For some spontaneous fun, I decided to take the Amtrak bus up to Portland for a party that good ol' Mel Lasiw invited me to. I found it interesting that Amtrak has a bus service (their trains were hours behind schedule and were much more expensive) but it was clean, quick, and efficient.

I arrived in Portland in a little more than two hours, to be picked up by Mel in her uncharacteristic Volvo. We met up with Trevor (her man, a fellow Strong Islander) and Misty, a friend she met at IBM. We headed over to some guy Paul's house, and proceeded to stuff our gullets with more food than I thought possible. Trevor and Misty got drunk while Mel and I commented on the peculiarities of people from this area.

The biggest difference we noticed was a major passive aggressive attitude. Nobody ever wants to say something that might offend someone, so they dance around topics, which often leads to high drama under the right conditions.

The second biggest difference (though slightly more important) we noticed is the west coast attitude towards pizza. Here on the west coast it is not uncommon to find chicken curry, pepperoni, olives, and pineapple all on the same pie. We being from the east coast are used to quality pizza, normally eaten folded. We don't need eight thousand experimental toppings to disguise the crust, cheese, and sauce because they're actually good.

I fell asleep on Mel's couch, only to dream of Benny Tudino's or almost ANY Long Island pizza joint's pizza. It was a rough night.