my time at portland: public transport is magic

i just came back from a trip to oregon to visit my girlfriend! wow! i always forget how much i like the weather there. i'm a california animal, but i prefer the cold rainy mists of the PNW much more than my usual wildfire-risk country.

i was invited to my girlfriend's brother's wedding, which went quite well. i've been to two others by technicality, one consciously. my mom was pregnant with me when she married! my sister's wedding was a much smaller, informal thing at the courthouse. i was keen to find out how a larger, grander wedding might look and feel.

of course, there was a few weeks to settle before the wedding, and of course, it was just two days before i'd have to leave for home again. but those few weeks were really nice.

my girlfriend had turned her room into a vrchat hangout IRL. fairy lights all over! i liked the ever-present dim lighting, though the lights over her bed were fluorescent instead, so i always turned them off so i could sleep... but her bed is huge and comfortable, so we were both able to rest on it with room for our limbs. she fell asleep while i was holding her one night, and remarked later that cpap machines are crazyyyy. in the past i'd snore like nobody's business, and we'd have to be in different rooms... but the machine is quiet and seals well to my face (most times, anyway!), so obviously it's a game-changer for cuddling at night.

we went out a few times while i was over. i was nervous about taking public transit, because i'd never actually been on a public bus before. the nearest bus stop to me is a half-mile away with two hills between, at the end of a one-lane road with two dirt trenches and no sidewalk. so to say i haven't gotten out much would be an understatement.

despite my misgivings, i spent most of the 50-something-minute bus ride playing pokemon go. everyone was polite to the bus driver, our chauffer and captain on the concrete river. and the fare was actually pretty reasonable. it kind of... blew my mind.

we ended up meeting up with her ex (good relation) and her ex's other ex (good relation) and went together to a local LGBT game-and-cards store. they had a little tin of 1-dollar pokemon figure bootlegs, of which i took a strangely spider-colored zigzagoon. i perused the plushie bin (yes, they have that!) and was very close to purchasing a maned wolf plush that was HUGE and definitely would NOT have fit in my luggage, but i resisted, so please clap.

we wandered the store a bit, looked at gunpla and games and old consoles, then made our way towards the section of the store reserved for actual card games. i found it enjoyable to comb through one of their bins of bargain MTG cards alongside my friends' bin of yu-gi-oh cards. i still think it was really funny for one of them to say "hey, if you like melffy and madolche [archetypes], you'd LOVE a yummy deck." i just can't stop repeating that. you'd LOVE a yummy deck. it's just so good out of context. mmm. yummy deck.

after that, we took a brisk walk to the tram and stopped by a curry place. i'd never had curry before, so i was a little apprehensive, but my girlfriend loves curry, so i wanted to try it, too. it was really tasty!!!! i tried to go milder but ended up being persuaded to something just a little spicier. after the curry, we parted ways so we wouldn't end up missing a family get-together to celebrate a birthday.

also we saw a pepper on the sidewalk. it made me laugh so i took a photo.

another time later, i believe the day before the wedding, i persuaded my girlfriend to go out again - just us two. i'm addicted to public transit. it was fun. i went places. i saw new stuff. you can't just have ONE outing... so we met up again at TOTL for their queer game night. the front door closed early, but there was a side door that we had a hell of a time locating. it was actually on an adjacent building-wall, but the red sticker looked like a 'no entry' one from afar and we both have bad vision, so we ended up doing a full walk-around of the whole block before figuring it out.

once we managed to actually get in, we played a game called Azul: Queen's Garden... or, rather, my girlfriend did and i watched, since we joined a group of the girls who were just starting that only had one extra spot open. the game seemed cute and i enjoyed that there was a bag of rocks as a central mechanic. any game with rocks is good, IMO. unfortunately some hangups on the rules and the approaching final hour of the game night caused a premature end to the game, but it was nice to meet some local trans people. i dragged girlfriend into a group like a dog who likes saying hi to strangers.

another outing i had recently was with a friend and an acquaintance of theirs. we went to uwajimaya, an asian market which had a small bookstore in the back and a modest selection of gachapon machines. the pricing was kind of insane, but i managed to roll on two of them and got some new ojamajo doremi merch (a coaster) and a small ermine figurine (which i was really excited about).

the ermine came from a machine titled "Still Waiting For You 14", so i continued to refer to the ermine as "Still Waiting For You", like some kind of racehorse name. it tickled my humor quite a lot. the cover art felt like it was straight out of some romantic visual novel. i'd date the ermine TBQH.

the book store was pretty fun. loooots of ghibli merch that was overpriced because it was ghibli themed. a small 6-inch long teto (nausicaa) plush was like, 21 bucks. a plastic charm of jiji (kiki's delivery service) in a plastic wicker cage was around the same price. i was kind of scandalized by it. there were a lot of blind boxes of various kinds too, but to my disappointment, they didn't have any of the new warrior cat blind box figures. i know that's not necessarily anime-adjacent, but i figured if they have the "this is fine" dog as a blind box or whatever, they'd have warrior cats. smh.

i tried a few new treats, like mogu mogu (melon flavor) and a gudetama-branded chip flavored like salted egg yolk (good but way overpriced and underfilled). i also got a bottle of ramune with sasuke on it that was good too.

the wedding was near the end of my stay, but i really enjoyed getting to meet my girlfriend's extended family. i was kind of worried i'd never get the chance! but everyone was very kind. auntie sarah was really bubbly and i enjoyed getting to meet her especially. she's kind of like if pinkie pie was a british human. a lot of other family members approached me while i waited around for my girlfriend to get back from her bridesmaid photo shoot, too. it's weird, you know, these people i've never met who seem to be really glad i'm there, and who all separately expressed a sentiment like "i'm glad [girlfriend] has you in her life". it did make me feel very at-peace, though, don't get me wrong!

the ceremony went well enough. a crane fly attempted to sabotage everything, but was dissuaded by both girlfriend and ... well... after she brushed it off of another bridesmaid (so subtly i didn't know until after the service), it went towards me calmly, like that video of the coke can in an aircraft. i remember saying something like 'oh hello there' quietly to it before my girlfriend's youngest brother swatted at it LOL. it was fine though. no hiccups at all, went off without a hitch, everyone was on best behavior.

the catering was excellent. i was saying thank you to every single caterer. i always worry that people doing jobs like that are just trudging through thanklessly, but i really do appreciate any worker who has to do invisible labor like that, and i want to make sure they feel appreciated for what they do. after all, no one notices the janitor unless the janitor goes missing and everything gets messy.

there were toasts, there were speeches, people cried, people got tipsy, then the dancing started and i got roped into a few dance floor attempts by well-meaning, joyous, somewhat drunk family members. my pants were really loose though so i was struggling quite a bit to keep them on.

by the end of it all i was feeling pretty pooped, but it went surprisingly well. we gave a ride home to two VERY DRUNK uncles who were acting like 8-year-old boys in the back next to girlfriend who was just. smile and nodding through it. champion of patience.

anyway, aside from outings, i also managed to touch a 3d printer for the first time, since gf's family owns one. i printed a few things...

• a collar tag
• a hiking sign but edited to be a dogthing
• soap dishes that i concepted and my girlfriend measured and modified
• a figurine of our friend selene's fursona which she was surprised with once gf flew out to baltimore
• a figurine of forest, though the painting came out sloppy...

it was a neat experience. i think my hands are too shaky for precise painting, though i managed to get some paint and sealant on before i went off on my trip home. i forgot the hiking sign when i packed!!!! but it's fine. i think my gf will ship it off again when she's back home in a week or two.

overall i had a really great stay. i met a lot of people and found out that half of me enjoys socializing for fun genuinely, even though their social tendencies were borne of necessity. and i discovered also that i really really need public transit. oh my godddd. living in the middle of rural northern california is a transportation nightmare! i kept being like, "wait, so it's just.... easy to go places in portland?" like i was going to wake up from a dream.

i'm looking forward to going back, but now i'm home, my cat nearly busted the door down to greet me when i came back, and my beautiful green linux machine is available for me once more. i'm hoping my inspiration period will wrap up soon so i can create again.