It's amazing how familiar Portland feels even in the wake of everything that happened before I got here, and it's been years and an alternate dimension since I was here last. Possibly one of the stranger things I've ever said, but I get the feeling it's not going to stay that way. There are definitely worse places to be stuck though. It's no Manhattan or Paris, but if you don't mind hipsters it has its charms. I'm pretty sure there's some kind of contemporary art space around every corner, an independent cafe or craft brewery every few shops and plenty of surprisingly bad social poker players who seem happy to help me fund the initial outlay for art supplies.