greetings from sunny Portland

well, not at the moment... but yesterday was truly glorious. near perfect temperature, sunny and breezy... loved it.
started my single day weekend with my standing breakfast date - me and my girl T, (and often assorted other folks - missed you this week chicn!), have a streak going. i think we're at seven weekes in a row??? and going strong.

i rode over with her, and we played catch up on the way. whenever i don't see T for a few days it's like that... lots to share. and she's a fantastic conversationalist. smart, thoughtful, funny, warm, supportive... and did i mention funny! we laugh so much together, even when we're busy commiserating. then we rode over to goodwill, and had a brief twilight episode at the checkout. i know that goodwill has a mission of employing mentally and physically challenged adults. that's really great. they employ lots of average people too. sometimes though, you can't tell who's who. after our cashier struggled to ring t's sweet set of juice glasses up, one of the managers(?) retrieved our bags ( isaid there are two together) and handed me T's upside down. It started like a faucet running, stuff raining out, as the girl lifted the bags high over the counter to allow clearance for my bike helmet. Her stuff spilled out of one of the pockets and all over the floor: lipstick (which we found in three pieces), phone, sunglasses, random bits of paper, spare change, receipts, gum - everywhere.
the girl apologized profusely (she thought there was only one bag) and i tried to make sure i found everything and replaced it. T was still waiting for the cashier to figure out a void and reentering problem, and trying to make sure her phone wasn't broken etc. we got outside, finally, and just started laughing. what else can you do?

then we rode back to T's so she could prep for work. bums me out that she works seven days a week, but nothing is forever.
we parted ways and i rode to work, also, to bring them some things i'd purchased for the store. then i called S to seee what he was up to. since he was leaving before i could get home to see him, i decided to take off on a solo adventure. i hadn't put on sunscreen that morning to waste the day inside... so i rode on, up to northeast side in search of a second thrifting experience. in my journeys i stumbled on trader joe's and got some much needed juice. i had a conversation with my ex back east, one that started well enough but felt a little prickly by the end. i checked in with another friend, since i was in her neighborhood and wanted to see her and her kids. alas, she was out of town. i found the second thrift shop and some decent 'new' clothing - jeans; a dark denim skirt that reminds me of one my ex used to wear when she wanted to make me want her something fierce; a red t-shirt that has a basketball on the front and the letters PBL... i know Portland Basketball League. yawn! i want it to stand for peanut butter lovers; an orange zip sweater (yes it's almost summer, but when you find one like this it doesn't matter when it is... you have to buy it; a low cut top that's clingy and makes my rack look, well... like quite a rack; and finally, a tight dress with a crazy mosaic pattern and gold sparkles. super femme and makes my ass look - wouldn't you like to know...

then i took myself out for lunch at one of my favorite cafes. The Laughing Planet has the burritos I crave. They aren't authentic mex or anything, but I get a big kick out of the fact that the place is pretty extra crunchy granola goodness. They have a juice bar and their burritos have brown rice in them, and they offer vegan hippy crap desserts that are probably amazing... But back to my burrito. The one I love contains the biggest, most beautiful and tender pinto beans i've ever known, delicious salsa, hippy rice, cheese, and sour cream... and tons of loving deliciousness. I get that and a fresh pear juice (which is out of this world) nearly every time now.

I have another motive for going there too. They have all sorts of toys around the place - they're super kid friendly, and they sport an impressive collection of medium to large plastic dinosaurs. I have a not so secret affection for plastic dinosaurs, and I've become a little obsessed with one big guy there in particular. He's my friend...
He looks like Godzilla, and I want to take him home and sleep with him and wake up with weird marks on my face wear it was smushed against his hard scaly body. I scooped him up off the counter and brought him back to my table, which given the fact that I'm 30 and was dining alone (no children), not to mention the relish with which i plucked him from his place in the lineup on the counter... well, it certainly got me at least one raised eyebrow from a staffer. I guess it didn't help that i proceeded to get out my camera, and photograph him a bit. That alone- not particularly weird. Doing so while also having a conversation with said plastic toy, out loud. That was difficult to justify and so we sat in silence and shared my juice.

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time lapse: i started writing this almost two weeks ago, and can't add to it now, but decided to post it as a snapshot. albeit an incomplete one.