i had been living in portland for probably a month when my friends natalie and melanie took these pictures on some god damn beach in oregon, the name of which i have forgotten! natalie, what was the name of that beach? i remember it took about an hour to get there, through a forest and what looked like a marsh. and we passed the tillimook cheese factory. it was a gloomy and windy day. there were hardly any people on the beach so it was mostly ours.

anyway: i had no home, and was crashing on people’s floors and couches and beds, and i had about $200 to my name and all of my stuff was in a refrigerator-sized storage unit on the southeast side, a few blocks from the river. it rained every single day of course, so i would walk across the hawthorne bridge every few days and swap out my wet clothes for dry clothes that had been wet the last time i wore them. i smelled like hell.

natalie and melanie put me up a number of times, which is to say they saved my ass! and they were kind enough to let me hang out with them all the time. they lived in a little basement apartment with natalie’s cat chip. natalie even folded my laundry one time, which made me feel embarrassed. she said she recognized a “theme” in my socks and underwear . . . meaning they’re all purple and burgundy (lol)~

that was a good day. we got veggie burgers at the burgerville on hawthorne blvd, a few blocks from the house that i would move into two or three weeks later, though i didn’t know that yet.

it is easy to romanticize this period of my life now, but back then it was a harrowing time. these two people made it way better though. otherwise i would have been alone . . . or hanging around people i met through the internet, which i did too, though hell, that ain’t the same. i liked being around natalie and melanie most of all.

thank you for being so nice to me. i have not forgotten your kindness! i miss you both.