We made it!

We are finally completely out of Portland, and into the new house. It's been exhausting, but we made it, and now have a couple of weeks to get settled in and do some unpacking before I start my new job.

For now, I'm looking forward to a fire in the fireplace and some relaxation after all the stress of moving. And of course, a walk on the beach.

It's beautiful here. We're right by the ocean, but also right by a bay, so the scenery is wonderful. Since the neighborhood consists mostly of seasonal vacation rentals, it's pretty quiet at this time of year (which I'm liking). We're not near any big cities, so there's no traffic, and at night, you can see so many stars because there's no light pollution. It's also warmer here, than it usually is in Portland at this time of year because of the ocean.

It's official--we are moving!

It's official--I've accepted the Job Corps teaching assignment, and we are moving to the coast! My excitement knows no bounds.

It looks like I'll probably be teaching developmental reading (whoo hoo! my favorite! Plus, that's a good application for my disparate experience in Gen Ed and SPED), and with class sizes of 15, this should be a fantastic gig. At any rate, it HAS to be better than anything I'm likely to be offered in a public school setting here in Multnomah County. And I shouldn't have to deal with the fun prospect of getting laid off every year. Yep, this should be MUCH better.

The downside, of course, is that we have to move. And that, my friends, is going to suck. A lot. In the next month, we'll have to rent out our house (can't sell it in this economy), pack up everything, clean out the basement and the outbuildings, clean out the chest freezer (that is completely full because I was prepared for the apocalypse!), and basically I have to get rid of a TON of stuff. Sucks for me, but it'll be a bonanza for every thrift store and community organization within a 5 mile radius.

getting there

Things are progressively getting less boxy and a little more functional around here all the time, but I wouldn't go so far as to say we're out of the cardboard forest just yet...

settling in

still working on getting stuff under one roof and out of boxes and arranged, but it's coming together, slowly but surely.

i really like this house.

almost there

okay we are mostly moved into our new house. we still have lots of stuff in boxes and some stuff scattered around at the old place that needs to get dragged over here. i'll be busy extracting stuff from boxes and trying to gain some sense of order around here. naturally it'll be awhile before i really get around to dealing with the rest of my already busy life.

ready set go

okay we're gonna start the big time moving today! hooo boy. did i mention i have some kind of food poisoning or stomach virus to go along with this? today is gonna be so not fun for us.

moving to woodstock

It's official. We signed the papers today and are moving to a house out in the Woodstock area around the first of the month. I'll post pictures as soon as I remember to bring my camera along with me.

oh yeah, moving time begins in earnest

Well today I got to renew my acquaintance with a couple of old trusty friends...a stack of cardboard boxes and some packing tape. Yep, it's that time again. The cat is already suspicious...

We officially got a cute little house in SE (after weeks of looking at shithole apartments and threatening to move to Beaverton) and we get to move into it any time after March 1. So now we need to start cramming our belongings in boxes...fortunately it's not that urgent, so I'm not as stressed out as I usually am during these episodes. But I can tell you right now, I still groan every time I think about what's on the horizon. ick.

self indulgence is lame

so i'm turning into a raging insomniac...well not exactly.
normally i don't have any trouble whatsoever falling into bed and shutting my eyes, it would be the pain and suffering that has me staying up late when the rest of the household is asleep. (by the way it's really all for the best if you refrain from typing your list of symptoms into google, the resulting answers are confusing and needlessly alarming) but that being said, if i still feel this way tomorrow, then perhaps immediate medical attention will be sought. i do have insurance now, it's very exciting.

this late at night, with no sleep in sight, I'm trying to decide if i want to be elda santiago tomorrow. being elda for a day is a possibility i'm willing to entertain, but only if I feel up for the trek on the max and a long day of conflicting emotions. they're fun bunch of kiddos though, if I fall asleep before 2am, I'll think about it...

last time i tried sleeping out here it was so cold i had to wear a coat and a hat, and was laying fully clothed under three blankets and was still cold. that's one of the reasons why i have to move out of this code violation infested house, but i have mixed feelings just the same.

while i may not have effective heat, i do have a really fabulous garden that i'm gonna have to give up. Anywhere I move to is not likely to come with a quarter acre garden plot. In fact I'd be lucky to have a porch with containers of tomatoes. How will I get through a whole summer without homegrown tomatoes? On the plus side, I might be able to move closer to PSU (because with the buses routes all messed up it takes like 30-40 minutes to get there now when it used to take 15). And I would like to be able to let all my piles of school stuff accumulate all over the place instead of feeling like I need to keep my messes out of sight. I've got a couple of piles going right now and I'm only taking linguistics. Just wait until I start student teaching and have all that shit piling up too. But moving also means I'm gonna have to buy crap like a couch and some appliances that I have just been using for free for about a year and a half. And odds are good that we'll end up in apartments (which I HATE) instead of a house, and knowing my luck I'll end up living next to some loud neighbors or crying babies. And I also have the fun chore of trying to find a decent place that allows pets. There aren't a lot of those out there. I don't know...I'm not wild about moving. But I can't imagine another winter without heat. And I'm really starting to feel like I need more space. Honestly I'd love to buy a house, but yeah right, the average price for a shack around here is over $250,000. I think even my PARENTS would find that hard to manage...I"m under the impression that this sort of thing was much easier in their day. In mine it's not, unless you live in Memphis. $250,000 there would get you a palace...

So while I'm not sleeping, I'll be thinking about how much finding a place to live sucks. If it were up to me, I'd start a collective house of English Teachers and we'd all buy shares in a funky house in NE and have tons of cats and fruit trees. It would be like the beethoven shack...Sigh...

Alright, let's try that sleep thing. It's waaaay past my bedtime.