Intimidatingly cool

Here's why I love my city.

I was downtown, shopping for a new pair of bifocals because my eyes have gotten about two and a half increments worse since my last pair two years ago. I picked out what I thought was a cool pair of round ones, burgundy. I thought maybe they would make me look a little like this woman, who radiates confidence and old-woman-coolness. Morgan, a bright young woman in her twenties with tattoos and a few piercings, measured me for my new glasses and observed, "Those are coming back into style. You'll be on the cutting edge of the trend." I could have kissed her.

Then I was waiting for the streetcar, shooting pictures of the very interesting wall by Ecotrust, when I saw a young man approaching, wearing a sexy black overcoat with a cape. He had blue streaks in his hair, and his coat was streaming out on both sides as he walked forward as if he were headed for something truly exciting. Just as he passed me, another cool guy, apparently a friend of his, shouted out,

"Hey man, you're looking intimidatingly cool tonight," and laughed.

The guy in the coat said, "Yeah, that's the look I'm going for. Glad you got it, man."

I snapped the two of them, and although my wall shot is perfectly in focus and has some great rust and a touch of baby's breath in it, I'm going for this slightly out-of-focus picture of these two guys commenting on costume and coolness.

I'm on my way back out, to attend a poetry reading in the middle of downtown, where one of my favorite local poets, David Abel, is reading some of his most recent work. I think this is yet another very cool thing about living in Portland--city park poetry readings outdoors at dusk--but I don't want to be burdened with the camera tonight, so I'll just blip this now and go. But I do love living here. I do.