Friday, June 13
Robert Graves once wrote: love is a universal migraine.
It’s interesting to me how frustrating love can be. Especially dating, for that matter. I have pretty much settled on the fact that I prefer to stay home and make myself a fabulous dinner and treat myself to an at-home spa treatment than go on some random date. I’m not into online dating – in fact, I had a match.com profile, off and on, for a few years now, though it’s currently expired, and I have yet to meet anyone in person because of it. And the men of Portland, and perhaps the west coast, for that matter, don’t really ask women out on dates. It’s very bizarre. But I’ve gotten used to it, I think.
About a month ago, when I was still watching the Redwings in the Stanley Cup playoffs and finals, I met a nice guy who recently moved to Portland. In any case, he asked me out. He seemed like a nice guy, so I accepted. He texted me to chose a movie – anything but Sex & the City. Easy. So I came up with this interesting list - including Bra Boys, a film about the cultural evolution of the Sydney beach suburb of Maroubra, and the struggle of its notorious surf gang, a tatoo-clad group of surfer rebel rousers known as the Bra Boys, narrated by Russel Crowe. My other choice was Grand Canyon Adventure: River at Risk, about the declining Colorado River filmed and experienced by writer-antropologist Wade Davis and world-renowned river advocate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., accompanied by their daughters Kick Kennedy and Tara Davis, with the score by the Dave Matthews Band and narration by Robert Redford. It was playing at the IMAX Theater at OMSI. Grand Canyon Adventure won!
I met this guy at OMSI at 7:30 and we picked up our tickets for the 9:00 p.m. show. We walked around the Water Street industrial neighborhood and settled on Clark Lewis’s tiki-like bar for a place to sit and imbibe on something before the show. I had a Maker’s Manhattan. Disappointingly, there was a maraschino cherry, which I think is gross. I was hoping for an amaretto cherry. The cocktail was very average, but the bartender, Jordan, was very charming and engaging. After a nice conversation with my date, we walked back to OMSI and headed in to the movie.
I have to say, I loved the film. When we first entered the IMAX theater I felt a little dizzy. It was kind of weird, a little like Vertigo (ooh – that Hitchcock classic is actually playing at a cool art house movie theater downtown, which I’d like to go see). I digress. Anyway. Once the film started, I was mesmerized. The Grand Canyon is just amazing. I can’t get over the way ancient river flow sculpted and carved out that incredible landscape. Watching this group make their way down guided down the Colorado made me want to go rafting! What a wild life experience! They say a river like that challenges you, changes you and makes you a little tougher, makes you appreciate life a little more, makes you connect with the river in a very spiritual way.
It’s shocking how much water loss this river has endured. It was interesting to see old photos, the first taken of the Colorado River’s run and current views of those same frames, now depleted and eerily changed. I loved the native American thread. And I was just moved to want to do my part to conserve water, to think about my impact on the environment and to develop my love of natural waters in our world. Further, I am eager to go white water rafting. I would love to experience the magic and thrill of the Colorado as it runs through the Grand Canyon, but I think I’ll start somewhere up here first – perhaps the Deschutes near Bend or the Rogue near Grant’s Pass.
Summer’s here. Perhaps a trip is in order.
It was a nice date, which appropriately ended with a hug. It’s too early for me to feel a connection yet. I don’t date, after all. And I am much obliged for developing friendships with good guys at this point. I am in no rush to fall for someone without thoughtful consideration and really getting to know him. It’s so important to take things slow. I’m not interested in diving into anything right now, except for maybe a big, ole river! Anyway, I’d definitely go out with him again, but I am also interested in getting to know other potential migraine enducers out there.
Meantime, the movie was over under an hour and I got home at a nice and reasonable hour, which was pretty cool. I had minimal sleep each night this week and I was exhausted. I was glad to make myself a cup of Yogi chamomile tea. The back of the box suggests “Let the worries of the day float away as you sit with a cup of our organic Chamomile tea.” In addition to enducing relaxation, allowing you to unwind after a stressful day, drift into a restful sleep, east minor menstrual cramps or occasional stomach discomfort. I was hoping it would help me drift into a restful sleep tonight.
The fortune on the tea bag read: there is nothing more precious than the self.
As I began to let the worries of my day float away and relaxed with the happiness I usually feel when it’s warm and sunny out or when it’s the start of a weekend, I contemplated love once more. Especially self love, which, as Yogi Tea man Yogi Bhajan suggests is the most precious thing. I contemplated my ongoing thoughts about dating, or really, about love – about finding love in all of its manifestations! About finding true love. And Graves’ poem, Symptoms of Love, concludes:
Take courage, lover!
Could you endure such grief
At any hand but hers?
I suppose when you find the right love – whatever that symbolically means in your life, or if it’s literally about finding love, I suppose when it’s under the right terms or when you’ve found the right person, then it really is worth the migraines, the grief and any other symptom that requires you to courageously carry on.
Meantime, I curled up with my cat India on the sofa, while Capri napped solo on her favorite fleece blanket of mine, folded on the leather love seat, and watched an old episode of Sex & the City.
