Astoriatown

Astoria, Oregon. Population 9,790. Cradled between the vast mouth of the Columbia and Young's bay, with the ocean lapping at the horizon. With its main street that seems to be lined entirely with hair salons and antique shops. Home of the Fighting Fisherman. Quiet Astoria. You guys know.

Setting for such film gems as the Goonies, Short Circuit, Kindergarten Cop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, The Ring 2, and that eternal classic, Benji the Hunted.

Astoria is also the setting for the next 4 weeks of my medical education. Home of Fiona's Rural Rotation. You know, so I get a glimpse of what it might be like to be a rural doc practicing in a small town. And sometimes, after talking to my friends who are currently in such places as Coos Bay and John Day, I think Astoria is perhaps a bit to cosmipolitan to be considered a small rural town. It does, after all, have a hip little art gallery, a community co-op, several up-scale restaurants, an independent video store, and has played host to the recent Catch That Beat music festival. Wink.

But then, after spending my day in the family medicine clinic, I come home to my little rented apartment... and I don't have anything to do. Everything on Commercial St. closes at 6 pm. Including the hip little gallery and all two of the coffee shops (except for the weird hippy one with the incense and bong-ware). Last night I went for a walk along the Columbia waterfront at sunset and said hello to the colony of barking sea-lions. On my way back I saw someone get arrested after a car chase. Then I came home and watched America's Next Top Model (its my heroin).

Then I went and saw Elizabethtown in a completely empty theater (a movie, which might have been ok except for the fact that Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom both had speaking rolls. I'm sorry, Orlando. So very sorry). I walked out of the empty theater into a completely empty lobby and then into a completely empty parking lot. It was like one of those dreams where you wake up and everyone in the world has disappeared except you, and you wander the empty streets, the echos of your desperate cries resonating fruitlessly against the blank buildings, and you break into grocery stores for sustinance and in the depths of your loneliness you wonder if you will ever speak to another human soul ever again.

Except that I didn't wake up from a dream. I just saw the movie Elizabethtown. Orlando, you know how much I love you, but just don't say anything next time, kay?

Then on my way home, the road to my house was blocked off cause they were filming a movie on my street. A horror movie. With a distinctly un-horrifying title like "Kabulu" or something.

Ah, Astoria. I am learning to love you.