Trail Blazing

What are your favorite sports to watch and play?

I can barely work my television, so I don’t watch much sports anymore. I do attend soccer games often in both the United States and in Europe when possible.

This was my last trip to Portland Trailblazers game.

And Nothing Happens

We headed into town on a blustery rainy December evening. My wife and I were semi excited to watch a Trail Blazers basketball game. One of our first dates was a Blazers game with courtside tickets. We were in the nosebleeds tonight. We decided to go “Fire on The Mountain” for chicken wings and a beer. We do love this place because they have delicious vegan chicken wings. For the uninitiated, you heard that right, vegan chickenn wings. another reason for going with her was the location. The restaurant was on a train line only a few stops from the basketball game. It is nice to avoid parking and save the money.  We do like taking mass transit. It is a convenient gateway to the city.

When we got there, I looked in the windows, and the restaurant sat filled with energy and plenty of Blazer’s attire. It seemed like we were not the only ones with this idea. Jenna parked the car, and I went in and ordered. I ordered 12 vegan wings, some fries, and a side salad my wife had suggested. I also added a cider. Then I turned around. And miraculously a table opened. It was the table for four, but I grabbed it.

It is not my forte, but I was trying to get my wife’s order correct and grab a table at the same time and I am not particularly great at multitasking. The group behind us at once chimed in asking if we could share a table with them.

My wife walked in and soon after chimed in “That would be great.”

This may sound like a mundane set of interactions yet there were underlying nuances. It was an extremely cold rainy day at the end of a month of hyperbolic atmospheric rivers. Usually, this restaurant had outdoor seating, reducing the seating capacity considerably. We awkwardly decided our seating with this little conflict. I wanted to sit across from my wife. It was date night.

We sat down at our table comfortably, and we were aware we wanted to catch the 6:23 train into town.

I believe the party of three at the table introduced themselves before we did. I apologize as I don’t remember their names. There was an accident lawyer from Woodland, and I believe a young man who was his son. The third was another man from Ellesbugh in the the western part of the state. We exchanged pleasantries and we told them about the basketball game. The service tonight was taking longer than usual which was an underlying spot of bother. Eventually my cider arrived and their drinks as well.

Then they described how they happened to be eating at a chicken wing place on Interstate Avenue on a rainy cold Monday evening. They told us they were in town to go duck hunting, and it took them a long time to bag their limit. Here I sat, the staunch vegan who even refused to fire a gun as a kid. I sat and listened patiently to them, talking about the thrill of pulling a trigger, and having a bird fall from the sky. And one of them talked about the violence in Portland that they saw on television. There was no violence in Portland but in their minds, it was everywhere. But still here they sat in Portland eating their chicken wings. Next to me sat my wife who did not want me to start into it. She is mostly vegan but at time strays. You know the old saying, how do you know someone is vegan? Do not worry they will tell you.

On the other side of the table, the hunters once again expressed their fear of the violence in Portland. Portland is not a war zone even though Fox News informs people differently. I did not hear the comment and may have said something if I did. They talked about their commute and the one guy talked about being a travel lawyer in Longview. The youngest spoke of football players I never heard of. They ate their chicken wings, and we had our vegan wings. We then shook hands and headed toward the train station. I gave him directions for the quickest way to get back on the interstate. They seeed satiated and happy. We were happy to share a table, a few stories and nothing happened.