Matt. Fresh-faced, curly blonde hair, baseball cap, smelled like last night's beer and cigarettes. Cargo pants, heather grey gym T-shirt. 26. Thought I was 30 (damn it!).
I had intended to read Out during the train ride, but we started talking because we wanted to look out the window, but we were in an awkward row that faced the space between windows. We cleverly finagled the drapes, voila, kept talking.
Matt is from a suburb of Detroit and went to school in the Upper Peninsula, majoring in outdoor recreation (I was not aware of this major's existence). His mother is a nurse in OB/GYN and hearts delivering babies. He moved out to Oregon after he and his girlfriend of 8 years broke up; she moved to Boston, and he wanted to physically get as far as possible from her within the continental United States.
He eventually moved up to Washington state (working in Olympic National Park), and from there to Alaska, where the job he thought he had secured fell through. After venting at a bar, the bartender hooked him up with her husband's work in fishery. He has been counting salmon 7 months out of a year for 4 years ever since, from 5:30am to 9pm. His company is his iPod (on it? "indie" rock).
He really loves the town he works in, which has about 1,500 people. He says, because it's so small, everyone is held accountable. The whole town relies on the fishing industry, and everyone knows and respects each other. Surprisingly, it's a democratic town.
For the other 5 months out of the year, he does impulsive things, like follow a girl he slept with for less than 2 weeks to Athens, GA, where he found temp work in the botanical garden and decided that he hates her. He stayed there for about two months before traveling back West, slowly making his way back up to Alaska for the start of the season.
Matt wants to get a graduate degree someday. Sees himself counting salmon for at most another 4 years. Hopes to move down to Hawaii. In the meantime, he's delicately dodging his Inuit friend's handsome sister's sexual advances.
Showing posts with label portland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label portland. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
8 April 2010: Portland TriMet
I got on the TriMet with a box full of French pastries from Saint Honoré Boulangerie. I must've looked disoriented from inefficiently walking several miles to the transit stop. An older woman (again, in her sixties) eyed my box and said, "Ooh, sit next to me! Sit next to me!" I shrugged. "Okay."
She asked to see what I got, and we chatted briefly about the bakery. I said I was visiting from Chicago. She visited once, long ago, back when there was a Riverview Amusement Park. Before she alighted, she quickly went through a timeline of her life -- from being born in Texas to eloping when she was 17 and moving to Portland, where she has lived ever since. She showed me a ring her friends had gotten her from Fiji and said she'll write a book someday.
She asked to see what I got, and we chatted briefly about the bakery. I said I was visiting from Chicago. She visited once, long ago, back when there was a Riverview Amusement Park. Before she alighted, she quickly went through a timeline of her life -- from being born in Texas to eloping when she was 17 and moving to Portland, where she has lived ever since. She showed me a ring her friends had gotten her from Fiji and said she'll write a book someday.
8 April 2010: ORD -> PDX
Totally don't remember her name. Older (sixties?) woman who works in biomedical consulting and started extensively traveling for work in her forties. Last business trip was to Denmark, but most recent memorable trip was to Korea, where she ate raw octopus and an assortment of fried insects. Wants to travel to Africa with her sister, who lives in Eugene, OR, for her next big, personal trip. Currently lives in a Chicago suburb and studied chemical engineering as an undergrad, way back when.
Headed to Portland for her daughter's birthday. Daughter (environmental engineering, Northwestern) spent two years working in the Peace Corps as a water engineer in Nepal, where she was incredibly frustrated that the local villagers didn't help out in implementing cleaner delivery systems. Plane Buddy was amazed that when she and her daughter tried to play catch with the villagers, the children did not reflexively catch the ball or duck out of its trajectory; rather, they let balls hit them and fall to the ground.
After Daughter returned to the States, she bought a pickup truck, packed all her belongings, and headed West to find a place that felt like Home (Chicago wasn't doing it for her). In less than three months' time, she was robbed a couple of times while she slept in the truck, but she finally settled in Portland and has been there for 15 years.
Headed to Portland for her daughter's birthday. Daughter (environmental engineering, Northwestern) spent two years working in the Peace Corps as a water engineer in Nepal, where she was incredibly frustrated that the local villagers didn't help out in implementing cleaner delivery systems. Plane Buddy was amazed that when she and her daughter tried to play catch with the villagers, the children did not reflexively catch the ball or duck out of its trajectory; rather, they let balls hit them and fall to the ground.
After Daughter returned to the States, she bought a pickup truck, packed all her belongings, and headed West to find a place that felt like Home (Chicago wasn't doing it for her). In less than three months' time, she was robbed a couple of times while she slept in the truck, but she finally settled in Portland and has been there for 15 years.
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