Tri-coastal

I've joked about being bi-coastal before. Since I lived on the east coast for the first 30 years of my life, it's still every bit as much 'home' to me as the SF Bay Area is to me now. It is hard that I only get to go back east 2x/year or so, and there are always wrenching decisions to make about how many dear friends I have time to see. There is never enough time with any of them, let alone with all of them.

Portland is beginning to feel like that to me now - another place where there are so many dear ones that even a week's visit doesn't begin to touch the pain of missing them all. Another 'home' where, even if I've never lived here, I find myself returning here time and again, like a salmon jumping back upstream.

There is Arnold, of course - redneck_queer, my fairy godfather. I could spend pages trying to capture just how uniquely wonderful he is, but picture someone with unconditional gentle acceptingness who sees the best in everyone, is unflinchingly sentimental, has a gentleman's notion of how people should treat one another, and has the most wicked sense of humor to boot. "A male Tammy Tyree" is how he describes himself - someone who has old-fashioned values, the good kind, amidst the cultural sea of oft-cold modern cynicism.

I saw b00jum on Tuesday, and we talked for hours - about people, psychology, the quest for goals, all kinds of topics. There's just something that *resonates* between us. Several hours later we sure weren't done talking, and it was damn hard to get up and leave when it was time to. We also hold memories together - of our NY crowd back in its heyday, back especially when Rich was alive.

Yesterday I visited my old friend Edward (who is acrobatty's brother and nrivkis's brother-in-law, for those who know them - we all went to the same high school). I also got to see Edward's wonderful wife Kempe and meet their two adorable children for the first time.

I always find it a breathtaking miracle to see the features of my dear friends repeated in their children. Clarissa, nearly 5, is a tall elfin miniature of her father with her dark spilling curls and serious blue-gray eyes, though she looks like her mother when she laughs. She loves klezmer music and dancing, so her family heritage runs strong in her. Isaac, 2, is a lovely blond boy with almond-shaped eyes and a scintillating grin that widens his apple cheeks adorably.

I loved sharing smiles with the kids and taking them geocaching and laughing with them; by the end of the night they were climbing into my lap for bedtime stories. It was wrenching to have to leave finally at 10pm. It had been 6 years since I'd seen Edward and Kempe before that - way too long!

And this morning I got to visit the wonderful triad of abahjake, twylightdove and thatanikagirl, and their menagerie of dogs and cats. I am always touched by how caringly and lovingly the three of them look after one another. We had tea and then went to the Vita cafe, which does amazing vegetarian breakfast. I had a fruit smoothie that had whole blueberries floating in it, and we split an awesome tempeh reuben sandwich, biscuits and fries with gravy, and a tofu and tater scramble. Goodness, I plan on coming back to that restaurant! Afterwards I took 'em geocaching, and Jake is hooked on it now too, amidst much evil cackling on my part.

I will just have to keep on visiting here, a lot more often!