February: The Beginning of the Tide

Today is Saturday March 5th. The tasks I need to complete today very much emblematic of the month, how this month has been retrograde to the norm, indicative of the change taking place.

Item #1:

-Clean House

      -Clean shoe closet
      -Handwash Jacket

Cleaning house on saturday is not new, in fact, it has been my mother's routine for as long as I could remember and I very much do the same things: laundry, bathrooms, tidy up, dust, vacuum. The two sub-items  are unique. I have to clean out the shoe closet because a bunch of Karen's shoes are moldy. Since the shoe closet is by the front door, the moisture from 200+ days of rain have turned some of her nice brown shoes blue and fuzzy. Then the blue and fuzzy spread to the non-leather shoes through adjacent contact.

It's been extra wet in PDX because it's been snowy and rainy. I went skiing for the first time at Government Camp at Mount Hood:

It was fun. I didn't wipe out or anything and it was surprisingly like roller blading, except with size 50 shoes. I handled the bunny slope like a pro. Karen did very well, not falling, and proceeding down the slope cautiously. We did five runs and called it a day since it was pretty icy (icy snow + wind + mountain/ski-lift = pebbles/sand exfoliating your face). I would definitely go skiing again, unlike surfing. I can't post pictures right now since the cat is on my lap. More on that later.

My jacket: I need to wash it since it smells like restaurant oil. I met a colleague at went to the Pita Pit. It's like subway, except with pitas. I got a Sovlaki Chicken pita (think chicken shwarma, greekish fare), with tzatziki, and your typical subway veggies. It was good, but my jacket stunk. I was off campus that day because I was training at for new job at Portland Community College, Sylvania. I can't say PCC since Lars asked if I'm working as a fire-dancer at Polynesian Cultural Center.

My new job is great so far. I spend about 40% of my time managing a computer lab to help brand new students register, do online orientations, and whatnot. 40% of my time advising (like my old job), and 20% doing outreach, that is going to different high school campuses or helping on campus tours. It's a significant pay raise, get a lot of sick and vacation time: 18 sick, 20 vacation, 3 personal days, 11 holidays, and I'm in the process of choosing my laptop and deciding how I want my lab and office space to be organized. This is what it feels like to be treated like a professional. It's nice.

Item #2
Fill out mortgage applications:

Karen got our taxes done. It's been stressful for her since we got everything else going on at the same time that I'm not much use in: her lawyer association fundraisers, changing insurance plans to hers, cooking since I've been so brain dead with training for the new job. For the past 3 weeks we've been looking for houses, we are going out again this weekend as well. We are fortunate to be able to be picky, but at the same time, it's tiring.

Item #3
Practice bass guitar

Last night I was approached by one of the music team leaders at my church. There's a space on their team for a bass player and my name was picked. Fortunately, I've already tried out and played on a team for a short-stint so it's like doing an internal hire. I wasn't really planning on doing this so soon, but I figured that I prayed and left myself open to this occasion. I will start playing on a team in May. Unlike PCCC, there are about 12 bands so our team would take 2 morning services a month and 2 evening services in another month. Very manageable. I'm excited for the opportunity, but I really need to practice (artsy PDX has lots of good musicians, I'm just some guy who did it because his church needed a bass player). Since we are going to Japan soon (another reason why Karen's been pressed since she's been doing all the planning), I'll practice in April, likely while we are closing on a house, and while I'm juggling the commute at my new job. Related to that, I will get a car as well! My 16 consecutive months of public trans will be coming to an end. I will probably get a Subaru Outback or a Toyota something, Camry? Likely an Outback since it's AWD (good for PDX weather) and well, ubiquitous in Portland, it seems like 1/5 cars you see are Outbacks.


A little explanation of what it's like to live in Portland:
The Dream of the 90s: Portlandia internet series theme


It's funny because it's very true of Portland and at one time or another, we've all seen these people somewhere.

So lots of change, I didn't know where to begin and how to organize all the things we've done this month and are working towards, and February is the start of it all. However, some things are the same still, such as we are going to our friend's house and bring over burritos from a 24-hour Mexican place. The cat is sitting on my lap. Saturdays are usually his day to demand attention from us and gets upset if we don't stay still long enough to give him a lap (I got cat-tackled this about two hours ago).

Will post pictures later. Cat is still sleeping heavily on my lap and it's time to do some mortgage applications.