I was in Portland this past weekend for a conference. I'm lucky enough to be one of those people who has friends scattered across the United States, so when I go somewhere, I always try to sneak in a visit with a friend or two. This time, it was the Buddhist. The Buddhist actually lives in Seattle, but it's only a couple hours drive away, so he came down to see me on Saturday.
Saturday morning he went in to his company's Portland office for some work thing he wanted to be trained on- I'm not sure I would be willing to go in to work on a Saturday for voluntary training, but I guess that just means I don't love my (hypothetical future) job as much as he does. That afternoon, he came to see my presentation at the conference. It's a true friend who will brave a professional conference just to give you moral support, let me tell you. After I was done presenting and shaking hands (go networking!), we went out to dinner.
One of the problems I'm having in my current city is a distinctive lack of good Thai food options. There are a few restaurants, but none that live up to my standards. The Buddhist knew of a place on the east side of Portland that he'd been to once and was incredible, so we decided to go there.
The first thing we noticed when we got there was the crowd of people milling about outside. We went up to the hostess, who told us there was an hour long wait. But, she said, we could go wait across the street at their bar, have some appetizers, and they'd let us know when our table was ready. They have a walkie-talkie system set up just for that purpose.
That sounded like a plan, so we went over to the bar and sat down. And waited. And waited. And waited. After almost two hours, several drinks, and some delicious Thai fritters (I really wish I'd paid more attention to what they are called- they were delicious!) we finally gave up. We'd thought about going to a movie, but I was still on east coast time, so I was exhausted even though it was only 7pm.
Instead, we went back to my hotel room and watched HBO in bed. I have to say, that's my favorite part about hotels. I don't have a tv in my room and haven't for years, so it feels particularly indulgent to watch tv from bed. It was even better when I saw what was on- Tremors! That terrible Kevin Bacon movie about the giant worm creatures under the ground. I remember loving that movie so much when it came out, and my brother was even worse- he tied up my parents' Netflix queue with all four (that's right, they made four) Tremors movies for months. The Buddhist had never seen it from start to finish, and it had us rolling the entire time.
Naturally, lying in bed together watching a movie led to cuddling, and cuddling led to making out, and making out led to...well, you can figure it out. I hadn't planned for that- truly, I hadn't! I don't go into every date with friends or romantic interests thinking it's going to end it bed- so I was glad I keep a condom in my wallet. I know, it sounds like a guy thing right? But I consider it a feminist act- I am taking control of my own sexuality without relying on a man to be responsible for my health and safety. I outright refuse to have sex without a condom, and it would suck to get to the the point of needing one only to have to stop because he didn't have one. So, I bring my own.
The next morning, we were woken up by the sound of someone on a loudspeaker. Looking out the window we saw people running by dressed in wigs and costumes- apparently it was the 32nd Annual Leprechaun Run. Had I known about it in advance, I totally would have participated! We even saw someone running dressed up as a giant pint of Guinness. We went and got breakfast, barely beating the post-run crowd, and then decided to walk over to the Saturday Market.
Yes, the Saturday Market is also open on Sunday.
We walked around for a bit looking at the different artists and stalls. My favorite part, though, was watching the Buddhist light up when he saw all the Tibetan goods. You see, the Buddhist is so named because he actually is a Buddhist. He even lived in Tibet for several years, and used to work with Buddhist monks in the U.S. At one shop, he found a vendor who he was able to speak a few words of Tibetan with. It's cliché, but seeing him so happy made me happy, too.
After the market, we went and had coffee and chatted while I waited for another friend I was spending the evening with. We both remarked upon how comfortable we felt with each other, especially since this was the first time we'd spent a significant amount of time alone together. It was a great day, but it made me miss all my friends out on the west coast. I'm going back for another friend's wedding in August, though, so this trip will hopefully tide me over until then.
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