Flight

What a great way to start vacation – in flight, watching the rising sun cast pastels over a mountainous earth, Salt Lake City to be specific. Our flight from Newark to Portland was not a direct flight and as fate would have it our ‘lay-over’ turned into a ‘sleep-over’ (paid for by Delta, of course). I must admit, that was the most convenient inconvenience I have ever had. The hotel was great and so was breakfast (paid for by Delta, too, of course). But the early morning flight from Salt Lake to Portland was meditative… Mmmmm. A good release from a hard semester.

Our time visiting friends in Portland was good. They are the kind of people that bring a smile to your face right when you think of them. They always let you know just how happy they are to see you… and their hospitality is warm - like the best kind of blanket! And let me tell you – warmth is needed in Portland! I can’t think of a colder place to be right now. I just left 8 inches of snow in Jersey but compared to snow-less Portland - Jersey is warm. I’m not sure how that is true - but it is!


I’m in Northern California now… my birthplace, my motherland. I always forget how weird people are here. I’m trying to remember a place where people are ‘normal’. Definitely not New Jersey.

Okay, are you ready for my rant?

I have such a love-hate relationship with this strange, small town. The people here drive me nuts! They are so hippie-cool… the REAL kind of hippie-cool; you know what I mean? They’re all just smelly enough, ugly enough, organic enough, stoned enough to be authentic hippies. They pride themselves on not showering, shaving, eating, working and there is always a ‘political’ excuse behind every one of those ‘choices’. Asceticism is the name of the game and it’s so pathetic because it’s such a phase… They have completely taken over the vibrant and thriving earth that gave birth to me and now most of the time this place seems foreign to me. They corner the market on ‘coolness’ so to feel halfway normal around here you have to be as raunchy as they are.

Damn hippies!

I’d like to see them go back to the urban cities that they moved here from and work on turning THOSE environments into thriving and vibrant earth sites. There’s a political goal worth all of their drug-ridden attention.

BUT

Even more than my dislike for these (smelly) people my love for this earth place is greater. I love the birds that join me in this coffee shop… they just come right in when people open the door. I love the seals that talk to me when I visit the Pacific. I love the smell of this earth after it rains. I love the fresh 65-degree coastal winds (that I now respect as “warm” after visiting Portland and New Jersey).

Hmm…. the bitter-sweet visits home for the holidays!