miscellany part ii
- the sun has come out and the flowers are so proud that i don't know if they could stand any taller. there they are, free as a handshake.
- things have been good. i beat jason in pool (though i'm not supposed to tell anyone). old friends in town - there's always something refreshing about that.
- a women that i didn't know told me that i needed to "be more feminine", and it made me want to punch her in the face.
- went on a walk today and found that my street dead ends at the edge of the alameda ridge with an alarming view of mt. hood - she came out of hiding.
- montana's become a real dog - head out the window, lolling tongue, slobbery kisses and all. he lost six teeth in one day.
- 90's party is on the horizon.
- i've decided to write a book.
annie
anne lamott came to the unitarian church downtown last night. she was everything i expected and hoped for. she's exactly how i thought she would be. she speaks exactly how she writes. she looks exactly how i thought she would. she's funny, though now consciously "they all anticipate that i'm humorous so i'm gonna put on my act" so. accurate, raw, real....
the ratio of men to middle aged women with graying hair and long flowing skirts carrying tissue boxes was quite low. peter & jason came in, looked at each other, and then said they were gonna go get a beer. "WHAT ARE YOU POSSIBLY THINKING? THIS IS ANNE LAMOTT AND THERE IS NO WAY YOU ARE GOING TO MISS THIS OR NOT SIT NEXT TO ME WHILE I MAKE APPRECIATIVE LISTENING NOISES AND SHAKE MY HEAD EMPATHETICALLY TO EVERY SINGLE LEFT WING WORD SHE SAYS". so they stayed. and were the better for it.
it refreshing nice to see someone that you've anticipated seeing -- and not be disappointed.
scappoose bay
when we were preparing to move to oregon, i took a look at a map of the northwest (i've inherited this love of maps from my father - we could both look at them for hours. often when we talk on the phone, it's about some geographical anomaly that we've found - point roberts, washington for example. or the 'undefined border' between saudi arabia and yemen & oman. or that little piece of spain that sticks north into france through the pyrenees.) to see what i could find. among all the consonant-laden names (snoqualmie, snohomish, issaquah, puyallup, klickitat, siskiyou) and the curiously quaint (sweet home, mountain home, walla walla) i found a whole host of names that paid tribute to a musical form that was popular for approximately two weeks in the mid 90's. ska. when i found Skamania County, I keeled over with laughter. SKA MANIA! among this i also discovered Scappoose - ska + poose (and 'poose' is just a funny word in its own right). Scappoose is also home to the World's Largest Candle of Peace. i wonder if George Bush knows that?
anyway. i would never have thought that fun of any sort would lie in a town with such an unfortunate name. but peter & i took montana and the kayak out to the scappoose bay today and had such an terrific time. we paddled out about a mile or so and put in on land and just explored. i didn't even realize that portland's air was so bad until i breathed in out there - it felt so young, youthful, fresh.... the sun made an appearance, we ate chicago hot dogs, our jeans were soaked and muddy - and we were happy.
