Taking a bad situation and making the best of it, my unexpected trip to Portland ended up being a great excuse to email Vahid, Lewis, and Blair for a last-minute dinner in the City of Roses. Thanks to Twitter, Miss TSM_Oregon herself (Tracy) saw that I was in town and was kind enough to join in as well.
When I stop and think about it, this is pretty amazing. Just four years ago, all the travel I do made for a life of loneliness and isolation. Now, thanks to blogging, there's someone I know everywhere I go. A last-minute trip to Portland is no longer just a chore to I have to get through, but an opportunity to meet up with friends. Friends I never would have met if not for writing here at Blogography and getting involved in the PRB.
Since I live in a tiny town where "ethnic food" is considered to be a burrito with extra cheese, Vahid was kind enough to suggest Indian for dinner, which sounded perfect. I stuck to my restrictive diet as best I could, but the food at India House all sounded so good that there was no way I could settle for a stupid salad, and ended up having their Vegetarian Sampler Platter. Delicious.
My diet already blown by eating gluten (beer and naan) and cooked vegetables (everything else), Vahid decided to exploit my love of gelato and add dairy to the list of forbidden foods I've consumed today, and took us all to Mio Gelato. Since they had Stracciatella among the flavors, I was a very happy camper.
Lewis and Blair had to be responsible parents and get back to their kid, so Vahid, Tracy and I soldiered onward to The Boiler Room for karaoke. Tracy claimed to be able to sing, so we wanted her to put a microphone where her mouth is and prove it. She was first up as karaoke started... and proceeded to blow the doors off the joint by singing Linda Ronstadt's "You're No Good." Her performance made me pity everybody else in the room who had put a song in, and the guy who came after Tracy just stood there with the microphone in his hand saying "you expect me to follow that?!?
Having nothing left to prove, Tracy hit the road for her drive home, leaving Vahid and I to play video games at Ground Kontrol. Back in the day, I used to be pretty good at these classic games, but now I just suck ass. Games like "Donkey Kong" where I used to blow through levels in record time and set high scores totally owned my ass. I never made it past the first level.
Having totally failed at video games, we met up with one of Vahid's college buddies for one last beer at Bailey's Taproom.
All in all, a good night! Thanks to everybody who was kind enough to hang out with me.
UPDATE: Ooh! I forgot PDX has free wi-fi! Uploaded a photo montage of us.
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What a blast we had. We’re still talking about how good the food was. And that you actually allowed us to be in public with you — it’s not often that YOU STRAIGHTS will be seen with WE PEOPLE. Thanks for a super great evening.
Yes, well… “you people” do have the best taste in music and excellent fashion sense, so it’s not like we’re embarrassed to be seen with you. Though I’d imagine the reverse is often true, so thanks for allowing us to be seen with you. 🙂
glad to hear you’re not letting the diet keep you down. Hope there are no adverse consequences… even so, sounds like it’d be totally worth it.
Dave is a lucky bastard…. to be able to go to pretty much any city he travels to and meet up with other bloggers on a moments notice is amazing.
Who says the internet can’t bring happiness and fun?
Well, certainly not the online porn industry…
Ummm, am I the only one that notices that you look pretty fucking sexy in that picture? Just sayin.
Of course, it looks like EVERYONE at that gathering was cute and stuff.
I think it’s safe to say a great time was had by all. As for blowing the doors off, well, thanks! Had we more time I would have insisted on hearing your rendition of “West End Girls”. Then Iron Fist’s version of “Like a Virgin”. I think he would have enjoyed having the camera turned on HIM, no?
Also? You neglected to mention that you and Vahid insisted on not just walking me back to my car, but taking the train back to within walking distance and THEN walking me back to my car! Such gentlemen!
I need to work on my recap. Such fun!
Fun! Blogging really does open all kinds of doors.
Tracy has great hair. Ok, you all do but I am particularly fond of the girls who rock the short ‘dos.
Claire… The diet is to see if something I am eating is lessening the effect of a drug I’m taking. So there’s no adverse consequences… just dragging out a mystery for my doctors. 🙁
Hilly… Not at all… I totally noticed that I’m looking fucking sexy in that photo!
TSM… I’ve already let everybody hear me singing “Like a Virgin” (in this video here), so it’s Vahid’s turn! And we try really hard not to be gentlemen, but we just can’t help ourselves!
Sizzle… Tracy rocks her ‘do WHILE knocking people dead with karaoke… she’s lethal!
Never let it be said that I showed anyone a bad time in Portland. Also, no one handles multi-balls like you, Dave.
Oh, and Tracy? I’ll have you know that the last time my friends and had a session of kamikaze karaoke, one of our party put in “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” for one of my friends and I to do as a duet.
Also, there’s already video evidence of me doing karaoke out on the internet, but I ain’t sayin’ where!!
looks like a fantastic night! glad yinz had fun.
so why do you look so serious in your photo?
No video of Tracy singing? Damn the iPhone and its lack of video capabilities.
So envious.
I love Indian Food and would certainly meet bloggers to indulge in it. Sounds like you had a great time and that it was worth going off the restrictive diet!