Pet #1: Rocky the Parrot

I'll show these in installments because there are just too many animals.

This is Rocky:





Simply put, the bird is a fuck.

He hates my guts and tries to bite me when I get anywhere within five feet of him. He's never gotten close, but his effort is enough to fear. If it wasn't for the "Rocky Run" he'd be an absolute asshole, but watching him run at me with his small feet and funny wings all pissed off it pretty funny. Its slow and stupid looking enough to love, but his sharp beak keeps me scared and very afraid. He eats food off Gloria's tongue, which aside from being across the board disgusting really amazes me. He's supposed to love boys, but his love for me is none. No one has any idea why, but I stay away.



Now that we've found our place, we've been able to plan for it. The restaurant is going to give us lots of things. Tons of cookware, bar stools, food, spices, everything. Gloria's mom is giving us a futon (so you all can have a place to stay at. Its all for you you know), and the rest we'll get from home or Portland. I'm waiting for something to go wrong because everything seems too perfect.

Pros:
- Right in downtown Portland
- Within a mile of the best music venue in Portland and a Trader Joe's
- The price is under $900 a month (under our budget of $1100)
- Every single Portlander says that our place is in an amazing neighborhood and that it is a good price
- The shower is like a locker room shower. It has the small tiles and you just walk into it. There's no bath, but I hate baths anyway.
- The kitchen is big
- Its a Victorian house

Cons:
- Maybe I'll get addicted to heroin?
- You assholes don't live here
- TBA

Once we get there I'll give you the full analysis, but it seems perfect.

That venue, the Crystal Ballroom is owned some brothers called the McMenamins. They restore old buildings suck as Insane Asylums and Crematoriums, to name two, into Brewpubs and Hotels. Tell me that isn't amazing? Anyway, I'm too excited about our new residence and soon you'll all know. I'll be recruiting each of you personally to move out here.

Warning: This may actually sound like a normal blog.

Being that I work at a restaurant that has a full bar, when we close, I get the privilege of having a drink or two. Tonight I had a 7 & 7 and a Lynchburg Lemonade and they were fantastic. Maybe it is because I made them myself and felt some pride in them, or maybe it is because I absolutely adore whiskey now. Either way, many questions come to mind: Is this the 2nd step after binge drinking on the path to alcoholism? For that matter, is enjoying whiskey a good thing? Why do I love whiskey so much?

On a more sensible tangent, a former employer of the restaurant got out of jail today. I'm sure you're asking, "Jail? That sounds sketchy Josh..." No, no, this restaurant isn't that bad. He made some bad decisions with some 17 year-old girls and after a drunken night out, found himself trapped in a whirlwind of statutory rape and massive consequences. Bottom line is that he was a great person and many people were simply elated to hear that he was released 25 days early. Whenever anything would go wrong, a reminder was made that yes, "Dane is out of jail" making all worries go away. Gloria was happy and her mom was exuberant. While I had I had only heard stories, I completely understood their excitement and was completely caught up in their happiness. I frequently said to myself "Don't worry, Dane's out of jail!" I suppose I didn't know before jail, or really after jail, but whatever.

Moving to a small town has forced me to find things to hold on to. Dane's jail sentence, backgammon (a phenomenal game), and finding significance in my life has been a strong focus for me. Let me tell you, feeling lost is fantastic feeling. While I am very confident in where I am going, it has been very liberating feeling as disconnected as I have been recently. It is different. It was almost uncomfortable. I work all night. I have little to do but go home and sleep and look forward to the wedding. While my time is somewhat dull, I'm not bored. I'm not sure what to think of this, however it works for me.

I'm excited for the fact that if I can stay happy in Gold Beach, Portland should be fantastic to me. Concerts, movies, events, restaurants, friends, Portland should be a fantastic chapter in my life. Please everyone should come visit if they can and if not, party it up with me while I'm in Boulder from the 28th to October 8th. I'll be at the wedding and at the football game on the 7th. Other than that, I am fair game. I will see you all soon and keep reading on. Possibly next time I'll actually be a little less blogish.

Gold Beach

After driving five days and through all of California, we arrived in Gold Beach. This was not only the first time I had been to the Northwest, but also the first time in about 6 years seeing the Pacific Ocean. Also I had never lived on the coast so this is completely new to me. The town is roughly 5,000 people, the summer is the tourist season for fishing and there is no entertainment in sight. I work seven days a week at Gloria's mom's resturant (I seriously have nothing else to do, so I'd rather do it) and as does Gloria. Its boring, but its easier knowing that we will soon be gone.

Its great knowing that I've lived in a small town, but they truly are boring. There was some initial charm at first: "Everyone remembers me!" "There are only two traffic lights?" "Everything closes at 6?!" But after about two weeks it really started to wear on me. Other than Portland there was little to look forward to. If you don't fish or go hang out at the ocean, there is little to do but drink, and I haven't even done a whole lot of that. The one benefit is that money is easy to save and we have been doing that like nobody's business.

Anyway, here are pictures of Gold Beach because they will be much more informative than words.

Here is what I drive by everyday. I added the guardrail to show that indeed, the ocean is indeed right there.





Here are pictures of the town, the bridge and the river. I work very close to the river and the bridge.












Next are some pictures of driving through town. The town is only on highway 101 (same as highway 1) and goes for about two miles. Everyone lives up the hills a little bit, but the town is pretty much only in these pictures.





Finally, here is the view from the Riverview, the resturant Gloria and I work at. It really does look like a postcard.







I'll do my best to keep this updated with information on my life. Soon I'll put some pictures of all of Gloria's animals here (9 cats, 1 horse, 1 dog, 1 parrot) and hopefully pictures of our new place.

Intro

Fantastic, I'm starting a formal blog to show everyone how I live now that I'm away from Colorado. It took me a while to really get my computer setup complete but now its all working. I'll do my best to make it a picture blog because describing Oregon really won't be much fun at all.