portland

So we were in Portland last week, which was a whirlwind of a trip, even by our usual ridiculous standards. The night before we left, I came home from a reading, sat down at my computer and worked from 10PM to 7AM building a website. Then I packed, slept for three hours, worked a half-day, interviewed for a (dream) job and left for the airport.

Of course I was stupid enough to post earlier about my body “adapting” to neglect, thereby jinxing myself into getting a nastier version of the cold Julia brought to Portland. A white-water rafting bachelor party in fifty-five degree water didn’t help things either, despite being a lot of fun. Fortunately I held myself together long enough to get through the wedding (more on that later), before completely losing my voice the next day.

We stayed in Wilsonville, which is a quiet suburb, about half an hour south of Portland, when there isn’t random, unpredictable (3PM on a Wednesday?) traffic. I hadn’t seen my great aunt and uncle in fifteen years, and my parents timed a trip out there to coincide with ours, so there was a lot of storytelling and relaxing. Do I really have to wait until I’m in my seventies before I can use the phrase “my afternoon martini?” I’m so long overdue to be a freelancer it’s ridiculous.

Portland seemed a quaint, very green, manageable city at first. There is an abundance of parks and a beautiful arboretum with a spectacular Rose Garden. We spent the first few days attending various pre-wedding events and spending time with my family while I intermittently worked on the website, edited a story to turn in for workshop and prepared for the wedding. It wasn’t exactly relaxing. I was also terrified about the wedding – my public speaking skills have been on a steady decline these last few years, in direct proportion to my alcohol consumption.

On the night before the wedding I realized that I had rotated my mental image of this city by 90 degrees, meaning that I thought East and West were North and South and only partially explaining the fact that I kept getting lost (ATTENTION PORTLAND BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION: People like to see signs BEFORE entrance ramps. Just thought you should know.), but more importantly, we spent almost all of our time in the SW, downtown, generic quadrant of the city. Julia soured on Portland quickly, but I knew something wasn’t quite right. Where was this uber-hip, artsy Portland that so many of our friends told us we’d love?

The wedding was at the David Hill Winery, with views that reminded us of Tuscanny. Evrything went off great. As the ceremony got closer, my nervousness was eclipsed by the pride and honor of having been chosen by Matt and Aimee to officiate. Their vows were wonderful, the sun came out, the reception was great and (as is required at all weddings he attends) our friend Vu did the worm. Unfortunately I was too sick to drink any of the wine. Sigh.

At the wedding, I humiliated Julia by challenging a local Portland couple we just met to help salvage her warped image of Portland by recommending some things to do the next day. The guy spent the next half hour drawing an amazingly detailed map with recommendations of coffee shops, record stores and the like. Not only was it an incredible gesture, he turned out to be the famous (and immensely talented) graphic novelist, Craig Thompson.

His recommendations were great, but more importantly, lead us to the right areas, where we could wander around and find our own little treasures (tons of great record and kitsch shops, an arcade that took nickels). The city has an astounding amount of funky, well-designed boutiques and coffee houses. All the Portland hype finally made sense. It has now made the short list of “places other than New York we could live.” We capped the night off by eating (by Craig’s recommendation) at Pambiche, which was by far the best Cuban food I’ve ever had. In Portland of all places.

After a brutal red-eye, during which my ears popped from all my head-congestion (and stayed that way for two days), we stumbled back home and I slept for 25 of the next 28 hours.