My pictures of Portland are posted to Flickr and organized into sets:
And a bonus...pictures of my grandpa's greenhouse in Quincy, CA taken a couple days before Christmas.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Portland Pictures!
My pictures of Portland are posted to Flickr and organized into sets:
And a bonus...pictures of my grandpa's greenhouse in Quincy, CA taken a couple days before Christmas.
Mad props
Fabulously Broke in the City just concluded an excellent series in which she detailed how to clean your closet, shop wisely and find your personal style. Get started on the series.
The same, but different
If you find the perfect shade of lipstick, it will be discontinued. If you find a great TV show, it will be canceled. If you find a great cafe, it will switch up the menu, the ambiance and the staff.
The third scenario's hitting a little too close to home right now.
I have this great French cafe I love to go to (or should I say "had" and "loved"?). It's steps from my building downtown, has a beautiful vintage-glam decor with black and white marble floors, beautifully upholstered chairs, a vintage settee and gold mirrors and tables. The food was excellent, the chef (a real French chef!) was often around giving out freebies, and the place was always manned by the same three or four women.
One of the staffers, a girl with ever-changing colors in her hair, nearly always took my order and started learning that I loved the turkey ciabatta (with pesto, mushrooms and cheese), and she began making it just as I walked in the door. Now that's service. Also, the sandwiches always came to a simply dressed, delicious salad on the side. A perfect lunch for a good price.
A few weeks before Christmas, though, the place closed, with a vague announcement that it would be reopening in 2008. I checked today as my stomach was rumbling for lunch and sure enough, it was open again! Yay!
I walked in and...the place was different. None of the usual women were there; in their place were a whole horde of girls, all wearing hats. Some were wearing berets (ick), some other styles of hats. The menu, posted above the counter (which was also different), had been pared down. They still had the turkey ciabatta, so I ordered that. The girl took lots of time processing my order, and the charge was a bit more than in the past.
I sat down at my table and waited. And waited. One of the new employees stood up and addressed everyone in the cafe: "I'm sorry, it's my first day. Who ordered the ___?" Another of the employees came up to me and asked if I'd ordered Diet Coke. No, I hadn't. I continued reading my book, every so often looking up to see if the kitchen area behind the counter looked any less chaotic or disorganized. It didn't.
After about twenty minutes, a girl came by with a plate of French macaroons. You know, the delicious saucer-like ones. She offered me one because of the wait, and I gladly took it. Delicious! I waited some more, and the confused girl from earlier brought me a large mixed-green salad with goat cheese, dried fruit and walnuts. She explained it was on the house because I was still waiting for my actual order. I was confused, because the cafe used to serve salad on the plate with the sandwich. But I dug in, and it was excellent.
Finally, my sandwich appeared. Instead of being paired with more salad, there were chips. Not very French, but I was already full of salad anyway.
Everything was delicious, and I was hungry enough to eat it all. Still, I'm not sure if I want to go back. The competent, fun staff has clearly been replaced with a bunch of flunkies, and the owner, Thierry, was nowhere in sight.
(Postscript: I checked the cafe's website and it says the downtown cafe is "under new ownership." Darn!)
What should I do? Transfer this story to Yelp, where the cafe's reviews are already mixed? Tell my co-workers, who all enjoy the same cafe? Keep going back, as the service is sure to improve over time?
The third scenario's hitting a little too close to home right now.
I have this great French cafe I love to go to (or should I say "had" and "loved"?). It's steps from my building downtown, has a beautiful vintage-glam decor with black and white marble floors, beautifully upholstered chairs, a vintage settee and gold mirrors and tables. The food was excellent, the chef (a real French chef!) was often around giving out freebies, and the place was always manned by the same three or four women.
One of the staffers, a girl with ever-changing colors in her hair, nearly always took my order and started learning that I loved the turkey ciabatta (with pesto, mushrooms and cheese), and she began making it just as I walked in the door. Now that's service. Also, the sandwiches always came to a simply dressed, delicious salad on the side. A perfect lunch for a good price.
A few weeks before Christmas, though, the place closed, with a vague announcement that it would be reopening in 2008. I checked today as my stomach was rumbling for lunch and sure enough, it was open again! Yay!
I walked in and...the place was different. None of the usual women were there; in their place were a whole horde of girls, all wearing hats. Some were wearing berets (ick), some other styles of hats. The menu, posted above the counter (which was also different), had been pared down. They still had the turkey ciabatta, so I ordered that. The girl took lots of time processing my order, and the charge was a bit more than in the past.
I sat down at my table and waited. And waited. One of the new employees stood up and addressed everyone in the cafe: "I'm sorry, it's my first day. Who ordered the ___?" Another of the employees came up to me and asked if I'd ordered Diet Coke. No, I hadn't. I continued reading my book, every so often looking up to see if the kitchen area behind the counter looked any less chaotic or disorganized. It didn't.
After about twenty minutes, a girl came by with a plate of French macaroons. You know, the delicious saucer-like ones. She offered me one because of the wait, and I gladly took it. Delicious! I waited some more, and the confused girl from earlier brought me a large mixed-green salad with goat cheese, dried fruit and walnuts. She explained it was on the house because I was still waiting for my actual order. I was confused, because the cafe used to serve salad on the plate with the sandwich. But I dug in, and it was excellent.
Finally, my sandwich appeared. Instead of being paired with more salad, there were chips. Not very French, but I was already full of salad anyway.
Everything was delicious, and I was hungry enough to eat it all. Still, I'm not sure if I want to go back. The competent, fun staff has clearly been replaced with a bunch of flunkies, and the owner, Thierry, was nowhere in sight.
(Postscript: I checked the cafe's website and it says the downtown cafe is "under new ownership." Darn!)
What should I do? Transfer this story to Yelp, where the cafe's reviews are already mixed? Tell my co-workers, who all enjoy the same cafe? Keep going back, as the service is sure to improve over time?
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Amendment
As an amendment to my #1 New Year's Resolution:
Rather than setting aside $500 in a separate account for clothes, I'm going to set aside $1200 ($100 a month) in a separate account as a "slush fund" to cover clothes, jewelry, eating out (funds for groceries and food purchased at the farmer's market will come from my main account), and other miscellaneous expenses like movie tickets and bar tabs. We'll see how this goes!
Rather than setting aside $500 in a separate account for clothes, I'm going to set aside $1200 ($100 a month) in a separate account as a "slush fund" to cover clothes, jewelry, eating out (funds for groceries and food purchased at the farmer's market will come from my main account), and other miscellaneous expenses like movie tickets and bar tabs. We'll see how this goes!
Some preliminary observations about Portland
Portland is not a fashionable city. However, it makes up for the glut of North Face rain jackets and chunky boots by its bookishness, appreciation for art and beauty, and in-your-face liberalism.
Though threads from North Face, Patagonia, and REI reign supreme, I did see some sparklingly fashionable folks sporting wool peacoats and such. And I'm not one to judge because I was not looking my best. I quickly formed the habit of donning about six sweaters, a periwinkle fleece hat borrowed from my aunt, and a pained expression.
If anything, Portland is an anti-fashion city. If my cousin is to be believed, there are lots of smoking hot indie girls with wonderful fashion sense; they shop mostly at secondhand stores. Besides the indie style elites, though, everyone's more or less wearing the same warm winter wear, so no one's judging on looks or style. Which is sort of refreshing. It opens the door to differentiate yourself by the book you're reading, the company you keep, and so on, rather than what you're wearing.
(Perhaps Portlanders are more fashionable in the warmer months. This is entirely possible. I mean, it's often hard to look good when it's wet and cold. I may have to return to Portland in the spring/summer to investigate!)
Portlanders are nice (perhaps because they enjoy beautiful digs at rock-bottom prices). Everywhere I went, people were sweet to me, whether I was buying stuff from them or not. In the cafe at Powells one day, I ordered a sandwich and chai, and felt no compunction plopping down next to a stranger at the big library tables they have in there. I felt a certain camaraderie as I browsed my book and inhaled my food and drink. No one shot me weird or dirty looks, and I think I got the eye from a few hot young bucks (call me, loves!). It was a really good feeling.
Downtown Portland is pleasant and mostly free of homeless people. Portlanders may disagree, but I'm telling you: Portland does not have a homeless problem compared to San Diego or LA. Let me give you an example:
I work in downtown SD and spend lots of time poking around. What's jarring about downtown at lunch hour is that there are white-collar businesspeople, homeless people, and not that much in between. You do not get the feeling that there is much of a middle class.
In addition, downtown SD and the surrounding neighborhoods (including my neighborhood of Hillcrest, which is one of the most high-rent and fashionable neighborhoods) are crawling with homeless people. It's rare to walk more than a block without encountering one. Horton Plaza downtown is especially bad; at all hours of the day and night, there is a group of at least 10 homeless people, openly panhandling and smoking pot. They do not prevent Horton Plaza from being a pleasant place, but they are a very visible presence.
In contrast, in Portland, I saw maybe one homeless person my entire stay. Walking the streets, I felt absolutely safe, even when staring at my tourist map. No one propositioned me, hassled me or hollered at me from a passing car - common occurrences in San Diego.
(Side note: I don't fear or hate homeless people, but they reflect a certain locale's safety net - or lack thereof. Though Portland may have as many homeless people as San Diego, I get the distinct impression they are taken care of much better in Portland than in San Diego. Or perhaps they were merely hidden in Portland. Who knows!)
Portland is beautiful. There are lots of historic buildings, landmarks, bars and restaurants. I especially loved all the old Victorian houses, fancy mansions around Washington Park, and the high-rise loft buildings in the Pearl District. We have restored Victorians in San Diego, too, but I almost feel they fit in Portland better. Somehow they mesh well with the bare branches of winter, rain-drenched streets, and gray skies. I took lots of pictures of my favorite houses, which I'll be uploading shortly.
I'll start uploading pictures tonight. Highlights will include: old buildings! Animals at the zoo! Plates of food before I licked them clean! More old buildings! New buildings! My cousin's cat! Old crap at the antique store! ...and more!
[Edit: Added photo of a random church that I snapped from my cousin's car.]
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Eat My Shorts, 2008
I sort of have a problem with resolutions. First of all, most people don't keep them, so they just became an exercise in bullshit posturing. Secondly, while I have no objection to self-improvement, I think some people take it too far. Always striving to be better can make you terribly unsatisfied with who you are, what you have and what you've accomplished.
So, keeping those things in mind, I'd like to strike a balance: 80% celebrating what I have and who I am, and 20% growing. So here goes:
1. Make more, spend less. Max out my IRA contribution and start being more vigilant about budgeting. Since my take-home pay continues to rise, I have no excuse for managing my money carelessly. Also, I am going to open a separate account for clothes purchases, with only $500 to last me the entire year. Oh yes.
2. Absolutely no shoe purchases. I'm not even going to go into DSW or the Nordstrom shoe department unless I am accompanying a family member or friend.
3. No hair-dyeing. I went in for beautiful red and brown lowlights a couple of weeks ago, and they've already faded. The cost just isn't worth it, especially since my hair is an attractive enough honey blonde in its natural state.
4. Get more involved with the community. This helps counteract the feeling of being an apathetic, entitled yuppie asshole, I'm told. I already volunteer at the Humane Society, but I should do more. I might get involved with the local group in support of my favorite presidential candidate, start tutoring children at the library, or get involved with the local lawn bowling association (hey, lawn bowling is hilarious).
5. Apply to grad school. (Getting in is quite another matter! Heh.)
6. Go abroad. Reconciling this with resolution #1 might be difficult, but I think I can manage a cheap trip somewhere.
7. Be honest yet kind. I've just about mastered honesty, but while I certainly have kindness in my heart, it doesn't always come through in my interactions with others.
8. Battle jealousy with gratitude. I've felt jealousy bubble up lately, and it's eating away at me. I think gratitude is a good way to keep jealousy at bay. Plus, counting your blessings is always a good idea. I might start making daily lists of good things that happened/things I can be thankful for. Totally cheesy, I know.
9. Make things. Cook good food, make beautiful art, take lots of pictures. Create beauty and capture it wherever I find it. This means going to the farmer's market EVERY Sunday (no excuses except vicious hangovers!) and wandering around the neighborhood taking pictures at least once a month.
(And if you'll excuse some kvetching...wait, actually don't excuse it. This is my own damn blog...)
Frankly, I'm fucking bummed right now. My rat is dead, my boyfriend keeps blowing me off which leads me to think he's screwing around, and after visiting Portland, I'm down about the insane cost of living here in SD. This year is not looking auspicious so far, though I will certainly not forget that it could be much, much worse. Sigh.
So, keeping those things in mind, I'd like to strike a balance: 80% celebrating what I have and who I am, and 20% growing. So here goes:
1. Make more, spend less. Max out my IRA contribution and start being more vigilant about budgeting. Since my take-home pay continues to rise, I have no excuse for managing my money carelessly. Also, I am going to open a separate account for clothes purchases, with only $500 to last me the entire year. Oh yes.
2. Absolutely no shoe purchases. I'm not even going to go into DSW or the Nordstrom shoe department unless I am accompanying a family member or friend.
3. No hair-dyeing. I went in for beautiful red and brown lowlights a couple of weeks ago, and they've already faded. The cost just isn't worth it, especially since my hair is an attractive enough honey blonde in its natural state.
4. Get more involved with the community. This helps counteract the feeling of being an apathetic, entitled yuppie asshole, I'm told. I already volunteer at the Humane Society, but I should do more. I might get involved with the local group in support of my favorite presidential candidate, start tutoring children at the library, or get involved with the local lawn bowling association (hey, lawn bowling is hilarious).
5. Apply to grad school. (Getting in is quite another matter! Heh.)
6. Go abroad. Reconciling this with resolution #1 might be difficult, but I think I can manage a cheap trip somewhere.
7. Be honest yet kind. I've just about mastered honesty, but while I certainly have kindness in my heart, it doesn't always come through in my interactions with others.
8. Battle jealousy with gratitude. I've felt jealousy bubble up lately, and it's eating away at me. I think gratitude is a good way to keep jealousy at bay. Plus, counting your blessings is always a good idea. I might start making daily lists of good things that happened/things I can be thankful for. Totally cheesy, I know.
9. Make things. Cook good food, make beautiful art, take lots of pictures. Create beauty and capture it wherever I find it. This means going to the farmer's market EVERY Sunday (no excuses except vicious hangovers!) and wandering around the neighborhood taking pictures at least once a month.
(And if you'll excuse some kvetching...wait, actually don't excuse it. This is my own damn blog...)
Frankly, I'm fucking bummed right now. My rat is dead, my boyfriend keeps blowing me off which leads me to think he's screwing around, and after visiting Portland, I'm down about the insane cost of living here in SD. This year is not looking auspicious so far, though I will certainly not forget that it could be much, much worse. Sigh.
Worst housesitting gig ever?
I am back in San Diego after a great time in Portland. Unfortunately my housesitter/friend found Charlie, one of my pet rats, dead in the cage this morning. What a way to start the new year, eh? On the plus side, Pinkie seems to be healthy and happy, and I plan to get a new friend for her this Sunday. Anyway, RIP Charlie, Dec 2006 - Jan. 1 2008. I'll miss you.
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