Starting to Get Settled

Well it has been several weeks since I have had the chance to post to this blog and here's why:

• I started training as a Personal Banker at Bank of America
• We moved out of Mike and Jaaaaaaaaaaannn's (that's how he says her name) and have been getting our place ready for the move
• We've had no furniture until just this week
• Every night with the exception of last night and tonight has been spent unpacking and seeing the sights and sounds (and tastes) of Portland with Katie and her dad.

This is a picture from one of the many window seats at the Portland City Grill, which is on the 30th floor of the SW 5th Ave Tower. During Happy Hour, food and drinks are very affordable :). 

I feel very fortunate to have a full time job, although I definitely miss having my 9 to 5 freedom. Oh well! The important thing is that now we can stay up here, get by, and start building some stability for ourselves. Thanks to Katie and Joe, we now have all of our furniture up here and are really making some great headway on getting it sorted. It feels great to NOT be in a 55 degree basement anymore! Video of the new digs coming soon.

As Katie mentioned below, the weather has been pretty cold and wintery. It was exciting to see it snow as it reminded us of the change that moving to the Pacific Northwest has brought us. However, like a true Californian (and probably even a Portlandian), I am looking forward to some sunshine and days without rain. Supposedly it got to a near-record-breaking 18 degrees the other night. I'm glad I was asleep for it, but I have a feeling next month's heating bill will give us both the chills! The thing is running almost constantly, but we need it. The mild summers and no need for A/C will balance it out, I'm sure.

Things that have been awesome:

• We have the luxury of cooking on a gas stove now!
• Our rent is very affordable
• We are 5 minutes away from a great pub that has live music (almost) every night
• Said pub is the one that sells growlers for $7 :)
• We have been to all of our favorite places--Plews Brews, Portland City Grill, Bastas, and Blue Moon Tavern--all within the last 5 days. Katie has had the good fortune of seeing even more of Portland with  her dad (and will probably blog about it :)

That's all I've got for now. Time to rest up for a 6-day work week..

Snow!

I don't have a lot of time to write tonight because I have lots of homework, but I wanted to share a couple pictures from our first real snow day.
This past Thursday we got 4 inches of snow! It was very exciting for us, especially being CA natives who don't get much exposure to that white stuff. We woke up to a white-blanketed wonderland and felt like little kids all over again. Nick was hoping that he didn't have to go into work-- because the city all but shuts down when it snows, due to the fact that Portland does not have the appropriate equipment to deal with it.

Unfortunately for Nick, the snow melted off the streets pretty quickly and he was able to get to work without a problem. Toby and I took a walk around the block around 8 that morning and it was so beautiful and serene. No one was in sight--barely a car on the street. And it was just white all over.
Toby was thrilled about the snow. He tried digging in in and ate plenty of it, too.

More to come soon! My dad was here helping us move into the condo this past week, and we covered a lot of Portland ground (and drank lots of good Portland beer [: ). We're almost finished unpacking, too-- woohoo!

P.S. It's such a luxury to have our furniture back... I have (at last!) upgraded from a beach chair to a big cozy couch. Never again will we take our furniture for granted!

A Room with a View

He's the perfect height to check out all the goings-on of our new neighborhood :)

Internet at Last!

We've been away from the internet world for the last week due to our recent move into the condo... But the Comcast technician came yesterday, so we are finally back in the virtual world. What did we do without the internet??! I felt like a lost puppy the last few days without it... although I think I accomplished a lot more around the house (er, as much as I could for a home with no furniture and only a fraction of our stuff)!  

 A quick little update: 

Last weekend Nick and I drove back to Eugene to pick up his car-- finally!! We spent Friday through Sunday at the cabin with Vikki and Rod. We also went to a Women's basketball game: Ducks vs. USC. It was so much fun! It didn't hurt that Matt got us some great seats-- right behind the announcers. Cousin Stephanie was cheering at the game and it  was a lot of fun to watch her, too. In the picture, she's the blond girl that looks like Nick. ;)

After the game we headed back to Matt and Amy's house and hung out with Stephanie, Joe, Susan & their kids, Scotty, Brandy & her three girls. The next day Rod and Vikki took Nick and I out to a nice lunch at BJs, then we headed to Joe and Susan's to say our goodbyes before Nick and I drove back up. It was a short but very sweet visit. We can't wait for Rod and Vikki to come back up and stay with us in our new condo. 

...Speaking of which! We moved into our condo on Monday night, after Nick got off of work. We'll be sleeping on an air mattress for a week--until I bring the rest of our furniture up with my Dad on Tuesday. Despite the fact that we have barely any cooking supplies, housewares or even a shower curtain, Nick and I are  thrilled to finally have our own place again! After 4 long months, we have a permanent home. Woohoo!
(Update: We now have a shower curtain, a couple more kitchen accessories and two small dressers thanks to a recent Ikea excursion!)

Our landlords are the sweetest people, by the way. She gave us our keys on a cute little keyring and when we moved some of our stuff in on Sunday, we found a housewarming gift from them! 

They also fell in love with Toby (although who wouldn't?! ;) and offered to take him home with them. 

 I considered it for a second...

This is the end of Nick's first full week at Bank of America and it's been so strange not seeing him all day! I've been trying to keep myself busy with my thesis and some job searching, but it was a little difficult to do without internet (nevermind the fact that I don't need internet to write my thesis... it was just my excuse... haha!). In all honesty though, it's been quite lonely around here during the day, especially because our only furniture consists of an air mattress and a beach chair. Not much around here in the way of comfort just yet... I am so looking forward to getting our furniture next week!

This weekend's tentative agenda: Buy Nick a growler (more on that later), go to Portland City Grill (during happy hour of course!) to redeem my Valentine's day gift card from Nick, and possibly attend the Epicurean's walking tour of Portland. 

Speaking of V-day, look what my Valentine brought home on Monday!

Cathedral Park

After I dropped Nick off at work today, I decided to drive around St. Johns area to get a feel for our new hometown. I started at our new condo-- I just had to take another peek at the the outside... and figure out its proximity to a few attractions I found on Yelp. First up: Cathedral Park.

Taken today by yours truly...
too bad there was so much fog this morning!

The park is located at the foot of the St. Johns bridge-- the bridge that is viewable from our front door and quite spectacular! Some people compare it to the Golden Gate--and while I won't go that far just yet, I am excited that we have such a great monument only steps away from our new home! 

photo from columbiariverimages.com

I also visited "Anna Bannanas" (spelled like so... the spelling nerd in me is a little bothered by this!), which is a lovely coffee shop and cafe a couple blocks from our condo. It was the perfect place to get some reading done for class.

After that I went to "Tulip Pastry Shop" because apparently they have the best maple bars around (how could I not check for myself?!). I must say, the maple bar was delicious-- and only cost me three quarters. ;) Not quite the style of VooDoo, but just as tasty! 

We might be signing the least and getting the keys tomorrow, woohoo! We're also driving back down to Eugene tomorrow night because Nick's parents are in town and have brought him the Subaru! He's missed that car dearly... and it will be nice to have my wheels all to myself again. ;)

Movin' On Up

Today is Nick's first day at work. He looked like a pro when he left this morning-- all dressed up with tie and jacket. I just got a text from him, telling me that his new coworkers got him a cake and balloons. I have a feeling he's going to like it there!

This is a (not-so-great) shot of Nick's BofA. I love the buiding!

Yesterday Nick and I drove up from Eugene to Portland. Cousin Amy graciously offered to watch the Eugene cabin for the next couple days, so we were all set! Nick obviously has to be up here because of work, and I thought I'd tag along in order to check out potential rentals. With Nick working full-time and me staying down in Eugene, it'd be hard to schedule viewings of potential places--letalone sign a lease!
On our drive back up to the City of Roses, I made many phone calls and scheduled rental viewings for later in the day. Of the twelve homes I called on, we were able to set up only four appointments. Three of the four rentals are located a few minutes away from Nick's work, so that is a big plus!
Two of those rentals happened to be in the same complex, go figure. When I called about the second condo and the guy gave me the same address as the first condo, I got very confused.

"Wait, I think I'm already scheduled to see your place at 4:30... are you associated with Laura? She's the lady I'm meeting at that address."
"Uhhhh, no... My girlfriend's name is Hillary."
"Oh...that's strange... It's the same exact address..."
"Hmm..! Wait--That's the Laura from the other side of the complex. She must be renting her condo out, too!"
"Aha!"

It turns out that both Laura and Chris (the guy I spoke with above) have almost identical condos: stainless steel appliances, tile countertops, maple cabinets, gas ranges, dishwasher, (huge kitchen!), and in-unit washer/dryer. The only differences between the two are the larger patio off of Laura's condo vs. slightly larger bedrooms and an extra parking space with Chris's unit. Oh and one more distinguishing feature-- the price tag!! Laura was asking $155 more per month for her unit. I'm guessing you already know who we went with. :) We filled out the rental application last night and are just waiting to hear back about signing the lease.

This is the kitchen in the condo we're applying for.
I can already picture a nice little island in the center :)

Now we just need to coordinate with my dad, as he has offered to haul all of our belongings (currently in storage in Novato) up to Portland. We're hoping to make the move as soon as possible--shooting for the last week in February. After that, we will be residents of Oregon for good!

He's Hired!

NICK GOT THE JOB!! 

WOOHOO! 

Monday evening Nick got a voicemail on his phone from the staffing agent with Bank of America. When they finally spoke that night, she offered him the job as personal banker in North Portland! We are so excited, as we were getting just a bit desperate with our situation! He has worked incredibly hard for this (with over 40 resumes distributed in under 30 days) and I couldn't be more proud of him. :)

Nick left for Portland this afternoon to take care of business (i.e. fingerprinting and paperwork) with the company before his first day of work, February 9. He'll be living in our Portland rental for at least the next couple weeks while he settles into the new job. After that, we'll be looking for a place to finally call our home.

Last night I realized that we'll have been living in temporary housing for four months at the end of February. Because of our nasty landlord situation, we got out of our Novato rental in early November and moved to Concord for the month. With December came my surgery** in Orange County, and that's where I stayed until we headed to Portland on January 1. Now it's February and I'm in Eugene for the month. In four months I've been in 4 places across 1000 miles: North CA, South CA, North OR, South OR. Needless to say, I am very ready to have a more permanent home again. We're already browsing potential rentals-- the time can't pass quick enough!

**Sidenote: today is 2 months post-op for me! I still have quite a bit of back muscle pain and soreness where the bar is placed. Mornings are the worst for me because I wake up very stiff. I also hear/feel a "clicking" in my sternum when I breathe in and out... it doesn't hurt, but it can get annoying! Otherwise I feel great and can do most everything I could pre-op. We went on a hike this weekend and I did pretty well--I could tell that I was out of shape though! Hopefully the soreness will go away soon. We've been using the hot tub almost nightly here at the cabin, and it makes a huge difference!