Good will.

I need little speakers so I can watch Hulu, my new TV experience, without having to be attached to my computer by earpods. It's proving hard to unpack, earpodded in. With a neighbor's tutelage I take the 15 bus (which runs on 23) to Goodwill. 

In the appliance section of Goodwill rifling through speakers is a guy with a beard, but he's otherwise good looking. I do shop at Goodwill in Los Angeles but I would never consider a man who did, but the men shopping Goodwill here seem to be a cut above. I go for it, it's too easy.

I hold up tiny speakers, "How can I tell if these work?" Obviously I can't, but if I were a retard it would be a fair question since there's an outlet in the appliance section to test self-standing appliances.

He says I can't but Goodwill generally tests everything. He say he's looking for subwoofers for his computer. I step up my game and ask, "To make music or to listen to music?" He abashedly admits that it's to listen to music, but takes in that I think he's cool enough to be a musician. He decides to be helpful. He takes the tiny kitchen scale I've picked up intending to use as a postal scale, and places it with some speakers. He says gently, "You know, those won't work." Then his girlfriend steps in the aisle and retrieves him. But now I've gone there. I've flirted with a man with a beard.

Later in the afternoon in the mixed use school playground/public park across the street from me, I bond with a woman over our small dogs. She also has a small child, but she's left her and her husband on the playground and come over to talk with me and Isabel. She asks where I'm from and I hesitate to answer. California is apparently not a popular answer here. She said she knows some people judge people from California, but she doesn't. I ask her about grocery stores. She says that I'm close to a Trader Joe's and asks if I know what a Trader Joe's is. I tell her that we have those in California. I ask her about the men and beards thing and she says, "I don't know, it's a Portland thing, it's icky".

I ask her about the people across the river. My mother's cautioned me against them, emphasizing that my little condo is on the right side of the river.

She affirms there's something wrong with people over the river. I press to know what. "For example", she says, "they ride bicycles without helmets". I don't get the significance of this. It's sounds like the Dr. Seuss story where everyone looks alike but half the population has "stars upon thars", and it leads to civil unrest.