Stephanie and I are heading to Portland for a weekend vacation. Possibly scoping it out as a place to move to. It makes me quite excited to see somewhere new, and now that my fears of a transfer are somewhat stemmed by seeing four stores in the downtown area, I might be tempted to up and leave for a different (but familiar) venue. Portland is definitely another Seattle-like city, but Steph needs to get away from her dream job and doesn't find satisfaction in this state, and all I can say is that I'm happy with my job and my friends, but not overly happy with my job that I'd lose a girlfriend over it - and I like the idea of a fresh start myself, even if I am a bit of a scaredy-cat as far as the rituals of moving go. I hate packing things and moving them around. I don't actively pursue adventure, but when it comes along, I enjoy it. So I should go with some decision that seems a little more impulsive and interesting. And if a move to Portland were to happen, a trip back to visit people in Tacoma or Seattle is far from impossible, or even to head back if Portland isn't right.
Anyway! Portland! Anyone been there and have any recommendations on places to go and things to do?
We only have one spot on the agenda right now that we cannot live without - Voodoo Doughnuts - and maybe I'll sample their famous "Bacon Maple bar" - maybe something else will sound more amazing, but I highly doubt it since they took off the PeptoBismol/Nyquil glaze donut.
When I get there that means my state-count is up to... California, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon. Six states. Seven if you want to count the time I touched down in Dallas between flights. Technically, my feet were on the ground in the state, but it's not exactly sight-seeing to examine which places in the airport are still open. I guess I'm doing quite well at this living in America nonsense.
Right now I'm going to go downstairs, see if my green card or parcel from England arrived, come back upstairs, and get dressed for work. I know I should do more with my day before working, but when I work a 12-8:30 shift, I quite honestly never get anything of use done in these morning hours.
Beyond that, because there is a chance of moving, I need to really get organised as far as selling a few things on eBay goes. Nothing fancy, just a few Wavebirds and brickabrack, but I'd like the extra money and I'd equally like less stuff to ship around if moving goes ahead because we have quite a lot as is. This belief is cemented by another recent thing Steph and I have done together that'll be a nightmare to move too far: we bought rats!
We have two little gals called Agyness and Pepper. Agyness is coming along quite well and being relatively friendly - taking food from hands now - but Pepper doesn't like us, probably because of the cat in the apartment. Pepper makes unhappy noises at the sight of him. Also, at first we'd poke a finger into the cage so they could smell us, but now Pepper sees it as a meal. It's odd because Steph and I have been careful to try to hand snacks to them so that they can get used to us, so they've never had a reason to associate anything coming through the bars as a treat, though it could just be a defensive mechanism, so. Pepper doesn't explore the cage as much so it's harder to get her used to being handled.
All of this means I've never really gotten started with my NaNoWriMo, and Steph may quit because I have. I was ahead of schedule up until day 4, and since then, I haven't had a word to put down, and I feel like a jerk saying it, but based upon how long it's taken me to write up to now, I don't really want to catch up from here. I also don't like the fact that I have someone I can interact with across the room and all we're doing is typing away on screens. Another spontaneously random decision Steph and I recently decided on was to purchase a Nintendo Wii, and that's kept us entertained, even if we can't get online to download Dr. Mario for Steph. Between Boom Blox, rat-handling training, Oregon, Mirror's Edge, selling stuff, and possibly saying goodbye to friends if the move does happen, I don't want to do get into NaNoWriMo now.
So. I finally finished a long email to family in England saying how I'm doing, I repeated it by rambling on here... I guess that's a catch-up of sorts for now. Maybe I didn't waste the morning as much as I thought I did?
That and I'm too slack to write something everyday. Mostly the every day thing.