Okay, I should be galavanting in Portland somewhere. I did wake up at 5:30 a.m., had some breakfast with the family and then, when they left for work, I buried my head in the book I brought (Mary Karr's Lit). After the reading (which is hard to stop; however, I'm pacing myself so I have some left to read on my return), I decided to walk up to the nearby Safeway and get some groceries for dinner. It's one of those Safeway's wherein dwells a Starbucks, so I had a brief coffee + Cranberry Bliss Bar moment. I'm so not doing like the locals do. Am I 100% Floridian now? Any direction you walk out the front door of this house, there's no less than 28 independent coffee shops within a mere mile. Supporting homegrown business? Wait, how does that work again? I did bring cloth bags to the store (that's something I do in Florida, but with less religiosity than my Portland self), but not enough for everything I bought, so I was shunned by the stroller mom set. But now I'm back at the family computer safely away from the perfect granola moms, both typing and distracted by the neighborhood view of the evergreen firs. These are huge trees. Huge like monster.
So my travels yesterday had me in Houston for a couple of hours. I gave a HIYA! shout-out to my three favorite Austinites on take-off (Corley, Lauren "Austin-by-way-of-Korea," & Ellie) and then, after that little gleeful moment, my reality for the next 4.5 hours was such: sitting next to a loudly snoring "fighter", like a boxer, with a habit of elbow-jabbing me in the ribs everytime he woke up startled. It sucked. But the kind of exciting moment was the film: Julie & Julia. So cute! Perfect plane movie. Also: the story of Julie was most darling. I was drawing comparisons between myself and her: turning 30, difficulty finishing something you start, drab government job, etc. And then I was like wow: I can't even blog for thirty straight days, let alone with a theme. But in the end, it was very inspiring in that stupid Hollywood way that kind of gets at you. I was happy for the distraction.
Well, the sun is out and if you are familiar with the cliche, golden light doesn't happen in Portland so often, especially in the late Fall. So I'm going to head out there, take a walk and buy some fresh flowers. Or something like that. A little bonus chimney smell never did me any harm.
2 comments:
Portland sounds so great. I would love to visit sometime. My friend whose blog I sent you lived in Portland for a very long time and has nothing but good things to say about it.
I loved the movie, "Julie and Julia". I saw it last week and really enjoyed it. I feel the same way too regarding "what am I doing with my life?" and I am sure others can relate as well.
Have a nice time with your family!
ugh, i SO know what you mean about florida and independent shops. we were just bemoaning our dearth of independent breakfast joints yesterday. i mean, good god, people. open up a business already! i'd do it if it wouldn't kill me to get up early to prep food. like 4 am early. :p
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