...cat pee, Bella pee (she is doing great on potty training..she always says "Mommy, can you hear my pee coming out?"..Wow. I wish I had something exciting to talk about.
Well, I could talk about mom-in-law coming and our trip to Portland last week. My mom-in-law (who I really like) came for about a week. We went up to Sisters, which was fun.She bought Bella the cutest pair of pink and lavender sparkly, embroidered cow girl boots. So far, Bella has only worn them once..I knew this would happen, finicky kid. Those boots were not cheap, either. Oh well, I will encourage her to wear them more and eventually I will just sell them on Ebay (hey, at least if they are "like new" I will get more money for them). We also took mom-in-law out to the coast. We had the intention of flying a kite (we got a little lady bug one for Bella) because she talks about flying kites but it was WAY too windy..and after walking through the sand storm for 10 minutes we gave up and walked back to the car.
Anyways, Last Monday Larry and I drove up to Portland,leaving Bella with Grammie. We went to Jackpot Records (God, I wish I lived in Portland sometimes..so many records stores, good restaurants, chances to see great bands, etc.) The owner (I think he was the owner) was very cool. He told me he'd put anything on the stereo that I wanted to listen to. I was looking at this Monks cd that I'd never seen, so he put that on and I ended up buying it. I also bought an old Wipers album and Larry bought something by Django Rheinhardt (I may have butchered the spelling). Then we walked down to China Town (which is TINY compared to say, China Town in San Francisco) because Larry has never had Dim Sum. We found a place and though it wasn't the best I've had, I was still so excited to be eating Dim Sum. I don't think any place here in town does it. I first had it up in Seattle when I lived there.
Then we went to Powells, which is an amazing multi-level bookstore (in a building that takes up an entire city block)..we browsed around there for awhile (I am drawing a blank on what we bought..some kids books and something for me)..then we decided to go have a few beers at the Deschutes brewery. It was beautifully warm and sunny, so we sat outside. I drank half of my black butte porter..probably not the wisest choice on a warm day as it is a pretty dark and heavy beer.
By this time it was late enough (around 3pm) so that we could go check into the Crystal Hotel. It is my least favorite of all of the McMenamins properties we have stayed at, but it was ok. The room was tiny, but as always, it was just fine for us. Shared bathroom down the hall. That probably wouldn't work for some people but I don't mind..there are about 4 of the shared bathrooms on one floor, so it isn't like you are waiting to use one, and it makes the cost of the room cheaper. All of the rooms in this particular place are named after song titles. We stayed in "Sleeping Lessons" which happens to be a Shins song (with some lyrics painted on the walls of the room)..I like whole idea of rock and roll rooms. We went down to the hotel restaurant/bar and I cannot remember the name of my drink, but it tasted like grapefruit in a way and contained a tiny bit of absinthe. Our waiter was a nervous but friendly guy with interesting tattoos on his wrist (you would be hard pressed to find somebody NOT tattooed in Portland...hipsterville, for sure!) He seemed so tired (or maybe he was stoned!) Larry saw him break a glass and just sit there staring at it for far longer than seems normal. That seemed to put a curse on me because 5 minutes later my glass fell out of my hand and broke all over the bar top (thus wasting half of my $9 fancy drink)..I wasn't about to buy another one, so...that was that.
We met Larry's ex-girlfriend and her geeky (but nice) boyfriend for dinner at a Lebanese restaurant. I didn't mind meeting her (we both have talked a lot about previous relationships to each other) and I found her pretty entertaining. I feel bad calling her boyriend geeky,but he just was, with his long hair pulled back in a pony tail, a dark fedora and a pin-striped shirt and black vest. He DOES work for a software company (but then again, so does Larry and he doesn't look geeky (not to me anyway))..my food was good (I love Middle Eastern food in general) and then it was time for us to take the light rail down to the Rose Garden Arena to see The Arctic Monkeys and the Black Keys.
I don't like big venues and am so used to seeing bands in much smaller places so it was kind of strange at first to be sitting in our seats and taking in the huge place (not a stadium or anything, but still..too fucking big) but I was still excited to see the show. The Arctic Monkeys were good (we've seen them before, and I preferred them when I was right in front of the stage) but the audience just didn't seem that into them.
The Black Keys were amazing. I loved that they projected random films behind them while playing (amateur footage of random people and places, mostly in black and white) and they sounded great. I had a good time (and thank god everybody was standing up and dancing, I couldn't imagine if we'd all sat there just watching)...I don't know, a show is show and it seems pointless to try to describe it, honestly.
By this time I was missing Bella (longest I'd ever been away from her)but not in any sort of painful way. It just felt strange not to have her by my side.
We decided to walk back to our hotel, which was nice as it was a nice evening out and we walked over this cool bridge which crosses the main river in Portland) but I was beat by the time we got to the hotel (the walk probably took 35 minutes)
Eh, I am going to cut this short as Bella is throwing a fit when I mentioned that she needs to take a bath or shower (she is going through a phase again where she doesn't like bathing, it sucks, but she doesn't get THAT dirty) and I don't want to force her to that point that she develops some phobia (she IS my child after all..and I am the queen of neurotic)
Anyways, we had a nice trip and it was also good to get back home to Bella!!
