mylittleredgirl | Entries tagged with the very plausible state of oregon

In case you've ever wondered what it's like to live here,

eighthblackbird tipped me off to this bit of ridiculousness, explaining the Portland ethos in the form of a music video promo for the new IFC series Portlandia.

"Where Young People Go to Retire"

It's actually exactly like this.

Current Mood: nerdy

I woke up this morning to that email from my mom.

Apparently, somebody tried to blow up the Portland tree-lighting ceremony last night. Woah! (Don't read the comments - it's a lot of people who probably couldn't find Oregon on a map wanting to deport all adopted Muslim children or something.)

Thank you, FBI!! Can I send them flowers or something? <3 <3 The target was partially picked because, as the would-be bomber said, "no one thinks about Oregon," so I'm really glad the intelligence operatives didn't feel the same way.

Current Mood: grateful

You know why? I just spent the evening with

hihoplastic and

peanutbutterer! Who are both substantially cooler than me, and I have MOOCHED their coolness for the purposes of the subject line of this post.

(pb is exactly as cool in real life as she is on the internet, which is to say, very freaking cool. hiho is less excitable than I expected while still being very excitable, probably because my previous interactions with her have gone something like <3 <3 !!!!! <3 <3 !!)

We came up with totally brilliant fandom plans that we're probably not motivated enough to actually implement, and which have probably already been done while we weren't paying attention (a cliche ficathon - that happened, right? an episode-related-athon? how come I miss all the cool stuff?). Also, Elizabeth Weir's hair. And what we might accidentally say if we met Stargate actors ("Hi! It's great to meet you! I've totally written porn about you! ... Nice job in Bliss!").

peanutbutterer reminded me that Sparktober approacheth.

hihoplastic encouraged me to go on a leave of absence from work to write "Second Chances," which she has never actually read and would likely have no interest in since she's not an SG-1 fan, because she's just that good at enabling people.

The moral of this story is: you wish you lived in Oregon right now. :) (And I wish hiho were not going to pursue higher education elsewhere to better herself or learn something or whatever. Hmph!)

As an aside, pb, we totally need Sparky credentials. Like for real. They should be laminated, and we should scare all our coworkers with them whenever they casually mention they watch the Sci-Fi channel.

Current Mood: happy

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.

Mainstreet.com recently busted out a report on the "financial happiness" of each state, based on debt, income, unemployment and foreclosures.

In a nation of only fifty states, Oregon is #51.

This might explain the dude in the business suit asking for spare change at the light rail stop this morning.

Current Mood: depressed (economically)

Remember when

lisayaeger was super-diligently giving us a daily vanity plate of cracked-outed-ness?

Good times.

Every morning in the cafe in my building lobby, I take a look at the Oregonian headlines sitting in the newspaper rack. Our state newspaper. Our 2007 Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Newspaper.

The front-page headlines are always utter crack, though, that make you go "...?"

Like today's FRONT PAGE HEADLINE:

"Dude, Where's My Iceberg?"

For those of you going "....", I can explain! There was a picture of a cute polar bear underneath and discussion of Bush and Endangered Species Lists and all that. For those of you still going "......", now you know how I feel every morning.

P.S. For those of you who have been going "DUDE, WHERE'S YOUR FANFIC!?" my new website is coming along in a sort of progress-y manner! By the end of the weekend, fo' sho', my fic will once again be available on the intertubes.

Current Mood: weird

Hrm. My sister's boyfriend just drank a whole bottle of wine and isn't wearing any pants, and he's about to meet her parents for the first time. This makes me LOL quite a bit.

It also makes me feel a little neurotic for stressing out so much about how the floor hasn't been steam-cleaned when the parents are required to love me. And even if I don't keep a disinfected house, I'm totally wearing pants!

That's not even the strangest thing I saw today, either. I went out to my interview with the peeps what work with hydraulics today, right? Their plant is in the industrial ~~wasteland~~ strip mall between Northwest Portland and Jantzen Beach, which is a lot farther than I thought it was. On the way, I passed Portland's Premier Self-Service Auto Wrecking.

!?

You can wreck your own autos? Without supervision? More importantly -- if this is the premier Self-Service Auto Wrecking facility in Portland, does this mean there are perhaps others, and that this might be a booming Portland industry of which I was previously unaware?

I am such a little stressball right now I feel sort of incapable of actually doing anything on my pressing immediate to-do list, and have absolutely no idea what to do with myself. My newest source of stress is the realization that once I manage to find another job, I will actually have to learn another job. Holy crap. Wah. I sort of feel like I need a beach vacation to recover from the job hunt instead of, you know, starting another job. ;)

This entry did not to a whole lot to put things in perspective for me. Perhaps, for that, I will need to get drunk and take off pants?

Current Mood: stressed
Current Location: Aloha Island Abode
Current Music: "Everything Zen" - Bush - Sixteen Stone

By the way, not dead from that crazeh Pacific Northwest storm system that CNN has been going on about. Relatives called me in a tizzy talking about hurricane-level winds, and I was all "dude, SERIOUSLY!?" But apparently so. We live in the valleys, though, so it was a pretty sissy hurricane down here.

But yeah, it was moderately wild. No power for a few days in this area, though my immediate neighborhood was only out for a day or so. A tree almost fell on my car while I was driving!! That was exciting. Okay, I exaggerate for dramatic effect -- the tree was at the end of the block when it cracked in the wind and fell over, and moderate brake-slamming meant that there was no injury or death -- but it was still in my field of view and all. And it was a big tree. That same night, the light railway went out stranding Gira downtown, so I had to drive there and get her -- no power to the stoplights and crazy rain and PEOPLE'S PATIO FURNITURE AND ROOF SHINGLES AND TREES FLYING ALL OVER THE ROAD. (Shush, Floridians! This is new to me!) Follow-up activities included a freak hailstorm the next day that was like being inside an ice crusher (we neglected to make daquiris, though), and then a power distribution center lighting on fire and everyone who'd just gotten power back on losing it again.

In other news, Spike TV has started a Voyager marathon, All Day Every Day This Week of The Best Episodes Evar. Gira, ever the snarky one, asks, "How can they fill an entire week with 'the best episodes' of that show?" But it's been a kick watching the first season highlights this evening, because they are so CUTE and naive and we get to reminisce about crushes on Chakotay and how I looked up to Janeway (I DIDN'T KNOW YET that she was going to become completely bonkers and turn into a gibbering nutjob locked in her quarters, OKAY!?) and we watched those first season episodes so often we 1) wore down the tapes and 2) without having seen them since, can still quote most of season 1 verbatim. Enough for me to go "HEY! You cut out that line where Seska tells her she should have broken more than his nose! YOU SYNDICATED BASTARDS!"

I love early-season idealistic Voyager. LOVE EET. Love Tom as The Bad Influence and B'Elanna as the troubled teen misfit who wants Janeway's approval and Kes all fresh off the farm and Harry, like, having something to do. As always, y'all should rec or write me fic from that era of feet-finding cuteness! :)