The beautiful thing about Portland is. . .

The easy answer would obviously be the surrounding natural beauty; the 30 minute drive into the Columbia River Gorge, the 60 minute drive to the year-round snow capped Mt Hood, the 90 minute drive to the rocky Oregon coast, or any of the undulating forests in between. But those answer are all to obvious and thus. . .to easy. The real beauty about Portland is. . .it's women. Just to clarify, it's not all the woman in pdx but rather a specific sub group. Not the hipsters on Alberta street, the Pearl girls, or the dreaded, unbathed hippies of the southeast. . .but the lovely footballing chicas of the north. Portland is home of. . .University of Portland. U of P has been known to produce some of the finest women footballers in American women's footballing history. Well. . .guess what. . .i have been fortunate enough to play with several of our local products. I am currently playing on three teams, all of which have superb talent. My Tuesday team, Smut Koala (a name i wished i had come up with myself but apparently there are others just as creative in this city), has the privilege of our goal being tended by one of the best. But seriously, where else would you expect a woman of this caliber to go after returning from training with the US Women's National Team but our very own Smut Koala? To put things in perspective, she's not an indoor keeper and it was obvious in her first game playing with "Smutty." She charged hard out of the area and plowed a few players down in the process. In her second game she took to the new venue and, although we lost, frustrated the opposing team's strikers. All i know is. . .i'm in love with footballing women. Not in the biblical sense because. . .let's be honest, they are a typically a little too "sturdy" for my taste. But damn if i don't love them anyway.

Speaking of love. . .have i mentioned how much i love being able to travel by bike in this city? I must have mentioned this once or twice. I sometimes find myself suffering with bouts of schizophrenia. When driving, i hate all bikers, they are brazen and most of them have a death wish. When i'm biking i hate cars, pedestrians, and even a lot of my fellow bikers (typically just those in spandex, the slow movers in yellow rain gear don't bother me so much). Just today, on my ride home, i had a woman (not a footballer obviously) stop her car and shake her finger at me. That's right mom. . .this woman had the nerve to shake her finger at your baby. Some people. The story goes: I was nearing a traffic circle and per standard biking protocol, rolled through the stop sign (which if you ask me, traffic circles were designed so that you didn't need a stop sign in the first place). Surprisingly, she saw me coming and stopped her car before i ever reached the intersection. I just smiled and waved as i took advantage of her courtesy. Hell. . .she didn't even have a stop sign but she let me go anyway. Maybe she was too busy worrying about that twitching hand of hers.

So while i'm spilling all these loving feelings i get an ache in my stomach. I can only be complimentary for so long. . .right? As many states are diligently enforcing rules about using cell phones while driving (honestly they'd be better off making public places smoke free), Stumptown is a cell phone users paradise. Not only can you chat away while driving but you can text too. Better yet. . .i've seen people riding their bikes and talking on their cell phone. Even better than that (but wait there's more!), in the past week i have passed two (count them, two) people texting and biking at the same time. No hands on the handlebars, no eyes looking ahead for stop sign running cars (because bikers never run stop signs. . .oh wait) but just sheer, mindless texting. Now that's what i call freedom. By the way, Portland has passed a smoking ban this will take effect Jan 1, 2009.

That's it. short (i think) and sweet. I needed to get that all out of my head before i could get some sleep. Sorry i don't have any pics to post but it's hard to ride and shoot at the same time but i'll work on it.