Better late than never!

Sorry about the delay in the posting, but I had a crazy weekend with els and GoS in town and to be honest I was lazy.
Many good drinks and eats over the lovely weekend. GoS was waiting for rain and fortunately it did not show up until the morning of departure. Drinks from a bar called 820, snacks from Bar Pastiche (small bites), you also see dessert from Andina (the cocoa mixture is YUM!). Went for a stroll around Alberta street where I captured the skelton jumping from the ladder atop a roof (that is cool). Serracho/a treated us all to a bottle of Dom Perignon for the Big Portland adventure- the chicken light was very excited.

Pics of Alberta

Last Thursday of every month on Alberta is a free-for-all! Last night while cruisin' to the festivities I said, " let's get home a little earlier than we did the last time." Well, that did not happen.
I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves for the most part. I will give a one sentence synopsis of each.
1) Alpaca's are brought out to sell sweaters - I don't think they like it much. 2) YOUNG MEN in a band rockin' the entire street. 3) Girl creating balloon animals - she was reading the book on how to do it while she created them. 4) DJ setting up on the street corner which was really a bus stop handicap ramp. 5) Retro trailer is actually a rental - it can be yours for 65.00 a day. 6) Street corner singer - His song went something like this: "I hate to work, I hate to work, I hate to work...." 7) Three piece band in a gallery with lots of people milling about. 8) Girl with FIRE - she is actually swinging them around for the crowd while 5-8 guys play the drums on the side, the crowd got so large here that cars could not pass in either direction. 9) Random noun (AKA Kevin) was the BEST! He was an 11th grader who came out with his mom who is a massage therapist. She was offering a 10-minute massage, he was offering random nouns and useless facts. Mom said he made more money than her. 10) WELL- Rubenesque-Voluptuous-Need I say more? 11) Artists' setting up, kind of the calm before the storm.

Bureaucratic Shit!

As I am writing this I have the phone next to my ear waiting for the bureaucratic nightmare known as the Teacher Standards and Practice Commission of Oregon to pick up their phone! I started my quest for information at 8:05am and have been told twice to leave a message and someone would get back to me within two business days. Oh, I have forgotten to say that I have been waiting for this department to get off their ass and process my license to teach. I canNOT do anything to find a job until this damn certificate is issued. So those of you who are wondering what in the HELL I do all day...this is just some of the idiotic, nightmare, bureaucratic shit that happens daily!
Let me start from the beginning of this wonderful bedtime story. To be qualified to teach in the state of Oregon (or any state for that matter) one must be approved by a state licensing board. There are many documents you must submit; such as: Official transcripts for all colleges attended (4 for me), photocopy of california state license, C-2 form which says I graduated from a teacher prep program (this one is great! because if you remember I have taught in Cali and I had to send in transcripts and they have this info on there, but no I have to mail the C-2 form to Sac State and have them verify I graduated from a teacher program), PEER form (don't ask it is better not to know), official sealed fingerprints and.........
Well, this is where it gets really goood!
By the way I am still on hold.
After gathering and receiving all of these documents you must send them all in one envelope to Salem TSPC. When the TSPC opens your envelope they create a file and now you are officially "in process." Their website and phone message says, "all packets are evaluated or reviewed within 30days of reciept". My packet was received on JULY 19th! Yes, you got it WATSON - sometime around August 19th is when my packet would be evaluated. Being the anal retentive person I am I was checking the website daily. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Then last night once I hit ENTER, I got a shocker! Here was the message flashing on the screen to my bewilderment: 8/24/05 - Miscellaneous - Incomplete Packet.
WHAT THE %&*@!!!!!!
I went into a tailspin. How the hell are you suppose to function in this god damn mediocre, beaurocratic, nightmare system called Teacher Evaluation (they don't know me - I am a piece of paper - actually multiple pieces of paper).
After the tailspin slowed to a whirlwind, I read the fine print. Miscellaneous meant that there were two documents missing which made my wonderful packet incomplete. OK - this is great! I knew I had mailed EVERYTHING in one envelope. I checked, double checked and triple checked before I sealed the envelope. I ran to the bedroom grabbed the instruction sheet for Transitional Teaching License and read carefully the instructions one more time. The picture above shows you that the instructions are on one page - not two sided.
HA,HA,HA - Well in actuality the instruction are SUPPOSE TO BE two pages. The instruction packet sent to me by TSPC was INCOMPLETO!
So, Now I know that I must fill out two more documents (as shown in the pic above). I must mail them to TSPC in Salem and when they receive them guess what happens? Voila! My "in process" packet gets pushed back to the received date.
Needless to say, I don't want anyone asking me when I will be getting a teaching job, because the fact is I can't even SUB without that stupid piece of paper!

Wing Ding

Wing Ding is a way to describe every weekend here in PDX. There are soooo many fun items on my agenda it is hard to get through them all. I want many of you to notice the beautiful blue skies in most, if not all, of the daytime photos. Portland has two major rivers and the coast is only an hour or so away. So weather often makes its way up the gorge (think of those delta breezes in sac or santa ana winds), fortunately, the weather (like fog or clouds) doesn't have a chance with the heat of the sun forcing all of the ugly weather away (I know - talk to me during the winter).
Hawthorne bridge is hiding between the willow tree above. I read recently that it was opened in 1910 and it is the oldest (and still in use) vertical lift bridge in the US. It is named after Dr. J.C. Hawthorne who founded the Oregon hospital for the INSANE. More interestingly, the Hospital was located on a street named Asylum, which has been renamed for Dr. Hawthorne also.
Many evenings have been spent strolling the alphabet streets of the pearl. There are restaurants and bars, clothing and furniture stores, and handmade paper and orchid businesses. It is very nice to walk and find a new location to remember and find again. On many evening strolls pictures are often captured for no reason other than research. If you are looking at the picture with the flag let it be known I am not feeling patriotic, the photo shows two buildings on either side of the frame and two in the middle. The building on the right, is called Avenue Lofts and prior to being converted to lofts it was the warehouse for Meier & Frank. The building on the left is Marshall Wells Lofts (I think?). OK-the lights are a picture taken at a drunken moment in our lobby - I think they are kinda hip!
Last, but not least, a couple of statements about health and physical fitness. The government is all up in arms about childhood obesity but they (government) are still allowing twinkies and cheetos in vending machines at schools. Here are two statements the government could use for their national campaign -I really like them but do not necessarily follow them: 1) move more than you eat, and 2) if you want to look athletic you must be athletic.

Mississip-pix

Mississppi Pizza and Pix Patissere what more could a girl ask for; oh yeah, fantastic conversation and fun with my cow. Beautiful evening in PDX friday night. A band, Klemocracy, was playing at Mississppi Pizza. So, for the price of a pie (exceptionally good) and bottle of wine we were also treated to great beats. We sat in the back of the joint where the pint size bar was bumpin'. The music filtered through the large doors and the windows. Tons of people having a mellow good time. We spent a great amout of time eating, listening and watching. It was late when we left but decided to finally try Pix's Place. A destination for dessert, drinks, espresso, etc. on Division and SE34th. Service was stellar and sitting outside at 12:00am was perfect. Ordered a rouge Lillet which turned out to be a fabulous choice (I only wished it was larger) with the molten chocolate cake paired with homemade espresso ice cream. I hope all of you enjoyed your evening as much as we did!

Forward HoY!

Built in 1906 with a solid foundation and old growth fir timbers the house at 2934 SE Yamhill was built to last - and last it has. The conundrum of buying a home was set at ease by a home inspector that kept saying, "this is a great house." The front porch steps were found to have a bit of dry rot, there was some kind of flange on the roof that needed to be sealed, a J-box in the attic needed to be covered (I don't know what the hell that means), and a few other minor injuries (hey if you were 100 years old you would have flange problems too). Fortunately, being in the house for over an hour allowed me (and I hope the cow) to feel less anxiety about our decision. The House on Yamhill (I am going to write a book and that is going to be the name-from now on it will be known as HoY!) has many great features and a few that will need to be changed: the front porch is large and inviting, HoY is painted well with the under-hang rafters being a deep-dark read, the door bell is on the outside center of the door-you turn the knob on the outside and on the inside the bell rings (I love this), the fireplace is ugly and needs to be changed but it is a gas fireplace so maybe the cow and I will be able to get it lit, there are composting bins and a great storage shed in the backyard. Inside the house the bathroom has good color and new toilet, sink, and a refurbished claw foot tub with shower. All of the light switches have a dimmer switch built in. So when you go to turn the light on or off it will brighten or dim with the degree of up or down (THAT! is a good description). The living room, dining room, and bedrooms have beautiful molding around the light fixtures and the fixtures aren't bad either. Luckily it has a new furnace and all of the floor grids look new. As you can see the backyard is grand! There are apple trees on both sides of the porch, the porch is large enough to put a table and chairs for 6-8 (come and visit we will sit outside), and the view from the kitchen sink is pretty lush. What more could a girl ask for? Closets - I didn't mention the closets. Well-We all have a few flaws that need work so lets just say that HoY needs a few nips and tucks like the rest of us!

No Pictures. Sorry!

Buy or rent? Wait or jump in with both feet? Good 'hood? Condo, loft, or house? Yard or balcony? West or East? North or South? How much are the taxes? Public tranit available? Closets? Room size? Storage? Garage? These are all of the questions that have been running through my head for exactly one week. When the cow and I decided to put an offer on a 1906 Bungalow in the SE. It [the offer] seemed like the right thing to do. Now, I am going through the questions and literally flip-floping on an hourly basis.
There are goods and bads about all options. The most anxiety driven decison is buying a house. Why do we need a house? Why do we automatically walk into a place and say, "we can change the fireplace" and "we can try to make the closets larger." It is some weird need to have a "place of our own." Is it really ours?

Comments?

Hodge-Podge

This is going to be a variation of installments. 1)OK- For all of those people with dogs here is a business for you; doggy daycare! This concept is HOT in Portland. Big dogs, little dogs, fat and skinny dogs get to go to play with there mates on a daily basis. Drop them off in the morning and they get play time, walk time and food. Ready to go home and be your best-friend for the rest of the evening. 2) Portland has beautiful sunsets. Often a few whispy clouds will fill the sky and the sun creates beautiful mosaics with them. 3) Flowers are abundant and everywhere. This is a feature I want to add to my house soon. This restaurant took a 2" wide piece of metal about 6' in length and placed shot glasses with flowers all along the wall. One of the servers said that they do not have to change the flowers all at once. When one looks wilty or dead they just replace it or remove it until next time. 4) Flower baskets are hanging everywhere (if you have ever been to Victoria, B.C. you know what I mean). Some of the ones around the pearl are so huge I often think they are going to fall on someone. OUCH! 5) The old water towers are on many of the restored industrial buildings. There are several lofts that use the water tower as part of their roof top balconey. As you walk through the neighborhood you must look up, see stuff that most don't notice.