Now I live in Portland with bea. It is so nice. I live in a great neighborhood, and have been spending a lot of time walking around the park and beautiful areas with bea. We're both unemployed still, so it's been nice having so much time to explore and relax together. Very romantic :)
We have been going to lots of yard sales and the goodwill to get furniture. One excellent sale, we picked up a desk, two bookshelves, and a stool for $7 total. Spent more for our office chairs, and a comfy reading chair (about $15 each), but found another desk for $3. I like my chair, but bea isn't very happy with his. We'll have to keep an eye out for another office chair.
We've gone to the Laurelhurst theater a bunch already, a cool $2 movie theatre playing second run movies. Great place to go during the heat wave we've just been having (today it is comfortable again, thankfully). They also sell good beer and pizza (though I haven't had the pizza since it's covered in cheese). I've been thinking about my veganism a lot lately. Our new neighbors Jen and Jan have been thinking of switching after meeting us, and I've been continuing my gradual shift to more complete veganism. I'd still been eating fish pretty frequently, especially when with my non-vegan friends. I've been thinking I'll continue to cut back. Dairy is easier to cut back, since I'm slightly allergic to it. Also I've been not buying leather shoes, even used from the goodwill, cause it just feels weird to me to wear it now. Anyway, I saw Italian for Beginners and Insomnia there. Italian for Beginners was totally cute. I recommend it. Insomnia was a detective style, edge-of-your-seat kinda movie. Entertaining, but not really something I'd recommend. Fine for $2 though.
There are two grocery stores in walking distance, one is health food, the other is yuppy. It would be nice to find a cheaper health food store. The one here was bought by Wild Oats recently and is getting yuppified too.
We have hung out with Jen and Jan a bit, they have a lot of stories to tell, which are interesting. Jen is a sociology professor, which is cool. We're going to have a housewarming shindig next weekend, and we'll probably invite them too, and see if they get along with our other friends. It's pretty amazing actually that we already made new friends here, since both bea and I are pretty shy and quiet people. It helps that J&J are both very talkative and friendly to make up for it :)
We're going camping with Jackie this weekend. That should be a blast. One of the reasons we were drawn to Portland was its proximity to the ocean and Mount Hood and other outdoorsy places. We'll be going to the beach this time. Bea and I are leaving early tomorrow and Jackie will drive out after work and join us. Hopefully we can get a spot... it's first come first serve. Also tonight, Brad and Sophia are driving up from Eugene, bring the rest of our stuff, some plants, veggies from the garden. Sophia and I will go to a concert together at the Roseland. It's fun to hang out with her, she's just 14 and is developing into a cool person. It's neat to see.