Still Here!

In this post:
*Wishes and other stuff around the neighborhood
*Mississippi Avenue
*Forest Park Adventure
*Spring is here for real!
*Still in Portland, still no job...what's next??

Monday, March 3: Nice day, mild and sunny at times. Spent a lot of time meandering around. That’s one nice thing about Portland—pick a direction and start walking, there’s often something to see. Today saw a “Wishing Tree” in front of someone's house. The wishes with adult handwriting seemed to have a lot of world peace and personal harmony type of things on them, but the kids' wishes were a little more specific. Of course I made a wish of my own, but I can’t tell you what it is, as I’m sure same rules apply as when blowing out birthday candles. 

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Tuesday, March 4:  Jae called me a “starving artist” and I thought, How Bohemian! But I guess she is right: no money, no job, spend most of my time writing things that don’t pay (yet!). However, I don't think I look the part: It seems like I should be dressing a little more hippy-ish if I'm a real starving artist. Right?
Nice and mild again today. While running an errand (groceries at New Seasons), passed by this vine/fluffy seed thing that I have been wanting to take pictures of forever, and finally it was the right light to do it. Got lots of pictures like the one below--so fun, but a few people passing by were wondering what I was doing, and I upset some crows--maybe near a nest or something. 

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The cherry blossoms are blooming!!! It's really spring!!!

Friday, March 7: Sunny and warm again—finally got a good weather day to visit the ole' UPS box. And got a letter from Grandma! On my way back home, stopped in at Hollywood Vintage just to look around. Have wanted to stop in there for months; every time I go by I wonder about it because the building is so big and pink and ugly. It was very big inside, and had costumes upon costumes in addition to vintage clothing. I tried on some hats with flowers, in honor of spring.  

A woman got on the bus and she said “It’s my first day on the bus. I've done other things, but this is my first time on the bus.” And I thought that was funny, wondering what other stuff she meant by “I've done other things"--things that compared to the excitement of riding a bus…like…

Learning to ride a bike?
Driving a car?
Flying in an airplane?
Riding a train? 
Cruising with a biker gang?
Flying a helicopter for search and rescue team?
Racing for Nascar?

I totally should have asked her about it! Now it will always be a mystery to me. 

When I got back to my stop, I took some pictures of Klickitat Street with cherry blossoms. Do you recognize Klickitat Street? Beverly Cleary used it as the street where her characters Ramona Quimby, Beezus Quimby, and Henry Huggins lived. There’s also a Beverly Cleary elementary school around here somewhere, and the children’s room at the downtown library is dedicated to her. (When I was younger, I thought it was pronounced“Clickity-clack”)

However, the street you are actually looking at is 15th Avenue. Sorry!

Saturday and Sunday, March 8 and 9: began sorting! Whether I stay in Portland or not, I will have to move, as Dee has told me that she needs me to move out so that a friend of hers can stay in “my” room.
So I began “The Great Scan: Reducing My Life to Flash drives”!!!! It was a rainy weekend and good for staying in and getting things done. Although I have downsized to just about nothing over the last few years (six moves in nine years is a powerful motivator to have less stuff!) I still stockpile information. I've become an information hoarder! I can’t stand to get rid of a piece of info or idea or something I've written! It could be useful some day!! So, now I’m sorting and scanning it. Some of it I’m not sure about, and maybe the scanning is a step toward total deletion, but whatever. At least I won’t be hauling it around anymore!

Mississippi Avenue

Tuesday, March 11: Went to Mississippi Avenue to see the light bulb store, primarily. I’d seen it on my one other foray to Mississippi but hadn’t gone inside. The outside is like this:

February display

March display (it says "Lightbulb Playroom" on the window)

But the inside turned out to be quite uncreative! Very utilitarian, just tall metal shelves narrow rows, all sort of shabby and old, with all kinds of different light bulbs (of course), none of the whimsy of the display windows. Then walked up and down Mississippi a bit—it’s one of the “happening” places in Portland right now, one of the quirky streets, supposedly, which you can tell by all the band posters stuck to the telephone poles. But it looked a little overdeveloped, a victim of the transition to gentrification to which these older run-down neighborhoods are now falling victim. It’s like it’s trying to be quirky and hip, but most of it is just too tidy, too darn upper-middle class. Mississippi is too far away for me anyway—not a bad walk when a long walk is needed, but not close enough or interesting enough for me to make an effort to spend regular time there. The light bulb shop was worth it, though, and there are a few other odd shops (not this odd) and a community resource center that is interesting.

This window has dolls dressed up in a dual homage to Mardi Gras and Community Heros. ("Displays for Your Viewing Pleasure!"--Indeed!)

Forest Park Adventure!

Wednesday, March 12: Adventure in Forest Park! I’ve wanted to go for awhile now, but had trouble figuring out to get there. Finally realized that the problem with getting to Forest Park is a bit like saying, “I want to go to Portland”—it’s that big (biggest park within a city in the USA). It stretches along the western edge of the city, and is cut through with various paths and sections. The most famous path is the Wildwood Trail. I did some research and figured on a possible good place to start and just decided to try. It still took some work to find the trail entrance, but nice people helped me :)

When I first got there I was waylaid for a short time due to the fact that there were some people there shooting for the TV show Grimm! I don’t watch Grimm, but I had heard that it was filmed (mostly?) in Portland. I couldn't see much, except a couple of actors going down a hill yelling “Delta! Delta!." After about 10 minutes, I was able to venture out on the trail and around the curve there was a whole group of people and carts and stuff lined up on one side of the path. I would have liked to have watched, but there wasn’t really anyplace to stand, quite crowded.

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Lower Macleay Trail

So I went on—the trail was so beautiful! It was the Lower Macleay Trail at this point, and there was a rushing river (or busy spring creek?) that the trail followed, and everything was towering and mossy and sun-gilt. So, so lovely. Got to the Wildwood Trail, marked by a shell of a mossy stone building that was an old restroom in 1890. It was an easy trail, too, with only the last portion uphill, and that led to the Audubon Sanctuary. Stopped in there for a bit; a few volunteers were hanging around, giving educational talks with birds on their arms—turkey vulture, peregrine falcon, owl—and there was a giant sequoia tree! Yay!

This used to be a restroom!

Start of the Wildwood Trail

Everything covered in moss! This stuff in my hand, the kind of moss that hangs down and coats branches, is called "treebeard." It's really lightweight and soft, but when it absorbs water it can get heavy and really weigh a tree down.

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After hanging out at the Audubon Sanctuary, I headed out for the next leg of the trail, the climb up to Pittock Mansion, a famous historical house built in 1914 by the founder of the first Oregonian newspaper. This was uphill all the way…puff, puff…and a bit of a downer due to all the invasive ivy everywhere. But I did see a trillium!

I chatted briefly with some people on this trail and they said it was a “five mountain day”—an indicator of the truly clear, dry conditions, not the "partly sunny partly other stuff" that often happens. At the top of the hill (mountain??
felt like!) I straggled out of the shady forest and into the bright sunshine to take in the view--took a bit of checking around, but did indeed see five mountains!

Mount Saint Helens, with Mount Rainier peeking over her shoulder. (North)

Mount Hood (East)

Mount Jefferson just peeking over the hills. (South East)

Mount Adams (North East)

Rested a bit and tried to decide if I should continue onto the third leg of my trip. It was about 4:30 at that point, and besides being tired, it was actually a kind of miracle that I had made without mishap through the first two sections (I kept asking people on the trail if I was headed the right way—I’m notorious for getting lost and misjudging times and distances). Also, the trail so far had also been pretty simple on the map, but in the next section, it turned into a maze-like mess of switchbacks and criss-crossing trails.

And the Wildwood Trial is 30 miles long! And there are supposedly bears and cougars in Forest Park!

So for once I did the sensible thing and walked down the winding road from Pittock Mansion, down to Burnside, and caught a bus back to the city.

Pittock Mansion--I think someone told me that it's built to have a mountain view from every window.

Thursday, March 13: Another sunny day beckons to do something fun, but made myself take it easy today. Plus, will try to fit in some things next week. Did some weeding in the garden—Dee is paying me to weed! A paying job!! And more scanning, which I am also thinking of as a job, due it feeling like one and the fact that it will save me money in packing and shipping.

Friday, March 14: Worked on the Weebly post, weeding and scanning.

Looking ahead for the next two weeks, I don’t know what to tell you about the prospects of staying here…I’ve run out of time. Things keep working out, thankfully, but in a last-minute kind of way that is making me kind of crazy! (For example, the day after I was down to my last eight dollars, my income tax return finally showed up.) Help has been showing up along the way, but it might be time to throw in the towel….

And it seems like I’m getting mixed messages about what to do—or maybe there is a clear directive, but I keep messing it up with my own wants and worries.

So, I’m trying to be ready for whatever comes next, whatever I choose/need to do. I am feeling anxiety about it, but I’ve also been finding a calm place to rest, to breathe through the emotions and let them pass. It’s only discomfort, after all, and I can handle that.
I'm also realizing that when you invite change in and ask for things to be different, well…they are going to be different! And, what what??? You don’t always get to decide how they are going to be different! (Shocker!)

So, I’m continuing to wait and see and trying to look forward to rather than dread. Next post will have the news, one way or another!

Hope you are all well, and seeing lots of signs of spring! :)