it's been a bit warmer these past few days, in the fifties during the day. and even if it chilled a bit today, the sun came out and the city was resplendent in sunlight. and it wasn't just that lighter gray that portlanders call sunlight. one afternoon a few days ago, i met one of my coworkers outside the office. she said, "look at that sunshine!" i looked around and saw only gray skies, replying, "oh, you portlander..." but today: beautiful. so i convinced booth to ride the train with me out to cascade station so i could get a case for my new ipod at best buy and then stop in at ikea. it was clear enough today that we could even see mt. hood hazily looming in the distance.
the train wasn't crowded and it was nice to be outside, walking around.
and i'm much happier now that i have more coffee mugs and a drying rack for the dishes. however, when i went to city bikes earlier, i lacked a dollar for lubricant so i'll have to return tomorrow, and the woman i spoke to there said a tune up there would cost $75 which is a little rich to me right now. i'll see if i can't find someone to look at my bike for less. and i forgot to take my books with me, so now they're late and i'll have to go to the library tomorrow. furthermore, even though booth got off the train at 42nd and hollywood to go to trader joes, our arms were already carrying our ikea purchases and i forgot shopping bags, so we bought just some dinner for this evening and i'll have to return tomorrow.
so booth and i will eat some dinner, drink some beer(obtrusive sidenote: drunk, walking home last night, booth and i stopped into zupan's market for "snacks" which i took to mean more beer which i didn't drink when we got back, so now i'm drinking deschutes inversion ipa as i type), then the possibilities are endless. last night we went to a pub quiz at the belmont inn with helen and garrett at which i had a lot of fun even though i was unfortunately little help to the team. we still ranked at sixth from the bottom out of twenty. but i enjoy hanging out with helen and garrett. they're laid back, no drama; they're easy to talk to; and they're not the sort of people who party all night and i feel like i'm struggling to keep up with me. you know i like to be in bed by midnight most nights, especially now that i wake up so early. on tuesday, helen, garrett, booth, and i ate dinner together, drank some wine. it was nice, probably the highlight of my week. it's nice to get together like that, and we plan to do it hopefully once a week if we all find the time. on top of that, christina, a friend of helen's booth and i met when we flew out here to visit months ago, has just moved into town with her sister in the past few days, and i'm pretty excited to have more friends here.
i'm hoping everyone wants to get together for a little obama inauguration celebration on the 20th, even if just for a few drinks earlier in the evening at the blue diamond or our apartment. of course, holocene is also having a party that night and if others want to really go out, i'd be willing to loose a lot of sleep for obama. though to be honest, both of the opinion pieces by krugman and brooks today in the times were about how hard it's going to be for obama to pull off this economic "recovery." krugman doesn't think obama's stimulus ("stimulation" for those rural alabamians) plan is ambition enough. brooks said, "Maybe Obama can pull this off, but I have my worries. By this time next year, he’ll either be a great president or a broken one." i personally believe, or at least hope, that obama can be the greatest president, let alone pull us out of this financial morass. and hope was a big part of his campaign; it's why we voted for him. although we can't tell what exactly obama will be able to accomplish or will be willingly to do, the american public who voted for him hopes that he can at least help us with this tremendous crisis. which reminds me of my old standby fluxus aphorism, "demand the impossible and hope for everything."
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