last hours of the evening before heading to the truck for some sleep. and its always good to be there around 8pm when they empty the pastry case because they give out whatever is left to customers sitting inside. so i get some free food.

pastries. mmmm.

i hit the laundromat recently. it was undoubtedly the most rewarding a trip to the laundromat could ever be.

i was in there washing things up, writing in my journal. not a big deal. i must have been near a homeless shelter because there were probably about a half dozen homeless guys around the place washing their clothes. i took quite a bit of time talking with all of them, all of which were really nice fellows. i chatted for a while with one in particuar, he was originally from flint, michigan.

we chatted about the rain (of course), and this guys desire to get down to california (because of the "soul draining rain, man"). i am headed down for san francisco soon with blake, so i thought the idea of having some more company would be nice. i asked him if he would want a ride down south and a big smile shot across his face.

"yeah man! michigan brothers! we help each other out."

we arranged for a meeting spot on sunday.

so i am sitting there after talking with this guy for about an hour and still writing. my laundry was drying nearby. another guy approached me with a black sweatshirt in his hand.

"here you go man, i know how it is out there. been sleeping out in this shit for a while now. this thing will keep you warm and i got about a dozen of 'em. cant keep 'em all with me! take it."

i was kind of stunned. here was this guy-- clearly homeless-- reaching out to me assuming that i too was in a bit of a pinch to stay warm at night. i mean, in some sense i am, but certainly not to the degree that he is.

his outstretched arm was a jumbotron of kindness.

i kind of shuffled for the words to say back. i wanted to tell him i wasnt homeless and that i appreciated his gesture, but at the same time i really wanted to show this guy my appreciation for what appeared to be extreme altruism. i debated in my mind for about 3 seconds.

i would take the middle road.

"oh man, its ok. i think i have enough stuff. i appreciate so much your kindness."

he shot right back at me, "no seriously brother. i know how it is. take it."

"ok, ok. this is a nice sweatshirt. thanks so much."

i threw the sweatshirt on immediately. it was black. fit like a glove. the zipper was broken.

amazing really.

here was this guy-- in a pretty tough spot himself, reaching out to me. it all kind of hit me hard. it was one of those moments where you sit back and dont really know what to say so you just sort of marvel at the moment inside.

"christmas time is here" off the charlie brown soundtrack was playing over the crackly speakers in the laundromat. that is actually one christmas song that i am absolutely in love with.

i sat there and played with the broken zipper. it had clearly gotten some good use over the years but would certainly be fit for use on the road. i put my hands in the pockets to get comfortable and they were still damp from the washing that it had just gotten.

if thoughts could be measured in fluid ounces, i had about three gallons in my head.

the man, who's name i never got, left the laundromat with his big backpack on his back and an umbrella over his head.

"i'll see you around, man. stay warm."

he casually shouted that out as he exited the door. and that was it. all this took place in about 15 minutes.

later i figured i should maybe try and make an attempt at cleaning up because it was very obvious that i appeared homeless to other people. interesting how that works. with no couch in sight, hair that has a nice grease layer and horribly consistent rain-- i think i will just stick with the homeless look for now. there are unexpectedly positive things to be had in this state.

i exited the laundromat with a bit of pep in my step.

kindness fuels the soul, and i just got a whole years worth of inspiration.