And right off the bat, the photo above is yet another photo of Mt Hood. And no, it’s not blurry. That’s the snow blowing off the top of the mountain. It was a rather blustery day. But it was sunny, and so we took advantage of that.

But I suppose I should start back with the flight across the country. So last Thursday morning I started my never-ending trek across this entirely too large continent. I left home at 6:30 in the morning and arrived at my parents’ house about 2:30 the following morning. And it was cold. And snowing. How’s that for fun?

I wanted to sleep until noon (which would only have been nine my time), but I couldn’t. Friday was errand day, visiting with family, the Olive Garden (ugh!) and hanging out with the two friends I still have left in Milford. We started with a nicer place for drinks but they wanted me to experience the magic that is a red-neck bar. And so I drank cheap beer and played pool in a dive of a bar. Now I can check that off my list of things I have done that were never originally on any list.

Saturday I did sleep until noon [nine my time!], had a late lunch and spent the rest of the day packing, laundry, collecting whatever was left of my old room, boxing things up and what not. There were tentative plans to meet with John & My, but it really didn’t work out on either side. Of course it didn’t help that cell phone reception in Milford is hit or miss, and so I didn’t get John’s message until I was in Detroit.

Sunday morning three am, what a time to be awake. But my flight flew out at six. Newburg to Detroit, to Minneapolis (where it was bloody thirteen below zero!), and finally back home. I was so exhausted, felt grotty and had a bit of a headache. So naturally I decided to stop at IKEA on the way home. It’s by the airport, and since I’m really never out that way, and since my Kimmet [I call her by her last name. Her first name is Jessica] was nice enough to pick me up, we went for it. I bought my couch. I likes it. Likes it lots. Only problem is that I didn’t measure exactly when I was planning and it doesn’t quite fit under my loft. Instead of being against the back wall, it’s along the side underneath jutting out into the room. Oh well. Pictures of that may come eventually, but at the moment I just don’t feel like it.

But to appease you photo-hungry blogites, I do have other photos. Photos of the Japanese Gardens! Monday was MLK day and I had off from work. I think I would have died if I didn’t give myself a recovery day. It was beautiful out, albeit a bit chilly, and so Julia and I decided to take Max (remember Max?) up to Washington Park and walk to the Japanese Gardens. We got a lot of nice photos of the place, but because it was cold and windy, our exposed fingers quickly became numb and a handful of times we didn’t realise our fingers actually weren’t pushing the buttons. But it was oh so worth it. You’ll find those photos in the photo album on this page (click up top).

Tuesday was my first day back in about a week and I had a lot to catch up on, which kept me plenty busy. Oh. And they decided to hire me for the job I had mentioned earlier. So not only am I not temporary anymore, I also get paid significantly more. Like 54% more. It’ll mean I’ll be crazy busy, but that’s fine. So not only do I have top-secret ninja access and a cell phone, but now I’ve also been given a pager. Yeah, they want to know where I am. I officially start this Monday. And irony of ironies, my health insurance card from the temp agency arrived yesterday after work… my last day of being a temp. So now I have to wait two more months.

Tuesday night I went to bed at one in the morning. Why? you might ask, would I do such a thing. I had a very good reason. Probably the only reason I would forego my nine-thirty bedtime. Along with Julia, Kimmet and her boyfriend, Brian, I went to a Decemberists concert. Those of you who know who the Decemberists are, you may be jealous now. Those of you who don’t, my deepest condolences. Not only did I get to see them in their hometown, I got to see them in the Crystal Ballroom. It was so worth the lack of sleep.

Other than coming down with a cold, though not a bad one, just an annoying one, nothing else really happened since Tuesday. Last night I did see Guillermo del Toro’s new move The Orphanage. I didn’t quite know what to expect, and while it had nothing new, it was actually pretty good. My friend told me it was a horror movie, but that’s not exactly true. It’s more in the thriller genre, and felt like a cross between Sixth Sense and The Others.

So there that is. I don’t have much of anything planned for today or tomorrow. I’m just going to relax on my couch (did I tell you I like my couch?), read, fill out the myriad forms for my new job and drink a lot of tea. Oh, and so you know, you can also comment on the photos in the albums. Just sayin’

I guess I haven’t written since just before Christmas. Well, we had a white christmas here, which is horribly unusual. The natives say they haven’t had one in decades, centuries even. Once again I am given as the reason for the unusual weather.

I went to my friend Julia’s grandparents’ house for christmas. It was an interesting time. Interesting because I only just met her about a month earlier and here I am going to here grandparents’. Granted, the alternative was to either sit by myself in my apartment, or go to the Kung Fu marathon. I think I made the right choice.

Many days later…

So I started this blog on the 6th it seems. Today is the 16th. We all know I’m not the best with my blogging. Your forgiveness I implore. Not a lot has happened since last post or even when I started writing this. I did, however, manage to purchase a lovely bit of furniture. I bought a loft from that store of stores, IKEA. I of course am helping them spread their “Swedish brand of socialism around the world” with my purchase. My friends Julia (pictured above) and Kimmet (first name: Jessica) helped me put it together. This was my first purchase from IKEA, and I really like it. Aside from the moderately-priced, flat-packed happiness that is furniture, I really like putting things together and following instructions. My next endeavour is a couch to go underneath it. Reading in a wrought-iron chair from the sixties loses it novelty rather quickly.

Other than that, I’ve been busy at work. Go Live is in April, so we have less than 100 days. So naturally things have started picking up. I got tapped to apply for a job very similar to what I’m already doing plus a few other responsibilities. I applied for it despite not quite meeting their qualifications, mostly because the higher-up suggested I do. If I get it, it will pay significantly more, which will be nice. I’m not strapped for cash, but I’m not exactly rolling in it either. It helps that I live in such a small apartment.

Tomorrow I fly out for the East Coast. Truth be told, if teleporting were discovered, I’d be much more excited for this. It’s not that I don’t want to re-visit my old haunts, it’s just that I don’t relish the flight. Growing up I thought flying was the coolest thing. I was always saddened when my six hour flight to Europe ended so quickly. My how that’s changed. I fly from PDX to Seattle to Detroit and finally to Newburgh, which is a tiny airport near the ‘rents. Replace Detroit with Minneapolis, and it’s the same on the way back.

I think I’m still planning on meeting up with John & My on Saturday in East Stroudsburg. I should probably finalise on those plans, eh?

You can just leave a shout out to say hello, start a lively conversation with other reader [sic] or chat with me while I am work. It all works in real time, so have fun.

And speaking of work, can I just tell you how boring the first half of today was? I totally ran out of things to do. Apparently I’m “too fast” and the big projects they had me working on have all dried up. And since it’s around the holidays, the place is deserted and no one has any random work to do. I actually re-did tedious data entry work I did the other day because I was so bored. I’m also not the one in charge of the office in general like I was at SWE, so I could even busy myself with tidying up the office or ordering things. I just work under three different groups, none of which had anything to give me.

But I already have a lot of work to keep me busy tomorrow. So that’s good. And it’s Friday. And there’s a meeting. And there’s the “pre-meeting picking up of cookies.” And then it’s Christmas! Dear blessed the year went by quickly. It seems like almost yesterday I was flying across the world in order to hide in your living room and scare you senseless…

I speak solely on a metaphorical basis, as I would never do such a thing!

So happy to see her I was. The whole thing was rather surreal. I decide to not-so-randomly move to pdx and she just happens to fly out on business. Neither of us were complaining. Once we got back to town, we got her checked in to The Governor, a rather well-to-do hotel. She gave it rave reviews.

Friday we didn’t get to see each other because we worked and she had an office party at the Portland Art Museum after. Saturday we met when she checked out of her hotel. We wandered over to a diner near by for very excellent breakfast. Oh so much food, but oh so good. Needing to walk off the cholesterol, we wandered through downtown to the waterfront park. I wanted to show her the mountain, but alas, it hasn’t been out lately.

From the waterfront we walked to the Saturday Market, but first stopped at Mill End’s Park, seen above. This small plot of land is officially recognised as the world’s smallest park. There’s a lively bit of history involved as well, but we’ll save that for another time. Just know that it involves leprechauns.

We wandered around the Saturday Market awhile and listened to an awesome marimba band. Two actually. Q bought a cd from one as well as a christmas present for someone who I don’t think reads this, so we’re all good. It’s a pretty cool gift; I think said recipient will enjoy it.

When we had our fill of the market, we found ourselves in the centre of the city with hot drinks and listening to the annual tuba christmas concert. I was a little leery about nothing other than a hundred tubas playing Christmas songs, but it was actually pretty cool. We didn’t stay horribly long due to the rain that showed up.

After running a few quick errands we hung out at my place a while resting from our adventurous day. Once we were sufficiently rested, we headed north to a hookah cafe where we met my friend Julia for dinner and hookah. The shwarma was actually pretty good, but the Iranian place in Philly is much better.

We all had a craving for something desserty, and Julia knew just the place. Or so she thought. We went to an authentic Italian restaurant not too far away for tiramisu and coffee. It was pretty good, but it wasn’t real tiramisu. It did hit the spot, so that’s all that mattered.

Having to get up at an ungodly hour the next morning, we headed home and promptly fell asleep. Four in the morning came all too quickly and neither of us wanted to get out of bed. Going through the motions of dressing and making ourselves somewhat presentable, we head off to take Max back to the airport. Forty-five minutes later and we arrived. Sadly, our weekend had ended much too quickly.

The sun had not yet risen by the time I made it back to my apartment, and wisely not having coffee beforehand, I fell asleep until eleven. I went into the office for some overtime to get a project done (not how I enjoy spending my weekends, but time and a half is nice). That basically took up the rest of my day. I went home after and just vegged until it was time for bed.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Eventually they sent me up to the main campus on “the hill” to get my id badge. Not only do I have my official OHSU badge, but it’s also necessary to get onto my floor since it’s locked down. I have super secret ninja access! And they’re getting me a work cell phone. Heh? Heh? Not too shabby for a temp. And with any luck, they’ll want to hire me full on at some point after thirty days.

I didn’t really get that much done today since I’m still waiting for them to give me computer access. So I basically familiarised myself with the office, my cube and whatever else I could get my hands on. Another nice thing about the job is that there’s a lot of people working on our three floors, and a good number of them are around my age. So here’s to meeting new people.

Well, that’s about it for my first day back on the job. Oh, what do you think about the new layout? It’s a bit different from what you’re used to. Questions, comments, concern?? Leave me some lovin’!

I still haven’t heard back from the interview at PSU, but I never expected to get that job anyway. Yesterday I had another interview at PSU at a different college, this one for Engineering (I asked. They’re not your sort.) It was the same deal. A panel interview and I left thinking they liked me but I wasn’t getting the job. Especially since the one lady was giving me advice on applying for future jobs. That’s okay. I didn’t think that job was quite for me either.

Well, today was another day. Another rainy day. But a good rainy day. On a lesser note, I did get my new Oregon driver’s license in the mail. That was fun, but I have to say Pennsylvania does a much better job. Not only do they give you the licenses within a few minutes, the design is much cooler.

And in more important news, John’s feelings came true (you and your feelings!). My friend Jessica works at a temp agency, which I despise, mostly because they’ve never done me any good. She said it wouldn’t hurt to sign up with them anyway, so I did. I had nothing to lose, and it was easier since I got to fast track a lot of the processes. Well, they found me a potential job at OHSU, which stands for Oregon Health & Science University. They wanted to interview me, which I thought odd since it was through a temp agency. But it seems that the only people who want me are from institutes of higher learning.

So this afternoon I walked over to one of their satellite offices about a brisk fifteen minute walk from my apartment. I met a handful of people and I was eventually brought to a conference room and interviewed by someone high up. One of the first things he asked me was “If you had to find out how many gas stations Portland needed, how would you go about doing that?” After I told him, he then told me to take minutes on what he was about to tell me without actually writing anything down. So he went off for about three to five minutes about a new system they’ve implemented and then I had to regurgitate as best I could what I had just heard. Apparently he just wanted to see what kind of person I was and how I thought. I think I did okay.

After he ran to another meeting, I was interviewed by Doctor Tom. I’m not sure what his job was other than being an MD, but he was also a higher up. He just wanted me to talk about myself. So I did. He seemed like a nice guy. After all that, my initial contact there showed me around the office and the different floors they occupied. She was surprised that I was temping and thought I was a shoe-in for the job. I felt good about everything, including that, but unfortunately she had no official say in whether I got the job.

Well, after I got back to my apartment I got a call from my friend at the temp agency and she told me that they decided to hire me. Yeah for new jobs! I still have to go through HIPPA training and some paperwork, but I should be starting either Friday or Monday. Now I desperately need to go shopping for “real clothes.” This will be the first job I’ve ever had that I actually had to dress up at. It’s only business casual, but I’m spoiled after SWS

And I had pictures for you, including some of the local trains, but they just went MIA. Now I have twice as many of one set, and none of the ones I wanted. They weren’t anything important, I’ll just have to take them again.

So that’s been my week. Oh, and I answered an advert on Craigslist for people who wanted to play Mah Jong, so I’m going to meet up with them on Sunday and teach them how to play. And that I always win.

Today was the Macy’s Parade. For reasons unknown, they have it the day after Thanksgiving here. But the nice this is that the parade route went right past my apartment, so I got to watch it in my pyjamas. I did manage to take a bunch of photos. I can’t say that they’re horribly interesting, but they’re worth a look if you’re bored.

Oh, and I passed my driver’s test the second time around. I spent the entire evening before memorising all those “useless” facts and distances and can now recite pointless driving rules. And then none of them were on the test the next day; it was all common sense questions. Go figure. Other than a different interview I have on Tuesday (I forget if I mentioned that already), nothing much else in new.

So there that is.

A friend of mine described renting in Portland like bidding on something from ebay. You have to be dedicated or someone else will snatch it from under you, often within minutes. That’s actually happened a few times this week. Yesterday, a girl beat me to a place by ten minutes. Ten bloody minutes. It’s crazy here.

But not today. Today I decided to sit in front of the computer with one hand on the F5 button the other on my phone. And I sat. And I waited. Eventually an apartment came available and I called within minutes. Hour later I was downtown viewing it. I filled out an application, and he said as long as I’m not a convicted felon there shouldn’t be any problem. As I filled it out, another girl showed up to view it. I so beat her by five minutes.

Were it not for me, that place would have been filled within an hour and a half of posting. That’s how fast things go around here. It’s amazing anyone who actually has a full time job can even find a place. Conversely, it’s amazing that anyone who doesn’t have a full time job can find a place.

At any rate he said he’d know by tonight or tomorrow morning whether I pass the credit check or not. So as soon as I get that call, I’ll go down and sign the lease and it’ll be mine! All mine! I’ll let you know when that happens.

Oh, and it’s small. Really small. But I like to think of it as cosy. That and I don’t actually own anything at the moment, so I don’t really need space. Location, Location, Location! And mine’s a doozy!