Alone Time

I've become that mysterious, mute person that sits in coffee shops, typing and clicking on things for hours at a time. I've done lots of driving around and calling Ari to talk about nothing.

This is where I spend most of my time...

and this is my mysterious coffee shop face...

I've found a favorite coffee shop in the Arts District of all places. It's totally embarrassing. I know. The coffee man has told me all about Portland and insists that even though the artsy folks look creepy, they're usually nice people. "Don't be afraid of the freaks." he told me sincerely. The coffee man said all the different neighborhoods in Portland have the same stuff in them, but differently. Therefore, people hook on to their neighborhood as their favorite, have everything they need, and often refuse to visit any other part of town. Neighborhood pride. He said the most difficult thing about life in Portland is getting your friends from one neighborhood to come to a party in another.

Meanwhile I've been researching some WorkAways. I wanted to come out west to work on some farms. In case you don't know, a WorkAway is a crafty rig where you live for free with strangers if you help them with various tasks. You choose this part. Farming, babysitting, even restoring old buildings. You search the work you're looking for and where you'd like to go and then you can read about all the different hosts. It's fun just to look at the website. Actually it's torturous. You can travel the whole world doing this. Cattle farms in New Zealand or chocolate making in the Netherlands.

Here's the trouble I'm finding. The hosts in Oregon are freaks. That's not nice.
They're weirdoes. I keep thinking I've found a great set up and then I discover that the host will not permit me to eat meat or they observe a silent time from 3-4pm "in honor of nature."
Some insist on being barefoot (which I would love- but its cold here!) or want "an artist to come and create collaborative sculptures, exposing their way of life to the area, broadening the spectrum of art and existence." Say whaa?

In other news, people are serious about their coffee here. Everyones always walking around with big creamy cups of coffee. It's all so silly. What's wrong with a good black cup of coffee? I saw one guy with this huge cup full of who knows what and it had whipped cream and syrups and spices sprinkled on top and he walked past this cranky old man who said, "Are you going to drink that or mount it on your wall?"
And I got so tickled.