The Next Few Months

As you may know, I'm headed off to Europe soon - in a few hours, to be more precise. My flight leaves at six a.m. and the earliest MAX (light rail) leaves my stop at 4:20, so I get to leave the house at the lovely hour of 3:50am. I'm attempting to just stay up (it's already ten) so I can sleep on the flight from Atlanta to Manchester.

Anyway, I have this travel blog that often gets neglected, but I'll be posting there for the next few months as I wander around Europe. Here it is: http://maps-shmaps.blogspot.com/

It's like Christmas,except that it only comes once in forever and may actually be a terrible, no-good event

Wednesday the Portland city council votes on the plan to bring an MLS team to the city. We currently have a USL team, which is of course tons of fun and I go to all the games when I'm in the country. But with a higher level league, we'll get more recognizable stars, more international tournament slots, and more exposure for our great city. The deal - in a very short synopsis, as the details and the trials and tribulations of putting forth the plan would take days to run down - would build a small, separate stadium for the minor league baseball team the Portland Beavers, and upgrade PGE Park to be more soccer/football/rectangular-field-sport friendly. The owner of both teams, Merritt Paulson pays the MLS entrance fee of $40 million out of his own pocket and wants the city - who own PGE Park and refuse to sell it - to put up bonds for renovations and the new baseball stadium to the tune of $85 million. These bonds would be paid back through ticket sales, player income taxes, etc etc. A bond in this case is like a big loan the city can take out - just like you can take out a loan, except that in the city's case the loan is more than you'd ever dream of making and the credit limit for the city is pretty much unknown. In the days of billion dollar ball parks, two for $85 millions is practically free. Paulson has also guaranteed the bonds, in the event that the league goes under, with his own family's fortune, even going so far as covering for construction overruns (which would be the fault of the city in negotiating poor contracts anyway).

Really, why say no? Even though I admittedly started in favor of the proposal as a local soccer fan, I've come to realize that even without the added benefit of having a top-level (well, for North America, anyway) soccer club, this deal is great for the city. The naysayers seem to be clinging onto the "roads schools drug rehab centers!!!!" mantra, regardless of the fact that these sorts of things need to be paid for somehow and refusing to accept that businesses and the jobs that they bring are exactly the kinds of things that allow us to pay for roads/schools/drug rehab centers. While it doesn't surprise me that build-our-way-out-of-the-Depression liberals become head-in-the-sand Hooverists when actually confronted with the opportunity to do so, it continues to disappoint me.

Anyway, the benefits far outweigh the risks and it seems plain as day, and yet the vote isn't seen as guaranteed. Because this has the potential to make me either incredibly happy and excited or incredibly angry and disappointed for a long period of time, the suspense in the run up to Wednesday is killing me. I'm torn between getting up early to pack into city hall to hear the testimonies of my fellow fans and the results of the actual vote itself, live, or to hide in bed until noon, at which point I will get up and make coffee, turn on ESPN Classic in preparation for the Man Utd vs Inter Milan Champions League match and then, with great trepidation and shaking hands, load the talktimbers website to see if the posts are titled "WOOFUCKINGHOO!!! LET'S SELL SOME SEASON TICKETS!!! TIFO PARTY!! I LOVE THE CITY COUNCIL!!" or "BASTARDS!! BOYCOTTBOYCOTTRECALL!!! NEED BAIL MONEY!"

And it's not even until Wednesday, which I keep thinking is tomorrow. My new shoes that got here this afternoon are simply not enough of a distraction. What to do to while the time away that doesn't cost a great deal of money, hmmmm.......

tick, tock, tick

Just over three weeks until my Europe trip! So far my travel plans only cover the first few weeks and the remaining itinerary is still up in the air. I got my renewed passport this morning, my rail pass a few days ago, and nearly everything I'll need to bring along already. The good folks in Glasgow - I'm sure you know who I'm talking about - have agreed to put me up and show me around for awhile and I'm almost more excited about that as I am about the whole trip itself. A cousin of mine who lived in Portland for years up and quit her job a year ago and moved to Spain. Didn't speak any Spanish and had never been to Europe. She loves it so much that she's still there and has offered a place to crash and some punkrock entertainment. I booked a few nights at a hostel in Malaga, on the south coast of Spain where I hope to find the sun again and thaw my feet on a beach. And, I while I haven't booked anything yet, I plan to spend my birthday weekend in Amsterdam. I'm so pumped about this whole thing that I've forgotten how to use transitional sentences or separate paragraphs! Next subject!

Shoes. I love me some Sambas. You may or may not be aware that there are two different varieties: Classics, and the fancier and slightly more expensive Millenniums. I usually just buy whatever happens to be available (in the kids' section. So I have freakishly small feet, what of it?) and for my first few pairs that happened to be Millenniums. I wore these things nearly every day and they lasted about two years. Last time out, however, I came home with the Classics. What pieces of shit. They took a month to break in, leaving bruises on the tops of my feet, and barely six months later I've worn the heel down to the rubber. Totally not worth the measly ten bucks savings. So now that I'm in the market for a new pair, I set off on the usual tour of stores, only to come home seven hours later empty-handed and still holey-heeled. Yes, you read that correctly, I spent seven goddamn hours SHOE SHOPPING! That couldn't be more out of character if I'd done it in a pink dress and donated to the Republican party on the way home.

I ended up ordering a pair online. Lesson? Never leave the house.

And if the above anecdote weren't enough to prevent you from venturing out of doors, the weather reports are calling for snow. Again. It's already snowed about 17 times more than it is ever supposed to in the Portland area, and here it is MARCH and it's coming again! The storm also thwarted my plans to drive to the coast, as the mountain passes are supposed to get hit, along with THE BEACH ITSELF. Snow on the Oregon beach is supposed to be a rare phenomenon and yet this isn't even the first time this winter. What.The.HELL!

OK, happy hour ends in twenty minutes, so I've got to finish my drink and head home to stare at Eurail maps and scheme.