Yep, still alive.

I started this blog as a way to keep in touch with all the people who are near and dear to my heart but far away from Portland. I'm terrible about calling people (a trait exacerbated by the three-hour time difference to the east coast), so this was to be a way to share all those little life updates that people just know when you live and work near each other.

Apparently when my mother's consulting clients brought her to Portland for extended periods of time, I subconsciously believed she would serve as my personal ambassador to the east coast: collecting my news and distributing it to ... her government/our family and friends? That metaphor falls apart pretty quickly. Clearly both the subconscious belief and the metaphor were ill-chosen and unfair. The point is, it's time for some conscious effort at blogging instead of unconscious reliance on magical/otherwise made-up methods.

So here's a little update on the things that have happened since my last post and that come to my mind right now:
I got a "new" job. I'm still at the same school, but I've switched from alumni relations to being the DBA (official title "Development Information Services Coordinator", a title my coworkers and I promptly shortened to "DISC", a nickname everyone's having fun with). We have a few vacant positions right now, so I'm still covering a bit of my old job until we make some new hires. It's been a bit stressful at times but I really enjoy the new work and think it will put me on a better path to grad school. They've also just finished remodeling/rearranging our offices, which is a lovely boost to morale.

I started a volunteer gig. Not the kind of volunteer work that pulls at your heartstrings, but interesting stuff nonetheless. I'm a member of a local professional development organization for non-profit development officers - the organization has a new analytics committee which serves other committees' needs to crunch data about their membership and programs. I'm currently working on analyzing salary and benefits-related results from our annual membership survey, slicing and dicing by all the standard independent variables and a few interesting, new ones as well. If we have time, maybe we'll compare it to the national industry surveys, too.

I've started reading again. This is pretty exciting for me. Apart from summers, I stopped reading for pleasure through most of high school and all through college. Between coursework and after-school stuff, I just didn't have the energy or motivation. I spent most of my free time in the first year after college cutting paper and such for our wedding. I flirted with reading but it was sporadic at best and always fluff. I rediscovered the joy of reading between our wedding and landing a job in Portland ... between road trips and just a ton of free time (and Mike The Book-Devourer as a great example), I read more in a few weeks than I had in years. Work and four months of Vitamin D insufficiency kept me from making it a habit, but I feel like it's coming back now. The Multnomah County Library (and its extensive digital collections program - ebooks AND audiobooks) has become my favorite thing about Portland and I'm alternating between Nora Roberts-type fare and 800-page biographies of US presidents, classic literature, etc. Apart from a brief, regrettable foray into Nicholas Sparks, it's been wonderful.

I'm finally researching grad schools. On my very last day of undergraduate classes it hit me that grad school was no longer a fanciful "maybe" for my future: I knew then that I wanted to go. I didn't know what concentration or to what school, and I still felt a need for a break between undergrad and grad school, but the itch was there. Two years later, I'm finally starting to look at schools, specific programs and the (new) GRE. It's still a ways off and there are lots of questions to be answered (do I want a Master's or Phd? How long can I delay my biological clock, and is it crazy to have a baby in the middle of studying for an advanced degree?), but it's starting to feel a bit more real.

Maybe I'll call that enough for now, before this becomes unfinishable and/or unreadable. Because updates should cover expectations about the future in addition to recaps of the past, I'll give you a brief glimpse of my next few weeks and bid you buenas noches (language note: it just now strikes me that this literally translates to "good nights", just like buenos días means "good days". Why the pluralization? Not only this, but every night, should be great? Works for me).

So, in August we expect: Mike to get his wisdom teeth pulled, (consequently) me to perfect my scratch mashed potatoes and other mushy foods, a possible kayaking trip (a first-ever for both Mike and me), a trip to Pennsylvania, and a month of puppy envy. Oh, and hopefully a few blog posts, too!

If you're reading this from the east coast and didn't know I would be in the Baltimore/PA area in August, please chalk it up to my aforementioned suckitude at calling people. Drop me a line if you want to make a visit happen and we'll figure it out.

Until next time, insert catchy sign-off here.

Perfectionism

I tend to be a huge perfectionist. I think I do okay keeping it out of my personal relationships, but anything where my work will be on display will be stressed over and scrutinized with every waking moment (and many sleeping). This is why I had a rocky social life in college--becoming progressively more reclusive between freshman year and handing in my senior honors thesis--and why I have minor panic attacks every few weeks when I come home from work. It's why I had a series of terrifying nightmares about wedding planning for the entire 18 months that Mike and I were engaged, and possibly why I'm a rather slow reader. Over the years I've attributed this to nagging insecurity, a generally nervous/anxious personality, an acceptable learning style and just plain being up against challenging work. It's also something I've been a little afraid to lose, as it may be the key ingredient to why I did well in college, why I receive good performance reviews at work, and why I felt proud of every last detail of our wedding (one year ago this Saturday? What?). I'm not sure what benefit comes from the slow reading, but I generally feel happy with the results so why question the methods, right?

But today, a friend sent out an email with this quote attached, and it struck a gigantic chord with me. It might have struck several chords in I-IV-V progression, actually. I think this understanding of the narrowing gap between your standards and your ability to produce work commensurate to them is essential to having the best of both worlds: quality results without the ulcer-inducing stress. If I could go through college again now, I would easily be able to produce the level of work I was striving for the entire four years. I think if I had known that then, I would have worked as much but lost less sleep.

Now, I'm not saying that I've driven myself to drink or that I've ever actually had an ulcer due to stress. But there are some nights where I just need Mike to tell me that I'm good at things before I feel I can face everything on my plate for the next day. I look at the current state of the program I run versus where I'd like it to be and it's incredibly daunting. I can't see the progress I've made (personally or professionally) when I think about it, and I think I'm not doing well enough.

So I thought I'd share this attractively-presented quote and extremely self-centered analysis with all of you, in case you're like me and need a little epiphany. Personally, I'll be keeping it near as a reminder for the stressful days. It will come, eventually - just keep trying.

Sea Rats

Sea Rats (n.)

Combat rations or Meals Ready to Eat.

Example: “In the Army we had to eat sea rats in the rain… they were so wet and soggy.”

Contributor: Melody McBeth

Sasquatchcentennial

Sasquatchcentennial (n.)

The 150^th anniversary of an event, place or thing.

Example: “Bigfoot nearly burned down the forest with all the candles on his cake at the sasquatchcentennial.”

Contributor: Michael Armstrong

Movedtoportlanditis

This post is an apology to everyone that I have fallen out of touch with over the last few weeks and months. It's a pathetic excuse that some of you have heard, but one that I'm going to make anyway: I'm allergic to Portland.

What does this have to do with not calling you? Well, basically, I've been sick for the past three and a half months. A few weeks ago I got tired of waiting it out and hoping it was just the holiday round of sicknesses made ever worse by being unused to the local germs. Hopes dwindled that I was simply an example of how American colonization would have fared if the natives were the ones who had been immune carriers of the bubonic plague.

So I went to the doctor, had several little vials of blood drawn, and waited for the results. It turns out there are two things at play here: (1) I am allergic to the mold that thrives everywhere in wet, mildly temperate Portland and (2) I have a Vitamin D deficiency from the lack of sunlight in Portland. My Vitamin D levels were at 1/3 the minimum acceptable level, and at 1/5 the level my doctor likes to see.

I feel lucky that I haven't wanted to throw myself off the roof. Vitamin D apparently acts as both a hormone and a vitamin, affecting your mood as well as your immune system. I've basically been catching every cold that comes my way and suffering mild depression that has manifested itself as an intense lack of energy and lethargy. It's about all I can do to be productive at work, and then talking to friends and family seems like a pretty daunting task when I get home.

The good news is that supplements, tanning beds and the proximity of summer mean that I will hopefully be back to normal soon, and I intend to catch up when that happens. I miss a lot of people. Until then, however, I'm going to take a nap. Goodnight.

Mareacle

Mareacle (n.)

An unbelievable occurrence, frequently attributed to a deity of some kind.

Example: “Eat some of these mareacle berries and you’ll get the magic tongue.”

Contributor: Dana Crawford

Rum

Rum (n.)

An area within a building delineated by walls.  When preceded by a possessive, short for “bedroom.”

Example: “It’s been a long day, I just want to go to my rum.”

Contributor: Brian Zinkel

Teefbrush

Teefbrush (n.)

A small brush used for cleaning teeth

Example: “Damn, yous got a lotta teefbrushes. Whatchu gon’ do wif a hundred teefbrushes?”

Contributor: Sean McBeth

An Illustrated Dictionary

I had a random idea today and decided to follow through on it. I'm putting together a dictionary of bad words - not swear words, but rather words that are bastardizations of real words created by children or grammatically-challenged adults - in the style of a children's dictionary. The first entry is below. I have a few more in the queue that I'll work on, but feel free to suggest words such as "teefbrush" and "puss" (noun meaning small bag often carried by women). Real, correctly spelled/used words need not apply.

I'll eventually put these in an alphabetized PDF with a goofy intro, if the ambition lasts long enough. The first entry comes from my own childhood struggle with words, as remembered by my mother.

maggot-finding glass  (n.)

A lens used to make small objects appear larger.

Example: “Mo-om! Sean’s burning ants again with the maggot-finding glass!”

Contributor: Melody McBeth

I don't understand Facebook

I use Facebook every day for work. I manage our social media outlets to the best of my ability in the face of all the other duties I try to juggle. Occasionally, I attend a webinar or read some articles about "new" strategies for social media (the same five strategies have been recycled for the past two years) to try to keep my skills sharp and offer my organization's followers what they're looking for and coming to expect from a nonprofit's Facebook Page or from a Page in general. So, I like to think I'm pretty good with Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and even Classmates.com.

But then a strange thing happened.

The Move: Part 3

Settling in


We've been here for a little over two weeks now, and it's feeling very much like home. We are still in awe of the increased square footage - occasionally, Mike comes into the living room and says something like "I'm sorry, did you say something? I couldn't hear you, I was in the other room." I didn't say anything. He just revels in the possibilities that arise from rooms, plural.

We have hidden away most of our superfluous junk in closets and storage spaces, and now we just have some white walls and empty floor space. We're getting excited about planning decorations - posters/artwork, curtains, plants. We have a particularly stellar poster of a rearing pony that will be residing in the bathroom when we the frame arrives in the mail. Everything else is a bit of a mystery. We have some posters and such from our former lives, but no firm plans of what to do.

Today we completed an act which I consider essential to feeling rooted in a home: we baked something. Not just anything - peppermint pirate cupcakes, 100% from scratch! I think I can say that I have not opened a box of cake mix or a tub of frosting since Mike and I got married. Check out Mike's blog for a picture. There's something awesome about filling your home with the familiar smells of favorite foods... and something to be said for getting the first messes out of the way. Eventually, you're going to spill a drink or something all over everywhere. The first mess is the most stressful because of those rose-colored shiny-new-apartment glasses you've been wearing, so why not take the plunge and make a chocolate cake, where you are guaranteed to get cocoa powder all over the table when you're measuring?

Today we also officially hosted our first guest since getting settled - my mom is in town again for work this week, and she stopped up for a few minutes before heading to her hotel. Tomorrow night we will cook her one of our favorite recipes - Boston Hill Chicken. It's to die for. If you come visit us, we might make you something just as tasty, and even let you sleep on our air mattress. You should think about it.

The Move: Part 2

The Big Day

After two agonizing weeks of anticipation, the day was finally upon us. Time to move all of our IKEA furniture and disassemble the "fortress made of boxes", as Mike termed it.

I woke up at 6am, determined to walk to my favorite corner bagel shop and get some sustenance and caffeine for our 7am appointment to sign paperwork. Apparently, I had invented the idea that the place opened at 5am and ended up going to the Plaid Pantry, which is an extremely poor man's Sheetz/7-11. I returned to our studio with mini donuts and machine-sputtered cappuccino, and we headed to meet our building manager.

At 10, we got the U-Haul, and Mike spent the next few hours being a champ at driving it.

So, it turns out I didn't really get any pictures of moving things, since my hands were pretty full the whole time. So instead, here's a picture from our lunch break:

And a picture of 2/3 of the moving team:

And this sighting of Mario:

We managed to get everything done in about 4 hours, including a lunch break. We only had to carry the boxspring and mattress up the six flights of stairs - the couch and TV stand magically fit in the tiny elevator, which was cause for celebration. We followed tradition and unpacked the TV and PS3 first so that we could take a movie break over pizza and cider. We finished moving out of the old place on Sunday and started the arduous task of unpacking...

TO BE CONTINUED

The Move: Part 1

Packing Up

If you've been reading Mike's blog, you already know that we have found a new apartment and are moving in next Saturday. That means that, in the meantime, we are packing. Vaguely related items are going into uniform white bankers' boxes, where they will be irretrievable until every last box is unpacked in the new place. Our tiny studio is slowly being overtaken by towers of these mislabeled boxes - they were lent to us by my boss, who just moved this summer and had been organized enough to label her boxes. We haven't bothered to scratch out her labels and try to categorize the mishmash of items in each box.

We have a growing pile of items to donate: things that have become redundant over the past seven months in our little studio or that won't have a place in our new apartment. One such thing was an old desk of Mike's, which he doesn't entirely need for his laptop and doesn't tend to use as a work surface. We have just returned from a failed attempt to donate this desk to the thrift store two blocks down the street. After a grueling 15 minutes of lugging the thing down the street, navigating the crowded terrain of Portland's absurdly narrow and unkempt sidewalks, this perfectly good desk was deemed too shabby by what is apparently the world's pickiest thrift store. So we lugged it back and placed it next to the dumpster in front of our apartment, hoping some needy soul will find it and give it a good home.

It's remarkable how much stuff we have. We didn't move out here with many things - Mike filled about 1/8 of a moving truck container (most of that space was due to the couch and bed), and I basically filled the trunk area of a minivan. But between wedding gifts and several trips to IKEA for much-needed furniture, we now need to rent a U-Haul and possibly make several trips with it. How do you fill a 300 square foot apartment with that much stuff?

Stay tuned for an update about Saturday and the move itself!

Whoops!

I've fallen woefully behind on updating this blog. Life has been rather busy since my last post, with travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas and lots of year-end projects and events at work.

Now, I can postpone no longer, so it seems time for a year-end wrap-up.

Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving was marked by a redeye flight to Baltimore and immediate vows to never take such a flight again. Holy cow. Who knew how many parents would opt to take their screaming babies on a plane at 11:30 at night? Don't get me wrong, I feel for the babies ... and the parents might not have had many options, but that was the loudest flight I've ever been on. Long story short, after 15 grueling hours of travel we finally made it to my parents' house. Food, movies, Sean's birthday, more food, more movies. Thanksgiving day was marked by watching the Macy's parade after 4 hours of sleep, preparing my favorite foods with Mom (baked corn!), and Mike killing us all at the family tradition of stating what you're thankful for. He had the poor fortune to go first after never hearing of this tradition before (I forgot about it) and subsequently whipped out a tear-jerking speech.

On Friday, we saw the new Harry Potter movie, then went to the inappropriately-named "Christmas Tree Store", which only had 3 Christmas trees and was a bit like an over-sized Walgreens with a holiday-themed sign. Weird.

Saturday, we drove out to Philadelphia for Thanksgivingston. This is the second year that I've been able to attend the annual event, and the first time that Mike has gotten to join. It was pretty relaxing, full of games, wonderful home-cooked meal, ridiculous conversation, and generally was a great time. PS drove us back to the airport in the morning, where a TSA agent laughed at my luggage and we made it home without a hitch. We rather expected some hitches given the new security measures - we were completely prepared to opt out of the carcinogenic scanners at BWI, which they have but apparently don't use. We faced no long security lines and it seemed like a pretty normal travel day.

Christmas

Well, before we get right into Christmas, let me tell you about work. I had three alumni events in 5 days, the final of which ended at 10pm the night before our flight to Chicago. They all went rather well but I was exhausted from the extra hours and from fighting off a cold for the two weeks leading up to Christmas. We flew in to Chicago on Wednesday morning, hung out with Nate and Dana for an evening and went to Wauconda in the morning. Present wrapping, copious amounts of Rock Band 3 with the entire Armstrong family, dogs, food, Christmas lights, Christmas Eve church service and carols. Fresh "noodles" (the Armstrong traditional holiday dish), containers and containers of sugar cookies. Excellent presents and stocking stuffers. Naps. Hanging out with Mike's childhood friends, who are awesome. I think the only thing that wasn't great was that I got slammed with a head cold on Christmas night. I had planned to go ice skating with Mike but stayed home to sleep instead. The next day I attempted to swallow a Dayquil pill, not realizing how swollen my throat was. Turns out, Mike's pretty good with the Heimlich maneuver. We switched to liquid Dayquil and Nyquil after that.

When it came time to fly back home, we ended up standing in line outside Midway for an hour in line for curbside check-in. The line inside was phenomenally long thanks to the East Coast weather aftermath. Our plane into Denver was delayed an hour and we missed our connection to Portland. The next flight didn't leave for another 7 hours, so we ended up getting home at 11:30pm instead of 2:30pm.

New Year's

I was still sick by the time New Year's Eve rolled around, so we just stayed in, watched movies, made our traditional milkshakes and toasted with some sparkling apple juice at midnight. On Sunday we managed to get out of the apartment and go ice skating at the Lloyd Center.

All-in-all, a rather eventful series of holidays. Now it's back to the daily grind, peppered by such exciting events as a visit from Mom and Mike's graduate school applications. We're also looking to move into a bigger apartment sometime in February or March.

With any luck, I'll be posting more frequently ... call it a New Year resolution, if you will. But if you don't, I won't be as embarrassed if I fail.