Thoughts from the Rose City

For our anniversary, The Engineer and I took off and disappeared into the wilds of Portland, Oregon this past weekend for a very bookish anniversary vacation.  While there, I had several thoughts I wanted to share...

• I have the coolest, most beautiful wife ever in the history of humankind.  Among the many reasons this is true is that she allowed... nay encouraged me to spend an inordinate amount of our anniversary trip in bookstores.
• I love Powell's City of Books and could live there quite happily.
• Portland is the most walkable city I've ever visited.  Bar none.  Next time I'm leaving the car here.
• I've now had coffee prepared by a robot and I rescind my previous yearning for a robot to make my morning Joe.  (That technology isn't perfected yet.  Trust me.)
• I'm curious about citizenship in Powell's City of Books and would happily emigrate given the opportunity.
• Portland has more hat shops per capita than any city anywhere.  I don;t have any data to prove that, but I've fairly certain it's an accurate statement.
• Everyone should wear more hats!
• People should stop worrying about "looking like a tourist" and look up more often.
• There aren't enough "flatiron" style triangular buildings in the world and we need to build more of them.  Portland has a pleasing number of them.
• Did I mention Powell's Books?  I did?  It's wonderful.
• My wife is the best and I am looking forward to the next ten years and the ten after that and the ten after that... ad infinitum.

Stories in the mists...

Morning fog on Darrow Pond, East Lyme, Connecticut.

Believe it or not, this is not a black & white photo of a color world,

it's a color photo of a black & white world.

Thing One: I went to New York.

Thing Two: Really? What was it like? 
Thing One: I don't know, I didn't see it!

It was very foggy today in the Big Apple. (Seriously, does anyone call it that?) So while I spent the better part of a day in Queens and Long Island, I can't say as I once saw more than the shadow of a glimpse of the famed city skyline. Maybe next time.

We weren't there to sightsee. We enurned my wife's grandfather at Calvary Catholic Cemetary, which is a beautiful and haunting place (photos tomorrow for Wordless Wednesday). It all took several hours because of scheduling problems with the priest and the military honor guard. Which left the younger cousins and myself free to wander the aisles of weathered statues, taking pictures of marble angels and mausoleums in the fog.

Once again I was struck by how many people tell me that they would write a book if only they had an idea. Today was one of those days where I was surrounded by them. From the weathered statuary of the mausoleums to the names engraved in the granite, too weathered to be clearly read... there are stories everywhere. From the family that surrounded me and the elders that greeted me with the gravity and willingness to open up about the dim and fading past as befitted the occaision... there are stories everywhere.

Open your eyes, your heart and your ears.

My next novel came to me today. In total. I have only to write it down, dictation from my subconscious mind, distilled from a dozen conversations I've had over the past few days watering a nugget planted last winter in a conversation I had with my father right before he passed away. Or maybe it's just that New York really is a city with a thousand stories...

I'll be back in the Pac Northwest and writing about writing in nothing flat. I appreciate your patience as I sort through these things. So much has happened and I have so much to write about it that it's all at war in my head. As soon as something slips free from the melee and claims the flag, I'll let you know...

Travel

I'm on the road again, travelling the length of the East Coast from Connecticut down to New York city and back. As a firm believer in (and frequent advocate of) the Great American Roadtrip, it has been a matter of great concern to me that too much of my travel in recent years has been for funerals and to visit ailing family members.

I have a great yen to travel for happy reasons to visit the hale and the hearty, to take a roadtrip without tears... I guess it's that time in our lives or something. Anyway, my earnest condolences to Kristin and her family. The true measure of a man is the hole he leaves when he is no longer present.

We are making the most of the trip and trying to infuse it with memories to temper the somber reason for our visit. Hence the roadtrip up the coast with my inlaws. I know that the gothic representation of inlaws would make that a trip to be dreaded, but my family-in-law is awesome.

In other news... based upon some of the things I've written here I was approached to provide some footage for a promotional DVD for an upcoming movie by a widely-known director, based upon a bestselling novel! I'm uncertain how much I can say yet, but needless to say I am very stoked.

This will entail speaking into a camera in response to insightful questions... which is something I have some experience with, funnily enough). And because life would be no fun if it ran ever smooth, this footage is due to be sent in by Wednesday. That's the day I fly back to Seattle. I will be press ganging my family-in-law as an ersatz camera crew and film it here in Connecticut. Then I shall embark upon a quest to find a WiFi hotspot to upload it and send it off to the studio in time to meet the deadline.

Ah... travel. If everything ran smooth, it would get boring.