Quickies, Travel

Historical Field Notes: Complications and F*cked Up Boys from the 90′s

6 Comments 19 February 2011

Digging through notes of last summer’s tour in preparation for next week’s adventure down the Pacific Coast from Aptos to ?? (wherever I end up?) On August 21, 2010, I rode north through Victoria, BC toward Sidney, where I intended to nab a ferry. I took the Galloping Goose Trail, which brought me, at some [...]

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Storytelling

My Father, the Fish Monster

18 Comments 03 February 2011

Daddy smelled like fish. That was the fact of it. He reeked of 15 million pounds of salmon – the ocean dumped out and left to warm and rot on the floor of the processing plant. He worked on the docks of Seattle, processing the shiny, glimmering corpse-bodies until they were racked in tidy filets, [...]

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Life, Travel

Blue Bucket Gratitude

11 Comments 01 February 2011

I think of the blue bucket every time I step into the shower. I have a claw-foot tub. Romantic, but probably impractical. There’s no wall to hold onto and the sunlight slips through the sheer white shower curtains on the rare morning when Portland lets me remember what it is to be bathed in light. [...]

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Music

Sweetie-Pie Songs to Stick in Your Ear

1 Comment 26 January 2011

I’ve been spending a lot of time listening to and searching through music lately for a project I’m working on with a client. It was a dreamy way to spend a few weeks and solidified my status as a helpless musical romantic. Stick these in your headphones and sway a little. Think of sunshine and [...]

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Full Width, Life

All in a Day’s Work – 15 Hours in Bend, Oregon

16 Comments 25 January 2011

5:00am: Wakeup call. Yes, get out of bed. You won’t regret it later. 5:00 – 6:00am: Start working. Drink a preliminary cup of coffee. Put on your puffer jacket. 6:00 -7:30am: Go to Thump Coffee and work. Then go back to the apartment to grab something and get ready for a meeting. Watch the sun [...]

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Life

The Risks of Growing Up Swift

7 Comments 19 January 2011

My family is a tough lot. We’re a little rough around the edges. My father is a big man with a heart of gold and a sometimes unquiet mind. (We’ve lived with his bi-polar disorder for so many years now it kind of seems normal.) My mother is an energetic woman with a penchant for [...]

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