The proverbial busy bee

This guy was working those azaleas hard. 

Click on the image to see a larger version.

I had to admire his efforts, and I loved the image.

Fortunately for me, he was way too busy to pay attention to me.

On the road again: Portland, day 5

I'm home.  Today's travel went exactly as planned, which is always good.  It's not that good, however, because the plan basically sucked:  Get up at 5:30 a.m., travel without upgrades, have a short layover in DFW and so have to scurry between gates, and so on. 

Still, I'm home.  Tonight, I will catch up a bit with life maintenance, finish the work I couldn't do on the plane, and even relax a little. 

I'm home.

On the road again: Portland, day 4

I'm way past crispy, and I have to get up to shower and head to the airport well before sunrise, so I'm going to keep this short.  I could best describe today as work, work, more work, work, a little work, and some more work, with some work for dessert. 

The only non-work part of the day was a delightful dinner at Le Pigeon.  Today I met a fellow foodie who to my surprise didn't care for this restaurant, but my meal was excellent, and Le Pigeon remains one of my all-time favorite places to eat. 

Today would have been my mother's eighty-first birthday.  I wish she was still alive.  I miss her terribly.  I expect I always will, but for no particular reason, I feel the loss acutely today.  It took me years to tell her that I loved her, and then I did it by rote at the end of each call for several years before her death.  I'd give a lot to get to say it to her one more time, with real feeling, so maybe I could erase her constant insecurity that I didn't really love her.  As a parent, I deeply understand that insecurity, but for her it was unnecessary; I did love her, more than I could tell her, more than I ever did tell her.

I love you, Mom.

On the road again: Portland, day 3

Though I logged a reasonable number of hours in the bed, I awoke quite tired.  I then proceeded to do an enormous amount of work, even by my working-all-the-time standards.

Ah, but in the evening I had the pleasure of seeing Totem, a new (to me) Cirque du Soleil show that's playing here in Portland, and that's enough to make any day magical.  The show was tremendous fun, beautiful and invigorating and magical, as Cirque shows tend to be.  I oohed and aahed, gasped, laughed, and over and over found myself uncharacteristically and unexpectedly smiling for no apparent reason.  I obviously recommend this show highly, and I feel quite fortunate to have gotten to see it. 

I had to work late into the night to make up for having taken a few hours away from work, but the show was worth the cost. 

On the road again: Portland, day 2

After eight wonderful hours in bed, I got to work feeling refreshed and ready to go.  That was a good thing, because aside from dinner work consumed the rest of the day until late in the evening Pacific time.

The dinner was a delightful combination of light and delicious salad and sushi from Bamboo Sushi and then heavy and sweet ice cream from Salt & Straw.  These two businesses sit side-by-side and provide a great combined dining experience.  I recommend both if you're in this area.

I'm out.

On the road again: Portland, day 1

165.  That's a lot of cookies, a huge number of donuts, way too many ounces of steak, a hefty price for a dinner bill, and in many contexts, rather a lot.

It is not, however, many minutes to spend in bed before a travel day.  Trust me:  That was my last night.  I tried thinking of that time as 165 minutes, because seeing it as less than three hours in the dark was even more depressing.

Regardless of how I chose to view this time, after I turned off the light, it passed, the alarm sounded, I took a quick shower, and the travel day commenced.  Many hours later, I emerged here in Portland, where the weather is stunning and the skies surprisingly clear. 

Work filled almost all of the time, but today's treat was dinner at Ava Genes, an excellent Italian place I've visited only once before.  Everything I tasted was delicious, with most dishes featuring a wonderful blend of gentle and strong flavors.  I recommend it highly.

Now, though, I am recommending myself to bed. 

One more tidbit about that possible new spoken-word show

Though it's not definite yet, as I mentioned in a recent post, it's extremely likely now that I'll be debuting a new spoken-word show at this year's Balticon.

If I do, the title of the show will be

Mr. Poor Choices II:  I Don't Understand

More about this later, assuming it happens.