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.
