Portland
In this city, it often rains. Geography demands it. For beyond the islands scattered west roll endless miles of ocean, while northeast at the city's back jut jagged mountain peaks. With the slate-gray skies of autumn come the cyclone westerlies, raging winds and boiling clouds that sweep in from the sea. In waves these bloated clouds tear open on the peaks, and the rain which fills each gut spills and rattles down.
To live in this city, you learn to like rain.
Funny how sometimes you retain information from the unlikeliest of sources. I was in eleventh (or twelfth?) grade when I asked a friend if he had anything interesting to read. He lent me this book called Headhunter (Michael Slade) which was an account of the Royal Candian Mounted Police hunting down a serial killer in Vancouver. The passage above is how the story begins (after the first chapter which is more of a prologue). People who live in the pacific northwest would agree that the same passage could be written about the other two big cities in this region -- Seattle and Portland.
I must have been in fifth grade when I was doing a map (marking cities and lakes and rivers and mountains) of North America. One of the items was listed as "Vancouver (Canada)". I did not know what Vancouver was; and, seeing Canada in parenthesis, I assumed they meant Canada (even though I had a feeling that couldn't be right). Later, my sister laughed and told me it was a city. Many many years later, when I knew Vancouver was a city in Canada, and a few summers after I found out that it rained there all the time, a friend of mine was interning at Starbucks in Seattle. "That is where they started.", he told me, and "It rains here all the time.". "Just like Vancouver - makes sense", I thought.
Almost exactly an year ago, I was on the phone with a prospective employer. I already had a tentative offer (in Boston!) so I wasn't taking the phone call seriously. I was on IM with a friend, planning to go to a 5 o'clock show of The Dark Knight. The interview went well and ended just in time for me to get to the movie in time. The rain was pouring down. I got wet just walking across the parking lot. A couple of weeks later, I was in Portland interviewing for the job. It rained the whole day, almost exactly like the day I had been in Seattle, on another interview.
I never went to Boston. I went to the town that was almost Boston.
In this city, it often rains. Geography demands it. ... To live in this city, you learn to like rain
I started this post a few months ago. I had to fetch my old harddrive to retrieve what I'd already written. Which works out well, because I get to use the "Almost exactly an year ago" reference (actually a year and 2 days ago).
To live in this city, you learn to like rain.
Funny how sometimes you retain information from the unlikeliest of sources. I was in eleventh (or twelfth?) grade when I asked a friend if he had anything interesting to read. He lent me this book called Headhunter (Michael Slade) which was an account of the Royal Candian Mounted Police hunting down a serial killer in Vancouver. The passage above is how the story begins (after the first chapter which is more of a prologue). People who live in the pacific northwest would agree that the same passage could be written about the other two big cities in this region -- Seattle and Portland.
I must have been in fifth grade when I was doing a map (marking cities and lakes and rivers and mountains) of North America. One of the items was listed as "Vancouver (Canada)". I did not know what Vancouver was; and, seeing Canada in parenthesis, I assumed they meant Canada (even though I had a feeling that couldn't be right). Later, my sister laughed and told me it was a city. Many many years later, when I knew Vancouver was a city in Canada, and a few summers after I found out that it rained there all the time, a friend of mine was interning at Starbucks in Seattle. "That is where they started.", he told me, and "It rains here all the time.". "Just like Vancouver - makes sense", I thought.
Almost exactly an year ago, I was on the phone with a prospective employer. I already had a tentative offer (in Boston!) so I wasn't taking the phone call seriously. I was on IM with a friend, planning to go to a 5 o'clock show of The Dark Knight. The interview went well and ended just in time for me to get to the movie in time. The rain was pouring down. I got wet just walking across the parking lot. A couple of weeks later, I was in Portland interviewing for the job. It rained the whole day, almost exactly like the day I had been in Seattle, on another interview.
I never went to Boston. I went to the town that was almost Boston.
In this city, it often rains. Geography demands it. ... To live in this city, you learn to like rain
I started this post a few months ago. I had to fetch my old harddrive to retrieve what I'd already written. Which works out well, because I get to use the "Almost exactly an year ago" reference (actually a year and 2 days ago).