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Our Portland Thanksgiving Trip
I want there to be a long entry about our Portland trip, but I don't feel like writing it.
Okay. So we left yesterday around 8am. I don't really remember much of the trip down because it was foggy and I was asleep for the first hundred miles or so. Eventually Eli pulled over at a gas station and we switched drivers. I drove into the city and to Brooke's family's place.
(Brooke is Josh's wife; Josh is Eli's brother; Eli is my fiance; so I guess I was at my future in-law's in-law's family's gathering. Also, Brooke's family is HUGE. I think her mother had like seven siblings or something like that.)
Well, despite being overwhelmed by family, we mingled with people for a while, and babbled about Seattle, and snacked, and stuff. And then there was dinner, which involved like 50 people, two huge turkeys, hams, tons and tons of random food, and ack. It was quite overwhelming. I heaped a huge plate full of food and boy did I regret it later. It was all really good, but I was totally stuffed. We went and played with the dog for a while, and watched a little football, and then I just collapsed on the couch to nap for a while. Whee.
It's weird because they're just such a huge family and they seem fine just absorbing people like me and Eli into it all. I'd be like "I'm with Eli", and he'd be like "I'm Josh's brother," and everyone would be like "oh, it's so good to have you here!" I've never been in a big family before, so it's overwhelming to me, but cool nonetheless.
After the nap, we went into closer to downtown Portland, to where Josh and Brooke live... some friends of theirs nearby were having another Thanksgiving dinner. Despite being full, we went to this one too. It was a gathering of mostly architecture people and their SOs and friends. As a result, despite there being 15 people there, 8 were female, 7 were male, it was 7 couples, and except me and Eli I don't think any were computer geeks in the slightest. Definitely different than our normal gatherings. They even had wine glasses for everyone, and tons and tons of bottles of wine. I don't like wine for the most part, so I stuck with some Beaujolais for most of the evening. I felt distinctly not hip enough to be there, but that's another story. People were nice enough to us, but it was kinda tough to get in on the conversations for a while.
Anyway, after enough wine and too much food and stuff, we adjourned to the living room and played Taboo. I did better than normal and I think that was a nice icebreaker, or at the very least, it was easier to break in and laugh and talk and stuff. Eventually people were leaving to go play foosball (after drinking all the wine)... but Eli and I were tired so we went back to J+B's place and inflated an air mattress and dodged their kitten and went to sleep. It was really cold. Other than that, we slept in, it was good.
Today we got up and pretty much went to Powell's bookstore, which is like this entire city block 5-story building full of books. It's like heaven to Eli. Me, I went through most of the sections I wanted in an hour or two... sci-fi, and foreign languages, mainly. I managed to buy a whole ton of AD&D stuff, lots of old Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms source material which will never get used but will get read. Like the Doomgrinder and Star Cairns modules... oddly, they didn't have the Lyzindred one there. Weird. I also picked up the HHGTTG hardcover, and a copy of American Gods. (And two Powell's t-shirts for us.)
Then I went, got the car, and drove to Wunderland (Avalon?). It's this nickel arcade slightly out of downtown Portland, with a DDR machine and some other bemani. I got lost getting out of downtown, and I got lost looking for parking, but eventually it was all good. Paid $1.75 to get in, got a dollar's worth of nickels, and found the DDR machine. There was a guy doing Heavy doubles on it when I got there, and a card line... and ShakespeareOne and Dancing Jedi from the DDR BBS were up next in line! So I said hi to them. Well, I said hi to ShakespeareOne, at least. I still haven't really talked to Jedi in person. There were also some other guys hanging around there, that I talked to. Played my first set with one... LTR Heavy was definitely the song of the day. I still didn't manage to get an A on it. Sigh. The other guys all can AA it, of course. Hate.
Hung out for a while, basically played five games of DDR, practiced LTR a lot, talked to people, looked stupid because I suck so much... there was another guy (Pete?) who had an Illusionz card too, who will be at the tournament... the last song I played was Drifting Away heavy, which I was sight-reading since I've not played it before. I did pass, got a B even, but Pete was like "hey, you know, the pattern is dahdahdah-dah-dah-dah-dahdahdahdah" or whatever, and I was like "no kidding, I've never played it before..." and he was like "oh, ok... well, you did well for that, but I noticed you didn't get it until the end..." and I felt bad. shrug. Another guy earlier had said "you know, you step a little early on the notes" or something, which I was also like "yeah whatever". It's hard to take criticism; it's hard to take praise. Blah. At any rate, on the way out I apologized for being an idiot and was all like "see you tomorrow" to people. Whee. Hopefully they'll forget that I'm a big dork.
Anyway, drove back to Powell's, found Eli, or he found me, and we checked out and went to dinner. (I bought more books of course. Some movie books and music books and...) Dinner was at "Sinju", a Japanese restaurant a few blocks down from Powell's. We got a ton of sushi and it was REALLY FREAKING GOOD. Yay for good sushi.
After that we hit the road. I drove the first 90 miles and Eli drove the rest. We managed to get here in like 2 hours and 45 minutes. Go us, since it took 4 hours to get there. Not as much traffic though.
Been goofing off, doing laundry, playing a little IIDX, and making arrangements for tomorrow's DDR tournament. I'm getting a ride with SaeNoDa (Tanya), one of the people on Team Seattle... she has *mad* DDR skills and I hope to not have to play against her again, but it will be interesting to see if I can come up with an hour's roadtrip of interesting stuff to talk to her about. Still, it's always good to roadtrip with new people. I'll probly end up coming back with Allan since we're planning to go bowling once both of us are eliminated (or fail to qualify at all, heh). We'll see what happens tomorrow, I guess.
Let's see, oh, and what am I thankful for on this Thanksgiving?
Actually... I'm really just thankful that I have a job and I have friends. I'm thankful for Eli. I'm thankful for the new people I've met here that are cool, and the old people I get to see again. I can't think of much else to say, because I suck. I'm glad to be alive. Yeah.
Okay. So we left yesterday around 8am. I don't really remember much of the trip down because it was foggy and I was asleep for the first hundred miles or so. Eventually Eli pulled over at a gas station and we switched drivers. I drove into the city and to Brooke's family's place.
(Brooke is Josh's wife; Josh is Eli's brother; Eli is my fiance; so I guess I was at my future in-law's in-law's family's gathering. Also, Brooke's family is HUGE. I think her mother had like seven siblings or something like that.)
Well, despite being overwhelmed by family, we mingled with people for a while, and babbled about Seattle, and snacked, and stuff. And then there was dinner, which involved like 50 people, two huge turkeys, hams, tons and tons of random food, and ack. It was quite overwhelming. I heaped a huge plate full of food and boy did I regret it later. It was all really good, but I was totally stuffed. We went and played with the dog for a while, and watched a little football, and then I just collapsed on the couch to nap for a while. Whee.
It's weird because they're just such a huge family and they seem fine just absorbing people like me and Eli into it all. I'd be like "I'm with Eli", and he'd be like "I'm Josh's brother," and everyone would be like "oh, it's so good to have you here!" I've never been in a big family before, so it's overwhelming to me, but cool nonetheless.
After the nap, we went into closer to downtown Portland, to where Josh and Brooke live... some friends of theirs nearby were having another Thanksgiving dinner. Despite being full, we went to this one too. It was a gathering of mostly architecture people and their SOs and friends. As a result, despite there being 15 people there, 8 were female, 7 were male, it was 7 couples, and except me and Eli I don't think any were computer geeks in the slightest. Definitely different than our normal gatherings. They even had wine glasses for everyone, and tons and tons of bottles of wine. I don't like wine for the most part, so I stuck with some Beaujolais for most of the evening. I felt distinctly not hip enough to be there, but that's another story. People were nice enough to us, but it was kinda tough to get in on the conversations for a while.
Anyway, after enough wine and too much food and stuff, we adjourned to the living room and played Taboo. I did better than normal and I think that was a nice icebreaker, or at the very least, it was easier to break in and laugh and talk and stuff. Eventually people were leaving to go play foosball (after drinking all the wine)... but Eli and I were tired so we went back to J+B's place and inflated an air mattress and dodged their kitten and went to sleep. It was really cold. Other than that, we slept in, it was good.
Today we got up and pretty much went to Powell's bookstore, which is like this entire city block 5-story building full of books. It's like heaven to Eli. Me, I went through most of the sections I wanted in an hour or two... sci-fi, and foreign languages, mainly. I managed to buy a whole ton of AD&D stuff, lots of old Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms source material which will never get used but will get read. Like the Doomgrinder and Star Cairns modules... oddly, they didn't have the Lyzindred one there. Weird. I also picked up the HHGTTG hardcover, and a copy of American Gods. (And two Powell's t-shirts for us.)
Then I went, got the car, and drove to Wunderland (Avalon?). It's this nickel arcade slightly out of downtown Portland, with a DDR machine and some other bemani. I got lost getting out of downtown, and I got lost looking for parking, but eventually it was all good. Paid $1.75 to get in, got a dollar's worth of nickels, and found the DDR machine. There was a guy doing Heavy doubles on it when I got there, and a card line... and ShakespeareOne and Dancing Jedi from the DDR BBS were up next in line! So I said hi to them. Well, I said hi to ShakespeareOne, at least. I still haven't really talked to Jedi in person. There were also some other guys hanging around there, that I talked to. Played my first set with one... LTR Heavy was definitely the song of the day. I still didn't manage to get an A on it. Sigh. The other guys all can AA it, of course. Hate.
Hung out for a while, basically played five games of DDR, practiced LTR a lot, talked to people, looked stupid because I suck so much... there was another guy (Pete?) who had an Illusionz card too, who will be at the tournament... the last song I played was Drifting Away heavy, which I was sight-reading since I've not played it before. I did pass, got a B even, but Pete was like "hey, you know, the pattern is dahdahdah-dah-dah-dah-dahdahdahdah" or whatever, and I was like "no kidding, I've never played it before..." and he was like "oh, ok... well, you did well for that, but I noticed you didn't get it until the end..." and I felt bad. shrug. Another guy earlier had said "you know, you step a little early on the notes" or something, which I was also like "yeah whatever". It's hard to take criticism; it's hard to take praise. Blah. At any rate, on the way out I apologized for being an idiot and was all like "see you tomorrow" to people. Whee. Hopefully they'll forget that I'm a big dork.
Anyway, drove back to Powell's, found Eli, or he found me, and we checked out and went to dinner. (I bought more books of course. Some movie books and music books and...) Dinner was at "Sinju", a Japanese restaurant a few blocks down from Powell's. We got a ton of sushi and it was REALLY FREAKING GOOD. Yay for good sushi.
After that we hit the road. I drove the first 90 miles and Eli drove the rest. We managed to get here in like 2 hours and 45 minutes. Go us, since it took 4 hours to get there. Not as much traffic though.
Been goofing off, doing laundry, playing a little IIDX, and making arrangements for tomorrow's DDR tournament. I'm getting a ride with SaeNoDa (Tanya), one of the people on Team Seattle... she has *mad* DDR skills and I hope to not have to play against her again, but it will be interesting to see if I can come up with an hour's roadtrip of interesting stuff to talk to her about. Still, it's always good to roadtrip with new people. I'll probly end up coming back with Allan since we're planning to go bowling once both of us are eliminated (or fail to qualify at all, heh). We'll see what happens tomorrow, I guess.
Let's see, oh, and what am I thankful for on this Thanksgiving?
Actually... I'm really just thankful that I have a job and I have friends. I'm thankful for Eli. I'm thankful for the new people I've met here that are cool, and the old people I get to see again. I can't think of much else to say, because I suck. I'm glad to be alive. Yeah.
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