"Them" were my friends Hope and Alicia. Hope is Alicia's mom, Alicia is my former girlfriend -- Alicia and I learned years ago that us being friends was A MUCH BETTER IDEA than us being a couple -- and today they're up in Portland. We just spent a few hours meeting two goals: shopping at Powell's and eating street food. Fish and chips for Alicia, Korean barbecue for Hope and me. And except for the Powell's shopping, this was done in the sun. The glorious, warm sun. Finally.
I'm really ready for spring. Truth. And after a bright-and-cold start this morning, it feels like spring in Portland. All but the window right behind my computer are open in my apartment at the moment, so I can air out the place. New air! At least new to me.
I added a goal for today after Alicia and Hope showed up: visit the Belmont Goats, because both Alicia and Hope appreciate cute. Goat-scratching and rooster-visiting commenced for a bit, because we were on our way to the downtown Powell's plus we wanted not to wait too long to eat. But the goats were a quick, easy, and happy stop. Then I directed Hope to downtown and the Pearl District, and slightly helped her find parking (in a garage a little easier to get into than Powell's, which I've used once in the Nineties and it was so tight it scared me). I ay "slightly" because I'm not the boss of where you park.
Alicia picked up various fantasy novels, plus
greygirlbeast's second "Kathleen Tierney" novel Red Delicious because she likes when vampire novels have an actual sense of humor. (She makes an exception for Dracula because it's good in so many other ways. "Nothing comes close," she said about other vampire novels.) I stumbled, happily, onto a used copy of kradical's Star Trek novel Articles of the Federation, which is hard to find now so I'm extra-glad to give it a good home. I also scoped out a few books I'll order online from Powell's via online credit.Outside, we people-watched and building-watched, enjoying the mix of architecture styles. (Alicia walked past the Multnomah County Central Library and said "Theu don't make libraries that way anymore.") We went over to Director Park to sit and eat; we did so next to a chess board with two-foot-high pieces and watched a highly determined dachshund try to sniff something just, out, of, her, reach. I was surprised to see progress on the Park Avenue West tower, a project that got halted right before I started working at Hoffman Construction in 2009 and was stalled for years; so finally the developer decided to go for it, meaning another building core is rising up in downtown. Surprise building guts! Or, I guess, building skeleton, where the elevator core will be.
It's been an ideal day to show off my burg.
