Doggie in a hoodie

Love,

Jenny

Sex and lies

Ooh, scandalous!

In case you haven't seen any of the numerous headlines (even on CNN), the brand spankin' new mayor of Portland, Sam Adams, had gotten himself into a bit of trouble. Here is the nutshell version: Back in 2005, 45-year-old Adams (who is openly gay) allegedly had a brief sexual relationship with an 18-year-old legislative aide named Beau Breedlove. As Adams began his mayoral campaign in 2007, some speculations were raised as to the nature of his relationship to Breedlove. At the time, Adams denied such speculations - and convinced Breedlove to deny it as well. There is also some speculation to whether Breedlove was 17 or 18 when the relationship began (although both insist he was 18).

Earlier this week, the Willamette Week newspaper dug up some new information that all but confirmed the sexual nature of the relationship. Once this information came out, Adams immediately came clean, as did Breedlove. They admitted they in fact had been sleeping together in 2005, and flat-out lied about it in 2007 for fear that the public wouldn't believe that they waited until he was 18 (and, presumably, to protect his campaign). Whoa! This has now officially reached sex scandal status.

This is pretty big deal, considering Portland is the largest city to elect an openly gay mayor. A scandal like this erupting 20 days into his term does not. look. good.

Perhaps an even bigger story is how this news has absolutely divided this community. Many city officials, publications (including Just Out magazing, who recently named Adams their Man of the Year), and citizens have called for his immediate resignation; however an equal amount are urging him to stay in office. On one hand, this is the mayor's personal sex life we're talking about, not his politics; on the other hand, he lied to his public about it. Did he breach the trust this city has given him? Does his sex life have anything to do with his ability to do great things for Portland?

Since Breedlove was allegedly 18 when this all went down, the bottom line is, Adams didn't do anything "wrong" and certainly not anything illegal. Controvertial? Yes. Inappropriate? Mildly. Should he have lied about it? Definitely not. But, he's a human who made a mistake. I don't think the fact that he tried to cover up a past sexual escapade (Who hasn't?? Um, just kidding.) has anything to do with his politics. He has publicly and sincerely apologized - can we please move on? I personally cannot bring myself to give a crap about who the mayor denied sleeping with four years ago. It would be one thing if he was caught embezzeling city funds, or aiding terrorists, or running an underground prostitution ring... but he wasn't! So WHO CARES.

Anyway, I rode my bike by City Hall today and caught the beginning of a planned rally in support of Adams, organized by lots of bicyclists. I thought the signs were great, and it was good to see the large outpouring of support.





The mayor is supposed to be making his decision whether or not to resign within the next few days. I hope he doesn't let the haters get him down.

In happier news, here are some pics of a beautiful sunrise we had on Tuesday! Taken from our balcony.



And in other exciting (well, exciting to me) news, The Knot has chosen our wedding cake to be in their "Best Of" issue of their magazine! Anyone who has recently gotten married or engaged knows that The Knot has made itself the pinnacle of all things wedding. This is big, folks. :)

Have a look at this beauty:



I am so excited!! I feel a little silly for being so excited, but... oh well. I'm silly.

Love,
Jenny

Rocky Butte

We've had a glorious string of sunny 55 degree days this week. Retribution for Arctic Blast 2008 perhaps? In any case, eat your heart out Michiganders. :)

On Thursday we took our bikes out with our friends Nikolos and Jackie to enjoy the sunshine. We headed out to Rocky Butte, an extinct volcano that now is home to an incredible park.

This is the city from across the Steel Bridge, right by where we live.

In total, it's about 10 miles from our building to Rocky Butte... and that last mile is steep. Just a subtle reminder of how out of shape I am! When you get up to the top of the hill, there is this giant stone wall that encircles the top (that looks like, as Nikolos put it, Mr. Burns' house). Once you get up there, it's mountains in every direction! Here is Mt. Hood:

Walking around the top:

Mt. Hood again:

Jackie looking at Mt. St. Helens. On a really, really clear day, you could probably also see Mt. Rainier behind that.

Mt. St. Helens (left) and Mt. Adams (right):

See that teeny tiny clump of the buildings right in the middle of this picture? That's downtown. We rode our bikes that whole way! I was pretty proud of myself.

This little directory thingy sat on the top of the stone pillar, pointing to each mountain. I wasn't tall enough to get the whole thing.

It was really just breathtaking, not to mention humbling, to be up there. I felt very, very small. And hey, that's a good feeling. :)

I did not feel so small after the four of us rode our bikes to Apizza Scholls and killed two whole pies though. But, that is also a good feeling. It had been a little while, I almost forgot how amazing their pizza is!

Nothing terribly exciting going on here, I just wanted to share those photos. Paul has been busy studying for the bar exam, which is now only a little over a month away! Time is just flying by out here. Oh, and I got my window fixed yesterday. :) I hope the universe comes down on whoever cost me that time and money. Grrrrrr.

Love,

Jenny

Happy Birthday to Me

So I am the big 2-7 today. Yeah late twenties!

And guess what I got for my birthday this morning?

That's right, a rock through my car window! How very thoughtful. You shouldn't have. Really.

While it was a glorious way to start my birthday, turns out I wasn't the only one. Note the numerous piles of crumbled glass further up the curb as well. Some drunk idiot must have had himself a field day.

Here's Pauly, vaccuuming up the glass at 8am this morning:

My awesome ghetto ride now:

On the upside, the culprit did not try to steal anything. Just wanted to bust out some windows. Still, I feel... violated.

In happier news, as part of Paul's graduation celebration I took him to the Pistons vs. Trailblazers game at Rose Garden Arena on Wednesday. I was torn over who to root for... old home team, or new home team? I went with the Blazers. Glad I did. :)

The view from our seats:

A divided home :) (click on the picture to see it larger, if you can't read their signs):

This is also when the game started to get interesting. The Blazers had been behind for most of the game, but in the second half they came back big time. They kept going back and forth, one-upping each other by one point. The Blazers ended up winning by one point, with 8 seconds left in the game!

And believe me, the place got LOUD. I have a video of the last few seconds of the game, but I'm having some trouble uploading. I'll add it later.

I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier... the Sunday after Christmas, one of the Blazers came into the VQ for brunch! I just had to get a pic. Call me starstruck. This is #44, Channing Frye. He's gigantic.

Turns out he is quite the foodie, and the VQ is one of his favorites. A very exciting day indeed.

I'm off to enjoy (?) being 27. Thank you to everyone who has sent me wonderful birthday wishes. It makes up for my lousy birthday surprise. :)

Love,

Jenny

Good old-fashioned family PDX-mas

We did it! We successfully hosted our first Christmas as hubby and wifey. I feel like Clark Griswold.

While we had a little trouble getting everyone here on time, I am happy to report that they all made it safe and sound. My parents landed on time on Christmas Eve; Elliot, Lauren and Tom (who had to drive up all the way from Sacramento due to canceled flights) rolled in at midnight on Christmas Eve. It was a long day for them. And you better believe we all waited up so we could eat dinner and open presents when they arrived. :

We had the stockings hung by the fire with care:


And of course, a ridiculous spread of wine, cheese and meat:


Let the present-opening commence!

The painting Erica made for Lauren:

Lauren describing the gift she got her Mom that didn't ship in time :)

Buckley got one too!

After all the food, wine, and presents, we finally decided to call it a night at 3:30am! I'm proud of everyone (including myself!) for making it that late! I think everyone pretty much slept all day on Christmas Day. Once everyone was rested and refreshed, we headed out for Christmas dinner at... where else... Rogue Public House. :)

The Mayo siblings:

We had a very lovely dinner at VQ the day after Christmas, followed by a few days of shopping, eating, and drinking. On the 30th, the gang packed into a Ford Excursion (sans Paul, who had to work... boo!) and drove out to the coast. We headed to Cannon Beach, home to Haystack Rock, a 235-foot monolith jutting out of the sea. As is true with so many things around here, the photos don't do it justice.

A little message for Paul <3

We came across the craziest seaweed I've ever seen. It actually frightened me at first. Still not sure what these are called exactly other than "Pacific seaweed," but they look like something straight out of a sci-fi movie. They are probably 40 feet long from end to end.

Crazy barnacles on the back of this log:

Lauren chasing some seagulls. Funny, I have an almost identical photo of her chasing seagulls, about a year ago, only in a different ocean... I will have to post that later.

The ladies Mayo:

This is another beach a couple miles down the coast called Hug Point. Erica camped out here over the summer during her great American road trip.

Someone was nice enough to line up a bunch of rocks on a log, so the least I could do was take a picture.

We also had a nice New Year's Eve, but I forgot to take out my camera and take some pics! We all headed to the Crystal Ballroom for a party called New Year's Nation, a coordinated party simulcast in 10 cities across the U.S. The concept (big party, open bar, lots of food) was great. Execution, not so much. I don't know where they decided to hide all the food (we certainly couldn't find it), and unfortunately "open bar" equals waiting in line for 45 minutes for one drink. BUT, we were all together, which was the important part! :) In the end we did have fun.

As of yesterday, all the family is officially gone home. It feels weird not thinking about where we're all gonna go for dinner, cleaning the apartment for company, etc. It was so great to have everyone here in our city, and we hope you enjoyed it! Buckley is sad and misses everyone...

Love,

Jenny

p.s. Happy New Year to everyone!!!