potato leek

The grand plan I developed for my evening while still at work seemed much less appealing as I rode the MAX home from work and the steady, smooth movement of the train over the tracks moved me toward sleep. I had intended on going to SCRAP (Portland’s “Creative Reuse Center”), Collage (one of my favorite local art supply stores) and the recently-opened Grilled Cheese Grill (http://www.grilledcheesegrill.com/).

After dropping Jesse off at work, I went home to grab my camera and had to fight the urge to change into pajamas and fall asleep on the couch. My head was pounding from lack of coffee, but I tried to adhere to the notion that getting out and doing something out of the ordinary would be beneficial.

SCRAP had mysteriously moved since the last time I visited, but I found it without too much difficulty. The place is open, cool and dim, full of buckets and bins and tubs of rubber bands, corks, greeting cards, photographs, postcards, file folders, bubble wrap, carpet samples and zippers. The possibilities are overwhelming, but my creativity needs a bit of improvement before I will be able to stock up on random gizmos and make something attractive or useful out of them. Their stock is constantly changing as donors drop off bags of the most random, seemingly useless objects you’ll ever see. The most interesting things I found this time were huge rolls (four feet tall?) of heavy-duty, plastic/paper with hologram designs in bright colors. I only left with what I had come for: 5 durable cardboard shipping tubes, which I’ll use to protect my bookmaking papers, which keep getting smashed up in my closet.












I drove over to Collage and was greeted by a friendly, yet vaguely imposing homeless man before I could slip inside the store. He started to give me an animated, rehearsed speech about the one dollar he needed for bus fare in order to get to the shelter that had reduced their bed price from four dollars to two dollars, TWO dollars, for the most worthy homeless people. Unfortunately, I had spent my entire $1.25 in change on those handy tubes.


I picked up a couple things for a friend and upon leaving the store, thought for several seconds that my car had been stolen. I thought the man who had spoken to me had found another way of reaching his destination. In actuality, I had just parked much further away than I realized. I drove towards the big painted school bus at Alberta & 11th that houses the seating for the Grilled Cheese Grill when I realized, to my disappointment, that grilled cheese didn’t even sound appetizing. Let down.

The day was so, so gray, the wind too brisk and chilly. Though venturing out hadn’t been awful, I needed to go home. I grabbed some soup on the way, something to warm me up and sooth my spirit. It helped.