Where the neon signs are pretty

Today is my last day working in downtown Portland. My office is moving to Milwaukie on Saturday and I’ve got mixed feelings about it. I mean, it’ll definitely be nice to have only a 15 minute drive to work instead of the current 1 hour bus ride! I’ll have to figure out what to do with the extra 1.5 hours of free time that I’ll get each day.

But, I’m going to miss being downtown. It’s very nice to be able to walk to a variety of places on a whim. Want snacks? Walk to Rite Aid. Want coffee? Walk to Coffee People. Want stamps? Walk to the post office (I did that yesterday). But that’ll no longer be an option after tomorrow. Plus, it feels like I’m leaving a neighborhood. There are many people down here that I see on a daily basis, that I will never see again after today.

There’s the short round coffee girl that starts pouring my large decaf as soon as she sees me. There’s the florist that looks just like the Comic Book Guy. There’s the Fed Ex lady that inexplicably wears shorts every day, regardless of the weather. There’s the old lady that sits on the bench with her gold cup and asks for change as I pass. There’s Tom, the guy that owns the café across the street. There’s the old man with perfectly groomed hair that works at Rite Aid. Farewell all you barely acquaintances, I’ll kind of miss you in a weird sort of way.