Strange to me that Portland hasn’t changed all that much. I expected not to recognize it, for some reason. But there is was, pretty much the same as it was 5 years ago–wet and green and steamy. It was a pleasure just to drive around and fill in my memory with the small details that had slipped away. Hassalo St. The Budweiser plant in NW. Fairly Honest Bill’s. Reverb Records. The Guild Theater. I felt I was following around some ghost-version of me, retracing my steps, feeling like a total stranger in a place that 5 years ago was beginning to seem like home.

Sal did E.’s and my tarot reading, on a purple bedspread with cats a-steppin’ about. The future looks good, all around, for both of us, if the cards are to be believed.

The mercury plummets! It is too cold to simply go out for some Cream of Tartar, except the coconut cream pie won’t come into existence without it!