PS

I quit my job.
QUITTING THINGS IS AWESOME!

Beard score

Tonight I realised, in my head I rate places here by their "beard score".

I think this is self explanatory.

Specifics: the scale is from 1 through 10, the higher the score, the less I like the place.
Now just to clarify, it's not anything specifically against beards, it's just a good indication of hipster density.


The place I went tonight had a definite high score, 7 maybe 8.
Touted as a funk soul club, not so.
Oh no they're playing a mellow jam version of a metal song I used to like AND obviously still believing themselves to be funk.
I'm so afraid they're going to break out into a drum circle solo.
I'll just retreat to this corner. Oh no, that person has a beard score of 13!!
This is like beard score alley!
That's not even possible by the rules of my own arbitrary scale!!
He just raised the beard score of this entire place 1 whole point!
I wish I was in a dive bar full of angry old men.
That guy doesn't even have a beard and he's raising the beard score!
I gotta get out of here!

At which point I proceeded to pretend to hippy dance until I got out far enough to break into a run, and go home.
Overall I call it a successful evening.
Apparently I'm not ready to be in public yet.

So..

Yeah, work training was busy. Fell behind a little on life.
Jen had a day off and as I went to work she proclaimed "I'm gonna do all the errand things today!"
So yeah, I get home nine hours later or whatever to a beautifully cleaned and "winter" proofed house.

Success!

Oh yeah

So yeah, a week after I got here I got a job!
I work for a corporation. I talk to probably one hundred people a day.
This is excellent for my studies!!
They even gave me a shirt, it's incredibly effective at helping me be undercover.
This is deeply deeply strange.
I'm getting so much information I wanted!

So Halloween Happened...

HALLOWEEN!!!
Walking to Beth's to commence being way too excited about Halloween.
Ran into Jen on the way, she was biking around wearing her ghost costume making noises at people.

There's randomly fresh raspberry buttermilk cake at Beth's. Of course.
Everyone in the city was in costume it seemed, yeah Portland! None of the costumes were good, boo. Way to care more about having fun than obsessively crafting a costume like a crazy person PORTLAND. PFFT.
Jen and I walked a few blocks down to check out the giant (expensive) Halloween party in the warehouse-y area. We didn't want to go in, but we did stand for a long time in this narrow space behind the outdoor stage and listen to the bass.

YEAH HALLOWEEN



(Technically I was a rabbit, and Jen was a ghost, but Jen says we really went as "bad at Halloween". Success.)

More nature, mostly about stones.

Fast forward 2 weeks, Jen & I went to the Japanese gardens together. Pretty neat, but uh I realised not as good as the ones in Japan....I'm a dick. BUT they had a remarkable amount of different styles of stonework, or different  bits of the same stonework that were clearly done by different people. I loved it, and ran all around. Jen sat in the pebble rock zen garden the whole time, then practised walking without bending her knees.

Nature

I need some more nature! Portland is a small city but nonetheless totally a city to me... So this conversation happened:
ME: "Jen! Let's go to the nature, see what NW fall is all about!"
JEN: "Oh, have you been to the Fred Meyer parking lot?"