Magic Spot Flowing

I’ve had a lot of moments lately where I’m just absurdly happy to be in Portland…the grinning-in-the-street, singing-randomly sort of happy. And I think about blogging about whatever just happened and then something else awesome happens and I forget.

Awesome things:
I climbed Mt. Tabor on my bike (yesterday). There was nothing particularly impressive about my execution, but I did it. Sources suggest that this means I climbed about 600 ft, which is about the same as I used to do from home to Woodside. I think I’m a bit out of shape.

Actually, I know I’m a bit out of shape, because while biking to the Tin Shed on Alberta (where I sat out on a patio, ate tasty squash ravioli, and listened to a sax trio while talking to interesting Internet people) I was passed by people riding upright city bikes with front baskets and people towing trailers. People in Portland are for serious with their commuter riding.

I went on several Portland ByCycle rides, the first one to sweets (frozen yogurt, ice cream and other tastiness), the second to the waterfront, and the third to “quirky parks”. These rides are awesome. They start after work and end before dark, are hosted by incredibly friendly and knowledgeable city staff, and explore Portland’s bicycle infrastructure and nifty places.

Everyone in Portland is So Nice. The way I’ve described the difference between this and other places is that in my experience, people are generally polite everywhere I’ve been, but in Portland, they don’t just do it, they mean it. People ask how you are and talk to you in the street. And being around so many nice people has the effect of creating more niceness in me, which feels great.

I went to a classical music concert (recital?) in a pub. Classical Revolution PDX. Classical music + relaxed atmosphere = win.

Tonight I went to Drinking Liberally, for three reasons: it was convenient (the Lucky Lab NW is two blocks from work), I was interested in the experience, and the invited guest was Michelle Poyourow of the BTA. I’ve been quietly waffling about what to do about continuing my advocacy work now that I’ve left SVBC to its own devices (I haven’t technically left it, since my membership will remain active until February of next year, but I’ve certainly become at best an inactive member). There are many organizations and many projects in Portland, and they don’t all get along, but I was quite won over by Michelle’s realistic yet optimistic take on things, so I’m planning on seeing if I can offer them my time, interest, and experience in the bikes-on-transit arena.

The overall experience was fun too — I suspect that I’m not really engaged enough in national political stuff to keep up with the usual DL attendees, but I definitely found them congenial and interesting.

And then there are the small awesomenesses: walking out of my office and looking up to see sunsplashed hills and fluffy white clouds; sunset captures and crisp afternoon views from the bridges; and boysenberries from Food Front and basil from the farmer’s market.

And last but not least, sitting in my bay window at night and watching the stars in the sky and lights in the houses.

My Sunday in Seattle was slightly less ad-hoc than Saturday. I spent the day with my best friend from graduate school and her husband and brother- and sister-in-law. Our first stop was Cafe Flora, which is I think better than the Yelp reviews suggest (for those of you who automatically go Yelp any restaurant someone mentions). It probably doesn’t exceed Greens, but it’s nearly on par — perhaps better for some items — and much cheaper. The apple-cinnamon rolls were fantastic, their rosemary lemonade and cranberry ginger drinks were yummy, and the sides of potatoes with the brunch dishes were absolutely perfect. There were a few oddities — the beignets were dry, and the “Bloody Flora” had a few too many pickled vegetables for nearly anyone’s taste. My tomatoes included the core, which seemed careless to me.

Afterward we went to REI (the flagship store — huge!) and then on to Discovery Park, which was fantastic. I neglected to bring my camera on our walk/hike, and missed a wonderfully rainy view out over the Sound (we missed the rain, but it was raining out there and it came it not long after we got back) and some beautiful purple flowers with water droplets from the earlier rain. Upon further research I find that they’re sweet pea flowers! Very nice. We also saw an owl and a chipmunk. What a great park. Now that I’ve seen Seattle’s park I’m doubly motivated to explore the one practically on my doorstep (Forest Park).

It’s funny how some of the best things are completely unplanned. When I got to Seattle yesterday, I had a plan to go see the Space Needle, then go walk or sit in a park for a while. And that was the extent of my plan.

Before I headed for Seattle center, I noticed a shop in Pike Place Market called The Crumpet Shop. I love crumpets, and you don’t see them very often here, so I decided to stop in, and get something if it looked good. Sitting and eating my crumpet (which was regrettably not that good — sorry Crumpet Shop, but you need to step it up), I saw a poster for Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan’s production of Utopia Ltd. I could only see part of the poster because it was behind the door, but the part I could see was advertising next weekend and the weekend after. When I got up to look, I found that the hidden part listed this weekend! I didn’t decide right away to go, but it entered my mind as a possibility.

While I was waiting for the Space Needle (everyone in Seattle wants to be up there on a sunny day), I looked up Seattle G&S on my phone and called their number. They were not selling tickets until an hour and a half before the show, but the theater was nearby. When I showed up at 6 (after completing the “sit in a park” part of my plan, and finding out whether there were any vegetarian places nearby), they still had a few left. And thus my stop in the Crumpet Shop led to a fun evening.

The production was, in my no-longer-very-educated opinion, excellent. Very good orchestra, excellent singing (especially on the part of the woman playing Zara), quality acting, and fun choreography well-executed by the cast. I particularly enjoyed the glow-in-the-dark tambourines wielded by the King and the Flowers of Progress at one point. The choice of accents for each character was also, I think, carefully done. Notably, the Public Exploder sported a Scottish accent when not speaking Utopian — a clear and probably period-appropriate use of the stereotype of barbarous Scots.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen or done a G&S show, and I’d forgotten how much fun they can be. The audience was clearly an experienced one and laughed heartily at the in-jokes in the dialogue. The subject matter of Utopia, Ltd. is well-suited for adaptation to our current culture, and the adaptation was done well — very funny, but at points on-target enough to be a little painful in its humor.

I did find myself getting bored at times, though. I can’t say if I’d have this experience watching the G&S shows I particularly like with greater distance from them, but the development of the secondary (and even primary) romantic duos and the “plotting” song (“With wily brain upon the spot”) seemed weak and insipid to me, even if well-sung, and I wanted them to go quickly past it so we could get to something more fun. I don’t mean the “plot” (if you can call it that), which is always thin, but the songs themselves.

Overall, though, it was a fun and musically rewarding experience.

Other Seattle observations:
The Space Needle is fun, but it’s not as cool as the CN Tower.
At first I thought the monorail was bizarrely retro-futuristic and seriously lame, but I didn’t realize it can go over 45 mph and is 47 years old, both fairly impressive statistics. However, it is kind of lame to charge you $2 to go a mile.
There are a lot of mountains and a lot of water around here. I like it.
Bamboo Garden vegetarian Chinese restaurant is okay, but Garden Fresh is much better, despite the latter’s lack of atmosphere.
Unfortunately, sections of downtown smell like urine, to a greater extent than I’ve experienced in other downtowns. Ick.

Never pack a microwave into a moving box without cleaning it, and then fail to unpack it for more than a week. The gunk will begin to grow mold, and it will be gross.

Uggggh.

My cranky post about moving mistakes should not be taken to suggest that I’m not enjoying things in my new place. In fact, I am. I’m on vacation from work, which itself is a delightful thing, and means I have plenty of time to unpack, organize, and enjoy myself, all of which I’ve been doing.

Moving from suburban Menlo Park to the heart of a retail district in Portland is wonderfully surreal (or perhaps surreally wonderful). All of a sudden I understand why people who live in cities eat out so much. Why worry about cooking when there are dozens or hundreds of restaurants within easy reach, many of which look quite good? Of course, this hasn’t stopped me from cooking — tonight I made stir-fry with produce and tofu bought at Food Front, a local cooperative grocery, and inaugurated my new kitchen with plenty of garlic.

Every time I step out of my house, I see people — fashionable people, cyclist people, kid people, scrub people (there’s a hospital nearby). I see buses and ambulances, scooters and skateboards. I see bookstores, massage therapists, cafes, furniture and housewares stores, and so much more. It’s resource overload. I can walk to my apartment management company’s office, to Bank of America, to Walgreens, to Trader Joe’s, to the hardware store, and to the library, all in less than fifteen minutes, and all in a length of time easy to reckon by counting the blocks (conveniently numbered and lettered) and allowing one minute per block. And that’s not even considering all the places I can get if I ride the bus into or across town. (It’s worth noting that BoA, Walgreens, TJs, and an Ace Hardware were also within the same walking distance of my old place — but that walking distance, unlike this one, didn’t contain much along the way.)

My new apartment is lovely too. I have a living room with wood floors and a bay window looking onto the western hills, two of whose segments are currently open to the night air. It gets a little hot in the afternoons, but there’s been a breeze which comes in nicely and cools things off. I have a small but powerful gas stove, easier to clean than my old one, and a kitchen with lots of storage, including an old-fashioned china cabinet that I’m keeping bulk food, spices, and glassware in. My new counters are easy to clean, too, but I miss my in-sink disposal and “compost pile” (part of the garden where I used to dump my food scraps — this is not so feasible in a third-floor apartment).

I also miss my dining area and closets. My old apartment was arranged in a kind of irregular square, which meant that I didn’t have any space lost to hallways and so it could be used for a dining area and several closets. The new place, although only a little smaller in square footage, is linear, and the hallway takes up a lot of space, so although the kitchen is larger, there’s no dining area and fewer/smaller closets. So I have to think carefully about how I’m going to use the space.

I do have a few more compensations besides the view and the windows: French doors in the bedroom that open to the living room, a claw-foot tub in the bathroom (nifty, though requiring minimum two shower curtains to avoid a water mess), secure bike storage in the basement, cheaper and indoor laundry (also in the basement), indoor garbage and recycling, and everything maintained in a bit better repair.

Today after unpacking for a while, I left the house to drop off my rent and on the way back, went to a bookstore, popped into a futon place, and dropped by the library. Then I got a massage.

Yeah, I love Portland.

I live in Portland now.

I moved starting Friday with loading, then Saturday was driving, and Sunday was unloading, though the process started ages ago with finding a place to live and packing my stuff.

This is my first real move, “real” meaning involving an entire apartment of stuff and furniture, a moving truck, a long drive, movers, etc. I’ve moved rooms before, but not a whole apartment, and not so far.

As a result, I made some mistakes in the process, which I want to detail here, not in the interest of berating myself or anyone else involved, but in the interest of not making the same mistakes twice.

Mistake #1: Failure to correctly estimate the volume of stuff I own.
I made a substantial underestimation in choosing which size truck to rent. I chose the smallest, 10′ U-Haul truck, when really, to accommodate everything in my apartment, I definitely needed the next larger one. I blame myself mainly, because I didn’t look carefully enough to realize that my tall bookcases would not stand upright in the smallest one (it is VERY close) and that it was just smaller than I envisioned, but it is also sort of U-Haul’s fault in that they claim that said truck can move apartments up to 1 BD, without stipulating that larger 1 BDs should use a larger truck.

The bookcases weren’t the only problem; it was also the sheer volume of stuff — in the kitchen, in the closets, all the stuff I forgot to really think about when I was thinking about stuff. And the sheer amount of furniture and similar items, even with my couch and media center gone — large coffee table, dining room table, computer desk and chair, IKEA Poang chair, dresser, queen bed, etc. It’s a lot. My old apartment was pretty large and had a lot of storage, and I had it very efficiently, if not excessively, filled.

I also forgot that I had to add my office stuff to the total because this was a voluntary move on my part and its shipping would not be paid for.

Mistake #2: Not packing enough in advance.
In general, I did a reasonable job with this. Where I messed up was in not packing the “last minute” stuff sooner, and not getting rid of even more random stuff (even though I had got rid of six bags of stuff plus freecycled a bunch of things). I had left a minimal set of things out to use, but it wasn’t minimal enough and I didn’t put it away and get down to total minimalism soon enough. I was able to cook up to the day before, which was definitely a mistake. I had too much food in the house, and too many things that I didn’t absolutely need (dish drainer, shower caddy, kitchen items, electronics) hadn’t been packed. This made for stressful packing at a very literal last hour, and complicated the “too much stuff for the truck” problem by making it unclear how much stuff there really was. And packing some stuff so early on and some stuff so late left me not making ideal decisions about what to take and what to leave. I definitely packed some stuff where if I could go back in time, I’d trade it for my toaster oven, or my Poang chair, though that’s not necessarily a possible trade even so.

I found the experience of packing myself to be a lot more challenging/boring/exasperating with the amount of stuff I own now than with the amount that I’ve owned in previous moves. I think next time if I have the budget I’ll give serious thought to hiring it out. On the other hand, my packing job rocked, because I am devoted to bubble wrap and packing paper and excellent at packing tetris. I haven’t found anything broken yet, and I’ve unpacked almost everything fragile.

Mistake #3: Overly optimistic/inopportune timing.

This manifested in several ways, but they all evolved out of not looking closely at what kind of time would be needed for parts of the process.

My plan evolved starting with learning my lease start date in Portland, which turned out to be Wednesday, June 24. From there, it took into account vacation time and timing, 30-day legal notice, other people’s schedules, and days of the week to decide when to move. The plan was to load Friday afternoon (after I worked Friday morning) and drive and unload on Saturday.

This turned out not to work the way I wanted. I should have taken more time off before the loading (that is, all of Friday at least, and maybe even shifted some of my vacation time to preceding the move rather than following, although I must say I am enjoying having time off to organize and do errands).

I should not have been trying to rent the truck and drive on a weekend, when everyone wants to move, because any equipment fail (see above) is irrevocable because all equipment is busy.

We should not have planned the more/most optimistic time estimates for the drive, because it took longer, and it was stressful to be worrying about time rather than enjoying the scenery.

Most surprising to me was a mistake I made about arrival time: we should not have planned to unload at 7pm on a Saturday in the middle of one of Portland’s active restaurant/retail districts. So obvious, yet it never occurred to me until my new landlord called and was like…um…this will probably not work, because parking in NW on Saturday nights is nonexistent.

Fortunately, the drive timing mistake and the retail issue canceled each other out and we ended up doing the unload on Sunday morning, and it worked out very well.

Aside from all that, the move really went very smoothly. The truck worked, the drive was safe, those who helped me out were all completely wonderful (friends, family, and movers), and I ended up with the old apartment empty and clean and owning a set of stuff that will fit pretty well in my new apartment. And I love my new apartment, and I love Portland, so I’m a happy camper.

Sunday morning was my third, and more than likely last, Sequoia 50K ride.

Stats:
DST: 34.5
MXS: 34
AVS: ~10mph (overall), 12.5 (moving)
Time: 3:15 (overall)

My stats are a tad muddled because I checked my distance at the finish, but forgot to check my AVS and time, and then I rode home via Foothill. My total distance for the day was 43.4 miles. 1 mile from home to Palo Alto Caltrain, 1 mile from Arastradero and El Camino to the start, and 7 miles home.

I’m proud of myself for getting up and doing this ride — I was out in Oakland Saturday night and lost my phone, and I haven’t been training at all (except in that I’ve gone on a few other rides recently), so I was tired to start out with and not that well-prepared. Also, in the past they’ve had bagels and coffee at the start, so I didn’t eat breakfast, and when the food and drink did not materialize, I only had a few spoonfuls of the nutbutter/honey/chocolate mix I brought to start out on. Fortunately that stuff is awesome.

I still managed to do a respectable job at the climbing. Arastradero kicked my ass, leaving me exhausted and panting as usual, but I was able to do Arastradero, Alpine, and Whiskey Hill without stopping. A peloton passed me going the other way at about 35 mph in the preserve.

The organizers included a new loop on Alpine out past Portola this time, which was more climbing but a nice rural-neighborhoody excursion. The descent back to Portola (on Willowbrook) was nice and I hit 32 on one steep section.

After Whiskey Hill, it was a pretty straight shot down to the rest stop at Burgess Park, near my house. Once again I didn’t succumb to the temptation to go home in the middle, and instead had a lot of food and headed out through Menlo and Palo Alto with some acquired companions.

This part of the ride has never been my favorite. I enjoy the winding trek along Woodland (which I rarely ride even though it’s nearby), but after you pass University the pavement quality goes from fine to terrible (almost nonexistent in places) and you bump along for quite a while before turning onto Newell in Palo Alto and finishing with a trek along Palo Alto’s badly paved but otherwise pleasant streets. One notable, and sad, sight this year was the memorials at E. Meadow and the train tracks, where two Gunn High School students committed suicide in May.

The final route this year went through the neighborhoods between Meadow and Arastradero before getting back on Arastradero, rather than using the Gunn High bike path. This was less confusing and more pleasant, and provided a better view of Juana Briones park between Maybell Ave and Arastradero, although it did mean overlapping the beginning of the route more.

The most fun part of the ride for me was the scenery and the slow lifting of the fog. As I was climbing Alpine, the nearby hills were green and the Skyline ridge hills were fainter and bluish. Along Whiskey Hill, the fog could be seen starting to lift, and the descent down Woodside provided a fantastic view across to the East Bay hills, partly golden and sunny, and partly blueish and dark. Traversing the familiar route was poignant for me because I’ll have only a few more rides before I leave. I’ll miss the unique Peninsula scenery.

I was at home today when the postal carrier came by, which turned out to be a good thing, not because he had a package for me, but because he apparently thought I had already moved.

I don’t understand, because I filed a change-of-address that had a start date of 6/27/09 (the day I’m moving). I did get a notice that said that it went through, which is great, but it doesn’t actually confirm the start date, so now I don’t know if the start date is correct but my postal carrier is clueless, or they didn’t add the start date. Either way, fail.

The postal carrier kept trying to convince me that I should leave him a note on the day that I moved so they could start forwarding my mail. I thought that’s what a change of address form was for! I shouldn’t need to leave a note in my mailbox for my postal carrier to get an official change of address put into effect properly. Should I?

Stats:

DST: 17.5 mi
MXS: 37.1
AVS: 14.2
Time: 1:14

Route: Route: Portola Loop “the easy way” (up Alpine, down Sand Hill).

I went riding last week and did the Sand Hill/Whiskey Hill/Woodside loop, but the weather was iffy and it was sprinkling by the time I got back, so it didn’t really feel like a spring ride. I also felt like I was really struggling with the climbing, while today, despite (or maybe because of) doing a long hike yesterday, I felt strong and steady. I can tell I’ve still got a ways to go to really be in shape again, though!

Today it was sunny, warm in the sun but with a cool (and strong) wind, and everything looked shiny and green and new. I saw swaths of California poppies and other wildflowers, great views of Windy Hill and the East Bay hills, a lizard, a big black beetle, and a deer. It was a really fantastic ride. I took Alpine up because it was windy and Alpine is less exposed and doesn’t have crazy steep parts. At the top I paused to take a picture (may post it later if I remember).

The other interesting thing about the ride was that because of the major tailwind I had on the way back (wind out of the northwest), I exceeded 30mph three times, and hit a max speed of 37.1mph on the steepest downhill section of Sand Hill. I then hit 34 on the approach to the 280 interchange and 31 on the top section of the final descent into Menlo Park. Fun!

Status updates on Facebook from several friends reminded me that today is Shrove Tuesday, aka Pancake Day. Pondering the distribution of the updates, I noticed that most of them came from the UK, where I celebrated Pancake Day 2005. Prior to that, I wasn’t aware of Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day except as Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is the more common name for the day and celebration in the US — except, notably, as part of some church traditions, whence the remaining status updates about pancakes came.

Seeing all this and recalling fond memories of Pancake Day 2005, I decided to make pancakes tonight for dessert. But while eating them, I realized it’s a strange thing for me to do. It’s isolated from its UK cultural context because I’m in the US, and I don’t belong to the religious traditions that would make it appropriate for me to do it here.

Furthermore, Pancake Day started as a way to use up extra oil and eggs, or so says Wikipedia. But I made Vegan Dad’s sweet breakfast crepes, which have only a tiny amount of oil and no egg (being vegan). They’re also really crepes, obviously, not pancakes, but the pancakes I had in the UK were really a lot more like crepes anyway, so it made sense. (I actually used silken tofu rather than the flaxseed, and it worked just as well, maybe better, so that was a happy substitution.)

I also departed from tradition in using lime instead of lemon for the flavoring liquid (lemon and sugar is the usual).

Not a traditional way to celebrate the holiday, but maybe it’ll become my traditional way of celebrating it!