two trips, one post

i am so tired and i am realizing that that just comes with the territory now.

two trips to report on (my goodness, i travel a lot, don't i?)

the first to portland for the annual conference for the Society for Psychophysiological Research. this was an ill-timed, but still much needed trip. It was just Liz and I from our lab. No, I know that you're thinking of Liz Kiel (a.k.a. Missouri Liz), but this is Liz Davis (a.k.a. Pennsylvania Liz). It's a bit nostalgic, isn't it? It makes me kind of hope that Kristin takes a student named Becky for her lab next year.

Anyway, Liz and I did a LOT of conference things . . . it's a small conference so a perfect time to do such things at. I saw a few people from ERP bootcamp (remember that trip to Davis, CA in July?) but mostly hung out with Liz and saw my friends Erika and Sarah from Missouri. Also met Dr. Hajcak, who I am writing my grant with for next year.

Liz and I did do some "portland-y" things, though. we went to the ever elusive Voodoo Doughtnuts, which is apparently a portland "must-see." That's where this picture to the right and the one above is from. We tried to kill some time at the Portland Saturday Market, where I actually found a ring that was my 4.5 - 5 ring size, but I didn't have any cash on me to buy. I did, however, profusely thank the man who was making them for thinking of us "little-sized" people. thank you, sir. sorry i couldn't reward you by buying one of your rings, but they were beautiful.

okay, that was a pre-sleep tangent. the actual point of that was that voodoo doughnuts has an insane menu. seriously, we saw doughnuts with cereal on them, with oreos on them, with maple syrup on them. . . i think we may have seen it all. and Liz - a vegan - had her first doughnut in approximately 10 years. she ate the whole thing. . . and then we had a conversation about how corn dogs are awesome despite being disgusting. people who love corn dogs (and probably people who love the iowa state fair) will understand that sentence.

what else? Liz and I also went to an Arcade Fire concert while we were there. the predictions were that the venue was going to be less than optimal. The Arcade Fire were playing at the home venue of the Portland Trailblazers - and you can imagine my lack of enthusiasm given their excitement about adding Greg Oden (sorry, Peggy) - and we were hearing things like "it's too big," "the sound is awful," etc.
it turned out to be awesome, however. much better than anything we have here in state college. i took a bunch of videos, but i definitely have a fave. . . .unfortunately youtube seems to be performing "site maintenance" and won't let me fully upload my video until they're done. ugh, youtube. ugh. Hmmm, let me sub in a pic from the Saturday market instead. The people who only look at the pics will never know :)

Between that and Powell's books (yes, I had to buy a book there), it was a pretty fantastic trip. the red eye home was a less-than-desireable experience, however. i think i was in bed for something like 18 hours before rejoining the land of the living (as my parents would say) on Monday. well worth it, though. i'm excited to be back in portland sometime when i don't have conference-type obligations and can really get in touch with the local nature-loving aura.

oh, wait - did you all know that portland has a crazy lunch-cart type of scene? it's not even carts, really, it's more like trailers that you would see at a state or county fair. except in portland, they serve a lot of ethnic foods (thai in particular) and also include random stands serving salads and organic sandwiches. seriously, i had a tomato tapenade and provolone sandwich that was AMAZING. i was pretty skeptical, but it was sooooo good. apparently it's a huge deal and there are "best of" ratings for these stands every year. the area that we went to had a good two square block area of carts serving lunches. and - you can't actually tell from the pictures - but there was a good wait for most of them. so, you can't tell, but this picture of a few stands could actually go on for another block and a half. pretty amazing, right?

last amazing portland story. . . .Liz and I ate at a haunted pizza place. I know, right? it totally doesn't seem like something that i would do. . .well, ever, but it was really cute and really fun (and surprisingly vegan-friendly). you can read the story here and you can see the picture from the balcony that i've posted. that's right. . . .we dared to go there.

okay, it's getting late, so i need to move on from Portland.

this past weekend, Matt and I met halfway in Pittsburgh, which is a city that I've always been surprised to love for it's beauty despite what I expected an "iron city" to look like. though all of the road construction threatened to ruin it for me, it was a gorgeous fall weekend to be in a valley (even a non-happy valley, at that). we spent most of our time just walking around, shopping, and watching college football in random sports bars, but it was good nonetheless. we did take one semi-educational trip to the carnegie science museum. there was one "sportsworks" exhibit that was pretty cool. Matt and I rode a roller coaster simulation ride and then tried our hats at a semi-worrisome center-of-gravity bicycle-type contraption that hovered atop the entire sportsworks exhibit. i only have a picture of matt. . . actually my only picture of the trip :)

so, it was a good but busy week. lacey, meghan, carmen, and i went to a two-night production of the laramie project and the laramie project: 10 years later on wednesday and thursday nights, which was pretty emotionally draining. a good experience, though . . . i hadn't realized that people that are only 5 or so years younger than me have no idea who matthew shepard is. that's a little scary, actually. but, informative and changeable if people are willing to talk about the issues.

okay, i'm exhausted. i'm trying to keep up with this vikings (+randy moss) game and also try not to catch whatever bug matt caught in pittsburgh this weekend. i'd best get to bed, then.

love to all,

rjb