RSS FeedMay 24 2009
A Meeting of the Tiny House Minds
So, I’m afraid I’m a little behind on my personal updates again. My day-job has been seriously kicking my butt lately. Probably in part due to this being our busiest time of the year. I’m going to be really glad when July rolls around and things start to slow down.
Anyway, playing catch-up…
Two of the other writers who are part of the Small Living Journal, Tammy from Rowdykittens and Amanda from Constructing a Simpler Life, came out to visit last week. Both Tammy and Amanda spent a night with me each, and all three of us got together for a long lunch at the Pearl Street Bakery.
Tammy arrived in town first, and I’m afraid she got the worst of the Portland weather the first day she came out and the night she stayed with me. She was a remarkably good sport about it, however. We spent a good portion of the day and evening just chatting. And the next morning as the weather began to clear, Tammy ran around the marina in her pj’s like a madwoman snapping a bunch of lovely photos. She also took several of Rumi swilling beer. You can see both sets of pictures here.
Tammy is just as upbeat, energetic, and sweet-natured as you would expect from the writing on her blog. She had Rumi completely charmed in under a minute flat. She even got him hamming it up for a camera which is a complete first. I had to keep a close eye on him when she was getting ready to leave. Otherwise, I suspect he might have tried to hitchhike along in her suitcase.
As already mentioned, Tammy is a bundle of energy. Thankfully, the weather cleared up from there and the rest of the weekend was gorgeous. She spent the next few days of her mini-vacation running over every corner of Portland, managing to cover more ground than I have since moving here. You can follow the rest of her adventures in Portland over on Rowdykittens.
Amanda rolled in late the following night. Her flight didn’t get in until close to eleven and by the time she found the marina it was approaching midnight. I was exhausted from a long week at work (and staying up well past my regular, wussy bedtime). Amanda was exhausted from being in the final stretch of her graduate degree program. Somehow, though, we ended up both being wired and yakking for a good two hours until I finally had to call it a night and get some sleep.
This would be all well and good except I then proceeded to wake up around my regular time – 5 AM since I’m used to dealing with clients on the east coast for work. Amanda, on the other hand, had no such aspirations to be up so early.
If my guestroom had been finished, Amanda might have had a fighting chance at catching a few more hours sleep. But she was stuck in my living room. And, to only make matters worse, Rumi was totally into the whole house-guest thing by this point. After having spent the previous morning with Tammy cooing over him at great lengths, he couldn’t wait for Amanda to wake up and do likewise. So I’m afraid he kind of tried to help things along.
Amanda is a down-to-earth, extremely approachable, wickedly funny Texan. Although she’s managed to lose a good portion of her accent from her time in California. Meeting her in-person helped me to understand how she manages to take such wonderfully candid photos of the people in the small home movement that are part of her thesis project. I can’t imagine there are many people who, in under a half-hour of meeting her, would hesitate to tell her pretty much anything about themselves.
I worked for the first half of the day while Amanda slowly stirred to life. Then the two of us met up with Tammy at the Pearl Street Bakery, where we had the most divine lunch of roasted eggplant pannini’s on fresh-baked bread.
Lunch with all three of us was great fun. We gabbed at length about the small home movement and various ideas we each had. Tammy was too well-mannered, but I pumped Amanda at length about her experiences interviewing various people in the movement as part of her thesis project. Amanda is a fantastic storyteller, which made listening to her all that much more interesting. And we chatted about all sorts of other things going on in each of our lives.
Naturally, I lobbied hard for both of them to move to Portland and help me start our own little small home outpost outside of Sebastapol, California. (With both of them bringing their other halves in tow.)
It was with some regret that I finally had to wrap-up lunch and get back to the marina (and the rest of my work day). Before heading on to the rest of her trip, Amanda interviewed me and also took some pics of both me and my floating home for her project. I haven’t seen any of the pics yet. But just based on some of the ideas she came up with, I’m really interested to see how they turned out.
Then Amanda went along her way and was off to interview Mokihana Salazar in the morning. You can follow the next leg in Amanda’s trip here.
Anyway, it was fantastic to meet both Tammy and Amanda in person. I rather selfishly hope they’re both back here soon!
So, I’m afraid I’m a little behind on my personal updates again. My day-job has been seriously kicking my butt lately. Probably in part due to this being our busiest time of the year. I’m going to be really glad when July rolls around and things start to slow down.
Anyway, playing catch-up…
Two of the other writers who are part of the Small Living Journal, Tammy from Rowdykittens and Amanda from Constructing a Simpler Life, came out to visit last week. Both Tammy and Amanda spent a night with me each, and all three of us got together for a long lunch at the Pearl Street Bakery.
Tammy arrived in town first, and I’m afraid she got the worst of the Portland weather the first day she came out and the night she stayed with me. She was a remarkably good sport about it, however. We spent a good portion of the day and evening just chatting. And the next morning as the weather began to clear, Tammy ran around the marina in her pj’s like a madwoman snapping a bunch of lovely photos. She also took several of Rumi swilling beer. You can see both sets of pictures here.
Tammy is just as upbeat, energetic, and sweet-natured as you would expect from the writing on her blog. She had Rumi completely charmed in under a minute flat. She even got him hamming it up for a camera which is a complete first. I had to keep a close eye on him when she was getting ready to leave. Otherwise, I suspect he might have tried to hitchhike along in her suitcase.
As already mentioned, Tammy is a bundle of energy. Thankfully, the weather cleared up from there and the rest of the weekend was gorgeous. She spent the next few days of her mini-vacation running over every corner of Portland, managing to cover more ground than I have since moving here. You can follow the rest of her adventures in Portland over on Rowdykittens.
Amanda rolled in late the following night. Her flight didn’t get in until close to eleven and by the time she found the marina it was approaching midnight. I was exhausted from a long week at work (and staying up well past my regular, wussy bedtime). Amanda was exhausted from being in the final stretch of her graduate degree program. Somehow, though, we ended up both being wired and yakking for a good two hours until I finally had to call it a night and get some sleep.
This would be all well and good except I then proceeded to wake up around my regular time – 5 AM since I’m used to dealing with clients on the east coast for work. Amanda, on the other hand, had no such aspirations to be up so early.
If my guestroom had been finished, Amanda might have had a fighting chance at catching a few more hours sleep. But she was stuck in my living room. And, to only make matters worse, Rumi was totally into the whole house-guest thing by this point. After having spent the previous morning with Tammy cooing over him at great lengths, he couldn’t wait for Amanda to wake up and do likewise. So I’m afraid he kind of tried to help things along.
Amanda is a down-to-earth, extremely approachable, wickedly funny Texan. Although she’s managed to lose a good portion of her accent from her time in California. Meeting her in-person helped me to understand how she manages to take such wonderfully candid photos of the people in the small home movement that are part of her thesis project. I can’t imagine there are many people who, in under a half-hour of meeting her, would hesitate to tell her pretty much anything about themselves.
I worked for the first half of the day while Amanda slowly stirred to life. Then the two of us met up with Tammy at the Pearl Street Bakery, where we had the most divine lunch of roasted eggplant pannini’s on fresh-baked bread.
Lunch with all three of us was great fun. We gabbed at length about the small home movement and various ideas we each had. Tammy was too well-mannered, but I pumped Amanda at length about her experiences interviewing various people in the movement as part of her thesis project. Amanda is a fantastic storyteller, which made listening to her all that much more interesting. And we chatted about all sorts of other things going on in each of our lives.
Naturally, I lobbied hard for both of them to move to Portland and help me start our own little small home outpost outside of Sebastapol, California. (With both of them bringing their other halves in tow.)
It was with some regret that I finally had to wrap-up lunch and get back to the marina (and the rest of my work day). Before heading on to the rest of her trip, Amanda interviewed me and also took some pics of both me and my floating home for her project. I haven’t seen any of the pics yet. But just based on some of the ideas she came up with, I’m really interested to see how they turned out.
Then Amanda went along her way and was off to interview Mokihana Salazar in the morning. You can follow the next leg in Amanda’s trip here.
Anyway, it was fantastic to meet both Tammy and Amanda in person. I rather selfishly hope they’re both back here soon!
thanks for the write-up, lady! i absolutely loved getting to meet y’all and you certainly make a strong case for moving to portland.
and as far as my accent, i’ve never really had one! though if you heard my dad, you’d marvel at how i got away without it…
What a nice posting! I’m glad the visit went well. I really need to put your blog on my daily calendar!
Yes, you should.