What a great day!

This past Saturday is now one of my favorite days so far this year. Nothing really eventful, just a lot of little things that made it a great day.

I stole the car from Cahen (first time I've driven in about a month...he's been hogging the car and I like using public transportation and/or walking).

First stop: Music Millennium. It's no Amoeba Music (LA and SF), but it's a good little locally-owned music store with nice employees and good deals. I picked up the new Iron & Wine and Ani DiFranco cds. The Ani cd, Canon, is a collection of mostly previously recorded work, with some re-recordings. I have most of her music, but it's nice to have a collection she put together representing what she might consider her best. The new Iron & Wine, The Sheperd's Dog is fantastic! It makes me all glassy-eyed and dreamy.

I loaded the Iron & Wine in the car player, rolled down the windows and drove in the rain.

To my next stop: Stumptown Comic Fest. No, I'm not a big comic book guy or anything. But, there are a few really talented artists who choose small books and/or comics as a medium. I specifically was there to see more work from Theo Ellsworth (www.artcapacity.com), but also took the opportunity to check out a LOT of others, too. When visiting his table, I had the great pleasure of meeting Theo. He's quirky, cute, kinda shy but really nice. And, he's really talented. He embodies many of the characteristics of the people of Portland which inspired me to move here. A quote from one of his books, "Always Somewhere Nearby":
(from the introduction)
"I hope that you gain supernatural powers soon and that you save the world with them. I hope that everyone in the world is uncontrollably happy for the next 11 days strait, and then take a nice hot bath."

{me: bubbling over with glee}

I also met BT Livermore (radrobot.org) and bought his new book. It's the first volume of ten about a real boy who died in 1900, buried in the graveyard close to where I live. He decided to honor the boy, mainly because of his cool name and how short his life was (8 months), by creating this series imagining what he might've done in his life. In the first volume of The Life And Times Of "Baby" Otto Zeplin, Otto has his name legally changed from Frank to Otto, learns to play the sousaphone, has a sold out sousaphone concert, makes a ton of money on the stock market, spends all of his money on candy and is visited by the ghost of Ulysses S. Grant - all within the 1st 25 days of his life. The book and drawings are very well done, too.

Afterwards, I drove in the rain, listening to Iron & Wine, to The Tao of Tea (www.taooftea.com) for some lunch...and some tea. I enjoyed a nice black bean/cranberry/mixed green salad and a Japanese green tea while I read my new books (with a blissful grin).

Lastly, I drove up to Mt. Tabor Park, then parked and walked the rest of the way to the top - where you can see almost the whole city all the way around. I sat in the rain and caught up with old friends on the phone.

(Then, I saw the worst movie EVER - "Sunshine". Don't want to spoil the mood of the entry or I'd elaborate...)