Bye Bye, Portland!

Well, today, I'm wrapping it up, catching it up, and moving it out. The snow is finally receding, and it's warm and rainy. Back to normal.

Dinner with Phoebe

On Wednesday, with the snow still everywhere and no school, Janet and I took a nice long walk through the beautiful Irvington neighborhood of comfortably big old houses (timber money) and large, tree-lined streets. I worked, and we played music together some more. Then Phoebe came cruising over to take me out to dinner!

She called my cell. I looked outside. No sign of her. After calling back and forth, I finally found her down the street, waved frantically, and then bundled up to go out. She took me down to Eagle Thai on Broadway, which was very good, although something was in the food that gave me some slight allergic reactions later. We had a great time catching up and comparing notes, and Phoebe tried to teach me (briefly) how to pose for a camera. You can see above that it didn't quite work. She had on some cute new Nike boots to keep her dry and warm and told me about working out with Lance Armstrong's coach and her spinning class at Nike, where she works as a librarian.

Catching Up

Thursday was my day to catch up. For one thing, it's the beginning of my academic week, when I try to turn in a bunch of grades and move everyone into the next week's readings. In Myth then journey from place to place, and having left Egypt and Babylon, are now in Greece and then Rome for the next two weeks.

I actually found a Curves (yeah, I joined, at least for this trip) and did my little workout thing. Someone with ADD or something like it had to have dreamed this up. It doesn't give me enough aerobic work, but that's when walking comes in! Right next to Curves was a bank, so I could finally cash some checks from a banjo student (sorry to take so long, Carol!) and then a Supercuts! So I splurged and finally got my hair trimmed after about 6 months. I had a young single mom and we traded stories.

Last night, Phoebe came by and we all went out for dinner at a pub that used to be a funeral home. I didn't smell any formeldahyde and didn't feel any wrathful spirits, but after a large porter, who knows? It was a manic, lively conversation as always with my two and their sweeties: Philip 'n Kim, and Phoebe and Michael.

Today I'll visit my old and good friend KMK (Kathleen, but that's how she used to log in at Floating Point, where we worked together editing techie stuff--they still all call me "Jeano" from my old login). Then I'll head over to Ron and Jennifer Rich's pasture--they've bought a place way the heck to the west of PDX, which is just perfect for getting me started out to the coast and down to my next mooching spot.

I just finished reading Dreaming in Cuban, which is quite wonderful, a sort of Cuban version of Louise Erdrich's books, in which many family members, mostly women, tell the stories of their lives so that the main protagonist is not an isolated person but a family. A really nifty conceit, showing the relations between folks and the various versions of a story.

I am also slowly moving through Volume IV of the Philokalia, a collection of writings famous in Eastern Orthodoxy, but probably unfamiliar to others, mostly written for monks and rather difficult, so I just read a page a day. But right now, I'm reading about the Kingdom of Heaven being in the human heart, how each of us is a universe. If we could only keep this awareness for even five seconds, how differently we might treat our fellows. And last night, driving home with Phoebe, I told her what a different world they live in, how my world is receding so quickly and becoming so unfathomable, often even to me! Of course, all the real traveling takes place within, a commonplace to take with me on this little adventure!