Nice haircut and why do you keep honking at me?

So you can pretty much assume that I will be posting more frequently during the next few months…or at least until my Xbox 360 and Rock Band gear get to Oregon.

I’m in a Starbucks in Bend today. Did I mention how cool this town is? Anyway, this older guy walks up to me and taps my arm. When I turn, he says, “Nice haircut.”

We proceeded to have a nice five minute conversation about the benefits of acceptance of going bald, embracing it and using a Bic.

Anyway…I’ve lived in Phoenix for 25 years and can’t recall 15 random pleasant conversations. I’ve been in Oregon for a total of 10 days and I’ve had at least that many. People here are really nice. I mean “go out of your way” nice. A high school kid working in a Target probably spent 15 minutes with Gil and I talking about the best ways to get around our new home town, took one of our carts to the front of the store to start ringing things up while we finished loading two more, and then loaded up the car for us. Target! I love Target (shit, who do I give this man card to?) but most of the time the employees barely look up from what they are doing to assist you (and they are 100x better than the employees at other stores) but here in Oregon…wow! If it didn’t keep happening, I’d assume it was just that we are new and have bumped into a few nice people but time and again…really nice people.

It’s kind of weird, really.

On the other hand, it seems that I have been constantly and unexplainably doing something wrong while driving in Oregon because not a day has gone by without several people honking their car horn, politely, at what I can only assume to be directed at me. Except for the first day when a guy honked at me while I was driving along I-5 toward the Willamette River and snapping pictures like only an idiot should, I can not explain why I am the target of the frequent “Beep”. Any ideas?