i’m going home today, back to the urban streets of jersey city. it doesn’t feel like i’m moving. when i moved from nyc to portland in 2005, i made a grand exit with a minivan full of my belongings and i embarked on a week long journey towards my destination. that definitely felt more significant. today, i woke up in my house and made coffee as usual, and then josh drove me to the airport in our jetta as he would for any other trip.

my more cumbersome baggage today was easily shuffled through security thanks to the slow pace and friendliness of portland. had i been flying out of newark, this would have easily made for the start of a very grumpy day. my carry-on is unusually chock full of valuable items today… two laptops, a passport, all my checkbooks, my external hard drive… oh, and one very fluffy dress.

i need to put together some lists… things i have learned from pdx, things i will miss, places i will return to each time i visit. for now, i will just try to appreciate the magnitude of this simple flight i am taking today that starts an entirely new chapter in my life.

the playoffs have been a rollercoaster ride as they are wont to be. game 1 was a dream and the following two games were absolutely devastating. no one wants to be blown out in their own arena. the rose garden, which is notorious for being one of the loudest arenas in the NBA, was completely deflated after a listless blazers team crept as low as 30 points below phoenix. i was so nervous before game 4. as josh & i approached the rose garden for this unusually timed 1:30pm saturday game, it began to rain, and then pour. the symbolism was quickly cliche during these playoffs, but of course all the fans were excited to block out the [phoenix] sun(s).

once we scurried into the rose garden, we simultaneously received a text from karl while a ticket guy at the arena asked me “did you hear the big news?” blank stare. “brandon roy is playing.” confusion. josh & i were just talking over our bacon & eggs about how brandon might not even play in round 2. “1-2 weeks” were the optimistic reports i’d heard regarding brandon’s recovery time after a minimally invasive knee surgery. it had been 8 days. confusion.

it was all true. brandon came onto the court to the roar of his fans, and his teammates were clearly rejuvenated, comforted by his presence. i couldn’t believe how amazing the game felt. they beat the suns, 96-87. the series is tied at 2 games a piece. bring on game 5.

john canzano wrote an awesome article using religious imagery to describe brandon roy’s return.

well another Blazer season has come and gone. i tried not to write about them too much on here, because i get rather verbose about them and don’t need to bore you with trivial facts (Batum’s sister is a senior at Lake Oswego highschool! Brandon Roy Jr. wants to be Bayless! Andre Miller likes to rollerskate!)—facts that delight me to no end. but perhaps i should reflect on the highlights and lowlights of the past year.

year of the vet. this was undoubtedly a year for our veterans to shine. we lacked a veteran presence last year and badly needed it as our young roster progressed into a playoff team. this year, we got solid, seasoned players who led this team through the toughest adversity one could’ve ever imagined. injury after injury, the blazers continued to succeed thanks to andre miller, juwan howard, and now marcus camby. for some reason i have a deep fondness for both andre and marcus, not only because they are stellar players, but also because they are closest to my age.

greg oden goes down. again. at the rose garden, our hearts stopped at the sight of greg oden writhing on the floor in pain. his knee cap broke in half, and you can actually see the odd misshapen joint in photos from that game. josh knew right away that it was a season-ending injury. brandon roy squeezed greg’s hand as the trainers rushed over and later the paramedics, and greg was wheeled off the court. it was so heartbreaking because his play thus far showed signs of the superstardom he was destined to reach.

injury season. for a while there were so many blazers injured: greg, joel, batum, outlaw, pendergraph, patty mills, rudy… and then coach nate went down with a ruptured achilles. it was surreal. the blows kept coming and they were almost not surprising after a while. it was at that time that you could really feel juwan howard’s emotional strength propel this broken team onward.

andre miller scores 52. they say andre’s a strange guy. he doesn’t speak very much and doesn’t socialize with his teammates. he lets his actions on the court speak for themselves - and he has proven to portland that he is more than worthy to lead the offense for this team. he’s really kept the team playing well and it’s likely we wouldn’t have made the playoffs without him. he scored a remarkable 52 points against Dallas earlier this year.

brandon roy buzzer beater an elating buzzer beater was overdue. it happened at vs. the washington wizards at the rose garden. unreal. roy had a slow night but delivered with 3 seconds left on the clock. solid. the rose garden erupted.

the night of marcus camby. the last game i went to was vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder this past monday. it was electric. marcus camby scored 30 points and was heralded by the arena, chanting his name in a moment Blazer announcers tout as one of the best moments of the last 10 years. marcus says he was embarrassed by it, but certainly touched - he has only been on this team for a few months, but portland has fully embraced him. having marcus on the court just makes me feel safe. we need him to return next season. just imagine what he could teach greg.

bring on the playoffs! roy is out, so what are our chances in passing round 1? should i paint my face? will we win it in 5?

it was five years ago when i began tossing around the idea of moving to portland, before actually taking the plunge in october 2005. it’s hard to believe i’ve been here for almost five years. that’s half a decade—longer than highschool, longer than college, longer than my longest tenure at any given workplace. i’ve gotten used to many things in this newer hometown, now overlooking some very glaring differences from nyc that used to make me tilt my head, squint my eyes, do double takes, quietly ask josh if such and such was a normal thing.

i like looking at the list i penned earlier on in my portland residency.

if i could choose one word to describe portland, it would be raw. there is something unrefined and fresh about portland. it’s a newer melting pot of artistic transplants, nature enthusiasts and people with a truly eco-lifestyle. the low cost of living allows it to be very experimental. people are able to work on projects they might not be as easily able to in other cities - like keeping bees, growing mini-farms, opening a retail shop, getting a gallery show. people cherish things in their rawest form. that means buying unprocessed, fair trade products and also reducing waste in as many ways possible. perhaps people everywhere are adapting these habits, but portland makes this type of lifestyle very accessible.

no, i’m not looking forward to returning to skyscraper office buildings that don’t recycle paper, or overflowing garbage cans on midtown corners. but i’m hoping i can hold onto the raw spirit of portland i learned from, and help spread that behavior back east.

last weekend, we drove up to vancouver, british columbia which is about 5 hours north of portland. it was my first trip driving across any national border - i have always either flown or ridden the train across various country lines. at this northwest crossing is the “peace arch” monument which reads children of a common mother

the drive into canada was swift, and the border patrolman simply asked what our weekend plans were, and did we have any weapons or guns in the car. upon driving into the city, we felt a tinge of european chaos as the vancouver drivers cut each other off and were not interested in signaling. the city felt like a large metropolis, which was certainly comforting to a nyc gal. it was grittier and edgier than i’d expected, unlike the very polite roads elsewhere in the pacific nw.

hockey was everywhere! i mean, we all know that canadians love their hockey, but it was culture shock to see hockey being televised in every public establishment. i found myself cheering for the vancouver canucks at one bar we went to. don’t expect NBA highlights on sportscenter… you may be waiting up for nothing.

two days in vancouver barely scratched the surface. we had a delicious brunch at the hip templeton, visited the olympic torch, tried the yaletown brew, took the skytrain and tromped down “the Drive.” i’m glad we finally made the trip before leaving the northwest. (oh and on the way home, of course we hit mega traffic at the US border, where some cars were being searched and a few non-white families were being questioned. foreign passports, i am hoping.)

food carts continue to pop up around portland, and today i tried el gallo taqueria, which is a newer mexican cart in our neighboring neighborhood, woodstock. the food carts review explains it precisely - i just love the taste of freshly made tortillas as you can really taste the difference from the pre-mades. i tried a chorizo and a carnitas. at $2 a pop, these locally-sourced, freshly-made, delicious tacos are quite a steal. give them a try the next time you’re in outer SE!

just hours before a vicious nor’easter is scheduled to ruin my travel plans, i look back on the lovely spring day i just experienced. sunny and effervescent, the world was beautiful today. i rode my bike very leisurely to the supermarket, the bank, and the library. later on, i went to a yoga class.

i haven’t quite settled on one yoga studio that i consider my own. there are a few that i’ve liked over the years in portland, and really it comes down to the bhaktishop and yoga union. today i took a “soul flow” class at bhakti shop where the colors inspire you and the music perfumes your practice; we sang along to a harmonium both before and after our asanas. i was so relaxed after the workout that i left my yoga mat in the lobby (and remembered this as i perused a nearby vintage shop for wedding shoes).

i do love the community and warmth i’ve felt at yoga union too. they’re both nice places, and who knows if i’ll be able to commit to an unlimited pass at either studio before we move to nyc.

during my time off, time has been a luxury. one thing i’ve enjoyed investing time in is cooking and eating healthily. josh signed us up for organic produce delivery, so twice a month we receive a bounty of fruits and vegetables, most of which are from local sources. you never know what you’re going to get—the first box contained rutabagas, which i’d only ever seen in dig dug, so i was excited to try them for the first time.

i recently read mark bittman’s food matters, which emphasizes to omnivores so much the need to reduce our meat intake and greatly, greatly increase our fruit, vegetable & legume intake. cutting back on meat has always been a challenge for me. maybe it’s the carnivorous hard-wiring in the filipino DNA, but i do always fight fatigue and weakness if i stay off meat for several days in a row. believe me, i’ve tried. still, it’s worth it for me to have more vegetarian meals a day, more vegetarian meals a week, more fruit snacks, more vegetables than meat in my dinner. it’s healthier, and it’s also cheaper. so there you go.

tonight i made whole grain spaghetti with onion, bits of turkey bacon, and this beautiful red chard. what vibrant stems!

in oregon, people delight at visiting “the coast” all year round. it is a phenomenon that baffled me my first winter here, because when it is 40 degrees and rainy, the last thing i feel like doing is driving 90 minutes through the rain to get to a cold and rainy beach. does that sound like fun to you? but going to “the coast” here is never about beach balls and sunbathing, even in august. it’s more about daring to run into the cold ocean and flying a kite and having a bonfire.

last weekend josh & i went to one of the main coast destinations for a night: lincoln city. to me, lincoln city feels run down. its biggest draw is the casino, Chinook Winds, which seems like an atlantic city spot that isn’t doing too well. it’s not completely full and it doesn’t feel quite as glamorous as other mesmerizing casino resorts do. the main street in lincoln city is an extension of the freeway, so it hardly feels like a nice main road to stroll down. uptown from the casino are the outlet stores—the other main draw. but all in all the town feels a bit seedy. after all, we were able to stay at the Farmers’ Daughter Inn for $59/night.

last weekend we did drive through some local roads that gave me a different feel for the town. ranch homes nestled in woodsy, undeveloped nooks, winding roads where only one car could pass. perhaps the people who live over there don’t even venture to the main road.

the beach is beautiful as well - keep it clean and you can’t go wrong with a beach. i would recommend though to visit in the summertime, when the sunshine can help paint this tired town with a happy glow.

Today I had the good fortune of participating in a volunteer effort for Haiti. Two guys, Jeff and Eric, spearheaded this venture of collecting donations and loading them into a shipping container for transport to Haiti. after seeing a news report about the project it seemed like a key place to lend a hand, what with my free time.

In a parking lot in SE PDX (on SE 13th and Ankeny), people have been bringing clothing, medical supplies, nonperishable food, and other assorted goods for the relief container for over a week now. Today a bunch of us sorted through enormous piles of clothes—reverse thrift shopping, I said to Vanessa, who joined me for the task. Container #1 is full, and we have collected enough clothing for the second container.

Still needed: hygiene items, medical supplies, baby food, baby cereal, peanut butter.

For more information, visit the facebook page.

They still need cash donations to pay for the container’s transport. If you’d like to donate, you may do so here.