Great book: The Icarus Deception by Seth Godin.

Yes yes it has been a while. I apologize for nothing! Not even for the lack of relevance of post's title.
Michelle started to work as a travel nurse and her assignment is 2 hours away so she is staying in a nearby hotel a hundred something miles away in Springfield, OR. Yes it is tough, but her contract is only 3 months, and she says she can do anything for this short time period. I know that for sure - she is one tough cookie. Not stale mind you, just tough!

Local events are keeping me busy, but to tell the truth, I am not actively searching for work. There is a mentor/guide for teens place few blocks away, do i will try to volunteer there on the regular basis. [Update: No one was answering the phone so I went down and sadly the place is out of business, so that's not going to work out]. Besides that, I am volunteering few hours at a library and will also teach elderly some basic computer skills there as well come September.

Portland is a very cool place, not because of local farmers markets or amazing bikeability or beer festivals our free newspapers or free music concerts or free food at local events and things like Tool Library (which is exactly what it sounds like. Why aren't there more of them?). Portland is great primarily because of the people that occupy the zip code. Friendly is a default setting. So is weird; looks, tattoos, color, crazy attire. The typical interaction is authentic, sometimes even a little too raw. But people get used to any environment, so I have to keep in mind that and not take simple smiles for granted.
People say thanks and sorry often. It's almost as if they are aware that other people are also people, and not a filler for their own lives Sure, I'm an optimist, but focus does dictate our reality  so I choose to stare at the good around me. And there is plenty of that here. Meanwhile, it is still amazing outside, perfect weather every day and tons of free fun stuff to do outside. We are going to a garlic festival this weekend, as well as a street fair and maybe another event with free BBQ. I mean, how can you not?

I'm in the process of installing a DIY rear rack on my bike. Will see what the whole mess loss like after it is all done. I will post pictures soon.


 Last week, a good guy Mike (the farmer from whom we buy lots of fresh produce) had us over to watch a baseball game and fed us goodies from the farm. It was fun and also very easy to talk and be friendly. Like I said, this friendliness is very norm around here.


Until next time; stay classy and a little foolish.

Meanwhile, check out this poetry slam.

I have not been reporting on the goings on life in Portland. But I have been watching a great amount of TED talks, which is almost as good a time as writing. Here is this amazing Slam Poetry TED talk that caught me by surprise as to how captivating and engaging it is. While yes, it is a whopping 18 minutes of a days time [which, in reality is: 24 hours = 1440 minutes, so 18/1440 = 1.25% of a day's time], if life if busy enough to consider 1.25% breaking the law (breaking the law, dun-dun), just watch the first 3 minutes. That should be hook enough.

Some things on the internet are quite amazing. 

In other exciting news, Michelle and I are slowly getting into the habits of things: reading, cooking, walking, talking, discovering, planing. 
I went kayaking today with a good guy Chris and we chatted about life and retirement accounts (which are cool, okay!) Also, getting myself involved in volunteering at the local library branch, while waiting on an application response. Michelle seems to have secured a three month gig which is great in many ways.

I was just conversing with my beautiful lady earlier today and ended up saying that we are doing quite well in adjusting: in just three weeks, we secured a place to live and moved in, moved cats in, found interesting people to engage in friendships and are working on a steady income in few weeks. Suffice it to say, these three concerns - place, job, people - were on many people's minds, including us. Moving to Portland has been exciting and a bit scary, but overall incredibly successful.

When overcoming obstacles, having a great person by your side makes a whole lot of difference, so cherish people around you and show them your love! With baked goods, if necessary!

People of Portland

While I always say that there are beautiful people (both inside and out) in every country, town, or neighborhood, some places obviously have a higher concentration of nice. Portland is certainly one of those places. Michelle, being an extremely nice person, always strikes up conversations and easily makes friendly with any random folk, but here it goes even further because a larger portion of people are open and willing to be friendly back.

Case in point: We are in a need of furniture, and if we can get it free, wouldn't that be the best. And there are plenty of free things around, especially furniture wise during the summer. One place advertised on Craigslist a good table+top and it was only 2 miles away. Hop in the car we did, and minutes later there we were. Problem was - Michelle's car was just too small to take it all in. Few minutes in our struggle, a woman (Tracy) asks if we'd be interested in putting the table+top in her truck, and she is willing to drive it to our place (it is after all, only 2 miles away). She was picking at the same free pile of things as we did. We quickly agreed and loaded the furniture into her car. I gave her a "Thank You" card and she easily proclaimed that it just made her day, how she had a crappy start of the day and how it is always a good idea to help out good people (us, basically). Thank you Portland Folk! We belong among you.

Case in point numero dos: Farm fresh veggies are awesome for few reasons - they are MAD cheap (I will not stop raving about 39 cents a pound for onions. Thirty nine cents, people!), they are UBER tasty, because they have been picked either that day or the day before, and you can chat with a person who grew these delicious berries that explode flavor all over your taste buds. Things we bought at the farm stands range from multicolor carrots (purple, red, white, orange) to garlic bulbs to fruits and berries to potatoes to honey. One particular place, Cereghino Farms, had a sweet guy (who was also a Red Sox fan), so not only Michelle and Michael bonded over the team love, but he actually gave us his phone number so we can call him and hang out at his BBQ because we don't really know anyone around here just yet. I'm going to text him right now! Bam! Human Connections. Done!

So are people nicer on West coast than East coast? Perhaps... And even more so in Portland? Maybe... Can it be because we are so easy going? I would say so.

4th and 5th

As of yesterday, we have one piece of furniture in our new place - its a tv table with few shelves which we picked up at goodwill outlet for mere ten bucks. After "fitting" it into Michelle's car we were happy campers.
In the evening of The American Birth, we went out to a super fancy sandwich place (for sandwiches, drinks and fireworks). There was live music and free Ben and Jerry ice cream truck. How can you not?! We ordered dry hopped apple ciders and shandies, which was tequila, line, grapefruit and beer mixed together. Yum yum. Lots if people and great fireworks. Oregon also sells alcohol until 2.30am so we grabbed few beverages to go :). This has been the theme practically every day because things are a plenty and tasty here. And because we don't have jobs yet, day drinking is almost okay. Almost. 

Michelle's birthday started with free breakfast sandwich at Einstein bros bagels. We then went and picked up few more awesome pieces from goodwill including trash cans, salad spinner, slow cookers, cups and bowls.
Now we are at a Mongolian grille, for free lunch: pick your meat, veggie, sauce and its all cooked for you at a round grille by a gentleman with stylish facial hair - I'll let your imagination to fill in the rest of the picture/face.
Our plans for the rest of the day include a matinee movie of "Grand Budapest Hotel" (can't beat $4 for two tickets) and a potluck of strangers-soon-to-be-friends which well be all flushed down with more adult beverages, primarily beer and cider. Turns out, drinking beer during a movie is not only acceptable but almost expected, since the bar is located pretty much right next to the seats. 
The evening with Noah and Ameera was fun, loss of fun people and turns it that Noah's birthday was also the 5th. Did i mention that he's also a nurse? Yeah, life. Excellent day overall!

Farmer markets galore, we picked up cherries, blueberries, gooseberies, onions, spinach, multicolor carrots, garlic, potatoes, local honey and apricots. Michelle will make a berry pie soon and we just had a hearty bowl of bean and veggie soup that was cooking up in a new slowcooker. (Thank you goodwill)

Everyone has been waiting patiently for our new address and so it is finally here:

1808 NE Weidler St.
Apartment #2
Portland, OR 97232

We have a tiny small 1 bedroom, so send us love, but nothing bulky please :) We are still trying to figure out where our furniture will go once it arrives.
The internet is set up today (Sunday), so more information will follow. And pictures. Thank you, lovely family and friends for all the warm messages, calls, and frequent attempts to grab a hold of this super couple :)

Welcome to Washington.

Coupe of very exciting things happened: we got approved for the apartment we applied for. This would mean the total number of days it took us to find a place to stay in Portland was exactly two. Definitely a reason to brag,  considering the one studio we looked at had 27 people contacting the realtor. Holy goats! The rent market is going nuts in the city.
Bur, NE Portland here we are :)

Today, our friends took us to the river, at the Dougen Falls in Washington. Very nice and relaxing day on the river, in the full day sun, pleasant nature-sounds galore. While the river was cold, quite chilly, it didn't stop Michelle form going in. I just dipped my feet, every once in the little while.
In the evening we had a fire in the back yard with roommates over some smores, hot dogs and fun stories.

Forth of July, anyone? Should be some exiting stuff, no concrete plans yet. How are the folks across the country doing? Any fun plans to hang out with people over some food in New England? Yes!

Michelle and I will be spending Saturday, her birthday, by going out to a bunch of places for free food and drinks around town, learning the area along way. Should be fun.

How many beer festivals are here?

On the afternoon, we attended a sweet organic beer festival with all kinds of yummy fresh beers and ciders. Plenty of goodies to try and people to chat with. Afterwords, our friend Ashley told us about clothes sweep at Bridgeport brewery, where you bring in some gently used clothes and for few bucks are able to roam piles of clothes that others have brought. Granted I'm not big on clothes (even though I'm big on reusing), i know a girl who loves this stuff - Michelle. She got a nice bag of pants, shirts, and jackets and was quite a happy camper. Little shopping afterwords for dinner and we are now relaxing at Marcs, watching some TV. Going to have to wait few days to see if we qualify for the 1bedroom place we applied for yesterday.

In other news, we watched a movie yesterday and played some board games in the park. Then, unexpectedly got us, the park transformed onto a stage for aerial acrobats, which were very cool. Thank you, Portland, for free fun entertainment :)

Portland, day 2 and a half.

After the first day of not so lucky apartment hunting, we have gathered good amount of information and learned few things. We also got library cards  which is extremely exciting for those of you who know anything about Michelle and i :)
Information desk also helped us our about some resources of apartment hunt and general Portland info. Libraries are gold mines of information, and we will take advantage of them like ants would of cubed sugar - swiftly, and with no reservation!
Day two, we were more prepared and jumped at a potential 1 bedroom opportunity, which was under or budget and is located in the North East. Now waiting for all the paperwork to go through, and we expect to get a "Yes". How to celebrate our potential victory? Thai food truck, that's how. Great good, under $6 that filled our bellies with nutrition, flavor and warm hope.

Once things start happening, more updates about or lives will be coming soon :)

Muir Red woods

We did check out red woods. Here is the proof.

In the Library, researching for appartments

After arriving to Portland yesterday evening and enjoying our first night with local brews and food, we started the day today with proactively searching craigslist, calling up peoples and setting up appointments. Not long after, we went to the library (it was raining, can you imagine?) got our library cards, lots of more information and printed out sheets of places to visit. The next few days will be filled with walk throughs, applications, and depositing directly, but we will certainly find a place we like for the price we can afford! With two people doing all the leg work, I bet it is twice as easy to find something reasonable and Michelle and I are determined to do just that.
We are looking at South East primarily, but also in North East and Central Portland. Public transportation is very good here, so we will mostly be biking, taking the MAX and doing short bursts of jogging between buildings and bus stations during frequently infrequent rain sessions.

Once we have something substantial - pictures and address will follow.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone :) We will do just that as well!

Yes, yes. Snapshots.

They are out of order, but i figured better this than nothing :)

San Fran

By chance we stayed right on famous route 66 in Arizona and after 9 or so hours of driving we finally arrived into Berkley.

Spent a fun evening with Amy and her roommates who play super smash brothers, are all in the band and take summer classes. So young, just finished their first year,  it was fun to chat with them about cooking and classes and college experience, all while Michelle and Amy went to grab few groceries and beers. Amy was so hospitable, she even insisted on sleeping on the couch while we rested in her own bed.
She made us a map if things to check out in the city but our adventure led us to other places. We checked out pier 39, a popular tourist area, had some beer samples in the afternoon, got a caricature of our beautiful faces and went onto many other little shops. One was a puzzle store where we played with brain teasers and logic puzzles. There was also a cool game where electrodes are attached to the forehead of a person and brain signals and heart beat is recorded. Whoever is most relaxed, moves a ball into opponent's corner. With your brain. Very cool. Seeing how relaxed i usually am and how excited Michelle is, the game should be a no brainer, right? WRONG. she schooled me on the relaxation three times in a row. I didn't have a chance. Goes to show you - never underestimate the lady with her brain.

When in San Fran, ride the bike and oh we did. Whole 5 or 6 miles of wrong turns with crazy winds and heavy bike frames and an insane amount of obstacles.
We did make it to the place to eat only to find out that it was closed for 2 hours. Hungry and tired we got a lyft to Chinatown and devoured some hunan goodness. Things started to look up. Or car was parked sind distance away and we had to rush to avoid the ticket. Another success - no ticket!

Nathan was getting out of work and we spent a lovely evening at his place enjoying stouts, music,  and book conversations. In the evening he even brought us atop of a hill from which you can see the whole city. It was cold and rainy and foggy, but we did anyway. But only after he showed us a ridiculously yummy burrito place, with which our bellies were stuffed. Yum.

One last thing to do in California was top check out the golden gate bridge. We left the activity to the last leg of our adventure.
Turns out, fog is a bitch :) but we did it anyway and even snapped some sweet shots.
Few hours of driving to a winery and a lavender farm concluded this phenomenal trip.

Or was that the conclusion?..

More pictures

Some slices of ducks and road views.

Summer solstice weekend

At a hostel, we met a German couple who was traveling with their 7 month old baby. They were fine, taking their time visiting different national park. The reason i say this is that if you really want to travel, then not even your own baby can stop you; babies are weak, after all.

Saturday was filled with an amazing drive through beautiful Utah. While it took us way longer to take scenic routes, it was immensely rewarding because we stopped at Kiva coffeehouse for tasty grilled cheese and lentil soup, and, of course, coffee. It was my first time to have just black coffee.

Bryce canyon visit in the second half of the day. Lots of pictures. Ducks had fun. Utah truly is a beautiful place, something i did not think about since Michelle was the one planning all the national parks. Boy, was i enjoying the surreal landscapes: from desserts to mountains, to an oasis gently tucked away between hills, to forests to flatlands.

We camped overnight right near zion national park. While i set up a tent, Michelle built a sweet sweet fire. Soup, salad and wine before we passed out with ease.

Sunday
Write up early, at 5.30, and were driving through Zion national park on even an hour later. Indescribable beauty, so pictures will suffice.

Stopped by a ranch where Michelle was able to pet bunnies and ponies and look at baby ducks and baby chickens and a baby pony. She was exceedingly exited, not because she had a tasty coffee earlier but because she is just that kind of a person- exited about life and animals. I mean, come on - baby animals :)

On our agenda today: antelope slot canyon tribal park and a slice of grand canyon.
Both are mesmerizing wonders of nature that makes a person feel so small. I did imagine grand canyon to be bigger though :)

Kiva coffeehouse

Escalante, Utah

Guest Post! Hot springs, camping and Utah.

So, this is Michelle here. I have a very good reason for writing this post. You see, Dima had written and very long, lovely post full of pictures and his silly jokes, but, unfortunately, it got lost somewhere in  cyberspace. He was very disappointed about it, because he worked so hard and re-writing was so daunting. So, he suggested that I write a guest post. Since he's been working so hard making sure you all are updated on our adventures here and doing such a great job, I thought I'd help him out :)

We had a great time in Denver. I made challah french toast with the leftover challah bread from the Shabbat dinner the night before, then our first stop was... an oil change for my car! But that's okay, Dima used the time to plan out our day and research some options for food and activities.

Our first (real) stop was Falling Rocks Tap House, which was fantastic. 92 beers on tap, enough said! I had a delicious sour red, and dima loved a pear cider aged in tequila barrels.

"No Crap on Tap"

Next, we wandered for a bit looking for lunch and found the big bear statue called "I Know What You Mean," and I found some fellow Bruins fans, turns out the guy also grew up in Milton MA! Small world.

We then met up with dima's friend Jaeda at Snarf's Sandwiches, which was super delicious, and I appreciated the choice of white or wheat bread :) Jaeda brought us to a couple different breweries, first The Denver Beer Company, then Wynkoop, and finally Breckenridge. It was nice wandering the city, even with the sporadic rain, and Jaeda was excellent company. I made a friend at Wynkoop because I liked his tie, and he bought us a round of "Grasshopp-ah," a delicious cider with hops and lemongrass. At Breckenridge we sampled flights of beer, and had some French Onion soup- yum! Anyone who knows me -at all- knows how much I love the stuff.

Dima and Jaeda at Denver Beer Co.

After all that beer, our next logical step was- Pizza! Ian's Pizza was really good, I'd never had Mac n' Cheese pizza so of course I had to try it. Then we went to 1Up which I LOVED. Dima was a good sport, he was tired but put up with me because I was getting really excited about all the old school videogames. I got to play Super Mario Bros, Paperboy, Donkey Kong, House of the Dead II, and of course, Buck Hunter. Oh, and South Park Pinball! That one's the best. It was so fun.

(Yes, I get to write more than Dima because I'm on a computer, and he's been writing the whole thing on his phone. So, sorry!)

The next day, we (I) decided we'd spend an extra day in Colorado instead of heading straight to Utah. We went to Red Rocks, which was fun to see, a bunch of people have played there from the Beatles to Bob Marley to Jimi Hendrix. On our way West we stopped in Evergreen, a small town that my mom said she remembered being really nice, which it was! Thanks, Mom! The best part was a woman named Joanne that I met in a glassworks gallery, she was making glass art in the corner as we walked in. She was really cool, and told us about a festival in Oregon that we need to visit in July. I bought a glass hair noodle for my hair. What's a hair noodle you ask? Ask away, I can't explain, but I can show you when I see you next.

Red Rocks Ampiteatre

The lovely town of Evergreen, CO

After driving through the Rockies, which was amazing, we finally stopped in Glenwood Springs CO, where we made camp at Ami's Campground and then went to visit the Hot Springs. These springs and bathouse have been around since 1888!!! You could tell, the pools were all made of slate, it was very awesome and relaxing. Back at the campsite we heated up some soup over our small propane stove and got to have a small fire and some wine. We sliced up some potatoes and folded them into foil packets and put them in the embers, which we covered with rocks so we could have them for breakfast :)

"I want to see mountains, Gandalf! Mountains!!"

In the morning we broke camp in record time, and it was on to Utah! We stopped first at Arches National Park, which was breathtakingly gorgeous. It was very fun, we hopped around rocks and took a lot of pictures. We got a room at The Lazy Lizard Hostel, and after all our adventuring, we were pretty tired, so we decided to just get lunch and hang around Moab instead of continuing onto the Canyonlands. I know, it would have been amazing, but we are going to be seeing some amazing things in the next few days, and we needed a rest! So that's where we are now, and this is where I leave you. Dima has made some chicken in the kitchen here at the hostel, and I have a nice cold cider next to me that needs drinking. So, goodbye friends! For now.

Traditional shabbat dinner in Denver

Stopped by a little town of Brewster for a break in between and for some ice cream.
At one of the ready stops, an old Ford model (still drivable) was parked along with few other old cool vehicles. It was a museum. The ducks felt at home, our at least in their time frame.

Driving toward Colorado wasn't as bad, only about 650miles from our Kansas stay. Fields of corn and cattle came and went, wind turbines turned, audio books shuffled and snacks have been munched on. Once the border was crossed, and Michelle saw the  mountains- she became very excited since she hasn't been in Colorado since she was 2 year old.
Our hunger for excellent beer and food was insatiable but we attempted to satisfy it anyway with some gourmet hot dogs in Denver: I got rattle snake + pheasant and Michelle enjoyed wild boar. All while drinking craft beer at the brewery.
With our bellies happy, we arrived in Thornton, where our friends made a whole shebang of food and prayer and candles with wine and khallah. It was super cool to see great friends from Israel and catch up on life.
Amazing sleep on super comfy bed and we see ready to take on a full day in Denver.