i was a portland slacker

I realized last night, around 2am in the bathroom of Billy Ray's Neighborhood Dive over on MLK, that I have a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde personality problem. My Dr. Jekyll is really serious, meticulous, careful, intelligent and ambitious. Dr. Jekyll went to law school. Dr. Jekyll makes sure the bathroom floor never has water on it. I'm pretty sure Dr. Jekyll is starting a Proust reading group next month. Dr. Jekyll might actually be able to land a real law job.

Mr. Hyde however is an altogether different character. Mr. Hyde first showed up as a shop-rat at a tattoo shop in my little college town. Mr. Hyde is certainly the one who first landed in Portland. Mr. Hyde is the one who put a crate on the back of my bicycle and called it the "Pabst mobile" -- who rode that bike down the street to the shady convenience store for a half-rack of Pabst which he then sat and drank alone in a gloomy house on San Rafael. Mr. Hyde has spent so much time in dive bars, drinking nearly-clear-beer and playing pin-ball, Mr. Hyde might as well OWN a dive bar.

When I first came to town, I idenitified pretty heavilly with my Mr. Hyde life. Beer and pinball and hanging out (and being depressed, let's not forget that one.) Mr. Hyde as a Portland slacker also *loved* working with the homeless, b/c he got to dress like a homeless guy and be slack at his job too. Dr. Jekyll took over during law school and has been in charge going on four years. But now I think he's on vacation? Because Mr. Hyde seems to be coming back with a vengeance.

I think I need to get them both in a room and see if I can't get them to come to some kind of agreement, b/c I don't think I'm going to be able to get rid of either of them. I just need them to cooperate.