After being treated to some incredibly thick pancakes, we went to downtown Portland and drove around for awhile trying to find the Japanese Gardens. I was half expecting the place to look similar to what I had seen at Desconso a week ago.

I was quite pleasantly surprised. The entry path was a long, corkscrewed dirth path up that climbed up a large hill, clearly nudging its way among overly bushy and tree-strewn greeness. The trees themselves were easily 40-70 ft, shadding the area in oddly symmetrical patches of sunlight. The plant life was an abundant miasma of beautiful, deep green and jade colors. The sunlight highlighted everything so well, making even the shade descriptive. It was breath-taking.

Then we entered into the gardens proper, which provided a similar but different aesthetic.

It's difficult to describe Japanese gardening. Many irises stalks were pleasant, but none were in bloom this time of year. There was a sortof picturesque, but very calm and composed manner about it. The Japanese traditionally used plants or trees that budded bright flowers very sparingly. Irises and those hanging vines that lazily bloom long plumes of purple flowers come to mind.

It was as if cultivating all of the complex and subtle dimensions of green were most important. Deciduous bonsai the size of short women, beds of moss extravagantly laid around (but not on) the stone-stepped dirt paths. It struck me as very...delicate.

The rock gardens were amazing here in Portland. If you've never seen a rock garden, the concept is kindof interesting: there is usually a large expanse of sand, dotted with some islands of greenery here or there. There are sometimes lots of small to medium sized rocks...or perhaps a few large ones put in oddly pattern-like formations. The master gardener then rakes a perfect set of six lines (or around that) in various places. You can have the six lines radiating from one big rock like a corona, perhaps outlining the perimeter of all the rocks...and any other patterning that would strike you as artistic.

One rock garden they had was fantastic. There was a huge island to the left of this square pit, about 10 ft tall, covered with moss and strewn with six or so medium size stones. There was a huge one in the middle...and the way the lines were raked, you had the impression that the island was surrounded by water, and that the huge stone was itself and island...the sea flowing all the way out to the edge before coming back around the top and running into the island; superbly oceanic.

The best place had to be at the large waterfall, though. Starting from a source hidden, but hinted at, by the deep green foliage, water noisily gushed down five or six steps of boulders, finally falling into a large lake filled with carp of varying sizes.

Interesting sidenote, Japanese gardens always include a pond filled with carp. If I remember correctly, fish are a symbol of prosperity and plenty (maybe jubiliation, I'm not sure) and carp, in particular, can live hundreds of years. Some of the fish in this pond were 4 feet in length and as thick around as a beefy human calf...easily a hundred and fifty.

What surrounded the waterfall and pond, though...

Imagine looking up from the center of a crater, being surrounded by heavily forested angled hills, the view disappearing into a vast wall of deep green rising as high as the canopy overhead. It was as if the gardens were being hidden by the forest on all sides, like some terrestrial secret. I half expected to be assaulted by ewoks or barbarians rising up from the dense bushes.

In some words: it was a delicate expression of how awe-inspiring floral beauty can be.

I then discovered tempura ice-cream after a delicious linner (lunch+dinner) meal at a Japanese restaurant. This is fantastic stuff, y'all.

Amidst all of this, though, was RedMeridian. It's hard for me to express the joy of having people like her in my life. She makes you feel alive, playful, yet sometimes intellectual probing and engaging. Hard to describe why someone is special to you; she simply is, very much so. I delved into why as we discussed schedules, classes, psychology, and amusing anecdotes about ex-boyfriends and the blight of boy-men in general.

Boy-men (n.) - Guys who think they are all that and attempt to verbally or physically strut their monumental stupidity for all the world to see, like a raging hard penis bursting forth at a quiet county fair with a roar of self-important zeal.

You can drop the "b" out of "boy-men" and see why I love this cognate so much.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot: RedMeridian's boyfriend kicks ass. I rarely find intelligent and thoughtful young men in this world, but he's a notable exception (boy-men seem to be dominant societal trait; what a darwinistic fuck-up for the civilized world). Thoughtful, extremely informative, I'm amazed that we click together so well. I'd be chilling with these people on a semi-regular basis if I were at Reed.

We go to some distant location tomorrow to enjoy more greenery...or we chill. Either way, vacation, this she is most definetely.

Hoping your days are chill with a bag of chips,

Me

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