portland.

i will miss you, portland. oh, i will love seeing the sea again, dont get me wrong-but portland, i will miss your friendly people, your citizens and small business owners that give a damn about the environment, the services for people who live here that may be less fortunate.
portland, i will miss your many bridges and the way that there are roses growing in the center divide on the freeway in the summertime. i will miss the cherry blossoms in the spring, the way i feel safe even if im by myself at night, i will miss new seasons. i will miss stumptown coffee, the liberal and non judgmental way that is the p-town way.
i will miss the amazing team of doctors and specialists that helped me with my babies eye and treatments and who saved her eyesight and ruled out any major health issues with smiles and genuine caring and concern over her health.
i will miss the trees and forest and rainbows. i will miss the waterfalls, movie madness, and the food carts. i will miss the culture where there is a live and let live attitude that wants no part in the snobby southern california money culture that can leave you feeling, frankly, too fat and too poor (or that it even matters) in portland, you can be any size you fucking want and still be beautiful. and you can eat cheaply and well at the food carts!
portland, i will miss the beautiful willamette, where on the 16th floor of the ohsu center for health and healing where i have spent at at least dozens of hours of my time, i feel like i have gotten to know you well- winding and wide, you gently split portland into directions and create vistas wherever you may be looking.
portland, i will miss your independant radio, limbos, and a thriving art, boutique, music, gallery, and walking culture.
i will miss the clean air, the consciousness.
if southern california is slutty blonde woman in her 40's still beautiful but aging fast, portland is her curvy sister, perhaps not as flashy but worth the work and certainly as beautiful but in a less in your face way.
i love that, in portland, i can breastfeed my child wherever i want, in fact there are laws saying i CAN.
i love that portland has more midwives and birth centers then any other state and being odd, different, or counter culture here more the norm then the normal.
portland smiles on you.
if you can hack the 8 or 9 months of gray and rain, you will have the most blissful,glorious, sunny and hot and perfectly blue sky weather ever.
i love that portland has all the hipsters of the san francisco with almost none of the attitude.
in portland, being pale is ok. everyone is pale.
i love your portland oregon. your beer, your people, your music, your trees, your kindness.
one day, my family and i will be back.
thank you.