Portland: A Day in My Life

The famous Powell's books on Burnside got an update while I was living in Asia

After I wrote about repatriating back to the United States after a year in Japan and six month in SE Asia, I took special notice of my life in Portland. Why is it that I am so ready to describe my daily life in Japan, or my daily life in Chiang Mai, but ignore the value of sharing my daily life in Portland. It might not be as exotic to some readers as those other places, but it is exotic in this time.

I am presently living a life that may look very different in a few years, and in a city and country that may also look different in the future. Why not record my life as it is now and preserve it this way.

On a typical Monday, I wake up around 7:45am and go to work between 8:30 and 9:00. I work in an industrial area that until last year was only populated by train tracks and a few businesses. It’s now bustling with restaurants and shops, and is considered a new “up and coming” area. Though it has changed a lot in the last year, the train is always there, and it something I remember about the place from the tie of my first in-person interview.

The train right outside my office, taken on the day of my interview

I like to take a late lunch around 1:00pm and go jogging by the esplanade. The path is roughly 3 miles and runs alongside the Willamette river. From there I can get a nice view of downtown and Portland’s many bridges.

View from my running path along the Willamette River by the Steel bridge

I always eat my lunch after I go jogging and then I return home between 5:00 and 5:30pm. From there, I like to meet my partner for coffee at our favorite café, Good Coffee. We have to park several blocks away, and on our walk there we always stop and say hello to the neighborhood cat in the window. We usually spend an hour at Good Coffee, from 6:00-7:00pm, working quietly side by side as I work on whatever creative projects needs attending, be it my novel or this blog or other writing.

The interior of Good Coffee, taken on a quiet Monday evening

Two nights a week, I have a tradition y tradition of eating a Higher Taste Breakfast burrito with homemade salsa and drinking a Pomegranate Yerba Matte on the balcony of my home while reading a book. That lasts until about 8:00pm.

Burrito and tea on the balcony of my (former) apartment

In the evening my partner and I like to take a walk around there reservoir and watch the sunset. During this time we debrief on our work, or life, or philosophize on any recent learnings.

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View from the Mt. Tabor reservoir, taken at dusk on my evening run

Around 11:00pm I go to bed and the day begins anew again.