my first stick 'n poke.

first day in portland.

my first day in portland and i got into my first bicycle crash ever (or that i can remember). i was singing a rosa song with my hat raised in the air when deanna turned suddenly in front of me and the brake that my hand was on didn't work very well. i ran into her back tire and fell right over since i had been riding with a toe clip for the first time ever and couldn't get out of it. thank fucking someone that there were no cars around because we were in the middle of the street and i probably could have died. eek! it was pretty embarassing. another bicyclist rode back around to make sure we were okay and 2 punks who heard it asked "are you ok? you sure?" etc. portland seems pretty pc i guess. it's weird that i got banged up today because just a few hours prior i had been thinking about getting hurt. i was thinking about how much i wish i skateboarded. thinking about the reason i gave up when i had tried 4 years ago. it was because i got hurt and it kind of just scared me off. so, i was thinking that i should just get hurt more often. maybe it sounds stupid, but if i got on a skateboard with the intention of bruised knees and blood flow, i wouldn't be scared and maybe i could actually learn how to ride without being to freaked out. so, weird timing to get in a bike wreck. and it wasn't that bad! i was just like "oh fuck, i am going to fall over now." so, moral of the story is: my elbow hurts.

montana.

on my way from minneapolis to portland, the train went through montana. it was the most exciting place i've seen in a long time. but only for the first 10 minutes. it got old real fast. being from vermont, mountains are an everyday thing. i could hardly believe how flat it was. we spent a whole day just in montana. i couldn't imagine people living there. it was so empty. amazingly beautiful, but i think i would go totally nuts if i lived there. the sunrise was ridiculous. it's worth a trip to the country fields of montana if only just to see the sun rise. it's beyond words. and sadly beyond pictures because i was too tired to pull out my camera.