back in portland again!

It's been a week now that we've been back in Portland and we're starting to get settled in. The move was stressful but went about as smoothly as we could have hoped.

We left San Francisco on Friday night around 8 pm after a harrowing day of packing and moving. Thankfully our friends Aaron and Jason were there to help us out. We would have been screwed without them. Here a picture of Aaron carrying some stuff to the truck:



Thanks Aaron and Jason! So after one last trip out to the beach where a got this picture we got on our way.



We drove until about 1230 when we finally decided to stop for the night in Redding, CA. The next morning we left at the crack of dawn and made it to Portland around 3pm. We got our keys and moved in pretty quickly with the help of some friends. Again where would we be without them - probably still moving. Thanks David, Andy, Travis and Jonathan. Seriously!

Here's the view from the rooftop deck of our building:



Although I'm really happy to be back, my head is still spinning from everything that's happened in the last couple of months. Just about 7 weeks ago Pete and I were looking at apartments in San Francisco as I was starting to feel that my position was more secure. In fact, we found a place that we really liked, but ended up not taking for a variety of reasons. Thankfully we didn't take it. The way it worked out we would have been moving into the new place right about the time I got laid off! Yikes - close call. That would have been terrible.

And now two months later I find myself looking out of my bedroom window at Mt. St. Helens on the horizon and marveling at how quickly things can change.

I'm pretty excited about things. I have been looking at going back to school for a while and unemployment and the move have brought that idea much closer to realization. I have already applied for Portland State University and will start taking classes in September for the fall term!

The other thing that I've been wanting to do for a long time is learning how to cook some authentic mexican food and make it vegetarian or vegan. Just today I made a pot of fresh pinto beans and some hand made corn tortillas. Pete and I had those for lunch with some veggie fajitas. Totally delicious!

We're having a get together next Friday and I'm planning on making a batch of tamales. I hope they turn out well!

Latah people.