Why

Portland's a funny town. Ninety percent of the people you met have moved here--most aren't "from" Portland. They'll still ask me why we moved here, when our reasons are probably similar to their own.

The logical reasons were these: we were in Chicago, but knew we didn't want to live the kind of lives we'd have to live to live the kind of lives we wanted to live. If you know what I mean. We didn't want to commute for an hour, or work seven-to-seven, or climb corporate ladders. We wanted a home with a yard, and weekends to do stuff.

So that meant we'd leave Chicago. And having grown up in the suburbs, I pretty much knew that... well, let's just say I'd rather chew off my arm than go back. No offense to suburbanites--it just wasn't for me.

So that opened up the whole country. Where should we go?

We didn't want hot, so that ruled out the southwest, and the south east, and... well, the south. And I'd had it with snow, so that ruled out the Northeast. And the Midwest. And we wanted an airport, and museums, and public transportation. And affordable homes.

That left Portland.

So, that's the logical reasons we had for moving here. It was all--we knew what kind of life we wanted to live, so we had to find a way to live it. We occasionally have to remind ourselves to actually live in the city, though. I mean, if all we do is go to work, maybe go to the movies, and shop at big-box stores and stripmalls... we might as well live in a suburb. Any suburb. So I make it a point to make it to farmer's markets, and Saturday Market, and the library, and walk to the coffeeshop (not a coffeeshop that rhymes with Blarbucks) and the movie theater and the grocery store.

Even, better, though--if a picture is worth a thousand words, then I have lots and lots of words about why I moved here. Because Portland puts on (free) events like this.

That? That's proof that Portland and us is a good match. Any city that has that as a free event is my kind of burg.

Flickr update

Gutter bird
Originally uploaded by karijean

Updated pics on Flickr, yo.

A few are marked private, for friends and family only, so if you are one of those two groups and I haven't marked you as friend or family, drop me a note and I'll fix that.

In this Flickr update--I got a brand spankin' new camera for my birthday and it is sweet. So I'm just taking pictures of, y'know, stuff. And the lunar eclipse.

Be warned--there's also belly pics on there. I'm not posting them here, because for years, belly pics just made me kind of want to cry a little bit, no matter how happy I was for someone. So I guess I didn't want to, y'know, surprise anyone with that. But I also don't want this to go undocumented. And there've been requests. So. Yeah.

I'm feeling strangely vulnerable...

Summer Vacation

Double time
Originally uploaded by karijean

With the Fourth of July over (or, as Will says, "Happy Birthday Fourth!"), I'm staring down the gun at a long summer.

I know, poor me, right? It's hard to get sympathy about two* months off. To be fair, I work hard all year in order to earn this summer off. Plus, I get paid for crap, so I might as well get two months off--one of the very very few perks of teaching.**

Sometimes, though it doesn't really feel like a perk. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind not having to get up with an alarm in the morning. But to go from a world of daily deadlines where planning and organization can make or break you to absolutely aimless days is a little overwhelming.

I don't do aimless well. I do one of two things: I sink into a well of inertia which, yeah, good times! or rearrange every closet in my house while weeding the lawn and building a to-scale model of Portland's Pearl District.*** I may have a problem with finding a happy medium (ya think?)

In the meantime, take a look at Flickr. Fourth of July pictures are up (compare them with last year's! Lookit me, coming full circle!), and I'll be updating the Flickr stuff with pictures as I find a way to distract myself from having nothing to do. I've got some geocaching I did out in wine country, and I plan to do more around PDX and its environs.

Happy Fourth of July, happy summer everyone.

* Yes, it is only two months. June 20-something was our last day, and I have to return on August 20-something. Again, I know, poor me, but I just wanted to clear that up.

** Not that I don't love teaching, because I do. But it's a damn. Hard. Job. With very very few upsides. Objectively speaking, summer is one of the few.

***Or I rearrange someone else's basement. True story.

Rays

Rays
Originally uploaded by karijean

Back in civilization, there's nothing so awesome as a shower.

You know, I can dig this new hobby of ours, this "camping" thing. I feel tired and sore, but in a good way.

Click on the pictures to go to flickr, or click here to go to the set.

One hour changes a lot.

In Chicago, if you drive for an hour... chances are, you're still in Chicago. Max, you're in Skokie or maybe Naperville (if you were driving at 3 a.m.), but still the Greater Chicagoland Area. Which was a problem in the "getting away" department, because it was a major chore to get anywhere that even vaguely resembled "away". Maybe that's why we got out of the habit.

Because sweet jesus, it's easy to get to a great place, just an hour away. Why did it take us FOUR YEARS to even try it?

Here: Grey. Probabily misty rainy--that sort of unsatisfying rain that is cold and clingy and wet but doesn't have any sort of cozy-inducing rat-a-tat-tat against the windows. Just a numbness-inducing blah.

There: Blue skies, and feet--as in plural of foot, feet--of snow.

That's the peak of Mt. Hood that you can see. That's the mountain I can just barely see (if I ignore the apartment complex blocking it) from my bathroom window. That I see looking east along the Columbia River on my way to work. It's flipping gorgeous.

There's more over on Flickr, if you want to see pictures. I'm relaxed and ready to get back to grading... although I did just heave a really big sigh upon typing that. Maybe a better way to put that is that grading doesn't seem like it's pulling the capillaries out of my skin one at a time anymore. I'm ready for this next week.

Thank you Andrew for taking this trip for me.