Keep Portland Weird

[mylittleredgirl]

Ah, Portland, where it's totally normal that businessmen drop everything to go on a bike ride in the middle of the day, because hey, Friday! and not raining! and really, that's what you do. (Sadly, that's not what I do, because I work for a corporate monolith with East Coast "work ethic" kind of values, so I'm the one in the office being told to do business dealings with someone while the call keeps dropping out because they are on a bike ride.)

I thought I would share with you a selection of the varied free Portland activities I have to choose from this weekend, aside from all the ordinary things like the Portland Marathon and the Greek Festival and Ralph Nader giving a talk at Powell's:

+ For the business gentleman I was calling all afternoon: A community appreciation of the art and craft of bicycling. Very Portland.
+ A Gathering on Economic and Ecological Crises, which should be a rollicking good time for all.
+ Cthulucon: 2009. Come for the cosmic horror, stay for the unnameable fear! CTHULUCON!
+ The Cheesefest. Actual cheese.
+ Soon followed by Portland Baconfest 2009, where our vegan-friendly city spends a whole day explaining how bacon is not at all the same thing as meat and does not count. I am told it is sponsored by something called The Meat Show.

I get my what's happening info from Around the Sun Blog, Portland on the Cheap and Dave Knows: Portland. (The other place Dave knows, FYI, is Elko, Nevada.) I then feel happy to live in such a quirky place, before forgetting all about these events and spending my weekend doing remedial science fiction reading (DUNE for the first time, currently) while snuggled between boy and dog. You know it's bad when your hermit father practically begs you to go clubbing for 80s video music night while you're saying I got up at five a.m. every day this week and have been on conference calls all day and Dad, seriously, can't I JUST STAY HOME AND READ DUNE IN THE BATHTUB FOR THE THIRD FRIDAY IN A ROW WITHOUT BEING CONSIGNED TO A LIFE AS A TOTAL SHUT-IN!?

In other news, I'm a total shut-in.

Also, I have watched Glee seven thousand times. FYI: no, there's no fanfic coming (canon is still not a defense for song lyrics in fanfic!) and I am THOROUGHLY EMBARRASSED by how I really kind of can't wait until somebody makes a fanvid to Taylor Swift's "Fifteen." Also, no 'ship, really, because the show is so perfect and they're kids and I'm loving the teen pathos, and Rachel's adorable Love Of Finn is really so adorable, but, you know, he should probably be that first crush or first boyfriend she never totally gets over but doesn't actually be with forever omg because, god love him, he's kind of a dope. BUT I LOVE HIM. Why do I pretend I won't write fanfic about things and that I won't use song lyrics as a means of plot advancement? AUGHHHH.

Comments

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

... you can plan things out that far? Jeez, I feel like it's a stretch to think about what I'm going to do next weekend. (This weekend, of course, is the CthuluCheeseBacon festival.)

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

I will also be old! But hopefully by then I will either have a novel, or babies, or the cost of living raise from last March. 2013 is fun! I'm going to start looking forward to that. :)

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

Terror indeed! I'll be proud of myself if I finish Dune by then, and somebody else wrote that.

[ornithoptercat.livejournal.com]

zomg yay Kushiel. I love those books.

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

I have not heard of these books. Should I be planning to add them to my remedial reading list?

[ornithoptercat.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, for some that is not a squick-factor, it is a bonus. It helps.

[ornithoptercat.livejournal.com]

ah! yeah, that's not so cool. Although, the kids aren't having sex before they're of age (or at least something that's close enough considering a very non-modern setting), and it shares at least as much with 'I am committing my second son to the church as a priest' (common until quite recently) as it does with modern prostitution.

[cheekygal.livejournal.com]

Soon followed by Portland Baconfest 2009, where our vegan-friendly city spends a whole day explaining how bacon is not at all the same thing as meat and does not count. I am told it is sponsored by something called The Meat Show.

*iz ded of laff*

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

KNITTING SHEEP ICON!!!

[ornithoptercat.livejournal.com]

Cheesefest AND Baconfest? I feel like these events need to get together. Followed the next day by HeartAttackTreatmentfest.

Also, if you have a boy and a dog snuggling you while you read, why would you WANT to go out?

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

LOL on the HeartAttackTreatmentfest. YES.

And srsly, why WOULD I want to go out?? Except to yoga this morning, yayyy (which is kind of the opposite of BaconCheezburgerPallooza).

[noradannan.livejournal.com]

I <3 portland so much! My brother just bought a piece of land in Vancouver, WA, and has been encouraging E and I to move out there. Might happen in a couple of years when E is done with school, so maybe we'll all have a 2013 Portland party...

[noradannan.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend checking it out. A lot of it is fairly suburbia, but my brother just bought a nice big piece of land on a lake, which is really gorgeous, so it's not all white picket fences.

And, clearly we must meet in Portlant 2013, as I absolutely adore Repo like wow. The gods decree it. Provided they don't destroy the world in 2012 and all.

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

PLEASE YES DO IT!!!

Move to Portland, not Vancouver! It's, liek, way awesomer! There are places in WA state near Portland where you can get land that are very pretty, and hopefully your bro picked one of those, but a lot of Vancouver is... suburbia. I WOULD VISIT THERE FOR YOU, THOUGH!

2013 is totally the new black. "After the Mayans, the PORTLAND GLEEE PARTY!" That can be our slogan.

[noradannan.livejournal.com]

The reason we're eyeballing vancouver is that a) cheaper, b) hopefully I'll be working for my brother by then, and the office is moving to vancouver this fall, and c) no income tax in WA. And no sales tax in OR, which makes living on that boarder pretty damn awesome, frankly. Especially after giving over a couple of limbs every year in MA.

But, seriously, it's probably going to happen. There's even a grad school program in Portland that eric's eyeballing, though we'll see if he gets in. But still, 2013 might really be the case. In which case, GLEEE PARTY!

[noradannan.livejournal.com]

Also, I adore Glee SO SO MUCH, and everytime I see its title on Hulu and think there should be another 'e' on it, I think of you. <3

[lifelongfling.livejournal.com]

OMG, I LOVE GLEE SO MUCH.

I've been keeping the episodes on my TiVo because I just can't bring myself to delete them. I think I've watched each one at least 3 times. And I had the music from the eps on a loop on my iPod at work last night. *is not obsessed, really*

[mylittleredgirl.livejournal.com]

OMG. That show just makes me want to run around hugging everything. Also, I may have Hulu on in the background at work sometimes replaying episodes. *shhhh*

I NEED GLEE ICONS THAT SAY GLEEE. I will have to get on this. *eeeee*

[lifelongfling.livejournal.com]

http://community.livejournal.com/gleeclub/

If I could have Hulu open at work, I totally would. I will have to settle for just the songs, though.

[havocthecat]

Is it wrong that I would love a trifecta of Cthulhucon, Cheesefest, and Baconfest? Why can't they be ALL IN ONE HOTEL, all on one weekend?

[jfpbookworm.livejournal.com]

Ah, Glee.

My OTPs there are among the adults rather than the teens (though they're quite anvilicious about having the teens' plots mirror the adults'). Personally, I would love to see a Sue Sylvester/Dakota Stanley fic, but I don't think that's what the kids are writing these days.

[fyca.livejournal.com]

My roommie is in Portland this weekend, probably stuffing her face at the cheesefest. Meanwhile in Seattle, I will be enjoying laundromatfest, where I must sit for many hours to wash and dry three oversized comforters. Joy.

Finn is such a dope. I want to smack him. That won't help with anything; the poor boy will not be developing a backbone any time soon. Rachel could use a smack too, but it probably wouldn't leave her with any more common sense than she currently has. Still, I am in love with the show. Is it Wednesday yet?

[hihoplastic.livejournal.com]

Oh, this post made me incredibly happy and horribly homesick. I miss my beautiful city! And my house and my neighborhood and my vegan restaurants and the many bridges and the grotesqueness that is the Willamette and my friends and my parents and *sigh* I think someone needs to invent the transporter right quite.

But I have to say, Portland! BaconFest?! I am ASHAMED of thee. If I were there, I would go yell at you. (Also, that is disgusting.)(Lizzie agrees.)

Overall, yaaaaaay PTOWN!!!