4.2.12

My computer says it is 9:25 and its wrong, because I am in Seattle.
I have been hanging with Melissa, and may see Gabs tonight or tomorrow before heading back east.
This trip has been really nice, but exhausting as well.

It started last Wednesday after a full day of work, and more than a few smiles and hugs from Victoria saying she would miss me. Its hard to say how much I appreciate that, though I wouldn't necessarily feel all that comfy telling her.  Its just nice to see someone who has passion, its nice to feel it directed at you in the positive way.

I met up with Steve who took me to the airport and met Ben from SoT. We talked about school and politics and then set out to Chicago.
In Chi town he told me about the local foods that he adored (he went to college there) and we snacked. Then we boarded a flight for Portland.

Tight seats, but we chatted with one of his seat mates, and scanned through the readings assigned to us for the conference.  With little sleep, at something like 11:30 West coast time, we headed to our hotel which was an old middle school that had been redesigned and was basically the coolest thing in the world.  I spent another two hours awake with thoughts and we woke up for a breakfast with our main contact Meagan, who reminds me of a cross between Andrea and Lyda.  Meagan told us just a bit about the conference and confirmed our suspicion that we were walking into an amateur show and would be on display. We volunteered to try to sway the conversations towards things that would help her, since part of this whole conference is to work to get progressive churches some cash and make a splash on the ELCA.

Well... the first day was pretty uneventful, very similar in design to a stripped down version of weeklong training. That night we had dinner as a collective and the local bishop gave a bit of a sermon on how the Eucharist relates to the economy.
It was a good sermon, which was followed by everyone giving communion to each other, a ceremony that was really beautiful except that i am not sure about taking communion anymore, and Ben being Jewish didn't feel comfortable taking part.

The next day got a little more into the purpose of the conference, but not too in depth.
That night I decided to explore Portland a little and since we had to change hotels it worked out perfectly as the new hotel was much closer to the city center.

I walked down from Lloyd center over the steel bridge into downtown. Porland's downtown is full of these tiny little blocks that make you feel like you can fly by how fast they go by. I first explored the remnants of the china town (where I would later meet Ryan for lunch), then up and down some of the main blocks, stopping to take a few pictures and read a few signs.
I stopped into a Baskin Robbins for a single scoop of Daiquiri Ice on a sugar cone. Then continued walking in and out of the blocks, while checking in occasionally with Melissa who I was to meet up with in Pearl District.