Thanks to Cameron I have now found a new coffee shop. It is a small place on 25th & Belmont that is warm and comfy, has great chill music and really friendly staff. Also tons of books on the wall. I am sitting at my favorite table watching a 3 mo old couple having a rather uncomfortable discussion and it's very cute. Looking back at my life I wish I had had a couple uncomfortable discussions when I didn't. It certainly would have prevented some future discussions which were significantly less comfortable and certainly more painful.
Happily, I will be moving out of my dungeon in Cameron's basement this weekend and into my new place in the Kerns neighborhood, which is right near Laurelhurst Park, ostensibly the best park in the city. PDX is divided into something like 77 neighborhoods and people take their neighborhood very seriously. Quite like Milwaukee, PDX likes to think of itself as a large small town. Although it has a hell of a lot more to do than any small town I've ever been in.
I went to the coast this Sunday with a CSer who is in town from Germany on an internship. It turned out to be really nice. I had been hearing a lot about the coast and how great it was. I was to the coast several years ago and, not having been too impressed, was dubious about the claims of awesomeness. I have been convinced though as the area we visited was incredibly beautiful. There were huge cliffs and views as well as long, sandy beaches. Of course, the water is too cold to swim long any time of the year, but that just means that less people will be around. The drive was also quite nice. The way back we took some very back roads where we saw nobody. At one point I stopped to take a leak and the smell of the forest and the stillness in the air was so great that we just stood around looking at each other and the sky. There was literally not a breath of air and no sounds of life or civilization. The noise of something crashing to the ground came from behind us and we realized that it was a leaf falling. We stood admiring the great still until a car came and ruined the moment.