Portland Mission

I got work off for the weekend so I could make it to Portland. I wanted to make it to our clinic on Sunday and do some filming with Moira. After Attempting to find a train, which were all sold out due to the holiday weekend, I settled for a Greyhound (something I had never done before). $30 for a ticket wasn't bad considering paying for gas to drive down would've been more expensive probably. I made it to the station, and after being accused of cutting in line, I boarded the hound. Feeling like Forrest gump on his first bus ride to school, I found my Jenny to sit next to...a twenty-something gal playing a Nintendo DS on her way to Portland's annual anime convention. Everything was pretty legit about the motorcoach except for the bathroom, which was covered in tags and smelt like shit. Did I forget to mention the door didn't close? Definitely blanketed the seat with toilet paper before I laid my precious behind on it.
So I got off the bus with stiff legs, and sweating profusely. Portland is hot. Krisitina swooped me up in her dads car and we rolled away...yelling random stuff out the window... which is becoming more and more of a tradition for us. We picked up her black rocket from the auto shop, and if you have been keeping up with our blog, you'll know why it was in there. Then we met Moira and her couple friends at the river... some Bellingham lokes Donkey and his sister Danielle, and Portland's own Traci. After taking a dip we opted to make a Burnside mission. A couple beers down I rolled up the park with a smile...it had been a few moons since I had been here. A few back-D's and grinds later I had my fix. Kristina and I left to get some pizza and ended up watching every gals wetdream of a skate video...aka:girl skater. The only thing Gallaz ever manufactured that was cool. I awkwardly passed out in her dads bed next to a picture of my homeboy Jesus.
After waking up startled, thinking that Kristina's dad was home early, only to realize it was Kristina coming home from her job interview, I put on my pants and ate some breakfast. We met up with Chrissie, who had made it down the night before, and our beloved father Moira. I got a line at Burnside, after much frustration. We moved on to lurk around portland street spots running into some people getting their wedding photos taken, homeless men with no shirts on, and chads telling us to do tricks. We got some random clips. Then we made it to Popeyes for some dinner. Delicious tastes of my New Orleans homeland. After noshing and watching "The Wash" staring Dr.Dre and Snoop Dogg at Moiras, we headed out to skate more. Chrissie headed out, and what now became a trio made it out to the new Beaverton skatepark. Pretty random set-up, but fun. BIG stuff and very baby stuff. I dare you to try and ollie up the step-up. Moira ate some shit, Kristina ollied over a trash can and I clipped ollying up a curb. We were over it pretty soon and me and Kristina dropped Moira off so she could get to her dance party. Kristina cooked up some mean garlic bread and asparagus at her dad's pad for us. After taking a shower and watching the Element video, we passed out.
We woke up pretty early for the Dept. clinic we had to be at by 11am. As usual, Kristina lagged and sagged. We got coffee and donuts and made it to D.O.S. fashionably late. The clinic was huge! It was rad to see so many girls learn how to drop in or roll off a curb..etc, etc. After filiming a lil line with Moira, and meeting up with Nancy, Muriel, and portland SLAG folk, we took it to the streets. Filmed some mean clips outside this antique shop. Tall ledges, kicker, loading dock, and a steep 5 stair. We almost bombed hills together, but got rained out. We checked out this "crust" punk show at Burnside and skated a lil bit. Being super tired and sore, I begged Nancy to take me home. Said my goodbyes, and hit up Burgerville on the way out...as all Portland missions should end. Had to make it back up to Seattle to work on Labor Day.

-Kristin