As the title states, I'm currently in Portland, Oregon.
It's crazy, really.
So, for any interested parties, I shall here chronicle my story thus far.
On July 1st, I had my Vogueriffic tea party:
They actually moved when I shouted "CHANGE PLACES!"
On July second, I was hanging out and scrambling to get ready, watched movies and said goodbye to people.
My sister-in-law came to pick me up so we could leave for a town that's around 30 minutes away, were she lives.
That night, I met Fred while playing cards with said sister-in-law who thought I was absolutely crackers for talking to a frog.
I stayed up so I could see my brother once he finally got off work, and after three hours of sleep I got up and ready for my hour long journey to Indianapolis.
It was raining slightly and the entire stretch of highway we took was littered disturbingly with bits of shredded tires...
Still it was my 18th birthday, and the day was full of promise.
I was nervous as I walked alone into the airport, as it was my first flight.
Americans are most likely to be a little nervous about flying, afterall. Yay for government fear tactics!
I was confused about what to do during the security thing until I figured out what we were doing.
I didn't quite expect to be pelted with sudden jets of air in the metal detector thingy, but that was fine too.
I waited anxiously at my assigned gate, and when the time came to board, I gave a little squee~
Overall, I was pretty laid back and calm about it..I gave a little squee.
I got on the plane got settled in, still there were no problems.
I waited for two hours in that seat, and even went for a ride around the block before they pulled back up the the gate.
Apparently the weather radar malfunctioned, and they couldn't go up without it.
They let anyone who wanted to get off and reschedule at the counter, but I stayed in hopes that it could be fixed and we could go quickly.
Unfortunately, they needed a part and had called around everywhere to no avail.
The part had to be flown in from Georgia via an airline that actually works.
At that point, I was starting to freak out, but no biggie.
I had wandered to the doors and asked a flight attendant what I should do.
It was there that I met a wonderful woman named Nancy who shared my final destination.
We got off the plane together and waited for three hours in a line to get a plane reassignment. I commented at that point how it was almost appropriate that I'd be spending the first day of my adult life waiting in an impossibly long line.
Once we got there, they decided to put us back on the very same airliner, so I had to wait for three more hours before I could leave.
Once we were out of line, Nancy and I went and grabbed some lunch, then sat down and played cards for those three hours until it was time to go.
I got back on th plane, back in my seat, and settled in once again.
It was fabulous!
I was expecting a gradual increase in speed once we reached the runway, but nope~
Sudden burst of speed! Faster and faster and into the air!
I got so very dizzy and lost my hearing until I popped my ears a few times.
Then, suddenly, I was surrounded by bright white outside of all the windows.
I was so ecstatic that my head was literally in the clouds for once.
It felt surreal.
Once we got above the clouds, the view was amazing...
We weren't supposed to have electronics on yet, but I felt like I was going to die if I didn't get a picture of the view I had.
We arrived 45 minutes later in Minneapolis, and both got in line to see if we could leave for Portland any earlier. We were on standby in case there were any extra seats on the one that was about to leave when we arrived.
Unfortunately, that didn't work out, and we were stuck there until 9p.m.
At that point my travel buddy was severely stressed out, and decided she needed a drink, so we popped into a bar+grill place.
We got some food there and played cards for about four and a half more hours...we played War the whole time.
We took care of a few things, and got some drinks before we went back to our gate to sit and wait, and I learned that she was actually a teacher at Indiana University.
How awesome is that? I went to a bar with a college teacher.
We got to sit next to each other on the flight to Portland, and we settled in.
Then, there was a problem with that airliner, too! Nancy and I just exchanged looks.
That one took about 50 minutes, but they didn't make any of us get off.
They even had to jump-start the engine essentially with a manual air current.
We slept most of the way there, and by the wime we were nearing the city, I was awake and quite literally bouncing in my seat with excitement! That's a thought, eh? Bouncy Vogue.
And yes, I shimmied.
When we got off the thing, I broke into a run, which is not really a good thing to do when you aren't exactly sure how far away the baggage claim is.
So eventually, an out-of-breath Voguee made it to an escalator of destiny which took him a minute to get on 'cause the whole moving ground thing makes him uneasy. At the bottom of this magical moving stairway was someone I'd been waiting forever to get to.
I WAS ONLY 11 HOURS AND 10 MINUTES LATE
Then after a few more very short hours of sleep, we had to go to her aunt's beach house in Longbeach, Washington, where I met a very large banana slug and a smaller Black slug.
The banana slug was the exact color of Lemon's shell, and the black one was the same shade as Uzu. I named them Lemon the Second and Uzu mark Two.
They were looking rather crispy when I met them, so I dumped some water from my bottle on them and watched for a few... they looked happy as they both slimed away sluggishly.
Then we had to watch a stupid parade, only at the end of it there was a shopping cart dancing group of people, which was apparently the only reason we went.
Then that night I had a giant ice cream cone and we went out to the beach so I could see the ocean!
IT WAS FREEZING.
I hadn't anticipated the wind from the ocean being so harsh and cold. I was shivering through a blanket and two sweaters. Not cool.
It was so windy that, quite literally, we were out there for an hour and only managed to light two fireworks.
Also, my ice cream exploded on me when I tried to bite the cone, so I was covered in chocolate.
We totally gave up, and on the way back my feet kept sinking in the sand while I was trudging back up from the beach to the hotel where her mother was meeting an aunt or something.
I looked miserable
Once I got myself together in a bathroom, I wandered up to the restaurant, which was slightly ritzy. I was seated in a corner facing the coast in what was most likely the best seat in the house.
We'd only just been seated when the fireworks started, it was glorious.
The next day, we saw Jake, the alligator man and went back to Portland.
All sorts of random things have happened since then, and it's only five days from today until I can see Crimmy~
I'll keep you all updated, dears. <3
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