Solar Plants
Driving, riding or biking through Portland, you might notice tall sculptures in organic forms. Colorful metal flowers and plants spring out of the cement platforms at light-rail stops, spiraling toward the sun.
If you look closely, you’ll find that there are solar panels nestled into the metal petals and leaves.
Plant-shaped solar collectors
Some solar plants have wind turbines as well. These plant-shaped, solar-powered street-lights are pretty. They’re also pretty awesome.
Little Red Bike Café
I’ve never even heard of a restaurant that specializes in fried-egg sandwiches, but now I know where to go when I’m craving one. Little Red Bike Café.
The café is cute. Disguised as an unsophisticated walk-up counter kind of place, the café is anything but. The staff is extra-helpful and Portland-funky. And the café has an extensive tea menu.
The first time I went, I got something called the “flat tire”.
Flat Tire at Little Red Bike Cafe
It had scrambled egg, cheese, aoli and veggie-bacon on a sesame bagel. Super-yum. When I ordered, I asked them to leave the bacon off. Forgetting I was in Portland, I was surprised when the guy behind the counter offered me veggie-bacon. Yup, veggie-bacon. That just about made my day, not because I like bacon, but because I was reminded of the coolness of Portland. And, as the sandwich sat there, the aoli melted and coated the bread and egg.
Melted awesomeness.
Patagonia Underwear
I think I’ve found my holy grail of underwear. You know, the ones that stay in place, don’t ride up, pack small, wick moisture, and are cute?
Patagonia Active Briefs
Yeah, those.
The Patagonia Active Briefs are all this and more. My ultimate test is playing softball in a pair of underwear. If they stay in place, they’re golden. Very few pass this test. Even fewer are moisture-wicking, fast-drying, and cute. I wore these babies all over Italy, and found them to be the most comfortable I’ve ever owned. Whether sitting, hiking, or trudging out of the Venice floods, they stayed in place, and could be washed in the bathroom sink and dry by morning. Add the cute patterns and matching tanks, and they become awesome.
Coffeehouse-Five
Tea and a cookie at Coffeehouse-Five
Coffeehouses are an important part of the Portland social scene. They’re also intensely personal. Ask anyone who lives in the city, and they’ll likely rattle off 2 or 3 of their favorite spots. Even the non-coffee-drinkers have favorite shops to camp out in and read a book or check email.
Lately, I’ve been spending a lot of time at a relatively new shop in North Portland, Coffeehouse-Five. It’s in a great, old storefront space with tall ceilings, big windows, and old floors. Comfy couches and community tables accommodate the scores of college students that pulse in from the neighboring Portland Community College, as well as the mix of community-members that filter in from the surrounding old-Portland neighborhood.
To my tastebuds, this is one of the best places in town to get a cappuccino. Not only did I have a full-on flashback to Italy while drinking one a couple of weeks ago, the folks who work there are friendly, knowledgeable and just-plain awesome. If you’re passing by, stop in sometime. You’ll probably find me hunkered into a sofa typing wildly.
Michelle Fabio
Michelle Fabio
Michelle Fabio’s award-winning website, www.bleedingespresso.com was one of the most interesting websites that people sent me when I decided to take a leap and move to Italy for a bit. Not only for the content, which is great (she holds weekly “Love Thursdays”) but for the awesome woman behind it who is living her dream. Here’s Michelle in her own words:
“Michelle Fabio, an American writer and attorney leaves the Anthracite Coal Region of Pennsylvania for her family’s ancestral village in Calabria, Italy, falls in love, adopts two dogs and three kids (baby goats), tends to chickens, rabbits, ducks, and a growing garden, writes to her heart’s content, and begins bleeding espresso. No, really.”
We can always use more interesting, awesome people in this world. Keep it up, Michelle.
Famous Failures
Famous Failures
Despite what you might think from the title, this is a very hopeful book. I read it when I was going through a rough time and found it to be very encouraging. Here’s why: Famous Failures is full of snapshots of people who are now on top of the world when they were at what may have felt like the bottom.
To know that Oprah was demoted from a news anchor position and told she wasn’t fit for television and then went on to become the host of the highest rated talk show in TV history reminds me that just because things are the way the are today doesn’t mean they’ll be this way tomorrow.
Alex Haley won the Pulitzer Prize for writing Roots; but first he endured eight years of rejection letters from magazines for his short stories.
The comic and commentator Dennis Miller worked as a janitor and ice cream scooper.
And there’s more. More to remind us that no matter what things look like now, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that they can get much, much better.
Hopeful. Optimistic. Awesome.
VisABLE
Shannon Murray, photo by Richard Cannon
According to their website, VisABLE is the UK’s first professional agency representing only actors and models with disabilities. I’m wondering if they’re the first in the UK or the first in the world. Either way, I think it’s pretty darn awesome.
Pictured here is one of their top models, Shannon Murray, who has been confined to a wheelchair since she was 14. In 1994 Shannon won the first modeling competition for disabled women. It was organized by Louise Dyson, founder of VisABLE Models.
Awesome.
Your brain
Your amazing brain
Did you know your brain is pretty awesome? It’s actually so awesome it’s hard to fathom.
- 100 billion = the number of neurons in your brain
- 1,000 to 10,000 = the number of synapses for each neuron in your brain
- 100,000 = the number of miles of blood vessels in your brain
And that’s just part of the hardware.
Your brain controls everything in your body, without you even having to think about it. And on top of that, 60,000 thoughts run through your mind each and every day with messages traveling between neurons in just one thousandth of a second.
Kir Royale
Kir Royale
I was introduced to this awesome cocktail by Carol Gardner over lunch on a Friday four or five years ago. We sipped our Kir Royales, ate something yummy (though I can’t remember what) and I felt so sophisticated and worldly.
Sophisticated, worldly, elegant, fabulous. Awesome.
Pour a little crème de cassis in a flute, fill the glass with champagne, add a lemon twist if you wish and enjoy.
De-lish.
DoGood iPhone App
DoGood App
Sometimes we need a gentle reminder to do good things. A little nudge to be kind, to let someone cut in front of you in traffic, to hold the door open for another before you walk through.
Enter the DoGood iPhone App. One idea for doing good is displayed every day to everyone who has the app. Awesome.
Extra awesomeness:
- it’s FREE
- it’s interactive – you can click the DONE button after you’ve completed the day’s good act. The app anonymously tracks your good along with everyone else and generates a map of goodness.
- it’s cumulative–you get to look back at your past good deeds and be reminded that you really are a good person. Really.
