Until Saturday, we had been staying with Lindsay's parents and brother in the suburbs. They have been incredibly supportive and generous, and I am so thankful for that. We owe them a number of seriously nice dinners. It's been great getting to know them more, and I've certainly bonded with her brother, DJ, over a number of puzzles and delicious West-coast brews. (We've coined the activity "Puzzling and Guzzling," although somehow we manage to do far more puzzling than guzzling.)
Lindsay interviewed with a few PT clinics before taking a job at OHSU, a teaching hospital here in Portland. She started in their outpatient clinic on Monday. After a few months of unemployment, I think she's excited to be back working and doing what she loves in a less hectic and far more efficient professional environment.
I have been searching and applying to jobs every day. I have a (very) part-time tutoring job, which starts soon. Of course, I'll update when I have anything to share on the job front. It's been very frustrating and tedious, and I know it'll take persistence and diligence.
In April, we spent a good amount of time exploring the city to find a neighborhood in which we'd consider living. I immediately fell in love with Northwest. (The city is cut in half west-east by the Willamette River and north-south by Burnside St. It has five sections: North, Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, Southeast.) The west part of the city is definitely more developed and densely populated.
After spending 3 weeks searching craigslist for apartments, we finally found one we loved. Our apartment is on the third-floor of of an early 1900s Victorian house that has been completely renovated and refurbished. It was originally built for the daughter of John Couch, one of Portland's founding fathers.
Some features we're thrilled about: beautiful wood floors, both bedrooms have walk in closets, new kitchen, new bathroom, lots of windows and natural light. I think I even saw Mt. Saint Helen's earlier today from our back room! We have space for a garden in the back yard and a "mini deck" (a wood fire escape) off of our living room.
(Last night we had our first visitors on our mini-deck.... two plump, audacious raccoons. They didn't seem at all frightened of me, even as I was hissing at them and slapping my running shoes together. Alas.) We have been eating dinner in our camping chairs, so hopefully we will find a couch and kitchen table soon.
(I'll forever want New Yorker covers in my bathroom thanks to Brady Hall at Crescent Beach)
Front entrance
Our bedroom
Living room
Just a few blocks from us are a ton of restaurants, bars, coffee houses, and shops on a relatively narrow tree-lined street. TWO bars within 5 minutes of us have ping-pong tables! I'm excited to explore the city, but I'm really looking forward to just getting to know our neighborhood more. We've decided every Thursday we're going to leave our apartment and walk through our neighborhood to try a new restaurant. Looking up reviews on Yelp is prohibited.
Yesterday morning I went on my first city run. Let's just say it's a little different from running in the Big City. I ran a mile northwest through our neighborhood (it's amazing to me how little traffic there is!!!) to a Forest Park trailhead in MacLeay Park. According to Lindsay, Forest Park is the largest city park in the country. Its name certainly fits it. Within a minute or so of running up the trail, I felt like I was miles outside of a city in the woods, when I was still, in fact, in Portland. I'm looking forward to exploring the miles and miles of trails.
I think I'll be spending a lot of time in Forest Park, and I have a feeling if I ever have a bad day a walk or run in the woods will help center me.
Visitors welcome as soon as we find a couch!
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