Portland Trip details

The thought of recapping all the days events while I visited Portland puts me in a coma. I'll give some highlights, although there was a lot of napping. I think I've been a little braindead lately due to medicinal alterations.

1. On the train up the scenery was beautiful and I heard a mentally challenged man tell his mother on the phone that he wasn't going to buy food because he had enough flubber on his belly to last him. A few hours later, he bought a mini pizza, doritos, and a sprite. I had breakfast with a retired pastor and his wife who lived in Terre Haute.

2. Portland was as lovely as ever. I made applesauce with Alison and her friend. I took walks. I played with Jillian. Watched the Olympics. I took naps.

3. On Sunday a fellow told Jason that beards were out. I blurted out that soul patches were out. Turns out, the fellow had one.

4. I did a super awful job of taking care of Jillian one morning. We lost her doll (temporarily) in the park and I didn't give her the right foods. That was the day I stepped in dog poo.

5. I went shopping at my favorite Portland stores and joined Jason's life group. They talked about churchy stuff. It was fun.

6. On the way back down (see 2nd previous entry) I continued to be totally spacey and the trip wasn't quite as pleasant as the trip up. I dreampt there was a ghost on the train. The ghost of an old porter.

XOXO

Portland Trip

The View from the train.


Waterfront Park


"Jillian, where's your tongue?!"


Early morning baby

Coast Starlight Express Oddities

The following is an excerpt from my diary written August 26, 2008 on the Amtrak from Portland to Los Angeles. I recognize that it is peppered with judgementalism, but wish to give honest thoughts on short-term cohabitation inside a moving vessel.

"Couldn't be sitting by two more texas-chainsaw-massacrey people. I'm nearly afraid to write the details for fear they could look, but they dropped a greasy half-eaten sausage on my shoulder and then the man totally degraded the woman asking her again and again if she was sure he had everything and then making her remember and list the things she had in her hands when she entered the train. The old woman next to me says she'd take a bat to him if it were her husband. I agreed, but only furtively in case the couple should overhear and decide to turn on us.
...
Next morning. I grinded my teeth all night. The scary man swore out his wife while she tried to find something he wanted. (Evidentally, they had quite a bit stored with them as I couldn't recline my seat.) She pleaded with him, Melvin I think, to be patient. I think he might have hit her, but I didn't see. I only heard the sound of quick flesh on flesh. Once they settled down again, she read aloud to him from a book about the apocalypse and an interpretation of the book of Revelations. I can only imagine what they're like in the privacy of their own home.

Upon hearing I was hunting for a pillow, the man, wearing a leather wide-brimmed hat, kindly offered me tea, a discolored pillow that belonged to his currently-in-the-bathroom wife, and some quick witless jokes regarding my wine consumption and my choice to live in LA. He said he lived there in the 70s. When were the Manson murders?"

The past few days I've spent a lot of time thinking about insects. We've had a ton of fruit flies (serves us right for having dirty dishes) but they were in my bathroom too. We cleaned the kitchen, there's no food out, I've set up fly paper, and I've gone on killing rampages with a magazine. The cleanliness, fly paper, and killing have helped, however there are still too too many fruit flies. They fly around me when I enter my bathroom, they have a seat on clean dishes, and they hang from our ceilings. I also made another disturbing discovery when making a routine check on the fly paper.

Fleas. Why do we have fleas?! I've never seen one apart from the fly paper, but every time I look, there's another flea stuck to it!

A couple sundays ago I had lunch in the park with some church people:




EDIT: After further investigation, I no longer believe we have fleas. I'm now fairly sure we have flies, fruit flies, gnats, and mosquitoes. A small improvement!

Cuddle Party

Check it!

women are funny

I just got up from a nice sleep-in! The other night, a bunch of people came over to make a movie thats going to go up on Funny Or Die. Not up yet. I'll let you know. It involves leprosy.

I have a friend who says that women aren't funny and I said "you can go shut your face in half" and I don't want to go on about it as I have nothing to prove, but I think the following woman is one of the funniest these days. Out of everyone, not just the women, mind you. Presenting Kristen Wiig

More Desert Photos taken on slide film and cross-processed