Portland

What did we do after the bar? And did we take a cab last night?

It seems there could be better first morning thoughts. Like look at the growing patch of blue sky over the Space Needle. Or, I love that itchy stretchy feeling of a Saturday morning sleep in. Even a sly smile at cheating a deserved hangover. But, no, I began this morning trying to remember the previous night.

A good night undoubtedly. Funny how the feeling and mood of the evening stays longer and is recalled more swiftly. It seems the details are superfluous. And aren't they? well maybe. But it's the details that created the feeling.

Earlier in the week, I had been shown to a hip dimly lit bar (aren't they all?). And sitting there, on a bare, old wood bench, with a small pillow on my back I smiled, relishing the four drink drunk. With heightened senses, and the romantic alcoholic shades on, I took inventory of my environment. Lopsided and thin, held up in billows horizontally, the white sheets of what I suppose would be classified as a curtain, reminded me of an old ruffled shirt on some renaissance european. And the artwork, as it were, was expansive and the high high ceilings allowed for it to spread and expand and grow. Faces, in charcoal, perhaps, in varying stages of completion, some straight on, some profiled. Layered on thin parchment or wax paper it all seemed, to my mind at the time, to speak. Lost, it felt lost, it felt directionless on that large wall. The layered faces were incomplete, indecisive. Yes, the art of our times.

So I felt at home there. On the old bench. Looking at those lost faces on the wall. The semi-crowded bar was filled with animated faces. Not incomplete but lively and full on a monday evening. Smiling, I sipped on my whisky.

Sinking into the leather seat and tucking my head in between the headrest and the back. I speed in and out of streetlight arenas, taking a passive part in the journey down this empty concrete river. My hands stretching deep into my pockets and my elbows tucked under my ribs. Hah, I thought to myself. Monday.

So the week started well. And continued in that vein.

Hmm. I had more. but it's gone now. Perhaps later.