Wednesday, July 21, 2010

My Dirty Little Secret

Come on, we all have them.

Do you want to know what mine is?

Yes, I do have a penchant for any reality show where a group of experts in their field (cooking, designing, dating, decorating, hair-cutting, you name it) compete in a variety of challenges (always with a whacky twist) and eventually get voted off, one by one, until there is only one person left standing and they are deemed the winner and then promptly forgotten about.

But that's not a dirty little secret. I freely admit to it and am consequently largely unavailable Monday-Thursday from 8-10 pm.

And it's not my love of sushi. Or wine. Or my kids. Or sleeping. Or Diet Coke. Or my refusal to regularly exercise. Or my chronic procrastination. These things I own.

There is just this one teeny weeny vice that I hide from everyone.

I turn on the heat. In July. Almost every single morning. I'm just so cold. 

Socks and long-sleeved shirts and jackets and blankets cannot warm me up in the mornings when it's 50 degrees outside. My Florida blood is just too thin. So, even though the cold usually burns off by lunchtime and many afternoons it hits 90 degrees, I still turn on the heat to warm up.

There. I said it.

What would my environmentally-savvy neighbors, friends, family and fellow Portland residents say if they knew that I routinely waste fossil fuel, in mid-summer, just to keep my toes warm?

Friday, July 9, 2010

Where's Waldo / Where Every Kid in Portland Goes During a Heat Wave

I went to pick up Macy early from camp today for a little Macy/Mommy bonding time.

"They're at the pool," I was told by the camp administrator.

"Sounds fun!" I thought as I headed over to the pool. In my work clothes. In the 100+ degree heat.

I got to the pool and realized I was the only one there in work clothes.

I'm not complaining, but it was pretty hot. So I got right on the task of finding Macy. 

I stood out like a sore thumb. Unfortunately, Macy did not.

So I walked to the other side of the pool and tried to remember what color Macy's swimming suit was. 

Pink is indeed a popular color for young girls' swimwear. Never seen so many pink suits.

I was contemplating getting into the pool with all the others to cool off. Plus I thought my chances would be better of finding her, when I finally spotted my little waterbug.



Wednesday, July 7, 2010

I Love PDX

What has changed since we moved to Portland, you ask?

We Don't Sleep Much.
It gets dark here at ... oh ... about 10 pm. It gets light at ... yawn ... about 4:55 am. I'm serious. Not kidding one bit.

Our House is Old.
Our "new" house is 95 years old and our "old" house was seven years old. For more on this, read one of my favorite posts.

We Can Walk to Whole Foods Paycheck.
We live less than one mile from a Whole Foods but more than 20 minutes from a Walmart. We used to live 20 minutes from the Whole Foods but less than a mile from Walmart.

We Don't Have Air.
Our house does not have air conditioning. Where we used to live, we never turned the air off. Here, we have no chance to even turn it on, and no need to.

There are Subtle Weather Differences.
In late June we were still wearing long pants and jackets, which I got from the "winter clothes" bin I dug out of storage. I guess I will go to our "ski clothes" bin for our winter clothes.

We live Close to Downtown Portland.
Which means we live near a lot of hip things. Like a medical marijuana facility, a Japanese grocery store, a Vietnamese take-out restaurant and an acupuncture clinic, all within five blocks of our new house. There was a Chic-Fil-A, an Office Max and a Quizno's within five blocks of our old house.

I Heart Gas Stations.
In Oregon it is against the law to fill up your own gas tank. I used to wait until I was driving on fumes to stop, but now "gassing up" is a big break in my day to sit and chill out for a minute. All I have to do is hand my credit card to the attendant and say, "Fill it up, please".

Hurricanes are Frozen Drinks, Right?
There was a hurricane threatening the Gulf coast and I only heard about it third-hand on the national news (meaning, Parenthood was not interrupted with a "storm tracker" update).

I Participate in Oprah's No Phone Zone Pledge by Default.
Talking on cell phones is against the law in Oregon. Good thing, because there's a LOT more traffic in Portland so I need to concentrate.

Recycling is Cool.
On garbage day, all of our neighbors drag out a huge garbage can filled with recyclables, and a teeny-tiny much, much smaller can filled with regular garbage.

I'm Still Wondering if I'm Groovy Enough to Live in Portland?
I attended a women's networking event last night for working mothers, and about a third of the women arrived by bike! Making me instantly question my decision to drive there.

I feel like I'm home, because I am. I love Portland, but of course I miss my friends in Florida and I'm sure I will, eventually, miss the sunshine. We'll talk again in March.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Sparrows Live for 1-2 Years (and Up to 10 Years in Captivity)

I told you in my last post that I would keep you updated, and I am a woman of my word.
Did you know that sparrows live for about 1-2 years? And apparently they too will enter an open door or window.
Having never been a bird fan, no one was more freaked out than me (although not too freaked out to grab my camera). 

I was home alone with the kids, and we resorted to fleeing the house once the captive bird flew up the stairs and into my bedroom.

John came home just in time to save us all.
Even the bird. 




Friday, July 2, 2010

Flies Only Live For One Day

We don't have air conditioning in our house in Portland. And I am told this is an inconvenience for about two weeks out of the year.

Because of the above-mentioned point, in the summer we open our windows, especially in late afternoon when it's the warmest out. And some of our windows don't have screens. (Probably because they are 95 years old and must have been installed before screens were invented?)

So flies get into our house. At any given time, there is at least one fly buzzing around.  (We didn't really have flies in Florida, or maybe we did, but they just didn't get into our tightly closed, air-conditioned, screened-lanai homes.) 

Anyway, this fly business at first kind of freaked my kids out. Until I told them a fun fact I learned somewhere (and was actually not 100% sure was even true).

That flies only live for one day.

Which took care of the problem. Flies went from being scary buzzing flying things, to fragile, short-lived creatures that needed as much acceptance as possible during their short, one-day lives.

The fly fun fact unleashed a flurry of inquiries about all manner of bug life. So I'm here to tell you, in case you didn't know, that:

1. Wasps live for about a year.
2. Earthworms live from 4 to 8 years.
3. Spiders generally live for 1-2 years.
4. Bees live for 28 to 35 days.
5. Beetles live for about 10 days.

I'll be sure to keep you posted with more entomological news as it develops.