Adaptability is crucial!

i have always prided myself on being able to mingle with pretty much any crowd (although i find that it is getting harder the older i get).

This trip has been like every schizophrenic's dream - maybe not every schizophrenic. i would hate to generalize! Yesterday i walked the city just to get out and stretch my legs a bit. Contrary to popular belief i actually do enjoy being in big cities, and even more getting lost in them (as long as i am not driving). Portland, Or is no exception. It is lovely and the developers have not neglected the need for small pockets of open space and parks. It is clear, though, that the economy has not neglected this fine place. There are buildings everywhere that are vacant, up for sale, and in many cases just battered and neglected looking.
Our hotel is at the intersection of Seedy and Froo-froo. One side of the hotel opens up to the down town and financial district. Two blocks the other way there is a large homeless colony and a Mission. In some nostalgic way Portland reminds me of a much larger version of 1990's Santa Cruz, Ca. The two have a very similar vibe and even for the difference in scale the rhythm is very much the same.

As for my traveling companions, i doubt i could ask for, or find better. Though i find myself struggling to fit in. i fit into the city, i feel it deeply in my soul. To mingle with the homeless and the beggars, and watch the financially owned scurrying about. . .
But i return to my travel mates who are very passionate about food and lifestyle, and are acclimated to living and traveling in conditions waaaaay outside anything i am accustomed to. i feel my emotions and my psyche being pulled at as though they are tied to the bumper of a tractor and a big rig that are trying to drive in opposite directions. Then throw in the conference. . . college students, post college and 30 something with a sprinkling of older hippies! Again, a place of comfort.

This whole experience has been all very surreal and while i am enjoying it i am eager to return home. i love the company that i am working for now, but i think that i am a much better fit in the dirt than at the corporate pooh-bah level!