2004-07-02 - 1:56 p.m.
On Monday I miscalcuated angle, plus speed plus balance on my bike and tumbled off of it (or more like crashed down on top of it) while going to Safeway at 11:30 pm to buy Jonny black hair dye. The "Pink Pegasus" and I landed in a heap on NE 16th ave in front of an oncoming #8 tri-met bus. Fortunately the driver saw me and stopped, but all Jonny saw when he turned around was me on the ground in front of a bus. Scary. The driver asked if I was okay and if there was oil on the road and I said "no, I just fell, it's my fault." It could have been a lot worse... Jesse took a band tumble on her bike the other week and now she might have to have surgery on her knee... scary. But it seems like I keep discovering new bruises and scrapes on my legs. I've been wearing short skirts to show them off- tough!
Portland has thrown me into confusion because I really love being here but I have not been able to relax into it. Maybe because this is the last of my "free" time for awhile, work and graduation and all that "adult" stuff seems looming, so I am jumpy and dissatisfied in the present. I can't quite figure it out. It's manifesting itself in odd ways, like that I really am having a hard time being social. It's hard for me to commit to plans, to pick up the phone, I feel more comfortable in my own head or reading a book on my porch or swimming laps at the pool, and as a result I feel like my interactions have been more awkward and stitlted than normal, but that could just be me.
At the zine symposium last weekend I felt really good about things. It felt like an opportunity to meet and talk to peope from around town, as opposed to meeting folks from all over as has been the case the last two years (though I was excited to meet Mary from Pittsburgh who is a printer and helped put out a Pittsburgh zine, cool!). Facilitating the "Zines, Race and Community" and "Zines and Activism" workshops made me think more about how different people approach being critical. They made me think about being critical does not always mean being the grouchy crumedgeon I become. It was a source of perspective.
I have been teahing "Zine Camp"- a month long (one day a week) workshop for young people (our age range is 12-22 right now) on the basics of self publishing at the Independent Publishing Resource Center- for two weeks now. My "students" are totlay rocking my world- they have tons of good ideas and are excited about zines and their projects and seem comfortable working on them and also glad for more information on zines. I really could not ask for anything better.
MLE sent me this link of some of the photos she took while she was in PDX. I especially love the "alterna-pride" photos, the kareoke photos and the "action shots" of Noah, Jack and I cleaning out the cabinet of food that was moth invested (eeeww!). Plus her photos show Albina and Dekum in a particularly flattering light. I think that "LNR" is going to be my new punk rock name. So if you can think of a good punk rock "last name" (example, Jonny goes by "Jonny Mayhem" though he seems to want us to forget it) for me, that would be cool.
http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=197vnxul.9xfwdwm9&x=0&y=nvfjh3
View the photos on slide show function to read Emily's comments on them.
