Portland Trip Recap

Here is my recap of this past weekend's trip to Portland.

First it started off in the wee hours of the morning trying to find where I lost my cellphone. It had fallen off my computer stand. I believed it had fallen to the left of the stand so I fervently searched to no avail. I decided "what the heck" and looked to the right and there it was.

I left home thinking I would not be back until Sunday (well I thought wrong). You see I forgot to bring with me the confirmation email. I kind of needed that as proof of purchase for the Jay Brannan ticket. After work I headed home quickly to get it.

Finally just before 1:30pm I was on the road (Interstate 5) heading to Portland with the cruise control on. I made a couple small stops along the way, filling up my car in Salem, the state capital.

I entered the metropolitan area around 5pm to see the following sign:

SMOG ADVISORY

SAT - MON

PLEASE LIMIT DRIVING

What a great thing to see as I arrive. Fortunately there was not much smog so either people limited their driving (I highly doubt that) or the weather was not as severe as predicted. It was HOT all the time up there.

Now that I was in Portland I headed to, what I thought was, my motel. See I forgot to write down the address of the motel just had the confirmation numbers. Well the lady at the motel said I was at another one on 82nd. She advised me that I should take Sandy Blvd back to the other one. She was misinformed as Interstate 84 would be a lot faster than Sandy.

I finally arrived at my motel. As it was almost 7pm I was hungry. I had eaten around 9am and snacked a couple times during the drive. I ordered Domino's as I did wanted to relax. The driver was not one of the better ones. He had forgotten my drinks and napkins in his vehicle. Oh well life goes on.

After resting for a while I headed downtown to my favorite bar, Scandals. There is a cocktail waiter there I known for quite sometime (Patrick) and he still remembers what I enjoy drinking. I always give him a good tip. He is one of the nicest guys there.

From Scandals I went to check out Silverado. What a waste of time and money. The dancers there were not that hot so I headed out quickly. I headed back to my motel to sleep.

Saturday morning I went down to the continental breakfast the motel offers. While eating I read the morning paper to see an ad from Fry's Electronics. They were offering an external 500GB hard drive for $60. 1 per person. I headed out right away and was first in the door to get one. Right now, while I am at work, all the contents of my D drive are being moved to the external so that I can make the D drive my new C drive and get rid of a 40 GB C drive. If things work out a friend will also be sending me a 250GB hard drive which will be my new D drive. I need more room for porn. As a friend would say, "You can never have enough porn".



When I returned I relaxed for a while before going out to lunch. The choice was Old Spaghetti Factory. I love their food and they started in Portland in 1969. What a good year. :-) The food was great but the service lacked a bit.

After lunch was another rest period plus a call from my best friend Jason. He is one horny young lad wno oversexed himself Friday night/Saturday morning.

Around 4 it was time to make my way to the club that was hosting Jay Brannan's show, the Doug Fir. You would think after one mistake on Friday, I would learn.. NOT!!

I got on the bus (to save driving.. remember the limit driving sign and save parking fee) when I realized I had, for the second time, forgotten the confirmation email. I got off at the next stop and headed back to my motel. I retrieved the email and waited for the next bus. I still had time before the doors opened.

At 6pm the doors opened and we went downstairs to what looked like a cave. This was my very first time in the DF. It is a very nice place for shows.

Jay had chosen, Chris Pureka, to be the opening number. She is a lesbian singer who did quite well. I was not aware of an opening act so when she came on it explained the huge crowd of women at the show.

Jay took the stage at 7pm. You could tell it was going to be a fun night.





He is a funny guy and he made a few comments about people in Oregon. He said we love "our substances". Jay one of Oregon's former mottos was

"Keep Oregon Green"

though it was not meant about our fondness for marijuana. He also said our fondness seemed to show up in our driving "You drive 10 miles UNDER the speed limit".



The songs, many that I had not heard before, were wonderful. He even played "Straight Out of Compton" by request. The one song I wish he could have played was "The Freshmen" but the DF does not have a piano. When asked after the show he said "Maybe next time".




One thing he was not prepared for was the weather like I mentioned above. He had performed to a sell-out crowd in San Francisco on Friday night. The weather was freezing there. He guessed that heading north it would be colder. One piece of advice to Jay, never expect it to be cooler than San Francisco in the summer time in Portland.




The whole show was a treat and I look forward to seeing him again. Af the end of the show I got a picture with him and he autographed my ticket. I look stupid in the picture, so any bad comments will be deleted. Well maybe not if a sufficient amount of money is mailed to me. Sufficient = $10,000. lol. Sam you will need to figure out for yourself what the conversion rate is in UK Pounds.




After the show I headed back to my motel to get my car so that I could go out to dinner and then have a drink or two. Dinner choice tonight was McDonald's, one near where I used to live. After dinner I headed back to Powell's Books to see if they had any books I wanted then to Scandals and a couple drinks. I must have been tired because the drinks hit me a little harder than usual. I usually can have 5 or 6 before feeling any effects. I decided to head back to my motel. I made it safely there.

I fell asleep at midnight waking up at 9. I got things ready, had a bit of breakfast and then was on the road again just before 11 arriving home at 3.

I really enjoyed the time up there. It would have been better if a dear friend of mine, Andrew, had not been ill. I hope you are feeling better.