Prison Love

I had a late-morning interview downtown this morning.  I decided to walk there since it was only barely sprinkling and then I could continue to explore Portland if the weather held up.  The interview with the temp agency went well - at least until I spilled my full cup of water on their floor.  But I scored 81 wpm with a 98% accuracy on their typing test so I felt pretty good about that.  After the interview I checked out Moonstruck Chocolate which is on the same block as the temp agency.  I knew I wanted to go here to find a Christmas gift to send Stacy and Jordan.  I found some great chocolates and treated myself to a small Mayan hot chocolate which is flavored with cinnamon, almond, and vanilla.  To be honest, I really didn't taste the added flavors, but it was still a nice hot chocolate.

My next stop was Rogue where I haven't been in a few months.  Eddie and I just always seem to go to Deschutes instead so I thought it was time to pay the other great brewery a visit.  The bartender gave me a free taste of John John so I ordered a pint of that to go with their killer hazelnut beer bread.  I used this time to finish reading Orange Is the New Black: My Year In a Women's Prison, a true story by Piper Kerman.  This is one of the few new books I own on my Kindle and I was excited to have plenty of uninterrupted reading time at Rogue.  This was a really great story about Piper who in her lesbian youth got caught up with a woman she admired and was slightly involved in that woman's drug business.  Five years later, Piper is dating the man of her dreams and the feds catch up with her but she doesn't go to prison for another five years.  This was a really interesting look into prison life.  Granted, she definitely had it easier than what you see on TV.  She was in a minimum security facility so she was not locked in a cell and had freedom to roam the common areas.  She goes into great detail about the relationships she formed while inside which I enjoyed.

I hung out at Rogue for almost two hours because I wanted to catch the free distillery tour.  Eddie and I have never been there at the right time for the tour.  Unfortunately there wasn't much to the tour and it was a bit of a let down.  This location isn't their main distillery so this one is a very small operation with only two pot stills.  The tour lasted all of ten minutes since it doesn't take long to walk up the stairs to have a quick look at the two stills.  I suppose it was at least mildly informative so from that perspective, it was a decent tour.  I guess I was just expecting something a bit grander.

I started walking home and realized I'd be coming up on The Living Room Theaters which I have been to a handful of times (Mom and I went when she was in town and she loved it too).  I took a peek at their movies and knew I just had to see I Love You, Phillip Morris.  A true story about Steven Russell, a gay man, con artist, and impostor who falls in love with Phillip Morris during one of his prison stays.  Russell made several successful (though short-lived) escapes from prison. When I saw that Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor played the leads, I was hooked. I thought this was a great dramedy with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments that reminded me of why I first liked Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber and Ace Ventura.  This movie had a great, touching story that makes you root for the technical "bad guy."  If you have access to a small, independent movie theater that is showing this, I highly recommend that you make time to see it.  Very funny!


I realized during my walk home that it was interesting that I chose that movie to watch on the day I finished reading Kerman's book.  Both true stories.  Both involving gay love interests.  And both about prison stays.  Kind of an interesting theme for the day, but it worked for me.  And kind of in line with today's unintended theme, I finished watching the fourth season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent.  Each of these seasons continue to improve upon the previous seasons.  I loved the return of Olivia d'Abo as Nicole Wallace.  I think her character is so intriguing and helps the viewers delve more into Detective Goren's mind.  I hope to see more of her in the upcoming seasons.

Oh and finally, thanks to Dan Savage, I have been hooked on this new blog, Born This Way.  The founder of the blog reached out to gay friends and asked them to submit an innocent photo from their childhood and tell a brief story about themselves and when they realized they were gay or different.  Some of the pictures are absolutely adorable and many of them portray the typical gay stereotypes.  These pictures have sparked the old nature vs. nurture debate so it's interesting to read the comments.