It is March 1st and I am officially counting down the number of days until I can return to dear old Cincinnati with it’s familiar faces, cold weather and streets void of tempting bakeries. Not to mention I really can’t wait to see ewok doggie (Kirby), jellybean (my Yaris), Erin (the misbehaving horse I ride) and the huge, comfy, squishy, couch in our family room that I can sprawl out on – oh yea, and a shower bigger than 2ft by 2ft will be nice.
This past week went fast due to the fact that I had a big job to do at Bent! I was making some sort of layout for some sort of director for some sort of thingy. Yea. I can’t really tell you what I was doing, but it was fun and kept me busy and kept me at work Wednesday night until 12:30 am! Due to this, I took Friday off, and waalaa, a three day weekend all to myself! I was happy at this prospect, but I think it made me feel lonely. 3 whole days and no one to share it with, but, I kept myself entertained and I’ll bask in my alone time while I can. Anyway, as usual when stuck on a big job with a limited time frame, I was offered food and it was loverly and probably what kept fueled all night. I can’t say peanut butter would have done the same as curry from Mai Thai and a deliciously wonderful sandwich from the Press Club. Since I’ve already had the curry vegetable dish, I’ll tell you all about this sandwich. Baguette, prosciutto, brie, and pesto melted together to form a powerful stack of flavor and rich ingredients. Brie, I have to say, is my favorite cheese. I don’t know what it is about the smooth texture, the creamy way it wraps around your tongue, or the potent after taste that leaves you craving and relishing in heavenly cheesiness.
So to begin my three day weekend, I went to what else but a coffee shop with nothing but my book in hand. I ordered some hummus and an iced latte, neither were spectacular. It was raining but that didn’t stop me from sitting outside under cover of the heated porch, flipping pages while glancing at the wet sky and sipping my espresso and milk. It seems that I can only handle one place for a limited amount of time, when by myself anyway, so I yelped another coffee shop in search of something to snack on, something better than the bit of hummus I had. Cellar Door Coffee was only a few blocks away past Burgerville (a sort of local Portland McDonalds with burgers, veggie burgers and more made with better ingredients and sold at a more expensive fast food price – I wasn’t tempted, fast food, no matter how good it seems to be, never satisfies).
Yelp was right about Cellar Door and the vanilla scone that I ate during my next one and a half hours of reading, was scrumptious. Light but dense, indomitable flavor but not all consuming, a perfect hardened texture on the outside and a soft, doughy inside. Finally, after reading lots of pages too fast, the hour I had been waiting for arrived. It was 4:30 and time to take advantage of the break in the rain, walk across the Hawthorne bridge, and go to the art museum for it’s free Friday admission which was only from 5-8.
What I liked most about this museum, was the amount of Native American art/culture that was on display. One statue in particular really caught my attention and I had an immediate desire to draw it. It was a stern Native American mounted on a horse that was dancing tall, its head twisted, its eyes spooked for the run. I wanted to capture that, imitate it, be a part of it. I walked through the rest of the museum before going to the shop and buying a sketchbook with a neat pattern of fishies on it. I took it back upstairs and for the next hour I sketched and erased and sketched. I haven’t put pencil to real paper in an attempt to draw realistically in a long, long, long time. I admit I’m a little out of practice and it took me a while to get the proportions and the relationships right. Well, they still weren’t right when the museum was closing, but they were enough to make me happy with my sketch and make me realize that I need to practice drawing. I need to see things again, not just glance at them and assume what’s there. I need patience and meticulous eye witness to what things truly look like so that I can draw for real again. Thank you sketchbook, I will use you.
Saturday arrived with the uncertainty of rain or sun or a mishmosh I shall now like to call raisun (rain and sun). I went to Happy Sparrow Cafe where they specialize in Kolaches :: a type of pastry consisting of fillings ranging from fruits (including poppy seed, raspberry, and apricot) to cheeses and/or meats (and nutella!) inside a bread roll. The little bun I ordered, jalapeno sausage and cheese, was tasty, but nothing special. I could make these on my own with Pillsbury dough and store bough ingredients, but it was cheap and still pretty yummy. Next I headed to Opposable Thumbs where I had a vanilla latte, which was good, except the barista there (this is my second visit) was kind of a grouch…I think I’ll stick to going somewhere else for now, not to mention they’re a little over priced.
After working on Kiki stuff for a long while, I went to lunch at Fire on the Mountain Buffalo Wings. It took some time to trek over there and on the way I stopped in some cute little shops to browse and kill some lonesome time. What was completely awesome about the restaurant was that there were stands set up for you to taste the sauces with celery before ordering. I generously tried them all and would have been happy with any except the extra hot and the raspberry…spicy raspberry just fails. I ordered a buffalo chicken salad with the mild sauce and some blue cheese dressing. I don’t know if it’s because I was craving that sweet, tangy, hotness of buffalo sauce or because there were some magical fiery fairies of smooth spice floating around, but the crunch of the salad and that kick of saliva inducing sauce was so soo good.
There was still about an hour and half until my movie started so I crept into Crema Bakery and used their table without buying anything. hehe. bad me. After writing a little bit and playing Sims, I saw The Road at Laurelhurst for 3 buckeroos. It was so heart-wrenching, shocking, true, painful, beautiful, and I LOVE VIGGO. Definitely worth seeing, or reading for that matter I assume, though I haven’t personally read it – I’d like to! That marked the end of my day Saturday and I went home to finish the last 100 pages of my book.
I tried so hard to sleep in on Sunday, but I couldn’t. So I went to Starbucks and ordered a Skinny Vanilla Latte, only 110 calories in a Venti, but I’m not sure if the sugar free syrup even tasted good…Also, I got the Portland Coffeecake – apparently Portland gets to be the only one blessed with this thick slab of cinnamon sugar and malleable breakfast pastry.
I ate, got some writing done, spied on a cute couple sitting right outside of the window with their dog, seethed in some jealousy, then walked to the library to print pages for my writing group. On my way to the library I peeped in some cute shops for fun (cute shops are everywhere in Portland! They are hard to resist.) While browsing I came across a card with a cupcake and a lion on it. I thought this was perfect. I <3 lions and cupcakes and to see them combined into one cute little design was amusing to me. Too bad the card was about four dollars.
I continued to the library and I got hot! I had to take off my coat and stuff it in my backpack. I think picking up groceries on my way home was a mistake. Hauling my laptop, winter coat, and book on my back and then lemonade, milk, yogurt and cereal in plastic bags made for a sweaty, difficult walk home in which I had to pause and rest my bags on the sidewalk a couple times. Another sign, most likely, that I need to get my ass to a gym. Either way, I was glad to have groceries and my next errand was laundry. BLEH. My roommate drove me, I paid way too much to clean all of my clothes, and then my roommate took me home. To repay her for helping me out, I took her to Por Que No for some tacos. This Mexican place is another Portland favorite and since it happened to be happy hour, I splurged for some freshly baked chips and lime-awakening, cool, creamy guacamole – so good, as were my two pork tacos on homemade tortillas with cilantro, crema, and salsa verde.
The rest of Sunday night I spent playing Sims, talking to Christopher, watching Jane Austen Regrets – fantastic portrayal of her, I think – and then drawing the actress who played Fanny in the movie because I thought her features were absolutely gorgeous and elfesque. Yey for more sketching (roughly as you can see)! I was proud of myself and fell asleep rather content.
