new look to ANDWELOVE today + stories from my car trip around the northwest. by: alexander

hi friends and loves…..  i have been without (much) technology for a week, embarking around the pacific northwest…. with lots on that to come.  but i’m back in portland

but HEY, DO YOU LIKE OUR UPDATED LOOK… hey, the new york times magazine does it, so will we!

and if you haven’t been to our site before (or have), do look at aboutANDWELOVE .  our beautiful picture is there, too.

so, last thursday my friend and i headed due east out of portland…  the only legitimate/planned/real goal was to visit a family friend of mine in rigby, id and get some kindly promised camping equipment and also to spend time in jackson hole (where i was born) and do some hiking…the rest was pretty much in the air and in the gas tank…      the pacific northwest has alllll so much to offer.  since rigby, id was a lengthy drive away, we decided we’d stay in the one and only idaho hostel, just outside boise, a renovated farmhouse turned hostel in the midst of cow fields, creeks, and a walmart.   not another guest arrived, so we had a night out in boise – a pretty quit imitation-like city….after some mexican food (in IDAHO) and a stop at the very dead, but still existing gay bar, the emerald club …  sadly, just a small handful of locals were there and big, empty, dance floor was no inviting.  the clubs sign read “straight-friendly”….  what a turn of events in this america, right…  we live in the DAY OF AGE that the only idaho gay bar posts in their signage an “OK” for straight people to come on in.!

the next day we took rural roads to pass craters of the moons national monument in central idaho

me on the moon

friends in rigby idaho showed us a good time and donated all great gear suzy, and pals will be using in just 2 weekends all around oregon (did you hear news that dylan is confirmed today, it is on!).   and a fun night of driveway beers and fireworks and chicken salad!  praise america!

the next day’s small drive was just over the pass in jackson hole, wyoming

thrilled to be home (well, passport and birth certificate home)

with patrick above the big JH

the beloved tetons and teton national park

moose!

jenny lake

(suzy, did you know aspen trees were my favorite kind every, not just seeing how you work where you work and all)

i fell in love with an amazing blue grass band playing at the mangy moose, in teton village, wy…  they were called HEAD FOR THE HILLS and they rocked the place out….  i already downloaded their album from itunes!

we left wyoming and headed the back roads up to missoula, montana – my new favorite place to maybesomeday move/get a house/visit often…  it is a teeny liberal/hip/young/gayish/smartish tiny town in western montana.  it houses U of Montana, so acts somewhat as a college town.. but with breathtaking scenery, cool people, cool music, local indie papers, colin meloy of decemberists is from there, gay bar, coffee shops, live music, riverfront, and so on … it is small and cheap and awesome, so let’s go!  i recommend for cheap: the city center motel, walking distance from all the good spots on higgins.  and food and wine is good at the old post, sit outside in back if it’s summer.  the gay bar, “amvets” (yes because it exists in and alongside the very old missoula america veterans club space,  how weird, has supposedly crazy mixed fun crowds all weekend long.  not so much my night there – monday.   all in all, love missoula.

not to mention, missoula is just mere hour or so from flathead lake, montana – a breathtaking and quiet lake.  i did some canoeing that started very fun but has some work-real-hard- parts i wasn’t expected…  i jumped in the lake afterwards.

and also not to mention, missoula is just a fast 3 hours from glacier national park.  WHOAZERS

back side of tetons, eastern idaho

and some final and favorite pics from glacier national park<<<<<<

SO, GOOD STUFF LOVES<EH?

do take a look at all my pics taken along the road this past week at my PICASA ALBUM ! (and no fear, it isn’t ALL the pics, its an edited handful that i’m sure you will really enjoy!)

some rilke, from suzy <3!

“If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is not poverty and no poor, indifferent place. And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sounds – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attentions to it. Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance. – And if out of this turning-within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not.”

- Rainer Maria Rilke

ps: i think i am done the absolute hellish work project i have been doing for so long. lets all collectively cross our fingers and see! if its not, i guess i just have to be a poet about it and find some richness in there somewhere, huh;)

pictorial of md, nj, ct, ma, nh, pa, and ny

alex, you are right about being in ny/portland but not really generally being in ny/portland. i just uploaded my pictures from about three weeks ago to this weekend. here is a whirlwind tour of what i have been up to:

from space 1026 in philly

from space 1026 in philly

house where the wedding was

crazy house in the poconos. they have been having 4th of july parties here for 25 years!

my dad brother and back of my head, on my uncle’s boat

yale art museum

and… back to nyc

Things about seattle pride, my picasa web album, and off to spend a week on the road. Goodbye-Alexander

Suzy, friends…  It’s somewhat funny I thought that this blog was always mainly centered around the crazy/lovely/good and bad happenings in our cities… which for so long we NYC and LA and yet, not really those places, since we don’t really stay in those or any places.  I feel like I’ve been in Portland, longer than I have, naturally… as these few months sure have been packed in, but I also feel I’ve already been off to Seattle, SF, the coast, the hills, weekends getting storage from Nevada, etc.    And here I go the month of JULY and big GOODBYE… I love it this way.

This last weekend I headed to Seattle to see good pals and be silly at the gay pride festivities…. of which we did.

After tomorrow I’ll be embarking on a car ride…  via hostels in Boise, friends in eastern Idaho, to my hometown in Wyoming and a few days and nights and the 4th and hiking and visiting…  then we ride back via small town Montana and Washington and back into Oregon…. maybe 5 states.  Holy Travels!

I’ll be happy to be doing all this with my new camera in hand…  finally something artful will be in my mind at time… not just beerful.    Sometimes both.

I decided for now, I will upload my favorite pics from time to time to my picasa album on google… they are easy to upload to, easy to share, easy to view and that way I can show off more photos than I would prefer to do on here.

SO PALS, BE SURE TO NOT THAT I WILL BE MUCH MORE CONSISTENT UPDATES ALBUMS HERE AT http://picasaweb.google.com/lavake (full screen viewing works great!!)

And unlike the previous albums full of hundreds of photos, the new albums will be highly edited so only the beat of photographs get passed along…

check out a few from Seattle Pride HERE

HAVE A BEAUTIFUL SUMMER JULY HOLIDAY , if thats what this weekend is for you… and if it is nothing or anything else, enjoy love and peace and laughter!

seattle friends…

bernie madoff, tibetian monks, and another bus ride. {luv suz}

another busy last week, another busy past weekend. working long long hours at multiple jobs, again. traveling away from my city on the weekend to other cities to do a bunch of stuff, again. all in all, its good and great. but i still feel like i havent sat down in a long time.

took a bus from philly this morning in some antic attempt to make it to my office at a decent hour. the bus fills up with all sorts, and included in the cast is a bunch (gaggle?, flock?) of tibetian monks. i love this, and find it curious.
it was a china town bus, and our route into ny was through lower manhattan. we are suddenly in tons of traffic and i am watching the minutes tick by (a habit i dont usually subscribe to, but was trying to get to my desk this morning). i look out– where are we? whats the problem? and, we are in front of the courthouse, and there are hundreds of people there. for bernie madoff’s trial. the monks get off here. why, i wonder?

a guy that didnt look like a religious kook, or any sort of kook, at all, is standing outside the mob of people with a sign that says ‘to forgive is divine.’ i wonder if the monks had a similar motive for being there.

or maybe there were just in town for some good chinese, and got off the bus a little too early.

ok- off to drink some raspberry wheat beer (yum!) and then take a walk in this beautiful weather (yes!). the perfect weather of life; a summer night, not hot, a little breezy. something you want to bottle and keep.

[[[lots of work this week, and then a wedding followed by family stuff this coming weekend. and on and on and on. whew! BUT so soon it will be portland-time for me:) cant cant wait. ]]]

have a good night everyone. enjoy the weather, and maybe find a little forgiveness in your hearts so that scumbags like bernie might become better, loving people! <3

OH SUZANNE IS SO TRUE BELOW! + Fathers Day VS. Summer Solstice + Summer is here!! (Posted by Alexander in Portland)

TECHNOLOGY

Suzy, your quick blog below should be so so elaborated on…. pages, volumes….  what media has gone and turned itself into in such a fast fast moment of time, that our progressive thinking college experience just 5 years ago seems so trite.  I guess it was impossible to see it coming, as tech/media itself seems like a creature on it’s own path and we just adapt to it.  Do you think that?  I know its human-made yet I can’t drop the ida that the twitters and gmails and virals are all just getting to be SO much bigger than us…

I feel like everyday I hear a new and interesting author talk in the radio about a new book on twitter or social networks…  I am really interested in the social aspect.  (Remembering I am without twitter/fb/and am ex to mspace, not to say I don’t spend a significant amount of time checking email on my phone, reading blogs, etc.)  I do wonder what the effects of this electronic celebrity was all have has on our people.   One book is out called something to the effect of “you’re not that important” about how the self satisfaction of telling the world what color we have on that day will soon break apart and these tweet sentiments will fade.  Then again I just suppose I’m just being part of the “I’m too cool for facebook” crowd, which in a sense is just as annoying – yet I did use myspace and I don’t like how it absorbed me, thats mainly why I stay away.

Another aspect is the Hollywood celebrity…  from my short stint there and the little big of stardom I cam close to I started to think that really the majority of these people are passionate about acting, art, (& money) and that the trails of their US WEEKLY lives were just part of the downside, yet now to see how many of these tv and movie stars (not just the pop culture ones) are doing twitter and perpetuating the exploitation of their everyday lives… guess they are really liked it anyway.. hey now they have control instead of the gossipy magazines and websites… eh.

This could go on forever… my head stars to spin and more than all of it, I’d rather think about your big trip here and the things we’ll see and the woods we’ll explore.   There is starting to be a lot of us and I like it… maybe we’ll figure out 2 cars… or rent a yucky big SUV.. that WOULD be fun.  And then have the ability to be out in nature more than just a night…

SOLSTICE

SO yesterday was Father’s Day and I have to point out my somewhat eccentric father (who’ve you met!) for years has found these holidays pretty meaningless but yet I often like to call to hear his sarcastic reaction… this time after talking a bit I said “you know it’s fathers day”.  He said, “Oh is it that bull shit today?  You know, I had to read the bible as a kid 12 times and it never mentioned that Father’s Day bull shit once.”  -  He has a point.

To make the event weirder…  I went to a yoga class and the teacher (a hippie dippy surfer yogi, if you can imagine) mentioned at the start of class it being father’s day.  Ok, I kinda ignored it and it didn’t effect me, or my father for that matter.  But what’s funny is a STUDENT spoke up to say “It’s also Solstice”, to which the teacher agreed and mentioned. I just thought it fucking strange  yogi mention the hallmark holiday over the astronomical one.  HM.

Well, it looks like, being unemployed, not sure what to do with myself (for work) but having some savings and leftover unemployment insurance from bankrupt CA the summer is starting to unravel..  I’m in a whole new place and love it.  I’m road tripping to Jackson Hole to explore and camp (JH is my birth home!!! and I haven’t been in 4 years and haven’t EVER been there as an adult w/o family… if that makes sense.)   I might hop up to Seattle for gay pride this weekend.  I will be at my mom’s in PA a week of July… then you are all here end of July…  loves it.

weekends, iran, cab rides (by suzy)

‘ello.
i am feeling a bit better. i was spinning off center from too much travel and too much work for a little while there.
i took a self imposed hibernation for most of today, and feel much better for it.

thoughts from the weekend: i took a $150 cab ride to white plains for a shoot that someone needed me for IMMEDIATELY! what the hell. they paid for it… bizarre night. but i got a free room in the ritz carlton, and, they gave me money for a cab ride back, and i took the $7 metro-north into grand central, so, i made out with a bit extra;)

i will take a picture of the receipt later and post it. i had to keep it. it was such a crazy experience.

so iran/twitter/wtf?
new york times, cnn, everyone has to write about the ‘opposition leader’s facebook page was updated with the following information’, and ‘twitter is ruling the agenda on what happens for the moment’. A-mazing. who would have thought we would see this day? these types of things were NEVER brought up in our media classes, were they? this is what i wanted to discuss all along: media and how it shapes power, politics, opinions, actions. instead we talked about media buying, when to purchase commercial slots for the most bang for your buck in a given demographic range. ugh. and my teachers in my politics courses were always so confused when they found out i was an advertising major. i seemed passionate about politics. i was! but advertising. yes! they all tie in! but for some reason my teachers thought i was bat shit crazy. maybe in college i was a bit more batshit crazy, but, i swear, i had a grand plan.

and currently that grand plan is;;;; getting the most out of my sunday night that i can. doing some work from home in a bit so i dont have to go to office til mid-day tomorrow. going to a photoshoot w a friend in a little bit. here are some pg-ish(?) pics to illustrate what my life is like right now, and what it may be like more often if i am done with dayjobbing soonish… wishes on stars and crossing fingers. love to you all, of course of course.

suzy has not been posting= RAIN in NYC

hello alex, world, readers.
i have not been posting, for a few reasons, but mostly because it has been RAINING in new york city almost every day for the past two months and i simply cannot deal with it. everyone is becoming so uninspired. ugh. we are wearing sweaters in mid-june, and have not enjoyed many days of basking in summer weather.

ahhhh.

whats up with all this rain in nyc?

vegetables, flowers, cameras, and more – from A

I spoiled myself today with a credit card and finally put back in my hands a good quality professional SLR camera…. I was going to call you and ask you what most of the photographers you work with use – at least what is the bigger name brand?  But no matter, I got all anxious for it asap and I  got a mid-grade Cannon DSLR and I’m just so glad to have a camera again… I sold a professional Olympus some time in LA and have only had a stupid point and shoot or iPhone.. so now, new projects,newart, new things!

I’m quick writing to you… I wanted to show off that I am eating a wonderful salad made from lettuces from my garden…  raspberries from my yard.. chives, beets, radishes…. all grown outside the window I sleep through!  And it must be true that the best energy and nutrition in any food item is something that was just picked moments earlier, still warm from the sun of the day!  YUMMMY.. I topped my lettuce mix with avocado, tomatoes, cucumbers and sprouted chick peas… and I have a side of bulgar wheat in organic butter and chives!

And a beer.

Tomorrow I am going to head to a little hiking site where Salmon Berries are growing EVERYWHERE – they are like a blackberry native to the area – and pick buckets of them and make pies… also I’m bringing my new camera so I will have loads of pictures.   I think I might have to create a new site or blog to post larger versions of my new photos instead of fill up here.

We’ll see.

Great new yard improvements thanks to mom and friend in town all weekend.

LOVE LET US!

BURY LOVE!

quotes and coast (A)

There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Well, I’m off to the Oregon coast for the night.. I will discover all kinds of amazing things for us to do on our trip!!

LIFE death art and buses (by suzy)

i know of two deaths this weekend. one, maybe two, almost deaths.
one of the almosts was very real. very real and very scary and i keep thinking about it. (and am so glad you are ok!! <3 ) to hear about death makes me shaky and makes me know i am not living as i should be. i WASTE time. i do not show enough LOVE to the people i love! i was going to write 'the only way to not be scared of dying is to really live, so you have no regrets', but i am unsure if i think thats true. i think i can do that and still be scared… so, on that note, i will give you my handwritten notes from my trip to philly. they are about really living, in, some, sense:::

-i never doubted i would sleep in a hammock for an extended period of time.
- hats are useful for sleeping while on buses.
-i wonder why that guy isnt embarrassed to drive around w a mcCain sticker on his car?
-everytime i go back to nyc, its raining. is that a sign?
- (from later) it actually stopped raining this time. and my route from the bus stop to the R train takes me through the flower district, and today i passed many boxes full of rose petals. i think thats a sign, also.
- * I AM READY to be an artist.
-i pass a company housed in a huge huge building. it is called 'preferred freezer services'. i like things like that.
-i saw a sticker in PA that said 'All Else Failed'.
-i saw a puppy walking across a bridge in NJ.
- when i was analyzing my actions from the night before while at brunch the next morning, kyle said something that stuck w me for days… 'If I reflected on the night before, I would never leave my house.'
- i saw a sticker in northern liberties that said 'Fuck You if you can't take a Joke'.
- i split an entire vodka drink from a big red cup in the back of a cab. i gave the driver a $10 trip for a $4 ride and he didnt know why.
-i befriended an artist from san fran who was visiting philly for the first time, and i drank whiskey from a bottle with him in the back room of the gallery.
-i found out my friend who was deported to Myanmar is teaching english and is happy. so im happy.
-in the same day i read articles about how our generation is sick of chain stores, and boring porn. both talked about new, real, authentic living. that made me happy.
-the bus from philly to nyc had no AC, so we had to pull over and get a new one and it was a big stupid thing, but no one even complained, and now we are on a new bus and just fine.

the end. good luck living. i am going to try to start doing more of it and being better and more pure and cultivating more peace and beautiful things. <3

Monday Love Things By Alexander

Ah, Monday morning!  You and I live such non-conformist lives, yet I do take note of the vibe in the air on a Monday morning, everyone tired, cranky, not wanting it to be this day.  But as the unemployment rate grows, so do the amount of people on the couch like me this morning.  WELCOME!

Here is a pretty interesting article on the new idea of FUNEMPLOYEMENT – taking advantage of your new free time.  I mean, one can not really spend 40 hours a week “searching for a job”, so, have some fun on the beach on the other days.

HEY!  My pal Theresa gave me/blog a little shout out in her LA Examiner column on frugal living…..

and ONE MORE FINAL I LOVE YOU SUZY AND ALL MY FRIENDS AND ALL THE BEAUTIFULS OUT THERE… a dear, dear, dear friend of mine has suffered a very upsetting loss this weekend.   Her boyfriend of 2 years died tragically in a car accident in out hometown in PA.  He was 25 years old, a sweet, cute, wonderful guy and they had just moved in together less than a week earlier.  She was out in Seattle and I had just spent the night with her and the next thing we all know, a loved one has died and she was on a flight back home.    I have had such little, little experience with death of those around our age.   From a big, Italian family I have been to endless funerals, seen close relatives and distant somebodies die sadly, but there is such a different feeling I get inside, a much more unsettling one when a person leaves us so young.  What does that mean?  I just don’t know.  It’s almost too big for me to try to understand, so instead I will feel sad and confused and leave it at that.

wanting what you cannot have. (from suzy)

thank god this blog still exists. i got your email, and i was not in the state to blog at all this entire weekend, but i was so sad to get your email, and a few from friends too, saying the blog wasnt working. (people did notice!, fyi…) my mind went racing. what will i do without this blog? how will we ever get back all the things we said to each other, to ourselves, to the world?

i am not thankful for this on a day to day basis. but to not be able to have it, mentally it was all i wanted. what is that about people? we talk about it all the time with sexual things. ‘the chase.’ how if one person holds back a little then they are more wanted by the other person. why do we want what we cannot have? any way, i am glad to have this blog back.

i think i had one of the better friday nights in all of the friday nights that were happening all over the planet. i went to philly and did twelve thousand things. it started with good food and friends as always, and then an opening at a DIY-ish clothing store in northern liberties with free vodka and pineapple juice, and that sort of set the tone for the night. it was an adventure with lots of art openings, concerts, bars, new friends, parties, and finally falling asleep in a house someone was trying to sell that had no furniture what so ever in it. ha. and i was in town for a bachlorette party, and this was the night before any of that even happened!

i am now at my parents house in nj. its 6 am. i have a modeling job in philly early today, then, back to nyc. i will book a ticket to portland today. ive booked a bunch of gigs, so i may stay long like leah.

BACK/SORRY/WHATHAPPENED/PASTA? (from Alexander)

And perhaps no body even noticed. But some kind of mishap took place with the wordpress and I emailed to ask about it and was told we were providing links to some adult websites illegally.  I said this seemed like some kind of mistake, please check again. And they said,

Hi,
My apologies – it looks like there was a mistake.
Your blog is good and this will not happen again.
Sorry!

So Anyway.   As my dad has said numerous times,

“To err is human, to really fuck up requires a computer.”   True dat.

Now it’s a cool summer Sunday night in Portland.. My mom is here, we saw then new Pixar UP and it was GOOOOD and cute and I will take my kids to movies like it sometime.  Tonight, Sunday pasta – all homemade (meaning homemade pasta and sauce and organic sausage from the local Italian deli).

Tomorrow, massages!  What a life.

Are you listening to Bon Iver much.  We need right away to get the new “GOD HELP THE GIRL” album from Stuart from B&S…  I think it’s released this month and I hear so many good things.  I think he wrote most of it but to female vocals. And speaking of, I just read that Stuart Murdoch isn’t a drinker – did you know that?  Does that surprise you?  I think I find it just a wee unnerving that (because of his lyrics) I find out he isn’t a big indie rock star drunk!  wtf?  I guess it goes back to the whole “how sober is so in” right now.  Uhg, spare me.

AND, LEAH BOOKED!  So, when are you getting your ticket…?

CITY OF BORDERS documentary – loved by A

Hey All, especially in NY/LA areas:

I saw this really good well made moving funny sad documentary at the Portland Queer Film Fest last week… CITY OF BORDERS, about the riff in the gay community between the Jewish and Arab worlds in the middle east.  I learned a lot not only of the gay community, but those religious communities in general.  The idea that Palestinian queers are forced to dangerously cross the border into Israel where there is at least a small underground gay community that is accepting of them….

Well, I liked it a lot.  It was made by a South Korean film maker.   What a world.

It comes to both NY and LA in JUNE, So I encourage friends to check it out…. schedule is on their site.

the first for two things (1.seattle//2.a crow attack) from/alexander

SUZY!!

HI!!

It’s tuesday night, latish, half-watching sitcom reruns, half folding laundry, and half stopping to write to you….  I’ve been off line, spending all weekend in Seattle – the kind of weekend that I planned to “check out Seattle for  night or 2 and get home for yoga on Sunday” that turned into many days and nights of greatness…  met loads of good precious people from all over the country, all over the world, and oddly, a lot from Pennsylvania.  I  was lucky enough to be driven around in a convertible day and night with top down, 85 degrees.  Found time to skinny dip in Lake Washington (not my greatest moment, hating my swimming skills and hating water at night got to me fast and I was the first one panting and crawling back onto the dock to drink beers).   Checked out Pike Place and saw that same “first starbucks” that you posted a picture of.  (So I didn’t take one).   Also found a wee magic shop in the basement of Pike Place that is owned by a magic fan who has written books on my great great uncle Alexander, the place was loaded with giant posters of him… my namesake!  Or am I his namesake?  How does it work?  ///  What else?  ////  ///  I LOVED SEATTLE and will be back, be back…  especially if you folks are flying in SEATAC July before coming down to Portland.

But I get to go back Thursday, anyway to spend the day and dinner with an old friend from home/PA.  And rush back to Portland Friday when mom arrives in town for a stay.

Seattle was all the things one loves of the Pacific NW…  clean, green, happy, wet, cheap, sunlight until 10PM, hippie, open.  And this time even warm:

Downtown Seattle from Volunteer Park

Lake Wahington

Need friends with boats at sunset!

How cute and gay is this mess?

I meant to mention, this was my first time in SEATTLE …   of alllll the many American cities I have come at least to pass through, Seattle is a corner I hadn’t brought my feet into until now.

Since there is a first for everything, I should tell you what has turned my day upside down, as it would yours, I’m sure.

CROWS ATTACKING ME, MOTHERFUCKERS!

So, I went to bed fairly sleeps after my 4 day weekend of smiles and awoke this morning to SCREETCHING sounds out my window.  A bird, a big black bird.  SCREAMING.  CAWWWING.  CAWWW.

CAWWWW.

CAAAAWWW CAWWW.

Annoyed but lazy, I didn’t really do much but squince under a pillow and ignore it until I had to ready and go anyway. I spent the day doing some errands and other work and came home in the mood to work in the garden some, use my borrowed weed whacker to clean up the yard a bit.  The crow (and sometimes 2) is there SCREAMING and flopping from one tree to the other, back and forth, screeeetching.

FINALLY, I notice that there is a sick/maybe dead looking bird nearby, in my yard, near the garden and under a giant tree.   A little grossed out, I only slowly got close to see that it is breathing, fairly alive – and the crows begin TO CIRCLE AND SCREAM at me.   Thinking that what happened next never could be an option, I decided to at least remove the thing, perhaps trash it if it looked very ill.  (Sorry if this offends any PETA people).  So I get a paper bag and garden shovel and head over to the baby bird when OUT OF NOWHERE the mother fucking mother crow swoops open her huge wingspan and ATTACKS me with a peck of the beak or claws on the top of my head SO FAST.  I screamed (pretty girly) and dropped the things in my hands and ran around to the front door when the crow SWOOPED again and hit me on the back of the head just as I got onto the front porch and ran into the house.   To which it then perched near my house on the closest branch pointing and screaming at me whenever I went back outside.

The rest of the day is as expected…  as much as I tried to do outside I was under watch and often swoop of this bird, more prepared now, I did not get close to the sick one and when I was outside for a prolonged time period, I walked hunched and with a rake in my hand, ready to fight.   I was even followed for about 2 blocks with an occasional threat of a sweep that had me shouting obscenities at a crow in front of neighbors.   If they had missed the swoops and only saw me screaming at it, what would they think?

When I told my roommate I really had to go get some lettuce from the garden, the same end of the garden close enough to the baby to bring attack, he suggested I wore a bike helmet.   Which I did.  And cut my arugula and scurried in.

It’s midnight and quiet now, not sure what will happen, I’m hoping that the thing is either gone (healed and flew away or eaten by something else, I don’t care).  I don’t want to hurt it but more I don’t want that crazed mother crow looming around me.

Just a little curious, I’ve done some googling and it turns out that crows are the most likely bird to attack a human that seems to endager its fallen youth. I came across this to make me feel less alone…..  a response to a person in a very similar scenario:

Since you gave no indication of where you live, I have to guess on exactly what is happening. But, right now (late May) in most areas of the country crow babies are just fledging (leaving the nest). In the first couple of weeks that the young are out of the nest they cannot fly well and are very vulnerable to predation. They hide in the trees and the parents are very protective of them. At this time the parents will mob (attack) any potential predator in the area. Usually this means cats and dogs, but it appears that you elicits the same response. You are too big to risk getting too near. Just wait a few days and the fledglings will leave your yard and the parents will calm down. Try to keep in mind that these birds are not vicious fiends bent on your destruction, but merely dedicated parents trying to defend their own young in the best fashion they know.

from new york city, i think. williamsburg, i think (LUV SUZ)

and alex, that story is amazing.
and bianca, of course i have tons of hope for california, and i have full faith gay marriage will be legal with the next few years. those were just my off the cuff feelings about it all. i think written at 2 am, maybe after drinking. more to express emotion that a deeply thought out post… hope that makes sense!!!!!!

xo world. off to an office, again. in the rain, again. but someone who loves me is coming to visit, again, and i think it will be nice as always again.

BLESS THIS WORLD! (an experience by alexander)

Instead of explaining what just happened to me, I will post the criags list RAVE I just wrote and posted in Portland…

BLESS YOUR HEART FOR RETURNING MY MONEY (WellsFargo on Hawthorne/38th)

---

Reply to:pers-ysggh-1193892499@craigslist.org
Date: 2009-05-28, 3:26PM PDT

Today I stopped to get $60 out of the Wells Fargo ATM on SE Hawthorne and did the transaction and wondered off.. I got on the phone, distracted, etc and it was 20 minutes later at the coffeeshop I realized WHERE WAS MY CASH???… I frantically searched pockets, wallet. Had I dropped it? Had I even taken it? I walked quickly back to the ATM scanning the ground, as if 3 – 20 dollar bills wouldn’t have blown away or been picked up in 20, 30 minutes time. Back at the ATM I decided to let it go and grab more cash… but first something told me just to check inside with the bankers…. I explained the story and they asked “how much was it and which atm?” I answered and they handed me the 60 dollars that YOU, BLESSED STRANGER found sticking out of the machine and decided to return inside instead of pocket. THANK YOU. I LOVE YOU and I LOVE PORTLAND.

• Location: WellsFargo on Hawthorne/38th
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

california, you have let us down (by s)

dear califorinia,

for someone living on the east coast, when things arent as progressive as we want them to be here, we say ‘i wish i lived in california!’. i cant find cheap yoga classes with cool people here! i wish i lived in california.
i cant buy pot legally, not to mention no one in this state has had pot brownies at a party in years! i wished i lived in california.
i dont have a front yard like my friend alex did in that sweet house in LA, and i never will in new york city. i wish i lived in california!
i wish there were more cool hippies around here… i wish we cared about our environment more out here… i wish i could buy cheap avacodoes…

but you know what california- today you did not represent anything good or special or appealing. today you made the entire country and probably much of the world really upset.
today california did not represent a new land of hope and ideals and the utopian left coast is the best coast part of the country. today california, you let us down

sincerely,
i hope new york legalizes it first and makes you look even worse

http://can.imarrygay.com/in/US/CA/

graduation, how times lapses and leaps. (hearts, suzy)

alex, i have been thinking of this, too. i was in line at the bar at a concert last week, and the KIDS (haha, how sad of me to say) behind me in line were bitching about how early they had to get up for their graduation ceremony. “i have been up since 8:30. ugh, what a day!” a part of me wanted to say congrats on finishing the whole ordeal, and the other part wanted to smirk and say something about how in the working world, 8:30 am is sort of sleeping in! but i just kept my mouth shut.

the other kid went to school for acting and said he cant appear in anything until late 2010 because ‘his plate is just very full until then.’ i turned around to look at him, and while cute and young, he didnt seem famous or celeb-cute. just standard young 20s boy cute.

its so striking, to me, what you said;;; that we are doing things we never would have expected to be doing with our lives, however, we sort of knew we had it in us all along. as you know i am doing all sorts of things that i can only one day write a tell all book about, but until then, its just for me and a close few to ponder how and why. (and where is always fun!) if you asked me on our cheerful graduation day 5 years ago if i could do these things, my initial reaction would likely be a thoughtless no, and then upon examination, a hesitant, or maybe jokey yes, i guess i could do that…
because its not that i doubted i could do and achieve and bear all these things, its just, how and why would i get there, to actually doing them.

[[[[ one night years ago at a party, someone said 'people always say 'i would never do that', until suddenly you do it. and then its just another thing you have done.' weird sex stuff, drugs, getting hooked on bad daytime tv, etc etc. i see it happen all the time. its not all the profound, but i think about that sentence from time to time in life. its stuck with me. ]]]

the big scary ek omg fun next question is, where will we be in FIVE years from now? i have a feeling someones going to marry a rock star and score that european beach villa, but, i mean, i cant count on it. though, im not saying ‘i would never do something like that!’ heehee.

<3<3<3 and this memorial day weekend was lots of family things and day drinking and traveling though new york new jersey delaware and pennsylvania. cars and people with babies and all these suburban things, that do not remind me of my life, or of living in brooklyn. it was fun good and great, but now i am home without a car, without a family of four or a lawn to mow, and, i am content. <3

Sunny Sunday Notables…. (from Alley)

Good Day!

I found some pants that I bought in London that I kind of never really wore but never wanted to let go of either (I think I spent a lot of money on them to be all designery in Kensington when we lived on Queens Gate in 2003.)  I’m glad I kept them, they fit me still and they are pretty funky looking jeans and hear in Oregon I can sport whatever…

I was thinking that it’s just about these weeks we were taking last finals and finishing up papers and preparing for that crazy weekend of multi-graduation ceremonies in Philadelphia – FIVE YEARS AGO…   5 years ago was that time – now it’s this time, Suzy.  What did you imagine?  What has really, essentially changed in us and for us?  I know one thing: you and I both can admit that there are grand aspects of our private lives that we could never have dreamed of being our lives five years ago!  Yet, we knew all along, didn’t we!   There is such a duality in that.

I’m still hanging around in coffeeshops and bars with more reading material (and now laptop) that I will ever get through in one sitting.  That hasn’t changed.

What are your thoughts?

Can you remember 5 years ago’s desires for us?

Anyway,

this is notable:

It seems hospitals in the Houston area are dealing with a 25% surge in births this month – it being 9 months after Hurricane Ike took out power for days.   Guess you can only do so much when there is no tv and no place to go….. HAHA!

Wonder what other time periods show that micro increase in our lifetimes….?   We know a lot of babies are conceived in the springtime and after wartime, etc…. but how about on 9-11, or during a recession, perhaps?!

and

What is Conan O’Brian doing on the cover of the Sunday NYT Magazine?  Is NY making a big deal out of this late night change up?  Or do I only notice because I somehow still have a periphery on the television industry… (will that ever go away?)

Ok, I’m about to dive into the paper…. and probably pop back on with more notables my friends.

SUZY! You’re in paperback, I Love it! /// me, and other catching up games /// by AlexANDER

That is fabulous about the book, S!  I love being in print, especially physically!   HAHA and I like your haircut and I will see it in just a couple months – in person…  didn’t we go through a big “should I get my hair cut” debacle in LA and someone was going to come over my house but it didn’t happen?  Or it was all drunk talk somewhere?   Unclear.

Well, Portland is beautiful as ever… I went to SF and realized the cleanliness here is superior to anywhere…  and it is because the people living here all care… like, really, everyone… and so many other cities inhabit so many who don’t take pride and then there is comes, trash and crass on the street…..  NOT   I!

My lovely San Francisco was beloved as always… saw so many loves and new ones too!  Nori and Tess from LA were up for the Bay 2 Breakers marathon . and so I went for the extra curricular activities aka, sitting all 3 days in Dolores Park’s sunshine… surrounded by beauty!   Found myself a slip-n-side as well, you know me… it’s what I do..  (((photos below.)))

Back to Portland I’m cleansing on juices and mostly raw food this whole week and will continue as long as I can stand it, feeling really good and whole and clean.  ((((But still wouldn’t have minded spending the week many 6ams in Manhattan with YOU!)))

I wish I could have been sharing my whole weeks menus, why didn’t I?… they have been amazing… but tonight anyway: red mung beans (soaked last night) just lightly boiled for a few moments with diced celery, garlic, shallot, green onions from the back yard, kale and an array of spicyness.  also, green salad topped with yellow tomato, perfect avocado, some baked tofu and chia seeds tossed with flax oil and white vinegar.  so yum and simple.  dark chocolate in bed later!

Been sweating my ass off to help out at Hot Yoga.. man, haven’t ben doing the hot hot 105 degree yoga classes since a stint with it in college.. I used to go to a Hot Yoga class upstairs somewhere around Walnut and 17th or so… Man, Philly days are getting blurrier…

Never have I lived THIS close to a yoga studio, and hot damn its a good place with reasonable prices ($25 gets you an unlimited 2 wk intro… NEVER in NY babes…) not to mention a slurry of other hot yogis and teachers…

check em out… Yoga Union in Portland

and now a segment I call,

Sharing Picture Time With Alexander

first came the berfday fun…

LOOK SEE A JILL THERE ON THE RIGHT ON THE BENCH

Other berfday sillyness

san francisco.. look who i found there..

also found a slip-n-slide… it’s me.

OKOKOK OTHERWISE ALL… I just want to Prove the wonder of Oregon to ya’ll…. just so you know how happy and outdoorsy I get to be… here are some pics from a couple weeks ago, I took a few days to myself for some various nearby hiking… jump in the car with water and snack and drive a half hour or so and all this is to be found::::

(mt hood poking out)

(reserved for wildlife?  are we not that?)

shrooooms!

columbian river gorge

and down the street!

my backside is on the frontside of a book- cool!

hi world– cool news of the day is, no not the exciting/depressing news that i stayed out until 6 am yet again last night, but, that i am on the cover of a new novel!

check it out. i was sent a copy and it seems like a pretty good book.

suzy is going to the appollo to see will oldham

whewwwwwwwwwwwwhew its a good day.
even though officejob made me want to curl into ball, this, now, this music will be good. and will save my mental health yeah/

haircut (self indulgant suzy)

hey hey i finally got the bangs i wanted.
as a friend said, maybe i just want to be a little girl again.
this is seriously the haircut i had at 11.
o-well. is that is what i have to do to be happy, so be it.

bartenders (with hungover love from suzy)

a poem. about my life this weekend:

penned from a barstool
bartenders do think they are doing you a favor.
with nice conversation and free drinks.
but too many nights of this in a row, and all the daylight hours are spent in bed.
and, i feel like a waste of life.

so next weekend, bartenders of nyc,
thanks but no thanks.

Mid May Comes like sunlight… /Alexander

SUZY!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and texts, you know I don’t care who and who doesn’t remember that stuff…  it is a strange thing whose BDAYS we remember.  Easy to remember when people share a date (like you and My grandmother with your exactly 70 years diff)… also, I remember friends from early on, grade school, high school.  Not that I have that many, but I still can recall some birthdays…  college friends, not so easy.  I can usually remember the month.  And then work and later-life friends, forget it!   I do however, keep most loved ones written in my calender, which means in december every year when I get a new calender/planner, I sit and rewrite everyone’s birthdays for the year.  It’s fun.

I’m having coffee in bed.  It’s Friday, 8:30AM and chilly.  I have to catch a bus to a train to a plane in a couple hours to head to San Francisco for the weekend… Nori and Theresa will be up from LA and I can’t miss the chance…

The new Andrew Bird is good.  Jill brought me a shit ton of music… everyone should get a visit from Jill once a year because she always shares tons and tons of new music.  (Free!)

Also, is the east coast loving BLIND PILOT yet?  They are Portlanders.  Now touring with the Decemberists and I hope to see Decem’s with Andrew and Blind Pilot at a Oregon winery in July!

Blind Pilot on NPR:

Oh, and Suz, re Below: DISNEY…  why were you there?  You know I often really get judgmental about that whole ordeal…  the mickey mouse shirts on 3 years olds that were made somewhere else by 6 year olds.    And I always grimaced at my LA friend who loved popping over to D land…    yet I was at D world as a kid and loved it…  not to mention worked a few gigs for some awful ABC tv show, owned by Disney and I had to go onto the studio lot and deliver paperwork, where they would make me and my paper work go through X ray….  those paranoid nazis!

BUT STILL…  yes, I bet it was fun and if I was with friends and it wasn’t too crowded, I’d surely get off on all those rides.. I LOVE ROLLLLLERCOASTERS and the video you linked too was so cool and I’m missing that I no longer live a few minutes from major amusement parks, like in SF and LA… I loved bringing a flask and enjoying the day!

Well I love you and the month of May and SEE YOU IN JULY… I’m looking into these nifty cabins/lodges on the Oregon coast… there are big “apartment” style lodges for like 180 a night in July… if it is 4 or 5 of us, then its super cheap… we load up groceries and head out there for a night or two, huh?!

K   XO  Have a nice weekend, I’ll be sans laptop and absorbed into the bay area sweetness.

good morning world (LOVE s)

gooood day to all.
still still raining here.
alex i hope you had the best birthday.
i will send you something big and unexpected one year. soon:)
getting a decadent lunch at the office today bc the weather is crappy and everyone is low energy.
weekend should be fun. i will write long and hard about my life for you soon. i am going to get to sit down for the first time in soooooooo long.
lovelovelove

may 12 is alexander

hello.  I have turned 27 years old today, how the numbers grow and how I like it so!  Didn’t know this day last year I’d be living this new life on my Birthday!

Sitting on Tuesday in my own stinkyness…  Jill is sitting in my living room and we’re watching movies and eventually going to Bamboo, Portland’s sustainable, green sushi… YUM.

FL/ more buses/ back to ‘real life’ for a little bit (by suzy)

whew… spent the last 5 days in FL, today in MD. am slowly getting home to NY. i have been doing this for awhile now, but right now i really feel like i have been traveling too much and need to just be at home for a bit. so… am getting ready to do that. maybe for the entire month of may! i love may!

floridia: i never went to disneyland or world. so this was a funny and big trip! i got to experience weird disney stuff for the first time, just like all the children who were there. it was a fun few days, and i enjoyed the rides and parks and all much more than i expected to. rides are fun! whether they are linked to a corporate entity or not. i also went to sea world, which was really cool, and took a car trip to naples to work for a great photographer (johnathon kane). we also tried to make his opening for a gallery show, but, i am bad at keeping track of times, we got pulled over for speeding, saw a family of boars i had to stop and freak out about, and we stopped to pee way too many times. so, we sort of missed that. but i still got to model for him: )

check out this rollar coaster i went on>>> def. though there was a chance i was going to die. the seat buckle system was not working on the coaster were on (there are two that leave off side by side), and it was making me really freaked out. they finally switched us to the other coaster, but by then i was so so scared something was wrong, i could barely enjoy the ride. but i like rushes like that, so i am glad i did it.

what people who write about this stuff say:
“The Manta is an inverted, or flying, roller coaster, and from what is known of the Manta, thrill seekers strapped in to their seats in an upright position and then the coaster will tilt the riders into the prone position. Just above their backs is a gigantic 12 foot manta, sculpted to look like the giant ocean dwellers. The coaster riders will then be boosted along the tracks, initiating a journey throughout the entire park that includes a trip through an immense aquarium, complete with ocean animals such as manta rays and sea horses. The wings of the Manta structure will skim the top of the water. Whether you are a spectator or the rider, there is a chance that you might get a little soaked from this experience.

The Manta can reach top speeds of up to 56 miles an hour, and when you add this in with the twists and turns that only this roller coaster can bring, you will be in for the ride of your life. “

none of that really explains it… i just cant believe it am still alive!

pretty shitty weather/pretty charming blog (lovesuzy)

NOTE: ALEX, i think we just published posts at the exact same moment. i dont think thats ever happened before!!! epp!

“this is the first day of my life. im so glad i didnt die before i met you…”- aw, bright eyes. came up on my pandora, and i felt like i was in college again. eons ago… anyway>>>

so, it seems that people pay me to look like an alien.
but, thats fine with me.

hee. hee.
in other news, this blog is the BESSST thing i have seen in awhile. a very talented illustrator illustrates missed connections off of craigslist. swoon. http://missedconnectionsny.blogspot.com/

going to orlando tomorrow, where hopefully the rain will not follow me. i feel like my entire nyc existence is full of rain, and that the god of ny is trying to drown me in dreary days and late subway cars. but, im not going to take it! im going to a place where its going to be 92 degrees with a 20% chance of fleeting rain each day. ahhh good.
going with ryan’s family. a member of this family is his sister’s young son, ethan, who i am pretty much obsessed with. he is a happy funny baby, and i think i will talk to him more than anyone else.

maybe i will post some pictures of sun.
loveyouallers.

“I got my red dress, I’m ganna be on Television..” (Pictures from Alexander)

It rains steady today in Portland, which is good for my growing veggies and my growing baby grass and good for me not doing anything….   I drank the rest of a big beer after pouring half of it into some cups this morning to place in the garden and kill those motherfucking slugs that ate all my mutherfucking cabbage sprouts.  OK!

In the meantime, I am in the perfect mood for showing off the silly pictures for Saturday’s Red Dress Party….

The deal is that I volunteered all day Friday doing some light cleaning and set up and truck unloading to prepare for the big Saturday event.   2,000 people attended, all in a RED DRESS… from drag queens to the sisters of perpetual indulgence and the skinny guys and big hairy gay guys, to beautiful women and the highlight of the night: the regular old straight guys who threw on their girlfriends red dress to add to the cause.  My other favorites were the totally unsure.  Drunk and the end of the night I needed a friend to differentiate people’s actual gender for me.  What a clusterfuck Portland’s social norms are… SWEET!      The tunes were fun and the vodka flowed….  I danced in circles from 10 to 2… perfect evening in a dress and combat boots…   SOME SNAPS:

From the day before /set up day… this year’s theme was Red Eye, so the party revolved around airports and flying…

Here’s a bar/ticket counter and one of the many spinning party carousels…

THE PARTY…  me and Melissa, my date.

Innovative man, a dress made from slinkies….

Which bathroom is “other”?…….

Melissa is the “End of the Line” and proud the fuck of it…  (the line was for the body painting stand…)

…. I can’t decide if I want to show the world what we looked like after being “body brushed”…

FRUGAL LIVING

Are all you out there getting a kick and a helpful hint out of my Theresa Ward’s column FRUGAL LIVING in the LA Examiner….  check it, yo!

I’m Laughing about Banana Republic/Crystals/Big Red Dress Dance Parties

SUZY!!!  I’m laughing about life when I read NYC Banana Republic opening early for the business-walk-of-shame shopping…

Walk of shame usually is the walk home on a Saturday, Sunday morning, right?  There has to be another good word for the walk-straight-to-work shame.  HMM.  I’ll check urban dictionary dot com maybe.

ALSO,

I have many pictures and stories about my previous evening, spent with about 1500 other follow humans, all of us in a red dress – yes, all of us in red dresses, drinking free vodka drinks and hanging out in an airport-themed dance club warehouse kinda thing.  Unbelievable.  It was one of the moments you know your are experiencing something that only a spec of humanity could even imagine.   Some SNAPS to come when I feel like really getting involved.

BUT REALLY,

What I jumped on here to tell you initially is that, if you recall, you bought me a small crystal during your last time with me out west… I’m a little unclear where, I’m thinking you got it at that hippie head shop in Reno we went to? But then again I’m questioning if it was before that, like maybe your last July trip to LA and the little card shop in Hollywood?  I think it was then…  DO YOU REMEMBER?   Well, I ask because I briefly thought about that crystal a while back, maybe after moving/unpacking etc and felt a little bummed that I wasn’t exactly sure of it’s whereabouts.  And I was bummed because it was special and somewhat powerful and from you….   well, TODAY I went to shake the dirt/tobacco/lint out of the bottom of my messenger back I tote around Portland out into the yard and BEHOLD! A CRYSTAL fell into the grass!  YOUR CRYSTAL!….  turns out, it wasn’t missing at all, but has been pretty much with me everywhere I go for months, I just didn’t know it, as it was shoved in some little pocket……..  SO THANK you SUZY for being with me almost everywhere I go.  I appreciate it!!!!

OH AND,

GOOD NEWS FRIENDS… again, Suzy (with Leah and Dylan in tow) will be coming my way AGAIN (although haven’t you been to LA and Seattle both since I last saw you in CA in January?).   SEE YOU AND THE FOLKS LATE JULY!  What a ball we will have… camping, hiking, rafting all of Oregon?!?!?!!!!

(Jill is here Saturday!)

bridal showers, allentown, coffeecups, finally may (<3 s)

everyone is getting married. everyone has a bridal shower and a bachlorette party and then the wedding. i am forced to skip out on 1/3 of these generally, but, tomorrow is one i can make it to. mandi’s bridal shower in allentown pa.

i bought a nice dress, but i think i brought it to toronto and it is shoved in some luggage somewhere… so, maybe i will wear the pants i bought at banana republic the other day bc i didnt go home one night and had to go to my office the next day. turns out banana republic in grand central opens at 8 am. and everything else in the area at 9 or 10. not a bad marketing strategy…if you are are marketing to the walk of shamers. haha.

the salesguy said people coming in to get clothes for the workday bc they never made it home to change was not at all uncommon, and, that its better than the people who had to come in bc someone spilled coffee on them on the subway!

speaking of coffee, i forget i drink so much, until i look around and see a few empty cups around me. coffee amnesia?

and, finally, SO so glad it is may. sunshine and happiness in nyc for, what, a month? and then, its humid and everyones blasting the AC. except me. bc im insane(-ish).

L/A (luv s)

____

____

____

eye of the tiger. (with all my love!, suzy)

e.e. cummings (with love from suzy who is leaving toronto today)

“may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it’s sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young”

e.e. is still my favoriteeeeee

kensington market toronto (<3 s)

where i am going today
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kensington_Market

yippee. they have the best vintage shopping, and great veg. places to eat. and, though i didnt know this last time i was here, wikipedia just told me there is a cafe that you can smoke in. like the koffeshops of amsterdam. interesting……

i had no idea!

had a great shoot yesterday. make up artist and some looks from the 1950s. yippee.
trollies in toronto. and, a windmill.

Passports… And Bibles? – By A

I know that “I lost something so important” feeling very well, I’m ditzy and often misplace a wallet or iPhone or credit card.  But nothing is as lost ids/passports on days of traveling.  Sorry to inform you but you probably erased about 5 or 6 months of your lifespan from that day of stressing.  But life will still big long and good, though!

Enjoy Canada!

I’m in a cafe and two girls sat down near me with folders and laptop, etc.  I hear, “oh noooo, I think I forgot my Bible”.  ”Oh, you can use mine.”  ”Oh, here it is!”

My eyebrows rose a titch.  Hmm?   They have continues to sit and discuss on a more scholarly level, but they are young.  I will presume, since this is Portland coffeeshop that they are here, not do discuss your religion but because they are Freshman in some Intro to World Religion class.  What do you think?

—

Hey, I found my TATOO MATCHING SOCKS!!!  cool

toronto. passport hell. life in general. (lovelovelove suz)

oh MAN. am going to toronto in a few hours. had a late crazed night last night (as i am sure you could tell by my text msg) so instead of packing last night, set my alarm for 6 am to pack this morning before work. packed a bit of random shit, then ryan, who is meeting me there, called to make sure i was awake. yes! i was.

he asked– and, you packed your passport, right?
NO. i didnt. im only going to canada. doesnt seem like such a big deal. seattle was further and i didnt need a passport then. ha. so i go to reach for where my passport always is. and, it isnt. so i look in a few more places. nope.

FUCKKKKK.

one hour later: room is torn apart. i took a shower at some point in the middle, to calm myself down, and bc i had to go to my office. its nowhere to be found. i continue to tear apart room. email boss, im going to be an hour late. googling rules about getting into and out of canada. seems that its not going over the border, its coming back into the states that will be harder. call dad to see if he can scan birth certificate. find online that they need the one with the seal. can they mail it? no, they are at my grandmothers for a few days. fuccckkkkk.

go to work. do some work. erase an entire design by accident bc i am so worried about this. took a half day. got home and continued what i had started this morning: dumping out folders, drawers, ransacking my book shelve.
FOUND IT. finally. yes. good. have not eaten since a pumpernickel bagel i grabbed from a street vendor when i jumped off the subway this morning. went to get veggie tacos, bc everyone got chiptole for lunch and i worked through lunch. and guess what guys: yes, i found my passport, so me being all frantic and insane at work today was for a good reason, i guess, and, my two veggie tacos and 2 happy hour maragritas were only ten bucks total. whew! cant beat that in midtown.

leaving brooklyn, somewhat drunkly, in moments to go take the subway to airport. meeting ryan in buffalo. hes renting a car and we are driving over. stopping at niagria (sp) falls at midnight or so im sure. yiipppeee.

then modeling, sightseeing in a fake way, admiring canada’s cleanliness. etc.

talk soon.
xo

oh and just saw this lyric somewhere, and im not sure i would like the song, but, i like the lyric:
pawned my piano to pay for the lessons

i think i feel like that daily

What to do with life, she asks? Also, stuff regarding WalMart and Pole Dancing for larger girls. (Thoughts from Alex)

Suzy texted me randomly today, Alex, what should we do w our lives since we can do anything in the world!!!!!

I smiled.  Because that is always on my mind, being in a new city and all.  The doors are all around me, which one do I open?  After some volunteering at the youth center today I was thinking, why not just make my way into the non-prof world working with kids, especially queer youth.  After being blessed all my life to be exactly as I wanted, why not provide that for someone else who is suffering?  Being around teenagers in general reminds me how AWFUL that time is and how someone just a little older in their 20s,30s can have a real positive effect without being too much of an authority figure.

But also your question reminded me of something I so wanted to mention….  recently, meeting some new people at a potluck in the neighborhood, we got on the “career” conversation, so to speak.  This is Portland, so no one really uses that stupid word, exactly.  Anyway, I mentioned to a new friend my current schpeal about looking for work in my media field, if it exists here and then after a while if it hasn’t happened then I would just go ahead and go to culinary school… I said, “that’s at the top of the list, anyway”.  She asked, “well what else is on the top of the list?” And I replied, “well, honestly doing NOTHING is right there at No. 1.”

And it is true.  Not laziness per se, just if I had the means (sugar daddy, lottery, etc) then I probably would settle just fine for dinner with friends, wine, cafes, bars, travel, yoga, cooking, gardening, sleeping.   What the hell else?   Oh, I’d surely continue to volunteer my time for the betterment of things, too!  A year building houses in Africa, cooking at homeless shelters…. etc.    What a brilliant life!

In the meantime.  <<<<<<>>>>>>

OK.  So, I have to apologize for being a momentary hypocrite.   I needed a hose that was in better condition, since I just planted grass seed in my front yard.  I also needed a rake.  Fast and cheap hose and rake.  I’m sure the garden shop on my block would have it, but at outrageous prices and probably also made in China, anyway…  as much as I like to buy American and used, a hose is just the kind of thing that you need to get new, right?  I googled Target and it was a little out of the way, while WalShitMart was just a hop away…. eeeeeee?  Do I do it?   Yes, of course, I can spend a couple dollars in WM just every few years, right?  (Actually, I think I bought some longjons there when I was in the mountains in NV, but in NV there is no nicer option, really.)   It wasn’t that bad.  Cheap hose, rake and I figured it wouldn’t hurt me to pick up a cheap personal sized deep-fryer.  YUP, I got a deep fryer.  Loves it.  I’m not turning all meat and McDonalds, it happened because an Indian restaurant around here had this salad with these AMAZING garbonzo beans.  I asked how they were made and of course, deep fried and tossed with cumin and turmeric….  and since I’m currently addicted to great/fun/functional kitchen devices, I did it.  Got my deep-fryer, came home fried some chick peas and tossed.  Yum!  You will be happy when you are here and we have fresh tempura in my living room.  MMHMMMM.   Ahh, I’m thinking beer batter!  Anyone, anyone?

And lastly, as I sip my $1.50 PBR at the ‘Bar of God’ … I HAVE TO TELL YOU that I got everyone I know BEAT for “BEST CLOSEST BUSINESS”…..  anyone wanna put money on it?  And I’m coming from LA where I had a pot shop on my corner.. NO, THIS IS BETTER!

So, with all the spring days and yard work and sunny afternoons, I find myself often on the front porch.  And as I settle into my house and street (It’s a month, today), I’m taking in all the street watching… who lives where, who has kids, who owns which cat.. I’m very gossip-grandma spying on everyone.  There is just across the street on the corner a bead shop, but next to it is an unmarked door and we’ve noticed a lot of in-and-out there.  Oh, a drug front?  Nah.  Seemed like some kind of business, but no markings and curtains in the window.   Finally I’ve strolled by and got a name and did some googling… it turns out, the nearest business to my house is none other than PRIMAL BEGINNINGS… a pole dancing studio for women with “all body types”…. OKKKKAYYYY!!!!!!

More meat for the meat eaters/Everyone is in a band here, but me. (By Alexander)

SUZY! PEOPLE!  PEOPLE OF SPRINGTIME’S PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE.  PEOPLE OF ARGENTINA!

What wonderful is the month of April…  all those years in LA and I forgot what the coming on of Spring is like.  So Brilliant as buds bud and flowers bloom.

Doing things like getting grills, lawnmowers, rakes.  Yup, those kind of things that you New Yorkers don’t quite contemplate, do you?   Craig’s list is great for grills, I’ve learned.

OH!  Wanted to tell you, hearing about the meeting with Temple inspired me to get back in touch with my friend, the man that was the President of Temple U. while we attended.  Recall I attended some HRC dinners with him, representing Temple’s gay student community.  (Wow, to look back and think that it was ME that represented all those Queers to such a prestigious organization..yikes)    So we are in e-conversation, tuns out he has family in Portland!  Also, still is teaching at TU, so he will surely be happy to hear of our project.   I really should use this time to write my stories for the book.  I think I’ll dig out old journals!  College was a time of real, handwritten journals!  I wonder if I should research some notes on “travel writing”… Surely there must be a book written on how to write travel.

ALSO… speaking of the old days.  Your pictures from the Gift of Life gala are great and I’m sorry I missed the occasion.  What was weird is the setting and lighting are just as it was when we were ALL there together, so many years back, and I feel like I’m looking at you and Leah and Jesse and it was then, not now.

Jesse Galle, if you read this: I LOVE YOU!

I’m sitting, dorkily, on a laptop, outside!  On Hawthorne Street, again sipping the best coffee.  (Can I stress this enough?)  The sun is shining and the temperature is rising.  It reminds me of those first really warm days on campus when all of a sudden people came out of the woodwork (or skipped class, maybe) to take off the clothes and shoes and sit in the grass and feel warm. (And smoke pot.)

A moment ago an old man was sitting next to me, sipping his mug and smoking a cigarette.  (Isn’t this a song?)  He kept moaning/grunting kind of under his breath,but  not, things like “ohhh, yeahh”.  ”yuuup, yuup, yuuup.”  I think he was REALLY enjoying this warm breeze!

Now he is gone and there is a couple sitting and reading and I think, smoking pot.  Well, again, the economy has me and so many more folks I know and don’t know  rolling our own cigarettes.  It’s actually much more healthy(?). Well, interesting, anyway.  Did I tell you that I’ve been rolling filtered cigarettes, its 1/3 organic tobacco and 2/3 herbs (not those kind)…  mostly lemon balm, peppermint, etc.  They are wonderful!  But they look like joints.

I haven’t found a job, but have had 2 interesting job interviews with good media outlets in Portland… there is hope!  It isn’t like there are ZERO jobs, I just have to be a little resourceful until I  find myself in the right place at the right time!

MEAT.  So, I think I should finally declare, after a decade of flip-flopping on the subject that I now do not consider myself anything related to a vegetarian.  It went on for so many years that I thought that I was even though I’d always be “sneaking some bacon”.  A good friend would even mock me and say things like “It’s Tuesday today, Alex, does that mean you eat meat or not?”

And we talked mostly about this on our road trip in January.  And Ryan made me laugh because he waited for you to not be in the car to eat the bag of Beef Jerky!   And you commented on eating the broth in french onion soup and I think we are on the same page.

Not to say that I am anything but healthy!  And, the nearest store to my house for groceries sells strictly only grass fed, free range meats and fishes (if fish ate grass).   So yes, I continue to follow my whole foods diet of mostly fresh produce and grains and all the health extras like flax and vinegars and herbs but also no longer deny the fact that I enjoy fine meats, healthy animals, organic dairy, and lots of fish, all in moderation as I have been doing for years!    Why this announcement, at this point in my life?

GRILLING!

I guess I have missed out on years of having a grill in my own back yard!  Yup!

Those are organic skewers baby!  Yup, on bamboo, roasting on natural charcoal.  Yup, beautiful ain’t they?!???  See those WHOLE, UNSEEDED jalopenos in there.  Yup, that was painful!

Thats my lawnmower!  Do you love it?  It was $35 at the corner vintage hippie shop.  I asked the owner if I could test it out and they let me.  I came back and said, it’s a keeper!  Totally vintage and made in USA.  NO WAY!

Tulips in my yard.

Fuzzy cats like the shade.

I call this one, “house in spring with gray cat”. 2009

i feel the same way about clocks as the yip yip guys do >lovesuzy<

i think the clock is more of an alien than the alien.

raining again in brooklyn. returned on a bus last night again from a nearby east coast city.
my life has so many variables, but somehow they are becoming consistent.
i am eating spicy carrot chips though. i have never done that before! : ) a new night for me.

leah and i went to temple to talk to them about publishing the london study abroad book and they loved the idea. so, alex, and any other temple london readers, news about that to come soon!

we went to the organ donor awareness party on friday night in philly. it was very fun as always! jesse has this group of friends that i see each year there, and i am friends with all of them that night. its like we are annual friends. friends for one night, each year, year after year. ryan came and was delightful and nice as always. its fun to have a bf you can bring anywhere who will like anyone. here are some funny and also random! pictures from that night of me leah jesse, and of course, ms. philadelphia:

all of the group of annual friends went to bob and barbaras aftewards, and we met up with more people who are philly based that didnt get to come to the party. bob and barbaras! old school philly fun. we were all in black tie clothes, which made it so much better. i made a friend w a semi-homeless guy on the way there (per usual weirdness for my drinking), and he hung out w us all night.

on to baltimore the next day. ryan had an alumni weekend, and we went to lacrosse games and explored the college. it was fun. baltimore is nice! like a cross between philly and boston to me. we went to the american visionary art museum, which i liked a lot. i have pics from all this. you inspired me to take pictures alex!! so, i will post them here soon.

in the meantime, i left my laptop charger in another state in the trunk of a car, so, i may not get to write until i am in toronto this friday. but, i can actually blog from my mobile phone now, so if i get bored enough at a bar or coffeeshop, i will send a hello world out there <3

and, for closures, here is a little new york times article i liked, that has this sentence in it: Lately, an apocalyptic bile has been collecting in the back of America’s throat. here ya go

Metaphors – By Alexander

Portland is like life.   You leave the house and it is warm and sunny, you get settled in a coffeeshop and absorbed into work/books/internet and sip your mug.   You look up after a few hours and…. it’s pouring?  Huh.  Sometimes it rains and the sky is blue.  WTF?  Then, sip your mug again and the rain is gone.

Good Coffee and Biking over Bridges -LOVE,ALEXANDER

Favorite things about Portland today:

After years of working and hanging in coffee shops, after getting totally sick of coffee in general and not drinking it except occasionally in LA I have to say, this is THE BEST COFFEE.  Most coffeeshops in PDX serve the beans freshly roasted at Stumptown Roasters.  And so the Americanos here remind me of how good they were in London and Paris.  Seriously, that good!  And it looks like the owner has a love for Brooklyn and is starting a roaster in Red Hook..  http://gothamist.com/2008/09/15/what_you_need_to_know_about_stumpto.php   Get excited and tell your friends!  Why is there this continuing connection between Portland & Brooklyn!!!

Someone in the cafe just said “well I would have gone and saw the house but I was really hungover and the internet wan’t working, so”

The other great thing here is the bridges.  I had to face a real fear of them… I forgot about years back riding over the GG Bridge in SF, but that was with friends and part of the excursion over to Sausalito (Leah came once).. today headed downtown for errands and to volunteer I rode my bike the 3 miles from my house to downtown and over a big fucking bridge with buses zooming by and the Willammette River roaring below.  OK, it doesn’t really roar.  But the college boys out rowing is very distracting!

Oh yeah, Suzy: did I tell you that I’ve become a volunteer in the food kitchen at Portland’s biggest and amazing youth shelter/center.  I suppose I never was looking in previous cities, but Portland has a very significant amount of street youth- a result of drug users, mental health issues, and Queer-youth runaways…  it is am amazing space and center called OUTSIDE IN…  I will be there every Wednesday cooking and serving food to these teens… it feels very special to see kids desire to be in a safe place and have help and education.. more on it soon!

PICS!

THIS IS THE MURAL JUST FINISHED NEXT DOOR TO ME.. YES, THAT MY HOUSE ON THE RIGHT AN THAT IS THE NEW MURAL ON THE APARTMENTS NEXT DOOR.  HOW COOL!

NEARLY EVERY CAFE/BAR/EATERY IN PORTLAND HAS FREE!WATER!… THATS RIGHT… WHAT A CONCEPT! AND LAST WEEK AN ENVIRONMENTAL GRUOP SUBSIDIZED KLEAN KANTEEN AND SOLD THEM HALF PRICE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES..  WHAT IS THIS, HEAVEN FOR HIPPIES?

MY CAT GOES OUTSIDE NOW… HOW NERVE-RACKING FOR ME AND AMAZING FOR HIS LITTLE KITTY MIND…

finding blogs, you are all ( love suzy )

things to see in the united states, la life vs ny life, gold bikinis, yay vs yaaa

all are things people used to find our blog today.
ha.

i am hating office life. i feel like a baby complaining. o well. i do hate it, for today. i need to figure my shit out. yes. i do.

a jesus holiday, a bus ride, a usual unusual weekend >by s<

going home to celebrate a holiday about a religious figure that my family does not discuss any longer. not that we ever really had big deep discussions about it, but when i was young we at least went to church and all of that. the whole dog and pony show. IS that a phrase? i have no idea… but, it sounds like what i am trying to say. haha.

maybe i will ask my mom if she wants to go to church on easter sunday. i dont hate it, i actually like it in some sort of way. looking around the room, asking who really believes in this.

so, busride of course to get to nj today. i am going to atlantic city with ryan tonight,,, weird! mostly bc i want to go shopping at the outlets on sat., to find a dress to go to all these weddings i am attending this summer. i would rather find a few cool dresses at a thrift store, but finding a truly great dress can be a hard task. maybe one expensive-ish one, and one thrift. im sure the expensive new one will just be a knock off of the cool thrift one anyway…

i have tons of pictures to sift through from LA. i owe lots of people emails. i am excited to go to nj and have a slow life for a few days. lets just hope the internet connection is awesome. i have freelance work to do! : )

CUTE PROTESTORS! (from Alex)

Wow, someone has finally thought to start a photoblog loaded with SUPER-CUTE-PROTESTORS..  check it out, makes me smile.

FRIENDS AND BOTTLES, THE ESSENTIALS TO LIFE, right, suzy??

HI SUZY!  I feel like I faded into my life there briefly, which is never a bad thing.  And you are getting naked in the rain in the east coast and that sounds beautiful, in a way!

I’m listening to the LCD Soundsystem in my sun-filled living room this late afternoon.  Portland is north enough that we sure do see a long day this earl in the year.  Very nice light already as late as 8, 8:30… wow!  Wait until the warm bright July nights!

LCD just sang that lyric “New York I love you, but your freaking me out!”

My garden is sowed and I think the tiniest of green buds are popping their noses from the dirt.  Arugula is the first to show signs!  My fair Arugula!   Soon we’ll see radishes, spinach, butter lettuce.  Speaking of all that I have just used my professional food processor/blender to make the greenest smoothie ev – beet greens, yogurt, juice, flax, agave, blueberried and a pear!  WOW!   It’s not a pretty sight but YUM!

Spring has sprung this past weekend in Oregon, the city of spring daffodils!  They grow like weeds and I will be sad to see them go… and I continue to explore all the interesting angles here..

What a great set of options here:

Suzy, I’m home alone today, which isn’t common seeing as that we’re all in and out of a lot and have had company.  But today it is empty and I have to mention how weird a new house is.  I keep finding or hearing little things that I have to explore.  Especially noise.  It’s like, I don’t yet know all the little creeks and croaks of this big, old house.  I’m constantly leaning up like “no what’s that noise?”   Trees rubbing on the roof?  A cat on a counter top somewhere?

Guys, there is forrest just a few blocks from my house.  How brilliant is that to have.  Reminds me of the “woods” of
Hyde Park near our London abode.

LCD Soundsystems stopped and now it is Leonard Cohen, what an interesting afternoon of tunes.

another, !!! >love suzy<

another day of rain in brooklyn all day today. i guess we have our rainy season, too.
today was the type of day i love, and to do it in the rain makes it all the better.
booked a lot of bus tickets, to the weddings, to the parties, to the things that are coming up in the next few months. booked up to late june, and, when i tried to book on for an august date, they said those dates were not yet available. im the only crazy girl booking my entire summer i guess!

i did get a few of my bus rides from here to philly or here to baltimore or DC for a dollar, or $4, which is why its great to do it in advance. i will remember china town buses as the time in my life when i was fresh out of college, and then bolt bus and megabus as i got a bit older.

check out this website: http://flowingdata.com/2009/03/13/27-visualizations-and-infographics-to-understand-the-financial-crisis/ Visuals to Explain the FINANCIAL CRISIS! oh man have i been waiting for this! i have been so confused for months!!!

images from yesterday. lots more but most have boobs in them…

rainy nyc (LOVE suzy)

raining lots here today. am at office job, bc i was in LA earlier this week. while on the most crowded subway car you can imagine this morning, i was thinking of different venues for my life.

where where should i be in the world right now??

big weekend ahead including bf visit, going to see grandmother in CT, modeling for a drawathon, touring NBC with a reporter and listening to a marketing idea he has (secret though!!), modeling for another project, and hopefully eating a lot of good food. i feel like i havent had a good meal in a few days…

that last post was an april fools joke, btw. but i love it : )

have a good friday loves!!

gotta make some money, somehow (says suzy)

oh alex, thats funny. i am glad you went for the 14$ returned, which will be spent on something you will forget about so quickley im sure, but will be better than feeling that weight of unread Stars in your life. i dont think those things are healthy!

and now, this::: : http://www.nuts4pot.com/

omg. “Actually created for school credit, this borough-spanning GMap reveals hot nut vendors who also sell ganja. Click to reveal savant-like dealer descrips, and marvel at the nepotism of Olatunde’s Nuts (”sometimes his cousin or some thing is there instead…and he charges to much and always is drinking capri sun which is stupid”), the cosmopolitanism of South Ferry (”jermaine said he bought from some nigerian dude here why they always nigerian??”), and the sweet buds and dulcet tones of McCarren Park (”yo this guy sold hot dogs not nuts but mr dimalo said i have got to have 10 and any way he sold us pot in the summer when some dudes were playing keyboards”).”

hahahah. i <3 ny.

Magazines, Money, and Guilt, OH MY! (anxious alexander)

Here’s what happened… way back in the fall I was reading a RADAR magazine sitting somewhere.  And with a whim I went online and ordered a subscription to it and was even conned by the internet into a second year at an additional few dollars.

Do you remember RADAR?  It is a few years old, mostly art/politics/pop cult…  it was pretty shiny and fun to read.  I remember being blown away with their report on the college girl from WA state all wrapped up in the Italian court system for her drug/sex/murder scandal while studying over there.  (What ever happened to that?)

ANYWAY, in mere weeks I read that RADAR folded just as I paid them for 2 years.

I just continued to check if they charged the credit card or not?!  Wasn’t sure.

Months later I’m living in NV and get some mail that the Post Office forwarded from my LA address.  It said to choose from the following other magazines by such-and-such a date to replace my RADAR subscription.   The date had past!

A month later I’m in NV from OR just to pick up my stuff and in the mail had come MEN’S FITNESS!   I read it on the truck ride back to OR and it was junk.  Glossy articles on “the best ab workout” and high protein diets and gym etiquette .  And I thought, how will they come up with more ways to regurgitate this crap month after month.   So I decide to track them down, I finally find a number online to reach these people who seem to not even exist.   Lady on the phone reads me the list of other options.  It was disappointing that the RADAR owners picked such a lame list of magazines to give to it’s angry subscribers.  She mentions a bunch of gross mainstream fitness magazines, some beauty mags, and STAR.  I kinda think, hm, I don’t mind that trashy celebrity stuff to flip through when I’m really bored or drunk or on the toilet.  I asked “isn’t that weekly” and she said yes.  And I asked “I can get STAR weekly for no extra money?”  and she said yes.  Then I asked “well could I just have the money back or something?” and believe it or not she said SURE!, not on the credit card though, they would have to send me a check for $14.50 – what they would owe me after receiving two wonderful issues of MENS FITNESS.

I guess a piece of my girlyness or my hollywoodness set in and I actually said, “I think I’ll just take the STAR until it runs out.”

After hanging up, some guilt set in.  I chose to receive STAR MAGAZINE, WEEKLY, for maybe 10 months.  That waste of paper, of ink, of celebrity lives on my bathroom floor.   And $14.50 could surely buy me some vegetables or beer or 7 round trips into downtown Portland.   FUCK!  I made the wrong decision.

I called back and it was the same woman on the line.

“I think we just spoke, I don’t mean to sound like a crazy person but I think it’s better if you send me the check instead of waste the paper on something I won’t read!”

In 4-6  weeks I’ll be surprised (cause I forget everything like this) to find a check for 14 buckaroos in my mailbox!

Thanks RADAR magazine for giving me such anxiety.

I loved this blip in “The Week”. So what I feel. I guess I’m “anti social”- From A

Facebook: Now, grown-ups are joining
Hey, you “old fogies.” Are you on Facebook yet? asked Lev Grossman in Time.com. The popular social networking site started out five years ago as a way for college kids to hook up and swap party pictures, but it’s rapidly being infiltrated by moms and dads. People between 35 and 54 are the fastest-growing group on Facebook—there are now 7 million of us, up 276 percent in the last half of 2008. Why are moms and dads following their kids’ lead? For us, the site acts as a magnet that finds “people you’ve lost track of,” and unlike teenagers, “we’ve gone through multiple schools, jobs, and marriages.” Fogies like me can reconnect with people from past lives, mist up over old summer camp and high school photos, and send friends—new and old—photos of our kids. So what are you waiting for?

Facebook, in fact, may be better suited to adults than to teens, said Peggy Orenstein in The New York Times. It’s one thing to network with old friends when you’re 40, and another when you’re 18 and heading off to college, having been on Facebook or MySpace since you were 12. College has always been the place where young adults reinvent themselves and shed their old family and high school roles. “Can you really do that with your 450 closest friends watching,” and reminding you every day—every hour—of your old self? Growth depends on introspection, which depends on loneliness. Transformation depends on experimentation, which depends on space. For young people trying to forge their own identities, Facebook may serve as a straitjacket.

I beg to differ, said Matt Labash in The Weekly Standard. Facebook is a straitjacket for people of all ages—a time waster that changes even the most likable people into “teenage girls,” with nothing better to do than talk about themselves. All of a sudden, my grown-up friends have all joined; refusing to have a Facebook page has become an anti-social act. To hell with that. I despise Facebook for its “steady, Chinese-water-torture drip of status updates,” as tedious people inundate their virtual “friends” with tedious details from tedious lives. Do you really want to know when your true love from grade school is cleaning up her cat’s hairballs, or that the balding guy you idolized in college is “glad it’s the weekend”? Down with Facebook, say I. It’s like the world’s worst high school reunion—a reunion you can never leave.

Longest ride ever?!!! – from Alexander

So I was just reading THIS WILD ARTICLE

in today’s NYTIMES Science….

and it discusses the Russian plan to experiment trips to Mars by simulating all the aspects of the trip here on Earth  -  520 DAYS!!!! in a simulated craft, under 20 people and no outside communication.

If it took a year and a half to get ANYWHERE, I am NOT INTERESTED.

(I guess it’s like what you and I discussed about scientists living in Antarctica, just having sex all the time.)

You’re in LA, I’m in Portland, so whose in NYC? (-A)

I guess it doesn’t matter.  I like the big city comparisons, but it was you, Suzy who taught me it’s nonsense to say, “I don’t like such and such city”.  How can we generalize an entire city?

Portland Monthly had a very interesting article on the New Yorker’s fleeing to Portland and Why….I love the Portland, OR subway stop in NY.

Escape from New York

Another Brooklynite trades the Big Apple for a Portland state of mind.

By Daniel B. Smith

I would like to state publicly, for whatever record exists, that my love for Portland predates the national news media’s. I feel it’s necessary to point this out because of an Oregonian article a friend sent me back in late December, not long after my wife and I decided to put our tiny Brooklyn apartment up for sale, crate our things, and settle in the City of Roses. Life as New Yorkers had become intolerable. We’d grown weary of our neighbor’s music rattling our walls (avant-garde jazz, no less), fed up with teeming buses and tardy subways, troubled by the soot and smoke drifting from the expressway up the block, and, worst of all, alarmed by the mounting costs of living there. It was time to get out.

The article, titled “Portland Home Prices Fall by Double Digits,” told a now-familiar tale of economic misfortune—bleak numbers hinting at still-bleaker human stories, the whole of it illustrated by a photograph of For Sale signs clustered like mutant daisies on a Portland lawn. What caught my attention, however, was not the story itself. It was the comments appended to it, particularly those in response to a reader (user name: “kougar14”) who innocently announced of her (or his?) family, “We are moving to Portland from New York City.” The response was probably not what she expected. One reader replied, “kougar14: do us all a favor and stay in new york. We don’t need any more eastcoasters moving out here and ruining things by overpaying for their homes, crowding the roads in the luxury cars, and being rude to staff in our restaurants. Don’t you see that you are not WANTEDhere????”

Another was less direct but more imaginative: “Why are you coming here? A) because you are [a] creatively thinking progressive who will start new green business to protect our green forests and blue skies? B) because you are leaving behind the apocalyptic hellscape you’ve helped to create on [the] east coast, moving to un-ravished lands [to] pillage and rape and then move on?”

When I read these comments, I had just spent weeks giddy with the prospect of our new life out West: Open spaces where our daughter could scamper and play! Snowcapped mountains for rejuvenating vacations! Living quarters of more than six hundred square feet! The comments were at once deflating and disappointing.

Cyberspace isn’t known for its etiquette, of course. But one of the reasons my wife, Joanna, and I had decided to embrace Portland and discard New York, where we’d lived for the previous six years, was that Portland simply doesn’t speak like the rest of the country. It has a tone all its own: laid-back, open-armed, welcoming. I happened to know a handful of New Yorkers who  had made the move to Portland before us—including my oldest brother, who left for the same reasons of urban fatigue that compelled us—but surely not so many as to make up the crass, Eden-ravaging hordes of the Oregonian readers’ imaginations. In fact, every New York –to–Portland emigrant I know is a “creatively thinking progressive” who’s concerned enough with “green forests and blue skies” to want to live in a city that actually shares that concern. Some strange force appeared to be at work. Something powerful enough to make Portlanders revile the very idea of New Yorkers in their midst. Something to make them believe a nefarious urban exodus was in the offing. I believe that something might be the New York Times.

Allow me to explain. Three years ago, when my brother decided to settle in Portland, the conventional wisdom in New York was that his move was borderline exotic. Portland wasn’t a known quantity, like Los Angeles or San Francisco or Washington, DC. It was a provincial city, with little more than a basketball team, the hotel from The Shining, and eight months of cloud cover to distinguish it from other provincial cities. Then, in the spring of 2007, the New York Times began to write about Portland as if the entire metropolitan area—roads, government, restaurants, bike lanes, and all—had just yesterday emerged from the Willamette, fully developed.

For six months, the coverage was incessant, and almost embarrassingly laudatory. “[Portland’s] vibrant downtown overflows with urban pleasures,” crowed the travel section. “A full-fledged dining destination,” proclaimed Dining & Wine. The Style section called Portland “a great enclave for cutting-edge design.” Meanwhile, the national news desk couldn’t believe how many Portlanders rode bikes. Bike City, USA!

Newspapers may be dying a slow and public death, but don’t underestimate the power of the Times, for this fusillade of coverage had a notable effect out East: it made Portland sexy. Suddenly, a desire to move to Portland wasn’t novel anymore; it was conventional wisdom. “Ah, the great Portland dream!” a friend said, with just a bit too much flourish, when I told him of our plans. “Everyone I know wants to move there now.”

It isn’t hard to understand why this attitude might sour the stomachs of Portlanders. New Yorkers, plagued as they are by all sorts of indignities, from investment bankers to sewer rats, have an unusually active fantasy-of-escape gland. New Yorkers have always imagined that somewhere out there, be it Paris or California or just down the highway on Long Island, there’s a town that’s less expensive, less aggravating, more … livable. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that in 1647, when Peter Stuyvesant became director general of New Amsterdam and closed all the taverns and brothels, a bunch of Dutch hipsters got together to grouse that they just couldn’t take it anymore—they were moving back to Utrecht!

Few New Yorkers actually act on these escape fantasies, of course. Someone (probably Woody Allen) once said, “I’ve been wanting to leave New York for fifty years; I’m almost ready.” Something about the psychic pressure of eighteen million people crammed into a mere three hundred square miles makes it necessary to always have a promised land at the forefront of one’s mind.

Portland now seems to be that promised land. It’s a dubious honor, I’m afraid. As Christine Hoag, a sales manager at Stumptown Coffee Roasters (which, incidentally, just opened a roasting facility in Brooklyn) characterized the intercity relationship to me, “It’s like the corporate executive falling in love with the waitress.” And we all know how reliable the executive’s attentions are in that scenario.

But not all of us are executives. Kougar14 and I, we’re just a couple of harried New Yorkers in love with a place where the lights are dimmer but the warmth greater, where egomania and ambition run a little less rampant, where the politics are more uniformly progressive, the outdoors more accessible, and, yes, the real estate less expensive.

And, speaking only for myself now, I don’t plan to be a former New Yorker for very long. Only a weekender wants a place to mold itself to his image; a settler wants the opposite. If I’m resented for acting on a fantasy so many others share, I’ll just have to stay long enough that no one remembers where I started.

LA vs NY (love suzyloves)

hi there. i am listening to a really disgusting program about food on npr. its gross. but, real, i guess. people’s relationship w food. they have a teenager who weighs 500 pounds talking about throwing up after eating, his feelings towards food, etc. its sad. i wish i could contact him and tell him about brown rice, good eating, filling things… etc. but i think this may end well. i lowered the volume, but they mentioned his losing 200 pounds. ok.

anyway, i am waiting to be picked up for a photoshoot. every single person who has picked me on for a job, or come to the house to shoot me, has been late. its wonderful. i am always late in nyc. people hate it. here its fine. laidback LA. yes yesyes give me more. more sunshine more lateness.
lateness is a secret time to have extra moments to live.
i love CA. i love nyc. i will be both, maybe, someday. soon?

Where have I been? I’ve been hoeing – but not the kind you think. Pictures pictures pictures of my house, my neighborhood…. luvA

YES! It’s been one week I’ve been in my house. And with a lot of work and some money spent, it is finally a home and I have pictures to share. In regards to your previous email, I will say that I have done this move as conscience as possible, but not always perfect. We scored great quality furniture from vintage and thrift stores. Maybe more expensive than Ikea, but at least it is used/quality/and will continue to last. I got plants and soil and things for my garden at the nearest nursery. And I’ve been celebrating all this with as much Oregon beer and wine as I could find. (I did end up in Ikea for some simple needs, saving money and avoiding walmart and the such.) Ah, and drinking coffee from a roaster a block away!

Then came the big set up. Furniture, stereos, endless kitchen boxes. Took a few days to sort through it all. Not to mention 2 people merging their things.

And yesterday was sunny and hot and I spent all day hoeing away in the garden. Getting it ready. The local nursery folks were able to tell me all about my local weather, frost, soil pH, etc. I got a free education just standing there. I did buy a book on Pacific Northwest Gardening. I better fucking stay around these parts a while. And the next couple days I will start to sow some cool weather things out there… so exciting if I can find a true green thumb for organic gardening! Also, got a composter – simple wire cage to fill with garden, yard, and kitchen waste. And with the amount that Oregon recycles, I can’t imagine what the kitchen garbage can will be filled with?

The job hunt is creeping up on me, now that I’ve spent a month getting settled, I guess I have no excuses left. But there are some small prospects and always culinary school, which seems daunting but would be a great year-long activity that I can get the government to pay for!

Lastly, we are in the hot search for the 3rd roommate. The house is affordable, but even cheaper if we can rent out the large attic space. So, SOMEONE out there feeling like they need a change? Have some money for a few months to get by? Why not move to Portland, OR for 6 months. Check out the ad here.

There is so much more to talk about, but instead I will bore you all with a photo essay….. here goes:

HOME!

Patrick fries.

Melissa studies Spanish..

I read?

My redrooom. (Pronounced REDRUM.) And cat.

Sunset..

Three friends, three wines, and three MacBooks hanging out…

Sweetest fucking vintage chairs EVER.

Garden plot… which I have already weeded, worked, composted and today will sow. But there are chives and green onions already in place, like weeds – onions grow like weeds here! (This pic is *before*.. many *afters* to come…)

Picnic table and strawberry barrel in background…

And the neighborhood. This is the Division area just on the outskirts of Inner SE Portland. Meaning the border of Inner/Outer. Whatever. It’s like a belly button, where do you draw the line?

Portland’s famous Stumptown Coffee Roasters.

Yay! Corner Bar

The Egyptian Club is Portland foremost Dyke bar… just up the street. MUAHAH

Portland is famous for GOOD food served off of trucks… The best tofu tacos in all of town are just up my block:

My new yoga space:

Well loves, hope you have a nice image of my new life…….

I wanted to share this PostSecret, it made me laugh:

and what now (by s)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/us/26tents.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

what what what the fucking hell is going to happen? the world as we know it is ending, for some, for many, right now… what will happen to the rest of us, soon? what should i be doing to help? i feel the biggest urge to do the things i have thought were right for so long now… garden, dont eat out, keep that money and use it for a good cause, be simple, live easy little lives. no designer clothes for anyone, not as an entire wardrobe. redirect the money. make art. make friends. no one should be homeless. i am sure, 100% sure, that almost everyone in these ‘camps’ are upright very good people. they just did not have rich parents, big bank accounts. but that does not mean they should not have food and showers.

what is there to do, for us to do??

LA /NY /life in general (love suz)

LA LA … weather is perfect of course. a very welcome thing to leave to nyc for. my sleep schedule is way off. i woke up at 7 am east coast time the past two days, so i have been having this very weird period of time in the morning, just totally awake for like 4 hours before anyone else in the city is awake! yesterday friends slept here, so i was quietly sneaking around the house. getting some freelance work done for a little while.

i have two shoots today, and then am going out to dinner w nori! yay. she is bringing me to hugos. totally happy. menu looks amazing. sat there is a hip hop art thing that the guy i modeled for the first day i was here is showing in. i may go to that.

i am sort of stranded in this house, bc i dont have a car, and its kind of nice. on sat during the day when i have some free time i am going to take the dog for a really really long walk through the hills and surrounding neighborhoods. i feel like everyone who lives here is kind of rich and kind of weird. i think im right!

today: two shoots. one with a guy i want to talk to about being in movies: ) he is a producer. or a something.
the second shoot is putting me out on LA streets in sheer clothes. fashion-y nude-y shoot.

and as for whats going on in nyc: i read almost all the new york times for thursday bc it was all i bought at the airport, and i was sick of me book. and it seems there have been two incidents of people almost getting hit by ARROWS in new york city. haha. and, um, scary!!!

and, there is this going on in the city: http://gothamist.com/2009/03/26/spotted_sad_panda.php?gallery0Pic=1#gallery

xo. talk soon. love to you alllllll.

LA today (love! suzy)

yes alex. not yet, but am flying to LA in a few hours. and i am STAYING at that great house in the hollywood hills. yippee. she needed a housesitter, was going to japan. i needed an awesome reason to go to LA because i have a lot of modeling to do there, but, you arent there. and i dont have a car, OR, a license. lets see how LA is for a gal who really cannot drive a car, and who does not have a great friend to drive her around this time: )

i dont mind if i am stuck in that house for most of the trip though. it is beautiful, and i will sunbathe in the backyard, and forget all about new york city’s cold weather and lack of back yards. for all non-eastcoaters: it was SNOWING here on the first day of spring. like, a lot. it was gross. all i want is to wear skirts and flip flops, and all i get is snow and 30 degree days. ugghhhhhh. but, springtime in nyc is around the corner. and, that really is a lovely time to be alive.

i am glad portland has a great bar for you right around the corner. i love you and will be in portland before we even know it! i am trying to make the group bigger bigger, as always. me leah dylan. bri? heidi? ryan? hmmm. group rates to portland! but btw its seattle first.

enough travel talk. i actually have not packed a single thing nor have i written down any details. address i am going to? flight info? do that, and i need to shove some lingerie into a carry on. thats all i need i guess. one party dress. lots of underware. heels. make up bag. tee shirts. love!

NORTH! (by Alexander)

I’m sitting and having my first drink (dirty martini) at NORTH, the closest bar to my new house.  On the corner.  It is a sweet spot….  LUCKY ME!   And since the internet isn’t yet on at home, and since every establishment IN PORTLAND has free wifi, I’m with Patrick sipping martinis on our MacBooks.

WHAT.

A.

WORLD!

Alexander’s Home Sweet Home

What a whirlwind times can be.  It almost seems like just a minute ago I was standing on the street of San Francisco around Thanksgiving calling my various parents to say, “I’m doing it – I’m moving to Portland.”   Then came the wind down in LA, the sadness with those friends, the packing and cleaning and moving and trucking and cat sedating and road tripping again and again.

Friday night I rolled on into town in a truck with my life on it.  Saturday I unloaded that truck and reloaded it with Patrick’s stuff and unloaded that and it was all very head-spinning.  But by last night, I was drinking wine and cooking fish and feeling at home.  And an amazing home it is.

That’s my life.  Pictures TBA.

Suzy, I guess you are in LA?  Modeling and what else?  Will you see the Hollywood Hills photographer who loved Portland?  Can you get her email for me.

luvluvluv

companies are being demonized — bailout out of control! (luv suz)

NYT QUOTATION OF THE DAY

“You are disgraced professional losers. And by the way, give us our money back.”
REPRESENTATIVE EARL POMEROY, Democrat of North Dakota, on the A.I.G. executives who were paid bonuses after a federal bailout.

i am trying so hard to keep up with this bailout stuff, and general economy stuff in general. but when things get over a few million dollars, the numbers are all fake to me, and its hard to visualize. but i do understand that for the first time in a long time, companies are being demonized. not just by hippies and leftists, but by the general american public, who feels like they have worked hard, too, so why are some corporate types getting millions when their company failed?

my think tank has been getting tons of press lately, bc we are right at the intersection of all this, and i think reporters are looking for anyone who is thinking differently about these issues. times articles, op-ed in the journal, etc etc, its all great, but when i look at the comments, people have said the new york times is acting like they are hunting for commies again during the red scare, but instead this time its big business. so many perspectives, and they are all interesting…

what will become of all this? will people i know and love be able to work and find things to do that are interesting to them? can i ever quit my job, or do i have to live in fear that there will never be another one for me!! should i bunker down and enroll in school and live off student loans, bc no one else will have much money anyway, and i will be in the same boat? oh, lives questions are so much more daunting when they involved money. and GDP. and where will my rent come from?

recessionista!

Is the name of a party some friends in San Francisco are throwing this weekend….

HAPPY HAPPY POSTS. hello/hello/alexander

HI SUZY and MY FRIENDS and LOVERS….

I wasn’t even avoiding blogging, either.  Just distracted.  And you know how when you don’t really tune in much and a week goes by, then well shit fuck crap, it becomes harder to start something on here.

But: here is an updated situation…  It is my 18th day in Portland, Ore and I am totally in love with all parts of it and the new people all around.  And back with great friends.  Everything is laughter and fun and alive.  My friend and roomamate-t0-be-again and I have found the perfect house.  We were shooting for small, but we ended up with big.  Oops.  There is a room/attic for rent, so spread the work to any New Yorkers ready to relocate.  I do meet a lot of New Yorkers here, they seem to come and stay and the reason is usually something like “i wanted something small, a simpler life than ny”  Well this is sure it.

I have to relay this: The free paper recently voted for Portland Sexiest People and the sexiest man was the young guy from Brooklyn whose been here just a year or so. I looked him up online and found his blog and then came across this segment, which is my sentiment exactly:

i’ve been in portland for almost a week, and it’s been really fantastic.

everyone here treats everyone else as actual humans. strangers say “hi, how are you?” to passersby and give genuine smiles. bus drivers work patiently with old ladies, forgiving their broken english and figuring out which stop they need. people don’t feel uncomfortable leaving their laptops behind as they use the restroom, or leaving their doors unlocked at night.

drinking is big here. portland has more microbreweries per capita than any other city in the country–it also has more mac stores and resellers per capita–and everyone really adopts a laid-back approach to life. this is certainly a double-edged sword because i see the value of my type-a personality, but it’s nice to find a little joie de vivre after four years stressing out over nothing.

(from http://www.scottanthony.org/)

And people are very real here.  I got many-a-compliment for hanging out last night alone in the nearest dyke bar by my house.

The new place happens THIS weekend, and tomorrow, Suzy, I will be thinking of you and Ryan and us 3 months ago as I load up my truck in Carson City, NV and make another 2 day trip to the far north corner of this country.  LA seems far and long ago and that is sad.

After the weekend of madness and wine and music and unpacking and settling and decorating and rearranging and shopping for groceries and starting my garden, THEN I will take some pictures and tell you all about my house and my street and my neighborhood.

Loving you all from the cit of Beer and Apple Computers!

and we are back (love love suzy)

emotional weekend. no words for the blog about it, but, wow, things can get out of hand with me sometimes. sometimes i think i should not drink, ever ever. ever again. but part of me is not ready for that part of life yet… i will wait and see a little.

sorry to be vague, but thats all on that.

here is what i did on saturday. worked for a wonderful photographer named sarah small, in her big extravagaza of nude and clothed and every type of model.
a video from a shoot a few weeks prior: http://www.sarahsmall.com/upcoming/
and i wish i had video from the night, but here are just a few pics from ryans phone:

[gallery link="file"]

it was great. it was theatre, which is not something i usually do, but it gives me a thrill and i think maybe i would love it.
we had to perform, had to go crazy to the fast music, and then freeze and hold our bodies, and stay very still for ten minutes, and then slowly move again. it felt great. and there was tons of press and people with cameras and every direction you looked in someone was taking your picture. it was LIVE ART. art is so rare. to be alive is so rare. sarah was somehow smart enough to figure out how to combine the two: ) i am now a big fan, and curious to see what else she will do in what im sure will be a fruitful and exciting career.

it was exciting.
and, i got a new window.
that was the weekend.

ps- i added to my life depicted by peektures : )

SLIGHTLY REVAMPED whywelove:

Because love is all there is (and love is enough).

alexander and suzanne met in a college classroom in philadelphia studying something or other about the media, art, money, and business. and cats and dogs. (huh?) we have loved each other since.

we have slept in many beds in many countries together, yet we are not lovers, in that sense. however, we love each other enough (tons and tons!) that we have a strong desire to keep in touch and communicate with each other, so we do it via this blog. suzanne currently writes from brooklyn, ny, and from her frequent travels – and alexander, a western vagabond has recently landed in a new city and writes from portland, or.    at this moment, we sit exactly 2,898 miles from each other.

who are we? we are flowers on the side of the road. ‘yes’ and ‘joy’ are important to us. we will not capitalize, we may not re-read what we write, and we never won spelling bees. but we do hope you enjoy.

the world is getting larger, and we fear our ‘human-ness’ is growing smaller. this is our attempt to connect. we do love you and we do miss you, and we do think there is much more to life than we are generally able to find the time to enjoy, so this is our hand reaching out; come along with us on the journey! tell your friends to join us, and please comment and chime in.

and, even on the worst of worst days (we all have them!), remember-> AND WE LOVE!

READ THINGS!!!!!!! brought to you by A

Talking Heads are blessing my ears in this Cafe on Hawthorne.  The SE.

Our friend Teresa has just written the funniest piece on BEWARE OF DOG SIGNS…  check it.

http://theblackheartchronicles.blogspot.com/2009/03/beware-of-dog-really.html

(suzy, have you noticed the link function freezes wordpress??)

And Teresa is know writing the FRUGAL LIVING blog for the LA Examiner…. sweet.  bookmark it.

http://www.examiner.com/x-4969-LA-Frugal-Living-Examiner

alex, amazingness all around! portland, ms. spears, and here’s this…

morrissey and johnny marr on a british children’s tv program, 1984, with children singing the chorus! as a friend said on his online diary: “surreal. tv production staff errors in judgment like this are what make life worth living.” haha.

Suzy, did you think it was possible for Britney Spears to make our blog?

WELL IT IS!

It seems Ms. Spears has been generous enough to give a big check to the Big Apple Circus, which my good family friend’s father founded.  And if you didn’t know, the Big Apple Circus has an off-shoot called the Clown Care Unit that has clowns in place at Children’s hospitals all over the country.

Here is my friend Kila (Ivy’s sister), their father Michael, and Britney Spears at the Miami Children’s Hospital….

(Some of all this, however, is Britney’s marketing scheme, as her new album is called Circus…and what better way to promote it.  However, the wonderful Big Apple Circus is a non-profit and wonderful cause!)

from palm trees to pine trees ///alexander

YES!  And out of the car and onto a bike!

Found this cool used bike shop, the Recyclery, here in my neighborhood-ish.  And I couldn’t say no to this sweet vintage racing Peugeot!

I haven’t really been a daily bike person since Philly days.  When I rode a big clunky huffy to and fro campus and to FeeWee’s- the coffeeshop.  (Speaking of Philly and campus: in the past day I have run into a guy with a Temple hat and talked to him.  He graduated SCAT 08.   And I bummed a smoke from a guy who knew Megan and other kitchen staff at The Abbaye in NoLibs….  what a world!)

So, this road bike will take some practice on my part.

saturday night alexander

is in PORTLAND.

Hello. Not that that means much, as I had a party night last night and am just chillin’ in my space for the night. Not sure what else to get myself into!  Last night was so fun that the jack I use to hook my laptop(music,movies,youtube) to the better stereo system BROKE off in the hole and now I have no sound unless I gingerly HOLD one wire to the jack stuck in the hole.  In a frantic to fix I’ve been to the Portland Apple Store, only to make myself an appointment for MONDAY! Fuck me, sound is my life!  I started at attempt to actually get in my car and drive 20 minutes to a mall outside of town who IS seeing people at the Genius Bar tonight.   I asked, “am I that desperate, and am I that attached to these things, these sounds?   Oh a little silence never killed anybody.   And did I really want to spend my first Saturday night in Portland on a Highway to a Mall in the Burbs for Tech Support.    HELL NO.

So here I sit, in the blankness.  Listening to the water run in the other room, to the flow of hot air from the old vent go on and off and a few noises from outside.  Portland is quiet, too.

But it is wonderful, and I feel it in a wonderful way!  So there’s that!

Being new anywhere is so clean and anonymous…. muahahah, only  a matter of time, now!

I like how clouds, sun, and rain stop and start, they give everything life and constant change…

There is a lesbian bar not to far from here, maybe I’ll drink a few and go there, for a sight.

AND, maybe I’ll relax in bed all night with my laptop, a movie, and my hand gingerly holding the wire to the jack, producing sound.

There is love here, look:

The Belmont Market, from “Apples to Zinfandel”.  Mmmmm

-

I sit here tonight, I have just eaten 1 AVOCADO
I have seen 2 houses
I have applied to 0 jobs
I have been to 2 coffee shops, 2 bars, and 2 restaurants, an thrown 2 impromptu  parties at my “house”.

hope you are loving it there! (by suzy)

alex yes i hope you are in love with the new city. i am going to LA, sad you wont be there:(. i got the cheapest flight ever ever///one day sale from jetblue, and i think i am housesitting for that great photographer in the canyon or whatever where you dropped me off. the one who used to live in portland. i talked to her on the phone today and told her i needed to give you her email address.

it is friday. a good thing happened this morning. i got a brioche from the belgium bakery, and i thought it had raisins in it, which i do like, but instead it had chocolate. yum.

its good to be pleased about small good things. it keeps life going.

and now, this, >>>>>>>>> found on, of course, CL….
____________________________
Fuck for Forest is a non-profit organization in Norway that donates everything to environmental causes.

I’m a photographer in New York looking to donate time and photos to the site.

I’m looking for erotic models and couples who want to help out this cause. If you want to get involved please contact me.

About the organization:

i would have more dinner parties if i could invite carl sagan {love suzy}

—->> Carl Sagan – “In order to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe.”

HERE I AM, SUZY. HERE WE ARE. !!!! !!! HERE HERE, HERE

YES.  Everyone, I have landed in Portland!

And Suzy, you are in NY again, but never there.  I think Portland won’t be like LA, I think I’ll actually be here for the most part of it all!

You were snowed-in in Maryland and I was driving past Mt. Hood in sleet and snow and life.

Funny thing about the Amish….  is that last night I met with friends here and randomly played bar Jeopardy … a category: THE AMISH.  I did pretty well, being from Pennsylvania and all.

SO, so so so so …

I’m posting my pictures, I hope they are somewhat interesting.  But I need a *real* camera.

I’ve spent my first night in my house in SE Portland.  It is a room (with shared kitch, bath) in a house still running a vintage clothing business out of the LR and basement.  Two other queer roomies.  Feels very much like hostel life, which is totally great for a month being new to a place.  I’ve set up my things and cat and reality for the next few weeks…..

Now with my Lord, The Internet, I shall find

the health food store
a place for yoga
a job
a house
a used bike
maybe a new bike
the best thrift store for a rain coat.

not in any specific order…

THE TRIP & PORTLAND…

(my little yellow house for the month)

i am supposed to be on this earth! (by suzy)

hi guys. well, i was snowed in in southern maryland for a few days. it reminded me of growing up, being a child playing in the snow…
it just doesnt snow in the cities i have been living in like it does in the rural-ish suburb i grew up in.

they got about ten inches, and the city really shut down. it never snows that much there, and the streets went unplowed for awhile. my bus service back to nyc was canceled. ryan could not get his little sports car with rear wheel drive out of the driveway.

and we built a snowman!
and… (best part) AMISH PEOPLE PLOWED HIS DRIVEWAY!! i swear to you. i wishhhhh i had pics. i sadly do not. but he lives in an area with lots of amish, and they were riding through the neighborhood, a man and a young boy, three horses and a homemade plow made of plywood with a really big rock sitting on it. they pushed the snow so that it blocked ryans crossfire porche-looking car, and his roommates bmw. i personally dont think that was intentional ; )

whooo. back in nyc today. got in in the middle of the night. made it all the way on potentially icy streets from dc to nyc in a double decker bus. it was really windy and i had visions of tripping over, hitting ice. dying was def. a possibility. then, half asleep, i walked off the bus and right into a cab who pulled over bc i made eye contact w him. that was another death wish. nyc cab drivers do not slow down in bad weather. and also, they are from all over the world, and many times places that do not get snow… i was looking madly around the cab– does he have school pictures of his cute gap teethed kids? a rosary? no no… nothing. nothing that noted he had anything to live for past his life, my life, his cab… but somehow, we made it safely. i was a bit shaken from it all and am quite happy to walk through the snowy sludge for the next few days in my new black high tops.

(alex so happy for you and oregon!)
(xoxoox im so happy to be alive right now!)

blogging in bend – alexander

Alexander is blogging from his hotel room in Bend, Oregon.  The rainy drive today was inspiring and beautiful…  I have lots more pictures.

Tomorrow, just a few short hours to Portland.  The cat is sniffing the room and I’m headed to the city centre for a real Oregon beer and meal..!

Makes me miss you, Suzy, and our venture up to Nevada.

(The free wireless in here means I’m not going to take advantage of the free cable… shit.)

charges for peeing on an airplane? ( luv suz )

wow alex… this all sounds exciting!
i just ate an exciting lunch with the entire staff of ryan’s company (well, not really, but, a lot of engineers!! like 25 at a place called ‘cheeseburger in paradise’. haha.)

check this out… new ways to reduce costs for travelers? ughhh
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/4861918/Ryanair-considers-charging-passengers-to-use-lavatories.html