City of Roses recap

My first full day in Portland started off with a cup of coffee on my stroll to Voodoo Donuts. I never made it there when I visited Portland last year so I made sure it was on the top of my list this time. I should’ve checked the menu ahead of time, because the selections are overwhelming. After apologizing repeatedly for taking so long and asking the cashier a zillion questions (”What’s the most popular? Sooo what’s in the Arnold Palmer? And what about The Memphis Mafia?”) I ended up buying Captain My Captain (solely because of The Dead Poet’s Society reference, not because it was adorned with Capt’n Crunch) and some maple cakey one. While creative, neither tasted that great.

The donut that I’d really wanted — until I heard the name and realized what it was — was called Cock & Balls. The donut was — you guessed it — shaped like the name suggests. It was basically a Chocolate Long John (which now takes on a whole new meaning), but creatively shaped. The Chocolate Long John is my second favorite donut, after the twist. But there was no way I was going to say Cock & Balls out loud.

The weather here is chillier than I expected. I don’t know why I thought I could get away wearing the same clothes in Portland and Aruba, but that’s definitely not going to happen.

I went to the suburbs location of Powell’s Books for two readings. One was with Thomas Frank, the author of “What’s the Matter with Kansas?” (hometown pride, holler!). The second was about health care with T.R. Reid. His book “The Healing of America” looks at countries with the best health care and how they make it happen. The U.S. is not one of these countries. According to the World Health Organization, the U.S. health care system is ranked 37. France is number one.

The discussion was incredibly interesting, but also frustrating in light of how health care reform is coming along here. Reid said that other countries see health care as a human right — some even have it in their bill of rights — and that the rich and the poor should receive the exact same care and treatment. I couldn’t comprehend Reid’s stories about when his family lived in London and he had to take his daughter to the hospital for an infection and they didn’t have to pay anything. At all. Ever. Because the people in Great Britain believe you should live your whole life and never pay a hospital bill. How revolutionary is that? Can you imagine?

I took quite a few notes from his talk and could go on, but I’ve gotta pick up my rental car. Today I’m headed down to Eugene for two nights before flying to Aruba. I can’t wait to turn up the radio, roll the windows down and belt out Kelly Clarkson.