Montage, TinTypes, Smiley and 80's Videos

Friday night was absolutely superb.

Keith and I began our evening dining at Montage in the Sewer Rat District (as we have lovingly dubbed it). Before the restaurant even opened, we stood in line oustide waiting for a table. And in the dimly-lit restaraunt under the Morrison Bridge with long family-style tables, we ate the fanciest mac-n-cheese ever. We sat elbow-to-elbow with strangers and let the waitor chose our wines. We made an exit with our tinfoil take-home masterpeices. Keith with the crab-shaped leftovers and I with my snail-shaped leftovers. There was still a line of people waiting to get a table at the restaurant under the bridge as we left. Always a line.

We wandered off to an east-side gallery where the always-fabulous Sika was debuting her art. I had no idea what to expect. She creates the most haunting tin-type photographs. She does not just capture an image. She brands memories onto metal faded around the edges with the colors blurred and insignificant. Not black and white, but shades of brown and dust. They were just beautful. At the gallery, we met up with Theo, Meg, Cho and became acquainted with one charming Clark in a Sgt. Pepper jacket and a Don't Mess With Texas T-shirt. We socialized in an empty photography set and Meg, doing her best iguana impression, crawled under some lighting equipment as though it were a tent.

Feeling wrestless and antsy after so much hob-nobbing and chortling, Keith, Meg, Theo, Cho, Clark and I slinked away to a swanky little bar by the river. I can't remember the name of it, but it had high ceilings, red booths and the bouncer's name was Smiley. At one point, Theo and Smiley were comparing tattoos. Theo pulled up his shirt to show off the tattoo on his back of his skinny little cat with the name "Monkey" underneath it.

The night was still young so we dashed off to Lola's Room for the 80's Video Dance Attack. All the top music videos of the 80's were projected on the huge screen at the front of the dance floor. It's easy enough to dance to Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough" but when Michael himself is up there on the screen... well, it's just impossible not to dance.

House Update:
The house was appraised and the bank is being very stingy. This is both good news and bad news. The bank is requiring the seller to put in a drainage system around the house to fix the water problem in the basement area. We're currently experiencing lots of flooding around Oregon right now, so the appraiser saw the water problem at its possible worst. This is good because the seller will take care of this problem so that's one less thing we have to worry ourselves about.
Why is this a bad thing? The seller is en route to Arizona for the winter. He and his wife are driving out there and apparently no one can get a hold of them until they get there and have their phones are turned on. Meanwhile, Keith and I can do nothing to keep things rolling. Our fabulous realtor has arranged for "the best" drainage people to go out to the house early next week to do an estimate, and hopefully by then the seller will be reachable to hear the news. Then we can all proceed from there. It's never easy, is it?
We assume our closing date may change considering that this work must be done on the house before we can buy it, so we're holding off on giving our landlord our 30-day notice.
So we play the waiting game... Oh where, oh where could the seller be???

lHappy New Year!l

2006

To ring in the new year, Keith and I celebrated in style at a party hosted by our truly fabulous friends Meg and Theo. We were a little worried that there wouldn't be much of a turnout at the party in the beginning. Keith and I arrived "early" at 9pm (party started at 8pm) and the only people there were Meg's parents and two of their friends. No matter! We were just glad we actually had somewhere to be on New Years, for a change.

As the last hours of 2005 dwindled away, people steadily began dropping in and before we knew it, the house was bustling with crazycool Portlandian hepcats. Theo plays keyboard for a local band (Good Year) and they set up in the garage and rocked us all into the new year with their punk rock music jubilation. 'Twas a grand occasion and much merriment was had! It really was a most memorable start to the New Year.

And onto the inevitable topic of New Years Resolutions: I will keep my resolutions to myself, because in the event that I do not succeed, I will only dissappoint myself and you all can't chide me about my failures. Not that any of you would do that... but just in case. Oh, and as the lovely Dio always tells me, "Nothing succeeds like a secret." (Ooooh... all eyes are on Dio now... what *is* she up to? Her shifty, beady eyes say so little... that trench coat she always wears... what secrets does she conceal?)