Entries by TATIANA

I took a road trip this past weekend. My first stop was Crystal Crane Hot Springs, a place I have driven by a few times but not had the time to stop at. Crystal Crane is a bit South East of Burns Oregon.



Crystal Crane is a very nice developed hot spring resort, there is lodging.....even teepees and you can have a private soaking tub, there are showers, changing rooms, a place where you can cook your food, coffee in the morning and a small store. The hot spring is open 24/7 so you can soak under a sky full of stars. I was marveling at the beautiful night sky. I forget about that sometimes, to really look around and appreciate the splendid beauty of nature.







Of course some pictures of me and the pool. Hair up.



Hair down.



It's about the water!



I really liked Crystal Crane and I want to go back and stay for at least two days and nights next time.
I want a place with my own private hot spring, where I can live. And an RV to travel around in. That would be something!

Well I am back at work after one week of not working due to COVID closures. It is nice to get some time off but I don't mind working either.
There are several clubs in Portland, plus some other places that fall into the category "lingerie modeling" that are open 24/. Although I doubt it is the same kind of lingerie modeling that the Victoria's Secret catalogue offers or lingerie modeling as when I worked a full day in Vegas showing off the latest bras and panties from JC Penney in a room full of ladies making orders for various stores.
I work in a fun club where all of us get along, many people that come in are regular visitors. It's very comfortable.
We don't have a DJ so I pick my own songs that I have in a Spotify library. I only dance to Barry Manilow.



Still the most frequent questions I get besides where I am from and marriage proposals are - how tall are you (I am a viking warrior princess so I am statuesque), how long have you been growing your hair and is it real (since birth of course and yes it is real, well I am lying now....I color my grey areas with demi-permanent color) and are those real (yes I am 100% natural). I don't know HOW people can mistake my boobs for not real, they are not even big but whatever.
Now you know.
As far as marriage proposals go.....since Bill Gates is available now I am putting everybody else on pause. I am all about making the world a better place.....altruism is my thing. Especially helping animals in need. And Bill Gates supposedly donates part of his vast wealth to different causes.





So yes I'm still standing (like Elton John sings) in more ways than one. No crutches needed yet, I will let you know when I start using those.
EDIT (Sunday May 9).
I need to add this picture to this post.....
You KNOW you work in a great club when one of the dancers (a very HOT woman) sells crystals and rocks there too. No not the kind of crystals and rocks some people smoke.....these kinds of crystals and rocks. We are an enlightened bunch of dancers at "my" club.

Julia is in town for a visit. I took her to Council Crest yesterday. Soon all the beautiful cherry blossoms flowers will be on the ground. It is making me a little sad. The flowers are so very pretty.
"The transience of the blossoms, the exquisite beauty and volatility, has often been associated with mortality and graceful and readily acceptance of destiny and karma; for this reason, cherry blossoms are richly symbolic, and have been utilized often in Japanese art, manga, anime, and film, as well as at musical performances for ambient effect." (Wikipedia).
A cute cherry blossom baby.



A very pink rhododendron.



Today we walked around a bit along NW 23rd Ave. Found a place with yummies.
I got an iced lavender coconut milk tea latte and Julia got a Fruit Loops Smoothie with Boba. I will definitely go back for more. There is a lot of good stuff on the menu here - Tea Social on 23rd Ave in Portland.



Saw this interesting sign. The street sign is interesting as well.....



So several counties, 15 to be exact (including the one I reside in) in Oregon were put in the extreme risk category again as of last Friday. Which means no more indoor dining, no indoor bars and strict capacity limit on other businesses.
Last time this happened we were in the extreme risk category for three months.
I am not sure how long it will last this time. So from what I am reading over 300 hospital beds throughout Oregon are occupied. I am not sure if the hospital beds are occupied by COVID patients or with a mix of COVID and other reasons for hospitalization patients. And a variant of COVID-19 called B.1.1.7 is now the dominant strain here from what I read. This variant is supposedly more contagious than regular COVID. Over 3 million people in Oregon are vaccinated now (the population in Oregon is 4.27 million) but not all of the people vaccinated are fully vaccinated yet. As in, they have not received the second dose yet.
I have not been vaccinated. And as of now I am taking a step back and waiting. I am not saying that I won't get the vaccine ever, I am saying that I won't get the vaccine for now. Perhaps I should have Putin (my Volodya) send me over a dose of Sputnik V?
It is turning serious the who got the vaccine and who hasn't. I sometimes feel borderline interrogated by people asking whether I got the vaccine and when I am planning on getting it. So far my choice of not getting the vaccine has not interfered with any of my activities and yes of course I wear masks where I have to and I make sure to not be gross like cough in my hands or sneeze into my hands etc (things that I learned not to do as a child by the way).
Interesting though that a large number of people are vaccinated in Oregon yet several counties are back in the extreme risk category. I feel that there is a lot we do not know yet about COVID and the different variants. Reading cdc.gov is actually quite interesting, there is plenty to go through on there like Emerging Infectious Diseases and Data & Statistics.

Portland is pink right now. The cherry blossom trees are in bloom and some streets are covered in pink. It is so pretty. I feel bad for walking on the petals.



I went up to Council Crest today where you get a good view of the city and also the sunset and the moonrise, which I was hoping to get a glimpse of. The moon is full tomorrow and this full moon is called the Pink Moon. But I did not see the moon come up, it did of course but behind the clouds.
Look at all these cherry blossom trees......everything is so nice right now. I am in love with nature.

April 22 is officially Earth Day although really.....EVERY day is Earth Day. I spent a few hours downtown Portland this afternoon picking litter with SOLVE, an organization founded in 1969 that gets groups of people together to pick litter. I quickly got into litter picking mode, time flew and before I knew it I had to head back and turn in my litter bag. I picked up lots of cigarette butts, face masks, plastic bags, plastic cups and lids plus other random items. I pick litter on a daily basis but more randomly like picking up stuff I see out of place here and there.....today I spent hours being a litter picking machine and it was fun.



Not everything I picked up was litter. I even made a small profit.



What else have I been doing? Well the weather has been great.....warm and sunny. My favorite flower LILAC is currently on full bloom in my yard, I have a large lilac tree growing there. Lucky me! It smells sooooooo good.





Last week I had tea with a friend......



At a Russian place called KACHKA which means duck, same in Polish but slightly different spelling. Yes, I can speak, read and write in Polish as well. And because of that I understand some Russian. There is a small store there too and they sell rosehip tea which I drank so much of when I was little. Full of vitamin C.







I made nachos the other day, I love salsa. And I got a whole strawberry rhubarb pie.
That is a bit of what I have been doing lately.

Does stuff bother you? I know ignorance is bliss - that is the TRUTH if there are any universal truths....unfortunately I can't just ignore, so stuff does bother me and here is some of it.
Leftover food that gets thrown away. I finish almost all my food. To me it is borderline disrespectful to humanity to throw away food. I feel lucky to be able to eat basically what I want every day but I know that there are people that don't have that luxury so to throw away food is like a transgression. Here is an example of a plate of food that got thrown away.



Potatoes that were picked to end up on that plate, bread that was baked AND an innocent animal that DIED to be discarded. That is how I see it. Had that been my food (I do not eat meat), I would had taken the food home and finished it later. Again....I finish my food and food scraps like banana peels, vegetable and fruit peels etc I put out in nature. You can dig banana peels into the ground or get a compost going. You do not have to waste food, so if you do - please stop.



Making the outside a personal ashtray. WTF is that about? I do not get it. Please discard of gross stinky toxic cigarettes appropriately.



And this....I saw this in a public park the other week. After enjoying the sunshine, sitting in the grass and having some beverages instead of throwing the bottles and plastic cups away people just leave their trash there. Why? I pick other people's trash all the time.
Other stuff that bothers me (that I can think of now).....when people go to the grocery store and don't put away the grocery carts. It is really not that difficult to walk that extra 30 seconds to put away the grocery cart where it belongs. I will give you an excuse if you are old, injured or handicapped but if you are just too lazy then fuck you ok.
Face masks laying around on the ground. They injure animals.
THINK of how you dispose of your trash. Do YOUR part. Please. This Thursday I am picking trash downtown Portland together with SOLVE. Only for four hours but I am looking forward to it. I can't stand littering and I try to do my part in doing what I can to lessen my negative impact on the planet.