So, I have been in therapy for most of my life.  These days I think, how wonderful, a full hour of talking just about me!  No judgement, no interruptions, just one hour totally on me.  It is a truly wonderful thing to be able to blab about yourself and the person in front of you has to listen.  Well, in one of those wonderful hours, my therapist stopped me.  She told me she had just seen the next man in my life over my shoulder.  She is an extraordinary woman with many gifts but this was a bit different.  Apparently he was dark-haired, handsome and wearing a trench coat.  Now, she refers to him as trench coat man.  However, in my infinite wisdom of the town in which I live, I immediately named him airport man.

Well, if you are going to meet a man called airport man, then you better get to some airports.  So, I decided to plan a trip – a natural reaction I would think.  Now, I live on the east coast.  A person looking for airport man, who lives on the east coast, would logically plan a trip up the east coast to visit friends in various states.  Is that what I did?  Of course not.  I immediately decided to go to the west coast to visit family and friends out there.  Does this make things a bit more complicated?  I would venture to say yes.  If I meet airport man and he is a west coaster, well there is a lot of flying in my future!

The day of departure arrives.  I had decided not to wear  my normal flying clothes – overalls and sandals and no makeup.  If I am going to meet airport man, who is handsome and in a trench coat (my fantasy a Burberry trench coat to match my own) then I should be wearing something a level above my usual.  I laid out a lovely outfit and proceeded to put on a drop of blush and some mascara.  An improvement over the daily wash and wear look.  Then came the clothes and a decision to slightly downgrade the outfit.  On went a pair of grey jeans (grey is my absolute favorite color) and a really cool tee shirt that says -“Of  all the things you can be in this world, be kind”.  Along with that I had a lovely grey cardi and my gorgeous Donald J Pliner slides.  I looked lovely and people could read my chest!  Not sure how wonderful that is but I thought it was cool.

Off to the airport.  So, stage one of the search was on.  Now, I was in the airport of the town in which I live and did not hold out much hope for airport man to be there but, hope does spring eternal and so off I went, smile on my face, words to live by on my chest and suitcase in hand.  I walked through the airport with that smile on my face and people did react.  Not sure if it was the smile or the tee shirt but I got a lot of hello’s and smiles back.  Even got a comment or two about the shirt.

What I did not get was airport man.  On leg one of the journey there was no handsome gentleman in a trench coat – Burberry or otherwise.  I got on the Portland bound plane and headed off to Oregon, the first stop on my journey.  A pleasant flight, but the quest remains.

So, Portland, a city I have never been to before, is a wonderful place.  I can not believe it has taken me so long to discover it.  It is small but it has a real city vibe.  Yesterday,Jake and Jenn and the kids and I went around downtown.  We walked around and I felt like I was back in a real city.  The downtown area has work and live places as most cities do but it reminded me of NY or London in that it has a functioning and active transit system and there are tons of things to do and food carts galore.  I love books so they took me to Powells Books.  The store is a block long and about 4 stories high  I could not believe I was standing in book heaven.  I did not know where to look first!  I knew I was in trouble when I saw 4 rows (at least) of cook books and that was just the start.  I went into the literature area and I never got out of the A and B authors and I was there for at least a half hour.  There was so much to see and so much to buy!  Fortunately I have to go on airplanes and cannot take the weight of the books with me.  So, I limited myself to only two !  We took a car tour around the city and into the different neighborhoods and WOW is all I can say.  So beautiful  The city is called the city of bridges because there are a lot of them and many of the homes are facing the water and tall apartment blocks have views that are amazing.  Really beautiful city.   So glad I came here and so glad I got to spend time with Jake and his family.

Today we have some plans, so I still might meet airport man but he would Portland man as I would be meeting him on the streets of Portland.  This evening I am on a plan to LA.  So, another two airports and two chances to meet airport man.

Stay tuned!