gus the physicist

now i know that everyone thinks that they have the cutest baby or that their dog is the coolest but the thing about that one is gus really is the raddest and smartest dog i know. yes he may have an awkward way about him... very awkward sometimes... like yesterday when my housemates had brunch guests over and he spent a good five minutes looking at the door his nose less than an inch away as we were all monologuing what was going on in his head because his awkardness is rather entertaining. though the reality of his monologue was something like ball ball kitty ball kitty ball kitty... it was much funnier to say gosh these people are so dumb and i am glad that i am so much smarter than them. look at them sitting inside when they could be outside exploring the world. maybe i should chew through this door. that will show them.

the thing that makes him smart is that he is good at physics. we have this big hilly park we go to and we walk around and around it. he has his spots... his hills where he stands atop and rolls his ball down to me so that i may throw it again. he loves to roll the ball down to me... its his recent favorite jam and i will say there is no going back to flat fetch... it just isnt the same. his accuracy is pretty good to... he catches me in stride just like i used to do on the basketball court to complete the fast break. he's got the rate of acceleration, grade of hill, and human rate of pace down like a canine physics genius. way more to him than ball kitty ball ball ball kitty kitty. hes got formulas.

i finally am smarter than myself again because for the last two years i was doing this thing where i would buy good coffee, brew it, then ruin it with almond milk. that made me buy not so great coffee because when you ruin it with almond milk it doesnt really matter how good the coffee is. now the thing about this one is that i love coffee. love it love it love it. and i didnt for about two years until now again. so people... no more almond milk for this coffee lover. the good coffee is back with its best friend the half and half... and i think it not coincidence that i am waking up round six these days springing on up out of bed excited for the brew. i love being smarter than myself.

ima goat... an introverted one...

just returning from seeing and thinking and doing this morning which is what this blog is called so i thought to myself self i should write in things i saw/thought/did. especially because i just saw a woman walking her goats in my neighborhood off leash thought about extroversion versus introversion based on some experiences and conversations i have had lately all while doing procrastination or also not doing my human behavior paper. all of these things seemed rather blogworthy in the realm of seeing thinking and doing (or not doing rather).

i also noticed that i stopped writing in 2012 and that is mostly because i was very busy seeing thinking and doing. two noteworthy things happened in 2012 that have been a huge part in my seeing thinking and doing. i met the love of my life for one and i will tell you that that does not happen every day or year or sometimes every lifetime. that has been nothing short of amazing and... i also met a new best friend who is not more best than brie or lori or clado or jayne... in fact he is very needy. i pick up his poop feed him all his meals and walk him run him throw his ball. yes gus the dog and i will enjoy our year anniversary together next month.

so back to the goats and the introversion extroversion human behavior. there i was walking gus the dog through the hood and i look up and have this kind of infant development moment when i saw a human and two creatures that were large and hairy so of course it must be a dog or two dogs. and then i wondered what type of dogs they were because they were quite hairy and had awkward gaits and are those horns? why yes they are so then i jumped from infancy to adulthood to alas deduce that this woman was indeed walking her goats of leash no less. just when i was about to feel perplexed and that this was weird or different or out of sorts i was reminded by the voice on the phone of the city in which i reside. lets tackle introversion and extroversion later. and human behavior too.

the world is okay again

i imagine it was about five years ago and i was in rei in boulder colorado looking for a new warm hat for the winter and i grabbed this green and whitish one and right before i walked away i grabbed this brown prana billed beanie and said why not?  and then i cruised on over to the check out line thinking oh clancy you really dont need this hat are you spending your money wisely probably not but lets do it anyway.  and you know what that hat became one of my best friends.  that hat was so cool and i counted on it all the time.  i felt like i could kinda hide under it when i was feeling shy or vulnerable.  it had that fun bill i could umm... for lack of a better term i guess... cock to the side to look cool.  and that bill also came in useful as a prop because i could move it around when i was feeling nervous.  i loved that hat.  i remember one time in minnesota losing that hat for about a month and then someone brought it back from the woods after it had been sprayed by a skunk no less than what smelled like 19 times.  the brim also broke during that escapade.  and i nursed that hat back to health with endless washings and baths in tomato juice.  i loved that hat.

that hat moved with me out to oregon and i am so glad it did because i needed that hat kinda like the shades in big daddy you know?  i could hide, i could look cool, i could play with it and all the while i felt comfy.  and then one day i dont know what happened.  i remember having it last at the outward bound base in oregon or in my friends car and i like to blame her all the time.  and of course prana has discontinued that hat... only i have a friend that works at prana and she sent one kinda like it and i like it alright only its just not as cool and the bill is long like smalls' hat on the sandlot kinda.  and one time this summer i was at a music festival in colorado and i saw someone thirty feet away from me marching by in a hat that looked a lot like mine so i chased them down and asked about the hat and when i got there it was not the same hat and it was a hat that didnt look nearly as cool as i had hoped.

and then i was at another friends hat last month and she had a hat that was volcom that was brown and cool looking and i thought it might fit the bill but hats are questionable for me in my world on account of my really small head (crazy on account of how big my brains are) and low and behold it fit.  so i ordered me not one but two billed beanies from volcom that i can hide under look cool in and play with when i am feeling anxious.  and the world is okay again.

shes got a smile that it seems to me...

oh man am i annoyed because i was so excited for this saturday morning to sleep on in like i didnt even set my alarm or anything i was just gonna snooze and snooze and snooze and at 630am i could not sleep any longer.  and i just generally hate that on the days that i can sleep in i actually cant sleep in and i know that when monday rolls around the alarm will be a goin off at 530 and all i will want to do is make it saturday.  i even went to bed quite late for me last night setting myself up for an awesome sleep in this morning and well you know how that panned out.

i went to bed late last night because i was attending a prom and i bet that surprises you the general reader in the same way that my classical music cell phone ring surprises the general caller.  a friend of mine has another friend whose partner never made it to her high school prom so for her birthday she threw her a high school prom and it was no joke as we walked in to cupcakes in the corner of the bar and half the group awkwardly slow dancing to truly madly deeply while the other half of the group were being awkward wallflowers.  the best part... actually there was no best part because they were all best parts... an interesting part was that there was a spinal tap party on the other side of the bar and it was funny when peeps went into the wrong side because lets just say there was a different style dress.  and speaking of dress its funny because i think its a total secret that i love dressing up because i think i present as this pretty tough kid who likes to play in mountains and outside and get dirty and am tough and i was telling this to my friend last night and she said you are ridiculous it is not a secret at all that you love to dress up and its totally true that i look for any excuse to wear a tie or a sweater vest or a vest or a button down which is one of my favorite things about my work because they like me to wear sweater vests and button downs so every morning i kinda get a little excited for that. 

and i have been celebrating my year anniversary with portland in so many lovely ways the last couple weeks.  cliche after cliche keeping portland weird after keeping portland weird.  bewtween kickin it roller derby style with folks named kickassedy, intensive scare, and minstral psycho as well as the decked out in kelly green elvis to a drag queen charity bingo with robin hood to a concert downtown where the peeps were so hipstered out... my friend iggy would call it observing hipsters in their natural habitat... and the opening band all played this persona... or were this persona of misunderstood and tragic artists... that involved the lead singer hitting and trying to crawl up one of the walls and i was like are you kidding me looking around at the rest of the crowd expecting them to be like what is this guy doing but the rest of the crowd was into it so there i was just chuckling.  and i am also excited for this beta i got on this karaoke bar near my hood that is like a cheers where its always a good night in there and everyone knows your name so that might be something worth checking out too and i have hopes to do that sometime soon... fall back on the old g & r sweet child o mine. 

bud

so i almost got a dog last night.

actually no i didnt at all but i did meet a dog that i kinda a little bit fell in love with.  it was one of those nights where adventure just happened to be in the air.  i was supposed to meet my friends luke and lorna for beers at 7 and at 658 the phone rings and its luke telling me that they had found a puppy dog lost and alone with no collar and that they were going to try to figure out a plan for the dog.  why dont you just call me after youve figure it out i say to them because it has turned cold outside and i didnt want to go outside.  as soon as i hung up the phone i said clancy when did you become so lame and with that i layered on up in my hipster se hawthorne warm gear and headed down the street to find the crew.

and then love happened.  this lil pup was so sweet and cute and tired and scared and lost and so lorna used her magic phone to magic on up a vet place to take the pup and of course there was no shelter and no animal control at this time of night so she found a place that was 24 hours and had a chip finder.  they said the pup cant stay here but if the pup has a chip we can read it and hopefully find her owner.  is there anything closer asked luke appalled that this place was in the northwest almost three miles away.  the answer was no and we piled into the car on our way to the northwest where we brought the sweet dog in and in the meantime posted a craigslist ad with lornas magic phone and of course there was no chip but what there was was a sweet blond woman with a magic phone and a golden retriever named raleigh who happened on in to take a look at the puppy.  she used that magic phone to call her neighbor bud to convince him to take the dog.

bud showed up and he was one of those dudes who was probably a frat bro when he went to college and i think this because he had a few cocktails in him and when raleigh started humping our sweet dog bud made a joke something like what else should we expect when this boy sees a hot blond.  and bud decided that he would take the dog and also told us that he had a bar tab still open at the bar across the street and that we should go have a beer on him.  which we did.  and watched the end of the exciting world series game.

and it was an adventure

cliche pots and kettles

now i know cliches are everywhere in the world but i cant help but thinking that they are wildly celebrated in the land of portland oregon.  i cant seem to go anywhere without encounters of skinny jeans and flannels and mustaches and hip mullet haircuts (sounds like an oxymoron now doesnt it).  so the other day i was on a walk down near my work and i was having a particularly cliche-y day where a dreaded dude zoomed past me on his double decker bike playing music from im not sure what probably an iphone while singing.  then a group of five dudes in an apparent uniform of skinny jeans plaid shirts mustaches and thick phil bryan glasses (i know there is a name for them but thats the best i got right now) cruises on by talking about records.  i cant remember the other thing that happened but it was right in line with the first two and there i was chuckling to myself thinking its so funny that people dress this cliched way for real when i look down at my sweater vest and carharts and green nike sneakers and stop and think that i am the cliched pot calling all the other cliche kettles black.  damn.

so you may remember that things were hard for me in my cellular telephone world because i had become accustomed to the magic phone and its ease in text options and then went back to t9 unfabulousness and then i got a phone from my friend jayne that marries the two together to form a phone with enough magic for me to text but not so much magic that i can check my facebook and email and googlemaps and ill tell you what that is okay by me.  so the funny thing is that somehow in the transfer of phones i have adopted a classical ring that the caller gets to enjoy while waiting for me or my voicemail to answer.  and i forget about it except almost every voicemail i get has the caller go whats up with the classical music yo it doesnt seem like you.  so naturally i thought that it was something that jayne had on her phone but then i got a message from jayne that said whats up with the classical music and i have just not cared so much to call verizon to say what's up with the classical music?    

hoods with free flowers and juice bars

i have a few favorite neighborhoods and walking and running routes around portland and one of my favorites is up in ne portland and the reason is because of this one corner.  its hard to tell if there is a real schedule or if it is just kind of often and random but lets just say every now and again the corner house places a table on the corner with a sign that says free flowers.  and depending on what time of day it is there are anywhere from 1 to 8 flower arrangements in kambucha bottles or jelly jars and it is so awesome as they are beautiful flowers so nicely arranged.  the other day i was walking by and this dude was talking on his iphone as he rode his beach cruiser on up to the corner house to greet his pop and on my way back from my walk the iphone guy and his pop were out front grilling out and i asked them if they were responsible for the flowers and the iphone guy said that his sister put them out and so then i said that was awesome and i love it and then i left wondering if his sister is 5, 15, or 25 because i dont think i would be surprised by any age.

and another neighborhood and walking route that is my favorite is near my work in se portland because i think that the houses are so cute and i love to have my 30 minute break and walk around because it is sunny now and look for houses for sale so that i can mock think about how i would redo the house and the yard and the garden.  and then i discovered this really radical co op that has a coffee and juice bar and people that work there and hang out there that i want to be friends with.  and on wednesdays they have an awesome farmers market all year round from 2-7 and when i went and took a look around 2 at the start of it it was nice and mellow and full of awesome fruit and veggies and people who love to garden and then when i went after work there were so many people and dogs and music and it was kinda rad but so many people and that is the thing i will need to get used to the most about having a 8-5.  i notice it at my favorite running parks that the folks that run around tabor and laurelhurst after 5 are different and more plentiful than the folks that run there during the day.