N. Lombard Fred Meyer sucks...

With New Seasons now open close to my house, I am once again reminded that even though their prices are higher, the service and experience of shopping with decent and competent staff is worth every penny.

I tried to make a quick stop yesterday at the Lombard Fred Meyer because I needed some chicken and ground turkey for dinners this week. Normally, it's a below average visit but this was by far the worst.

There was a family in front of me at the register trying to buy a boatload of home decorations, e.g. picture frames, paintings, plants, etc, and they bought it because it was listed as 40% off lowest price. Well, it didn't ring up that way so rather than accommodating the customer, the clerk called her manager over and debated what was on sale. The man was so pissed that he walked back to the section of the store and ripped the 40% sale sign off the display, walked it to the manager at the register and just put it in his face. It was hilarious. They finally gave it to him but then the clerk screwed the whole thing up and overcharged them. Keep in mind, I'm behind the entire time. It was going on 15 minutes now. Another manager came over and decided to alleviate the line forming so rather than taking my 10 items, she takes the people immediately behind me. She got two to three more customers out before I made my way through the line.

Just an overall horrible waiting experience because not once did these managers apologize to me. At least the clerk was somewhat receptive but she never said sorry for the delay.

For those who have been in the area, I realize the new Fred Meyer is 1000 times better than the previous one. But still, I need to stick to New Seasons now.

On another note, I had a true Portland experience before the Fred Meyer debacle. I had to pick my car up from Les Schwab so I had to ride the 75 bus from Lombard. It was an eccentric mix of people; mostly inner city kids, some people down and out on their financial luck, a guy standing next to me who couldn't stop sniffing, and a couple of people sprawled out asleep across multiple seats forcing people like myself to stand. Good times!

Adam's apples and young prostitutes

Kind of strange 90 seconds...I went to the Rite Aid on 5th and Alder to pick up some shampoo for Lewis and I grabbed my place in line. I see a female cashier open up and as I start to walk to hear she says "I can help you right here." Only it was said in what was arguably the most masculine voice I've ever heard. "She" asked me how my day was going and I tried to be as casual as possible, but all I kept think was how can someone working at Rite-Aid afford such a successful operation?

Then on my way out, there were two young girls (late teens, early 20s I suspect) panhandeling for change. I saw them, reached in my pocket for the $.62, and was intercepted with the "can you spare some change." But before I could drop it off and continue on my way, the same girl smiled and continued with "I'm not afraid to prostitute myself." Or something to that effect; I was so caught off guard that now I'm not sure what I heard.

Portland's such a fun town...to think, this all happened in a span of 90 seconds. That has to be some record for random acts of craziness.

And no, I never considered the prostitute.

Race for the Cure, etc

Kristin and I are once again doing Race for the Cure this weekend. It's such a great cause, but my pre-race training regiment includes the following: zero running in three weeks, lots of beer and lots of cake and ice cream (particularly in the last two days). I feel so gross right now.

On a lighter note, there's this lady I see walking around downtown PDX quite frequently and she seems normal— she wears a black dress, carries a purse, etc. But there's one quality about her that I just can't grasp and that is that she covers her face in white makeup. She looks like a clown sans the jolly red nose. I was with a co-worker today who is also very familiar with this lady as well and I told her I was going to ask her why she painted her face this way. She told me not to bother because she believes there is a mental condition that we are just not aware of. So until next time Painted Face Lady. Portland's such a strange town, but she just really is bizarre. Maybe she's a performance artist? If so, it's stupid and I don't get it. I wish I had a camera phone so I could post her picture. But instead I have a crappy Nokia that is coincidentally the same as this meth tweaker that I see regularly on the MAX using. It makes me feel trashy and incredibly uncool.

Marriage repercussions

Getting married was by far the best thing I've ever done. I say this a lot and people probably get sick of hearing it. But I love Kristin and it's such a great feeling to come home and see her every day.

However, with that said, all of the logistical details of getting married are such a pain in the ass. And the corona of all these gems is the DMV. I had it easy as the husband, but I never could have imagined transferring car titles to another person or removing a parent from the title could be so frustrating and complex. Why do the forms have to be so complicated? Words like trustee, survivorship, and lessee dot the pages of blue, white and yellow forms. Why isn't there a simple thing to do online? I don't know, I'm probably blowing it out of proportion.

After work yesterday I took Lewis for a walk and as we returned home I went to bring the garbage can in and it was still heavy. I opened the lid and inside was a full size bag of garbage. Upon closer inspection, I realized it wasn't mine. After my trash was picked up in the morning, some a-hole was walking/driving by and tossed his trash in the most convenient receptacle--apparently mine. Pissed beyond belief at this point, I started to rummage through the trash searching for clues to the identity of this culprit. But nothing. All I could make out was a 10 pound squash, a crumpled pack of Camels, French bread loaves and some lemon hummus. I was praying to find something personal inside because I was ready to make a personal delivery of the deposited trash, no matter how far out of my way it would been. But Lewis started barking because he wanted to go inside so I defeatedly moved it (with garbage inside) back up to my house.

Trash dumpers: 1
Erik: 0

Let's get started

We all know there are things we're not good at and one of my shortcomings is my inability to start something. Some may call this procrastination, but that's not really it. Instead, I give too much background or detail when it's really not necessary. So as I begin this blog, I'm not going to introduce myself and talk about all the little details of my life up to this point in time. Rather, for your sake, let's just start with today and try to keep moving forward. My goal of this blog is to talk about life (both mine and yours) in Portland (sometimes elsewhere) and hopefully answer many of the questions that fill my head. Maybe this will grow and I'll be able to answer other people's questions...or maybe it won't. Doesn't really matter I suppose. I feel like I'm a day late and a dollar short with this blog anyways. But maybe it will be therapeutic...we shall see.