On May 9, 2013, I will have been in Portland for ONE YEAR! And I’d like to take a minute to reflect on this.
When I first moved here everything was brand spanking new (for the most part). Everything was uncertainty and unpredictability and newness. I was in a headrush every day, exploring, tasting, talking, photographing, documenting, relaying, enjoying. I landed TWO jobs in less than a month of being here. I felt insanely lucky.
For the record, I still do all of these things and it’s the best.
This winter was pretty R-U-F-F for me. And not because of bad weather; it has been ridiculously temperate. (When I hear folks griping about the rain or cold, I laugh! Because it’s been so mild.)
It’s because I hibernated and withdrew. I still feel like I’m constantly working on the reaching out to new friends part, and the establishing roots in my community part. A tender sliver of my heart still, and always will, belong to Salt Lake City. I have immense pride about my family (kin and non-kin) there, the people I met there who continue to be some of the most amazing, inspiring, wonderful people I’ve ever met.
I KNOW that there are plenty of adorable, amazing people in Portland, but for my own part, I’ve been lazy. I’ve been scared. And this warm weather is probably playing its part, but you know what? I’m kind of sick of being afraid to make new friends. I am confessing that as an “adult” who may or may not have her shit figured out, it’s still one of the most difficult transitions I’ve ever gone through. Making Friends As A Grown-Up In A New Place.
It helps to hear M. reassure me that Portland, while still pretty great, is a different animal than it once was, when she lived here in the early to mid-2000s. There were multiple drug deals (complete with nightly gunfire) going down outside of her apartment in North Portland (now very near to the chic pet store with organic gluten-free puppy chow, and that ice cream shop that sells “Bone Marrow” flavor). It was a seedy, gritty ‘hood. At another time she lived in a punk house full of resourceful people who didn’t own cars and fixed their own bikes and played in bands together and had to create their own rad community from the ground up.
And so, I love the idea of a community, and the way the internet connects us all. It connects us all to a fault! So there’s also a part of my psyche that groans when I think about how impatient, apathetic, and lazy humanity has become at the hand of technology.
Thankfully, creativity and magic between humans (and non-humans) exists. It’s happening all around us.
Like this. THIS! If you ever hear about a screening of an animation by an artist called Lori D, and the animation is called “Lord I,” do your artist child perhaps the biggest favor ever: GO TO THE SCREENING AND WATCH THAT SHIT.
This animation was the summation of all years in my past and all days in my present and all years in my (projected, imagined, dreamed and hoped for) future(s). I know that sounds vague as hell, but it was seriously profoundly eye-opening and inspiring. There were moments when I actually thought the animation had entered my own brain! I AM TOTALLY SERIOUS NOT KIDDING!!
Anyway, give support to Lori D because she is obviously a huge genius. Here is a fun animation reel she made, also:
And with that, I will retire to my sketchbook.
xoxo
