HOW TO (GROW UP AND) FULFILL YOUR DREAMS; or, BY SEA, LAND AND AIR WE PROSPER

the rain that the experts predicted for all of this week hit hard on monday, but since then the weather in portland has been relenting. whatever transgression i committed to lose the internet in canada seems to have been of local interest only, or at least it doesn't seem to have been so grave as to have offended the gods northwest-wide, because their normally obdurate challenge of april showers (our groundhog's shadow gauge of whether winter will last until july) has so far been forgiving. other than the passing of a short but fierce storm late this morning, the skies have been clear, and as a result, i was able to take a leisurely walk to powell's yesterday afternoon without much fear of getting wet going or coming back.

i usually dawdle at the bookstore on weekday afternoons to wait out the heavier rains, but yesterday, despite knowing that it might have been better to enjoy the outside before it got wet again, i still stood and read. it might turn out that i was too easily dismissive of douglas coupland. the nickname "city of glass" for vancouver is most probably attributable to the coupland book of that title, a kind of memoir as guidebook originally published by the vancouver native in 2003, and the book that i spent my dawdling time at powell's yesterday reading, the day, it so happens, of the 125th anniversary of the incorporation of the city of glass.

april 5th is also the anniversary of kurt cobain's suicide -- the better covered of the two events -- but it's unlikely that cobain chose the date (if he chose that particular date at all) as any sort of tribute to vancouver. if we're to relate cobain's death in any way with that city, it's probably best to assume that the motivation was defiance. that's the sense you get from reading city of glass, anyway. as far as coupland tells it, relations between the emerald city and the city of glass have always been strained. the two cities are just a few hours from each other by car, but from the page on seattle in coupland's book it sounds like their residents, aside from once yearly official visits, regard each other generally with disregard.

after reading that page, i almost felt sorry for seattle. the chip on vancouver's shoulder regarding its neighbor to the south isn't so unlike the one that portlanders share toward that same place. while seattle has to combat rivals from both sides, vancouver and portland can double their strengths in bonding over a mutual grudge against their (justifiably or not) more famous sibling. maybe all the stress is what makes it so much less exciting there. or maybe it's existential ennui. seattle, so famous so easily isn't the wisest thing to be. we understand what you're going through a little better now, but -- yes, but still -- wouldn't it be easier to step aside? give it a rest, i think they say.

on the cover of the first printing of city of glass coupland admits to leaving vancouver for most of his twenties to travel in search of a better city. by his own admission, he didn't find one. conversely, portland has a reputation for being overrun with transplant twenty-somethings. smart and enterprising ones: we know how to cross our t's and claw some eyes for that dish washing job. unfortunately, the dream isn't forever, and as much as the lifestyle will get old, so will we, which keeps us mindful of our eventual ostracism from the best parts of the culture at thirty-five. just like the title of coupland's book echoes the pristine triumphalism of life in vancouver, the title that chuck palahniuk chose for his memoir as travel guide to portland, fugitives and refugees, is a perfect description of the character of the rose city's it generation (not to be confused with the IT generation of seattle). plus, the brooklyn wars can't go on forever. the whole country is well past weary of those, and we'll all have to find a way to move on.

so was the dream an illusion? maybe coupland did find the finest city in the world right at home: no highways, a closely regulated and thriving housing market, mountains (you'll hate those, brooklyn), the ocean, a sky train...and opportunity -- in style. there might be better places waiting to happen, but a marriage-for-work-visa plan would be infinitely more oppressive to execute in budapest.