<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Y’all, I’m moving to Portland. <\/p>\n
To some of you, this comes as no surprise because I’ve been in planning mode for a few weeks and I’ve been talking to you about it offline. For others, you’ve seen this one coming because you know I’m a sucker for a cute rock star. For the rest of you, well, it’s true. The Girl is about to become an Oregonian.<\/p>\n
The plan is still shaking out. It is all highly dependent on circumstances not quite in my control at the moment. For instance, will my bosses let me do my job remotely from our corporate office in Lake Oswego (or Lake Big-Ego, as GTB likes to call it)? Stuff like that. But for now, my goal of co-habitating with GTB in a zip code that begins with 972.. by April 1 seems to be coming to fruition. <\/p>\n
As sad as I am to be leaving Seattle, Portland really does feel like home in a lot of ways. Since I grew up far closer to it than Seattle, I spent a decent amount of time there as a kid. Seeing the ballet or going to the “good” malls required a trek south on I-5 to the, as I thought then, sprawling metropolis of Portland. So much of it feels familiar and homey and good. It’s kind of the perfect balance of hometown and a new adventure. It helps, too, that I’ve already got a guide whose native knowledge constantly astounds me (even if his insistence on taking I-5 EVERYWHERE we go confuses and frustrates me a little).<\/p>\n
Of course it’s hilarious to me now, having lived in Manhattan, San Diego, and Seattle, that Portland ever seemed like a big city. That said, I’m sure it’ll take me about five years to figure out how to drive there. For one, I’m terrible with directions. And for another, Oregon drivers SUCK. I don’t care what GTB says, growing up in a state where driver’s ed isn’t required to get a license is just plain fucked up. And anyone who grew up on the Washington side of the Columbia River border can tell you how true that is. (If you’re ever stuck on SR4 behind an RV with an Oregon plate, just go ahead and drive your car into the river. It’ll be far less painful. Trust me.)<\/p>\n
Though GTB plays the biggest role in this life change (which also means you can direct your feelings of abandonment and disbelief his way, let me know if you need his email address), there are other factors at play. One of them is a fresh realization about what a priority my family is. When I spent Christmas weekend driving the hour and fifteen minutes between Hometown and Portland, I felt a huge sense of comfort and ease. With the loss of Matt last fall, the idea of being physically close to my parents has become extremely attractive. And though I’m already in mourning at the thought of leaving my chosen family in Seattle, I know that our friendships are strong enough to withstand the three-hour drive and increased dependence on email and phone calls.<\/p>\n
And then there’s this: my hair is better in Portland. Something about the water, I think. It’s softer and comes cleaner in the shower and dries more quickly. And even though I blow a fuse in GTB’s house every time I plug in my hair dryer, I trust that we’ll be able to find a cute little Portland house of our own with wiring that can handle my mega-wattage machine.<\/p>\n
I’ve never been good at transitions. So the next few weeks are gonna be tough. I hate moving, I hate spending money on stupid things like boxes, and I hate that my time in Seattle already feels this finite. But I love GTB, and I can’t wait to start my life in a town that maybe isn’t quite the Opolis Seattle is, but still allows this little Hick to feel like she’s made it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Y’all, I’m moving to Portland. To some of you, this comes as no surprise because I’ve been in planning mode for a few weeks and I’ve been talking to you about it offline. For others, you’ve seen this one coming because you know I’m a sucker for a cute rock star. For the rest of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hickopolis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}