Category: Daily Life

These are my daily rants, stories, and what not.

Portland

meisajDaily Life

Welcome to PortlandYears ago, 13 years ago in fact, I told my mom that all I really needed to do when visiting a new place was get a cup of coffee and walk around. That stands true today. I wanted to plan a trip to see Angie in Boston, and threw in a quick couple days in Portland Maine to visit my friend Pat as well.  Unfortunately Pat couldn’t get the two days off work.  But I wasn’t concerned.  Like I told my mom years ago, I don’t need to be entertained. So after he picked me up at the airport – sorry, Portland doesn’t have an airport, it has a Jetport…. which according to the dictionary I looked at is an obsolete word – so after Pat picked me up at the Jetport he dropped me off in downtown Portland.

I walked more than a few miles exploring Portland.  I loved it.  I walked down by the water, up by some bridges, got my feet in the ocean, had some fizzy homemade old fashioned soda, visited an art gallery and of course drank some coffee.  That is my idea of a trip somewhere. Walking around, exploring and generally enjoying myself.

After Pat got off work I got to see his house, eat Mexican at an interesting restaurant, and relax.  Pretty good day indeed.

 

 

 

Shoe Evolution

meisajDaily Life

ShoesThere was probably a good decade when I didn’t tie my shoes if I wasn’t exercising.  Probably longer than a decade.  All of high school for sure.  All of college too.

I had some great Chuck Taylors in high school.  I’d wear them all fall and winter, and when it got nice outside I’d rip the tongues out of them and cut off the rubber toe part to make sandals.  They were amazing, and it was one of those things I did that no one else I knew did.  Unique.  Felt good at that age and time.

Later in high school I had a pair of “Duck Tape Shoes” as my winter shoes.  I wrapped old running shoes in duck tape, sealed the seams with a lighter and used them as boots.  Boots with no traction at all, but boots.

Even after college, I took my old work shoes, some black leather ones from target (ok fake leather ones from Target) and untied the laces, put knots at the end, and wore them as everyday shoes.  These ones added an inch to my height and made me feel good.

For some reason now though, I can’t go out without tying my shoes.  I need them to be tied otherwise it feels weird.  All those times people said to pick up my feet, it was my untied shoes.  I can’t stand the drag now though.

Growth as a human?

Maybe.

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P.S. – Give me the standard “Around the Tree” way to tie my shoes.  That Bunny Ears method, I roll that way.  Uncivilized I tell you.

Silencio

meisajDaily Life

If you know me, you probably know how much I loved the movie Mulholland Drive by David Lynch.

Not only was it a masterpiece mind fuck by David Lynch, but it came out in that perfect period of my life.  It came out in 2001, right after I graduated college, drove across the country and was back home living with my parents for a year.  I had a lot of free time on my hands, hadn’t started really living life or paying back student loans – so I had money to spend, and I had my best friend from high school, Reggie, back home also.  That meant when a weird movie came out and was actually playing in my home town, we were going to see it.

But there’s more.  It didn’t play at the normal theater.  It played at Aimee’s Movie and Dinner.  Aimee’s had just opened at that point.  Glens Falls (the city neighboring my home town) was trying to revitalize it’s downtown, and Aimee’s was part of it.  Aimee’s was next door to Wallabee’s Jazz Bar and served food and drinks during the movie.  Most dinner and movie places I assumed served dinner, then the movie.  Aimee’s took your order, started the movie and brought you your food.  It was fantastic.  Unfortunately from our experiences it was going well.  There were never more than 6, or 8 people there at a time.

So we went often.  I think Reggie and I saw Mulholland Drive 4 times there during its run.  And thankfully Aimee’s is still open and doing much better business than that first year.

This year, when Sam saw that Silencio was coming to the Beachland Ballroom and Tavern, we had to get tickets and go.  The music of David Lynch.  Perfect.  If you don’t know, Silencio was a club where the pivotal scene of Mulholland Drive took place.  It is a memorable spanish version of Roy Orbinson’s song Crying by Rebekah Del Rio.

Silencio was amazing.  They played two full sets.

Silencio