today i worked downtown

and it happens to be the day of the "portland floral parade" or something like that. it snaked through downtown, causing traffic nightmares and thousands (like, TEN thousand) people to filter through the city blocks. my bus route was fortunately not affected much by the parade, but many were. border's was a madhouse of people wanting to use our restrooms. it was pretty fun, though. saturdays seem to be more laid back than the rest of the week. i also got to sleep in until SEVEN a.m.!!! you have no idea how much of a difference this makes.

yesterday after i got home from work a neighbor from down the hall knocked on the door and said that he was moving out and across country and if i wanted to take a look at his stuff if there was anything i wanted. i got us a great bookcase and a PERFECT table for plants. FREE. yes, certain things about this town rocks. it is a fluid town: a large chunk of the population is just "passing through". as many new people move IN to town, probably a similar amount are moving OUT. i like to call portland "one big garage sale". everywhere you look there are signs for yard sales, "for sale" signs on bikes propped up against stop signs, cars, furniture, cothing, plants on the curb with "FREE" written on them. a couple weeks ago, i saw a shoebox with ratty old converse shoes in them sitting on the curb. there was no sign, but if it's on the curb, it's free (no, i didn't take them).

i love this city. it's vibrant, colorful, and silly. there are bumper stickers, pins, t-shirts all over town that read "keep portland weird". and it really is. at border's we are selling the new ann coulter book and you wouldn't imagine the comments coming out of customers' mouths when they walk by the display. we've even had to repeatedly turn copies back over becauce it seems that our patrons were flipping the book so that her picture wasn't visible (she's featured prominantly on the front). this would not happen in nebraska. this is a liberal town, no doubt. the crazies tend to be those spouting about how good the government is! defenders of W tend to keep their opinions to themselves. i don't have to get fired-up about politics anymore because i'm just another liberal dipshit with an opinion. i'd just be preaching to the choir. it's refreshing, believe me.

so i'm off for the weekend now (sunday and monday). in other news, the crazy neighbors from #10 have been evicted and they are a thing of the past. it's finally quiet in the complex!

love, anne