Here I sit, on the eve of a snowsports tradeshow in the cheesiest town in America…Vegas. What makes people think this is the perfect place to do business? The friggin’ Excalibur Hotel and Casino? No wireless, $11.99 for ethernet.
It feels like a bit of a return to a world that’s probably not changed that much in 6 years. I won’t find out for sure until tomorrow, but the memories of my first trip here flooded back as I wandered through the five dollar Blackjack tables. I watched experienced dealers try to make people feel better about losing their money, make them laugh a bit about it. I watched one dealer hit Blackjack 3 times in 5 hands, after running the player’s cards 5 hits deep at times. “Good luck!”, the waiter said to me with the bill dropped on the table.
It’s worth placing myself in time to sort out how much my life and attitude towards it have changed since then. Here’s a quick summary:
2000: While working at Burton Snowboards, in Marketing, I begin to realize my instincts and passion for snowboarding do not mesh with the direction the company was headed.
2001: With an enviable job and a new BMW motorcycle, I decide I need to leave, step back in order to move forward. By the time it’s all over, my image is placed on the internet, thousands of little stickers, RIP flags in every employee’s mailbox, an airbrushed canvas flag flying over the Burlington waterfront, and life-sized printed heads on sticks. I still hear about sightings.
2002: Conceive of Instrument, move home, work for a fly fishing company and write a business plan for a new marketing company.
2004: Meet and begin dating Meghan. Begin to consider writing as more of a career.
2005: Buy a nice ring. Write lots of Helly catalogs.
2006: With one partner in Portland, OR and one in Burlington, VT, Meghan starts probing around for work out west. We move, set up shop, fly back to get married, buy a house and hire two more employees for Instrument in O-Ree-Gun.
Today: Living and working in Portland is starting to become routine, instead of feeling new. I’ve now got various coffee stops along multiple routes to work. I’ve met, seen, flipped off, and walked around enough semi-wacky Portlanders to come to some new realizations about this town.
Ass-hole-ism is spreading in Portland, and it’s time to retract a former statement from Vinceland. I’m letting you know.
A new restaurant opened in North Portland, 2 blocks from the house we bought, we decided to drop in on a Saturday night. The neighborhood is full of small, real-deal Mexican places, including carts and box trucks that sell tacos, whatever. I’ve been too much of a wuss to brave the unknown. But this mexican joint was different, it was affluent American-Mexican. It came right out the The Pearl to North Portland. It looked nice and the ladies liked it from the outside.
We walked in the place, and before we even got to the door, a couple tried to slip in front of us, feeling some sense of entitlement. We snuck in behind, trying to get a feel of the place. It was obvious who the owner was and how many friends had come in to eat on opening weekend. He looked past us, walked past us and ignored us until the moment we decided to leave for Esparza’s. He turned out to be an asshole owner and his place earned the worst first impression available, from two couples who live and work very nearby. Nice work, dude.
When you start to have insider info on areas of a town you live in, you’re becoming a local, and your influence is increased. It’s easy enough to float on by, unaware of your surroundings, the feeling of living in a place, the attitude of the people. I never lived like that in Burlington. In fact, it felt right to leave Burlington, in a sense, because I was TOO insider. There was no more adventure in town, not enough to learn. Portland is starting to feel smaller to me, a bit more known and understood.
When I travel to places like Las Vegas, though, and I see such a mess of things that don’t make any sense together in the world, I realize I could never live just anywhere. This place is not positive, genuine or beautiful. Being here also gives me a sense of rounding the mellow curve (not a corner) of a wide circle, heading back towards a place that sorta drove me out not long ago. We’ll see what happens and continue to stay aware, kick people’s ass and have fun.
PS: I HATE the phrase “belly fat” and the commercials that run telling me how to rid myself of “belly fat”. Get away from me with that crap.
7 responses so far ↓
1 LG // Jan 22, 2007 at 4:22 am
I really dislike vegas, and could never live there, but the desert outside Vegas holds a special place for me (Ara and I got married there at one of our favorite climbing spots).
If you need to escape the insanity and bro-fest of SIA, rent a motorbike or convertable and ride out to Red Rocks park. A 13 mile one way loop road through there will blow your mind and make you forget about the whole scene. Epic views and a really sick winding road to drive. Highly recommended, you can do it with a few spare hours.
My other local tip would be the BLM campground, but you’re probably not gonna want to stay in a tent this time of year…
also on the dirtbag climber tip would be the sneak from the Luxor parking garage into the pool area for free showers, swimming and booze, but again… “winter” in Vegas shuts down that scene.
2 J. O'Shea // Jan 23, 2007 at 6:51 am
I’m sorry to hear that the a-holes are arriving in Portland. When I’m describing to people how Portland life was different than Boston life, I use the traffic light scenario. In Portland, if you’re the first car and you don’t realize the light is green, the LINE of cars behind you will usually all wait quietly until you realize your mistake. That ain’t what happens in Boston.
I don’t know why the NE has such a high concentration of a-holes. People just get stressed and fired up around here. I was at a Syracuse/Villanova game, in Syracuse, with my Dad, the other week.
While the 25,000 people were leaving the campus filled with 4-way stops and blinking lights, everyone was honking horns, screaming out their windows that everyone else is an asshole, etc. Pretty funny scene seeing as how no one was really doing anything wrong. It’s just traffice. Effin’ cavemen around here. That shit is sooooo NE.
Go get a carnitas burrito from Ole Ole on Burnside.
I love you.
J
3 Vince // Jan 23, 2007 at 1:33 pm
We were just talking about the difference between people out east and those out west with some friends. I felt like the problem of being in a hurry was the result of being in such proximity to too many people, ie: too little space to live. Out here, it “feels” like you have more space, so people are mellower. Maybe…
4 Tara // Jan 23, 2007 at 6:55 pm
I really think that some of those people you refer to as “a-holes” have no idea where they are going or what they are doing out there so they just move a lot slower. It’s hard to move fast in a direction you can’t quite figure out.
The one thing that drove me nuts in and around Portland was that people couldn’t even figure out how to drive in the rain. The rain. Are you kidding me? It rains for 7 months a year and they still couldn’t figure out how to drive and maintain a steady 55 MPH at any point. ugh. and they managed to always find their way into the fast lane. Love it. Being an east coast kid, in the heart of the Metro Chaos between NYC and DC, getting somewhere in a hurry is a true sport. We just don’t say it takes 20 minutes to get somewhere, we have to tell you it takes 20 minutes without any traffic and 45 minutes with rush hour and 115 minutes with accident traffic an if you go the surface roads instead of the highway it’ll be about a solid 30 min. Whew. There is plenty of elbow room here to live as long as you know how to hit someone in the face with it.
beep beep
Love from Philly
Tara
5 Wifey // Jan 24, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Tara- you got that right. Crap driving makes me CRAZY.
Other than crap driving… all is well out on the left side.
Come for a vizzle…. we have a hot tub now…
6 J. O'Shea // Jan 26, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Lots of crap drivers are annoying, but it is better than driving with all a-holes.
As frustrating as everyone’s laid back driving was, I would definitely prefer being the stressed a-hole amongst the calm instead of being the normal speed-freak a-hole amongst the many.
Ride yer bike in Portland. It’s the best city for it.
7 Vince // Jan 27, 2007 at 6:44 pm
The “ride a bike” thing is coming. Will be better for everyone and everything, especially my chubby butt.
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