ONE PORTLAND JOURNEY: MINE

I got off the bus at the end of my Portland journey, only to begin the real deal.

This is where I lived after breaking up.

My usual move after a break up was moving to bigger and better.

For instance, I broke up in Delaware and moved to Brooklyn, NY.

Here, I broke up in far SE and moved downtown Portland.

This building had a lot of break up apartments, so I was in good company.

Over the years of being single I rented three apartments on the same block, though not at the same time.

I found my spot, then lost it.

My ambition was to find the perfect apartment, if not the perfect match, but I found my match before the perfect apartment.

I went from low rent urban speculator to married, kids, suburbs, and never looked back.

Okay, I looked back a little, but I’m not haunted by what might have been.

Have I taken my little family on tours of the old street where grandma and grandpa met?

Of course.

Do any of them ‘get it?’

Not by a mile.

Was I a rolling stone, wherever I laid my hat was my home?

Nooooo.

After rolling out of North Bend with stops in Ashland, Fort Ord, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Dix, Philadelphia, Eugene, Delaware, and Brooklyn, I wasn’t going anywhere.

That was the plan.

 

And Then

I grew up and turned into a responsible adult.

What else?

I go for walks around the old neighborhood more often than anyone wants to join.

My wife and I take a good look around, but it’s not our hometown.

We’ve lived in the same suburb for the past thirty-six years.

From there we’ve been rolling stones together, sometimes with kids, sometimes not.

We’ve rolled out to Spain, France, England, and Belgium.

Current plans include rolling up to the Washington rain forest.

It’s raining right now, and I see a tree, but it’s not a rain forest.

 

The Portland Journey Continues

Some people come to Portland to start over, to find themselves, to lose themselves, and when plans go south, they leave.

Others show up and find a way to stick.

I could have stuck in Philadelphia with a nice Jersey girl.

I could have stuck in Brooklyn with a nice girl from Queens.

I planned on sticking here when I married a girl I met in Northwest Portland, but she had other plans.

I’m still sticky, just not Portland sticky.

How is it where you live? Sticky, or slippery?

 

PS: 

My wife is as sticky as I am. That’s our couples’ super power. We stick together.

 

PSS:

If you are young and unmarried, and all of your friends are married, getting married, have kids, plan to have kids, look carefully.

Are they sticky? Do they stick together? How is it possible.

Figure out the answer to that and you’re closer to getting hitched than ever before.

Now find someone agreeable enough to see things your way.

Then get ready to adapt.

Sounds so simple.

Cross the bridges together.

Take a drive together.

Share new rivalries.