Why I LOVE Portland

Today has reinforced to me why I love Portland so much. Here is my list from today:

1. It is beautiful and green (especially right now when all of the trees and flowers are starting to bloom).

2. Portlanders do nice things- I saw a guy (who wasn't homeless or trying to just collect cans for money) walking down the sidewalk and picking up trash. A lady stopped and tried to give him money thinking he was homeless, but he said, "No, ma'am. I'm just trying to do my part". An aside- he definitely didn't look homeless either, so I'm not sure why that lady did that, but oh well.

3. Portlanders are unique- many examples of this today, but driving down Burnside today I saw the following unique styles: a.) Lady with bright lime green rain boots on, yellow thigh high socks with bees on them, cut-off jean shorts, a cable-knit cardigan and ear warmers. (she wasn't homeless either) b.) A man with silk pajamas and slippers walking to Starbucks c.) A guy wearing all bright neon spandex ALL OVER. BRIGHT.

4. The Zupans guys are nice- went in to buy a sandwich for lunch and the deli guys were super nice (as always) and never more happy to make a sandwich for someone.

5. When the lights turn red, people stop. Believe me, in other states this is not the case. It's nice to not have to worry more about the others driving around me as much.

6. Things are open LATE here. I'm a night owl. If I could, I would stay up until 2 or 3 and not have to go to work until 12 or 1pm. But mostly I stay up and find things to do anyway.

There are many more but I also wanted to share a couple of funny and cute stories from today. First as I was driving to Zupans to get my sandwich a guy pulled up next to me to turn right at the stop light. We were patiently waiting for the light to change and I looked over at him inadvertently because he was in my line of sight for pedestrians. I saw no pedestrians, but I did see him picking his nose, and pretty hard core. I understand that sometimes you have an itchy nose and need to fix that problem, but this guys was really going at it. He then looked straight at me and caught me watching him. What did he do next? Wave. That's right... he waved his boogery hand at me. And smiled. I smile back and the light turned green so I took off and started laughing pretty hard.

Second, I stopped at Ben & Jerry's after the sandwich to get a delicious Strawberry Kiwi fruit smoothie. These high school kids walked in just in front of me. The boy was a little twitchy and nervous, so I was assuming that they must be on a date or something. The girl was wearing a pretty cute linen dress and some awesome goddess-y sandals, totally a date outfit. Anyway, so they went to order and the girl ordered a single scoop of ice cream in a cup and they guy ordered something (who knows, I was trying to decide on a smoothie flavor). Anyhow, so the girl got her order and the lady behind the counter handed her a spoon and napkin. The girl started picking at her ice cream while waiting for the boy to get his. She took the spoon out of the napkin and then noticed that there was something written on the napkin- and it wasn't a Ben & Jerry's logo. The napkin said "Will You Go to Prom with Me?".
She said,"Did you write that?" to the boy.

The boy blushed, "Yes".

"Of Course I'll go to Prom with you! That was totally sweet!"

A moment of silence as the boy rejoiced silently and the girl grabbed the napkin and put it in her purse.

"How did you get that set up? She handed me the napkin?" the girl asked the boy. "That was smooth."

"Oh, he was totally smooth," said the Ben & Jerry's lady. Clearly the boy had come in earlier and set this up.

FREAKING ADORABLE. How cute was that?

Anyway, I like this place.