the sky, from the air

I'm in Portland now, visiting Kenny with Oliver. One of the first things I noticed was how clear the air is here. From the airplane, the sky (at dusk) was a beautifully saturated gradient across the colors of the rainbow. I wrote some crap while waiting for Kenny to pick us up:

8pm: Stepping off the airplane in Portland, I suddenly feel like a minority again. I forget how diverse (in my favor) San Francisco is sometimes, but it becomes stunningly apparent when I leave. This is the first time I've flown since September 11th; it may take some time to get used to the National Guard troops at SFO's security checkpoint (armed with M16s).

While we were waiting for our flight, we noticed a woman with her baby, knitting with a few 6" long metal spikes. I can't believe she made it through security with those things! My grandparents just flew recently, and they had their nailclippers confiscated. How stupid is that? Oh, also -- the necessity of showing a ticket or ticket receipt to get through security is stupid. Anyone who really wanted to get in would just forge one.

Blah blah blah. After we arrived, we drove -- the long way, apparently -- back to Kenny's place. We went out to eat at Baja Fresh, which is pretty glorified/posh here. It's like going to Radio Shack in a hick town, or something like that. After eating, Kenny took us on a superficial tour of OHSU. He didn't want to go into the hospital, because he would probably have been asked to scrub in to help out in a brain tumor operation going on (which he was excused from to pick us up from the airport). Hehehe.. it was funny. he was late to come get us, so he had the nurse call the airport and try to radio us in the airplane. "Tell them he's a brain surgeon. Have they heard of him?"

We never got the message.

We're so immature. Kenny took out a skin stapler and said, "Hey, Eric -- do you want to staple yourself? I've always wanted to see someone do it. We usually do it when patients are asleep."

So... I stapled myself. I tried to back out as soon as it started to hurt, but it was too late, and I had to press the handle the rest of the way (in order for the stapler to be removed from the staple). heeheheh. I used a surgical clamp to remove it. It started to hurt, so Kenny sprayed some cetacaine (topical anesthetic) on it. Even though it's designed for mucous membranes, it seemed to work some (it bubbled and stuff). We took some pictures. ehehehe. We totally crack ourselves up. I should come visit Kenny more often. :)

More photos on Kenny's page.

more pics from tonight:

I went to Chapeau! with Amabelle yesterday. They were very, very nice. After we came out of the restaurant, the owner/chef guy came running out and yelled his thanks to us (we were almost a block away by then). It was quite strange, but nice. :)

Dude. I hate macs. I can't believe I survived on a mac for five years of college and grad school. I like the keyboard on this PowerBook, but everything else about it SUCKS ASS. :)