west coast slacking

what i've decided about portland: the people who are rude in portland are generally people from portland. they have bumper stickers like: "slow down! isn't that why you moved here?" and variations of this have been said to my face, as when i was walking into the supermarket the other day and some crazy man with a crane was apparently angry that i didn't wait twenty minutes for him to walk up a ram and through a door, though i didn't hear much of his complaint because i was already in the store and on my way. in the same store today, i believe the man at the cash register was making fun of me. he kept talking to me in that slow, drawn out, california accent as we talked about honey crisp apples or whatever. he even went so far as to throw out a groovy or some piece of california patois at me every once in a while. his eyes were bloodshot, his hair long and gray, so i figure, sure, he is some old hippie from california: nice, but a little too "far out" to not be slightly annoying. he hands me my receipt, showing me how much i would have saved if i had a safeway card, tells me goodbye twice i think, then turns to the next customer. i begin to collect my bags when i hear him greet the gentleman behind me. the cashier's voice suddenly lacks any of the drawling california accent it had before; his sentences short, his speech rapid. i look at him, my mouth gaping, trying to understand what's just happened.

do i seem laid back and west coast to anyone else? i certainly don't see myself as such. i'm still a little too east coast for portland: i want to get there fast, i want to get things done, and i don't want to stop and have a nap or a snack or anything else. i mean come on, i don't even know what to do with a forty-five minute lunch at work. that's just way too much time with nothing to do but relax! so how is then that i seem like some young lazy west coast kid? i don't understand this at all.

portland. in the next few days, if i can manage to wake early enough and remember to take my camera, i'm going to try to publish here a few photos of my day as it is now shaped through a regular schedule. i see a portland at five o'clock in the morning that few others are privileged to see.