Countdown to P-Town

Three Days. Tres dias.

In the words of John McCain (including creepy old man voice), "My friends..." my time has come. This Friday night, I make my pilgrimmage to Portland. I must contain my excitement as if it were locked inside of a steel chest because if I allow even a sliver of light to shine upon it, I fear I will not sleep until I am amongst the Oregonians. I only hope three full days is enough time to do everything I have tabbed in my guidebooks, travel books, and magazines. I know one thing for sure, I will be eating and drinking like a king. I'm not going to say anything else for now...I just can't. Instead, I will take a deep breath, clear my camera's memory card, and channel all this angst into a massive, detailed, heartfelt post-trip entry WITH photos.

Lot of action these days, even besides my pilgrimmage. I mean there's the obvious, the event this weekend that could only be overshadowed by an out-of-town trip and still might not be fully eclipsed. Yeah, I'm talking about Batman. The fucking DARK KNIGHT. I am perhaps more pumped for this movie than I am any other I can recall. I will be at the 10:10 show Friday morning, virtual seatbelt securely fastened, mind as aptly prepared to be blown. I considered waiting to see it in Ptown, but then I thought, Do I really want to get on a plane and risk my dying before seeing "The Dark Knight?" I think not. Although, as Bill was correct to point out, what kind of heaven would it be if they weren't showing "The Dark Knight?" No heaven at all, I wouldn't think, but you never know...it might be too dark. I don't think I can risk it. Okay, that's enough talk about the possibility of a plane crash. I still get nervous every time I fly and like Billy Crystal says in "Forget Paris," "Never say famous last words because they could be."

Last night, Nicole suprised me with tickets to a Q&A with Will Ferrell. It was really entertaining and inspiring, I thought. In person, he seemed exactly like how I had imagined him, grounded and exceptionally nice. He told a story of how he used to have a day job pushing papers and was admittedly bad at it. He said he was pretty sure they only kept him around because he made everybody laugh. I have thought the same thing myself a couple of times. Not that I'm terribly bad at my job; I'm above adequate. But I'm pretty sure if I didn't get along so well with my coworkers and make them laugh as often, I might have been given my walking papers by now. It was the feeling that you are doing the wrong thing for a living that I related to. That's one of the unique things I can say I appreciate about this city, the proximity to celebrities. Now hold on, let me explain. Seeing actors, directors, whatever on TV, movies, CDs, having that one-way interaction with them and their work can make their profession seem like it's really on a pedestal, that it's something to be awed but as far as it being something attainable, it's in an alternate universe. However, if you see your professional heroes not on a billboard or an IMAX screen, but in your local grocery store on a Sunday afternoon, shopping like any average schmuck, it can make the dream of "making it" seem much more believable. Obviously, the big variable is talent, but why sweat that since it's not something you can really change. I'm not saying that because two people shop at the same Ralph's that their respective careers are interchangeable. Of course, that's ridiculous. But it does give the sense that people you idolize are still only people and that they are probably not all that dissimilar from you. If they can do it, maybe you can to. I'm just saying it makes me want to try harder.

Just had my first black & white cookie. A coworker just got back from NY and brought some for us. I'm not sure how I managed to miss them in my time there, but I gotta say, I don't feel like I missed out on much. The black side tastes like a diluted brownie and the whole thing sticks to the roof of your mouth like the ham sandwiches my grandma used to make me. I'll stick to canolis.