Portland or bust!

Wow. If I can set up a blog anyone can! haha. Can you believe it? I'm here, typing away on my laptop in Portland, Oregon. I'm in a quaint little apartment picked out by my new husband. Things have happened so quickly over the past few months. Sometimes I do little reality checks to make sure I'm not dreaming it all up. 

I suppose this first blog might be a long one. I have much catching up to do. I guess I'll start with the first transition into my "new" life. The exact date was June 25, 2011- the day I married the most amazing partner a gal could ever hope for. I say partner because Eric and I partner in everything we do. Whether it be monotonous chores around the house, cooking dinner, building campfires, uplifting each other spirits, celebrating the joys and sorrows of life...we do it together in a way I never thought possible. For him I am eternally grateful and I know my life would not be what it is today without his positive attitude, motivation, partnership, and love. 

Our honeymoon was an exotic adventure with two stops in Guatemala and two stops in Belize. I won't go into too much about it here, but it involved Mayan ruins, historic towns, cave tubing, spelunking, hiking through the jungle, getting sick :(, peaceful kayaking, zip lining, canoeing, snorkeling, swimming with sharks and sting rays, lobster spearing, fishing, and lots and lots of delicious food and drink!

In fact, it was on our honeymoon that the Portland plan began to take effect. Actually, I can pin down the exact moment. Eric and I were sitting outside at the hotel beach bar trying to make a final decision regarding whether or not to move to Portland. I guess it would be a good idea to pause and explain:

Eric and I had been toying with the idea of moving to Portland for a couple years. We visited and fell in love with the city. The city life offers the best ranked public transit system in the nation with its trains, busses, and street cars with free rail zones. We've always wanted to limit ourselves to one car at the most, utilizing our feet, bikes, and transit system instead of a car. The city is split up into quadrants: Northwest, Southwest, Northeast, and Southeast. The Willamette River is the landmark that splits the city and helps divide the quadrants. To add to the city's attractions are 8 magnificent bridges that connect the east and west sides. On a clear day you can see 3 mountain ranges from St. Johns bridge entering North Portland on the west side. Talk about breathtaking! When visiting the city we were amazed with the farmers markets, restaurants, shops, bars, parks, etc! But even more than the city life, we were in awe of the respect many of the Oregonians have for mother nature (demonstrated by progressive recycling processes, within politics, and expressed by the communities). Urban sprawl is contained here, which allows for much of the natural habitat to be left as it was originally intended- in its natural state. You won't find houses and businesses sprawling out and cutting down what nature provides for miles and miles. That is all contained. What you will find though, are multiple waterfalls, trails, and lookout areas just minutes outside the city. But, I can rave about the area for days. Instead I'll let out all my passion for Portland in bits and pieces rather than go on and on about it in this blog. (But I thought it might be important to explain why Portland was on our minds.)

So let's go back to that hotel beach bar in Belize. I believe my statement to Eric was something like "So babe, we have to figure this out. Are we really going to move to Portland or not?" And I kid you not, at that exact moment (far away from the U.S. in the country of Belize) a man about my age walked up to the bar wearing an Oregon T-shirt. I couldn't help but laugh and say "well, if this isn't a sign from God, then I don't know what is!" So we of course introduced ourselves and explained our story. Turns out the guy's name was Tim and his new wife's name was Rachel. They too were on their honeymoon. And it just so happens that the two of them got married on the exact same date as Eric and I. I can't think of a better catalyst for our move!

Sometimes I wish I were the type of person that would say, "The decision is made! It's as simple as that!" But I would be lying. I'm an over-analyst. I like to think big things though to the very end, speculating the best, but more importantly, the WORST case scenario in each situation. (It's important to me to think of the worst case scenario because I hate to be blindsided with crappy situations. If I see them coming I can try to plan around them, change things, prepare, or just plain old expect it to happen. But if I hadn't even though it could happen, and then it does? Well, let's just say I don't do so well with that) 

So we hemmed and hawed. We both have amazing families and friends that we didn't want to leave or let down. That was the hardest part of it all. I was afraid that the people I love would think I was choosing Portland over them or something to that effect. When in fact, Eric and I just wanted to start a life together with a bit of adventure, change, and exploration. Nothing against anyone in our lives. We both agreed that Portland had all the aspects of a place where we could each grow to be the person we wanted to be. For me, that meant being more aware, recycling and simplifying, being more active, camping and hiking more, getting rid of my judgments or preconceived notions about things/people, gaining more confidence, etc. Eric had some things in mind too, many of which matched up with my goals. But- we knew we both had good jobs. And we knew we're way to responsible to just head west without a paycheck in site. 

So it took a couple months, but Eric's job let him transfer to work remotely in Portland. We decided that if one of us had a job lined up, then it was reason enough to make the move. So we took the leap! We packed up all of our stuff and put it in an ABF truck with a complete stranger and crossed our fingers that it would all be there shortly after our arrival. About a week later the two of us boarded a plane, each with a one way ticket to Portland, Oregon. Part of me felt like we were just boarding a plane for another vacation. But the other part of me had a full grasp on what a turning point this was in our lives. It was quite the emotional realization. Tears built up in my eyes as the plane started to vibrate and get ready for take off. Eric and I looked at each other, and without even saying it aloud; we knew what the other was thinking. "We're doing it! Together we're making our dream come true!"