Walk #4, Teahouse on Alberta St.

Tuesday, 1-26-10. 3.57 miles.

Job searching is hard. After a discouraging morning, I go for a walk to get out of the house and away from the computer. Plus it is sunny, and I need a refreshing new perspective. So I head up to Townshend's Alberta Street Teahouse. Entering the teahouse, I can't figure out what to do. Do I order tea at the counter? Do I sit and be waited on? The people around me all have their tea and give no clue. There are small menus, big menus, different menus on different walls. When the guy at the counter asks if he can help me, I impulsively order a bottle of kombucha. The kombucha list is right in front of me. I collect my bottle of kombucha and sit at a table reading an odd short story by Miranda July. I don't really want kombucha.

Soon after, more customers enter. A pretty woman wearing a chic puffy vest takes the table next to me, and then orders herself a milky looking tea (some sort of chai?) and a cookie. The correct protocol, I now see, it to place your order at the counter, and the staff will bring your drink to your table if it requires time to prepare. I am jealous of the woman's tea and cookie. I am jealous of her clothes and importance--she receives several phone calls that appear to be business related. I sip my strange-tasting kombucha. Next time, I resolve, I'll take as long as I like to place an order. It's not as if the laid-back counter staff cares, or is paying any attention to me whatsoever. I could stand staring at the menu for many minutes with a stoned and glazed-over expression, and they would not care.

A young woman wearing flats and dress slacks sits at a table without ordering. After a few minutes, a slender man in biking gear meets her, and says, "Shall we order some tea?" I can't tell if they are meeting on a blind date, or if he is interviewing her for a job. Most likely the latter.

I want a friend to sit and laugh with, who will share the uncertainty of how to order the tea. Maybe two friends. Four would be too many.

Sometimes getting out is refreshing; sometimes it just amplifies my anxiety.







View Portland Walk 1-26-10 in a larger map

Walk #3, NE Broadway

Thursday, 1-21, 3.09 miles

A beautiful, sunny day. I walked along Broadway, a main commercial drag, stopping in stores now and then. There is a Goodwill, with decent selection and fairly high prices. Note to self: Never buy a new, expensive basket, because thift stores always have tons of baskets. Then I stopped at The Mountain Shop (ski and outdoor sportswear) and a store called Natural Furniture. Then the preciously named Furever Pets, which has big cans of Wellness chicken cat food. I've never seen these before, but oh, the savings! I'll be back, Furever Pets.


View Portland Walk 1-20 in a larger map

My cumulative walking map

Walk #2, Irving City Park

Last Tuesday, 2.25 miles.
From 15th and Tillamook, I walked up 14th Street, then west on Klickitat, which narrowed to a series of alleyways, to the Irving City Park. I intended to visit Rerun Thrift Store located at Fremont and 7th, but it was closed.





View Portland Walk 1-19 in a larger map


I'm lax about recording locations, but somewhere along my path I passed this enormous, bushlike rosemary plant.



No kidding, it was as tall as me. I picked a single needle of rosemary, and it tasted of butter and pine. I intend to grow some rosemary like that when I have a yard.

Also, a house with a bold color scheme:

The first walk

So, there is a guy who walked every street in Manhattan. His website is www.newyorkcitywalk.com, and he got a lot of publicity for it, including a write-up in the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town," back in 2005. I can't find the archives on his website, so I'm not sure if he wrote about each walk or what, but it struck me as a cool project. I must have read about it in the New Yorker, but at the time I was living in Chicago and working full time, and it didn't seem practicable to start a Chicago Walk. Chicago is huge, and there are neighborhoods that might be a little bleak or unsafe to walk through. Plus, I was working all the time.

Now I've just moved to Portland, OR. I'm starting a job search pronto, but thought this would be the ideal time to start a walking project. (Need an academic book editor/webmaster? Call me.) Portland is not small but it's not enormous either, and the weather is lovely and balmy and mild. (Sure, it rains a lot, but at least it's warm.) In mid-January, it's like April in Chicago; I feel like I fast forwarded through winter by moving here. I love to walk, and it will help me get to know the city.

I began the walking project with a 5.19-mile loop. Up NE 15th Street to Alberta, west to 33rd Street, then jagging down to NE Tillamook Street and back to 15th. It took me a couple hours. I had intended to stop by the Albert Street Food Co-op and use my $5 off $25 coupon from the Chinook Book, but it was closed.


View Walk Portland 1-18 in a larger map

Alberta Avenue is trendy, lined with restaurants and coffeeshops and little boutiques. I stopped at a shoe store called Shoe Shangri-La and found some shoes that I might buy if and when I get an office job. I then stopped by the New Seasons Market on 33rd Street and bought some crimini mushrooms and a bottle of kombucha. Then I returned to the start, near my apartment, cutting through a hilly neighborhood called Alameda.

What am I noticing as I walk along? Stores and businesses, other people walking along, houses, colors, trees.

Here is a house with a terrific color scheme, somewhere along 20th Avenue:



Here is a useful Portland neighborhood map:
http://www.movingtoportland.net/maps/map_pdxneighborhood.pdf