Do you know the difference?

Some people enter your life and are permanent. Others are just passing through. Know the difference.

 Do you know the difference?

The top 10 things I like about Portland

 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8. my job

9.

10.

This completes my list.

Dnaltrop

 

Just when you think someone is cool,

You’ve been made to be a fool...

I'm not gonna complain

The mornings  and late nights feel like autumn  but the afternoons and evenings are like summer. I'm not gonna complain. I'm gonna savor every minute of my afternoons and evenings outside. It's usually cloudy and rainy from October 1 through June  in Portland, but it's been sunny and blue skies here for weeks.  I've been in a great mood every day. If only this climate could extend through to June-when the summer weather starts.  Or to my birthday in early November

Just a thought

My mom just left me a voicemail. She lives in Racine Wisconsin. We moved there when I was 13, from Brooklyn. I hated Racine. It was as different from Brooklyn as night and day. Being shy, I had a severe stuttering problem, and had a difficult time making friends. I had a hard enough time trying to get a girlfriend.  I hated Racine. When I graduated from high school I left the city immediately to attend a college in Tennessee. I had a speech therapist from 1st grade through 12th. Because kids could be mean, when I was away from my therapists, I spoke only when I felt it was important to speak, and since my speech therapists were Jewish women from Brooklyn,   British women, Jamaican men,  my accent is a combination of all of them. They taught me how to speak.  People I speak to, are always convinced I'm from a Carribean island ( rumor has it my birth mother is Jamaican). People have always questioned why I don't sound like my mother or sister. My mother and her husband is French Canadian, by way of Memphis Tennessee. You can hear the Memphis in her when she speaks, but you can hear the Quebecois in her when she's pissed. My sister sounds like she was born and raised in Memphis.  When I graduated from college, I  turned down a couple job offers in Knoxville Tennessee to move back to Wisconsin, living in Madison, then moved to Washington DC, and due to 9-11 the company folded and  I returned  to Wisconsin ( AGAIN), living in Milwaukee and eventually I got a job in Portland Oregon. I finally have a job I truly love. I hated Racine. I hate sub zero climates.

But I digress. My mom left me a voicemail a few minutes ago, telling me that tonight it will be minus 20 degrees, and it'll be as much as 1 degree in the morning.

I hated Racine, but after 5 years in Portland,  I would rather be there than any place else. Portlanders are a different type of people- different from the Midwesterners, New Yorkers, Californians, and Southeners to which I'm accustomed. Not all, but most Portlanders, and I'm not talking about that stupid show Portlandia- well some of that show is accurate. I've grown tired of being confronted with petty bullshit, having to tip-toe around the obvious and being discouraged from saying something outright, and lukewarm friends. The stench of bullshit here is overwhelming. I have to hold my breath until I get home everyday.  But I love my job. I feel blessed, so I'll just have to deal with it, unless a company in a warmer climate scoops me up.  

Thank God for poetry though. It's a great outlet for me. 


Just a thought


I didn't mean to rant, but there it is.

dnaltroP

I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.
                        --Harriet Tubman 

There are  a lot of  people that, if someone told them they were black, they'd probably jump out of a  plate glass window to their deaths. 


Welcome to Portland Oregon. 

* Oregon

5 years ago today, the moving truck left my beautiful, spacious 2-floor apartment with all my belongings, and I left the safety net of family and friends (and a culturally diverse environment) in Milwaukee Wisconsin to start a job in Beaverton Oregon ( suburb of Portland where I now work), the following Monday--

If I live to be 70 or older, God willing, in the list of places I will have lived, the state of Oregon will have been the most unique of places I will have ever lived. It's the most unique so far. I'm not talking about the climate. That wasn't a surprise. I'm not talking about my job. I love my job. God really blessed me in that area. 

I'm talking about the people. Not just the people I met when I moved here, but the people I knew in Oregon before I moved here. 
Yes, the asterisk is there in the title for a reason. 

on twitter

@ alieux9000 -Having to walk to catch the train this morning because my car doors were all frozen. Priceless. And this isn't even Wisconsin!

while cleaning out my email box, I came upon this. I know this is a respost but it was too nice to delete....


A Child's View of Thunderstorms




A little girl walked to and from school daily. Though the weather that morning was questionable and clouds were forming, she made her daily trek to school. As the afternoon progressed, the winds whipped up, along with lightning.
The mother of the little girl felt concerned that her daughter would be frightened as she walked home from school. She also feared the electrical storm might harm her child. Full of concern, the mother got into her car and quickly drove along the route to her child's school. As she did, she saw her little girl walking along.
At each flash of lightning, the child would stop, look up, and smile. More lighting followed quickly and with each, the little girl would look at the streak of light and smile.
When the mother drew up beside the child, she lowered the window and called, "What are you doing?"
The child answered, "I am trying to look pretty because God keeps taking my picture."


May God bless you today and every day as you face the storms that come your way!

Before the BET Awards, I've never heard of-- Esperanza Spalding

but along with Janell Monae, Alicia Keys, and Patti Labelle, she was personally chosen by Prince to perform in BET's Tribute to him. I figured she must be talented. She is-- AND, she was born and raised in Portland Oregon


The sound quality isn't great on this one, but this is the only rendition of her If I Was Your Girlfriend that I could find on youtube; just turn up the volume

Rainy Days Ahead

I didn't do what I said I was going to do today. I didn't go to Church. I lied in bed, alternating between waking up and going back to sleep  a few times,  until ten o'clock.
I was going to get up, go to Church, go to the gym, go downtown to Portland just to waste time until dinner, but today I just lied in bed, and got up and worked on my collection of short stories until dinner. I watched the news this  evening and I heard the meteorologist say that today was the last sunny day we would have for a while. The rain season (of Fall, Winter and part of Spring) has arrived.  I wish I had gotten up to go to Church     :(