earth day in portland

Jump to Comments

I have it stuck in my head that Earth Day is April 22nd, but that events take place on Sunday. And I can’t follow directions. I read them and reread them and just when I think I’ve stopped misreading them, the inevitable happens.

So when Blue Moon Fiber Arts posted about the Inexplicable Knitting Behavior scavenger hunt, I had to remind myself several times that I had to do the scavenger hunt on Saturday. I probably wasn’t going to be able to make it to see Stephanie Pearl McPhee, aka the Yarn Harlot, on Tuesday. I had it in my head to go Saturday and run into other knitters even though I couldn’t go get ‘credit.’ It turned out my husband wasn’t available Saturday.

And then I realized that I was going to go and hell I’d do the scavenger hunt on Sunday, when my husband was available. This was going to be fun for both of us since as Salemites (but frequent visitors to Portland), we hadn’t seen most of these things. Somehow, Sunday became April 19th and my husband and I went off to PDX to go scavenger hunting and I forgot which days of the week were what dates. The hallmark of ADHD is poor short-term memory. Or at least that’s what it looks like. You can be brilliant at thinking your way through a problem, but then forget three minutes later what you did.

My first planned stop was the Blue Moon Tavern, which also happens to be a McMenamin’s pub. Three potential points. I got the shot outside and then convinced the bartender to pour a local brew and pose with the sock under their chalkboard that says Blue Moon Tavern on it. Not bad, eh? I don’t know the bartender either so that was a bonus point. Four points.

Then we decided to stop at Ken’s Artisan’s Bakery, which is just up the street on 21st. We’re fans of the bread, having had it at Navarre. Josh wanted some coffee. Lo and behold, they serve Stumptown Coffee. So another potential two points. I don’t think the bird in the picture is the Stumptown Rooster, since it’s just a bird, but I think I finally solved the mystery of the origin of the name for the Rooster Rock color way. On the way in, I read the directions out loud to Josh and he says, “Steph, it’s the 20th”.

I reread the directions several times in total silence. I took the picture anyway. We went back to the car and I was pretty bummed, but I was hard pressed to explain why.

I’d been excited about the prospect of running into other people doing this thing. And the fact that other people were out there doing it made it feel a whole lot less foolish. And here I’d gone and goobered it completely and done it alone and well, I was feeling pretty stupid.

Josh thought we should plow on and that BMFA would understand, etc. I’m not sure he understood that I didn’t want them to HAVE to understand. We went on to Rich’s Tobacco (which is also a photo of a non-knitter holding my sock) and took the photo of the yarn riding the horse. And then called it a day.

The current plan is to do more photos on Tuesday, which is actually Earth Day. I just hope the weather is as nice. I simply cannot go back to the Blue Moon Tavern to ask the guy to pose for another shot though. I’ll get another McMenamin’s server to do it I think. I guess to understand why I didn’t just plow on, you’d have to understand why I was doing this in the first place. And only fellow knitters will get that.

Instead we went over to the Japanese Garden. Josh gave me a pile of coupons for my birthday (in January) that say things like “good for 1 afternoon at the Japanese Garden.” It was sunny which was rather unexpected, so I thought we’d enjoy it. Then we went to the Yarn Garden. I discovered Josh had broken a two knitting needles while carrying the sock (which is the 2nd of my third pair of Pomatomus socks) which entitles me to a small credit for yarn. I didn’t take any pics there, but I did work on the socks for a little while and I’m a few more rows into the leg.

2 Comments

Filed under 2008, blogging, events

Tags: adhd, blue_moon_fiber_arts, earth_day, knitting, mcphee, portland