Flicks and pics

Yesterday I spent my evening in a most delightful way making

collages and watching chick flicks. Sometimes you just need a good romance film in your life

as well as some clippings from a variety of pretty

good sources. Shout out Daniel Wood for the National Geographics. Shout out Dad for the Netflix Subscription.

Hope you all have been having a good week.

wonky work week

Usually, I love working. I love knowing I'm making money. I love getting paid. I love being busy. I love having goals. I love a heavy dose of interpersonal interactions. I love making thinks run smoothly around me.

I know my use of the word 'love' here is very liberal but what I'm saying is working is usually something that I cherish being able to do.

Recently that hasn't been the case. The last week has found me just a bit angrier and angrier at the establishment for which I work every day. I think it could just be one of those wonky work weeks where nothing goes right and things just conspire to peeve you.

Since, I hadn't updated my blog as of late and I had work today I thought I would let you all know these feelings I've been having. :D.

It's silly, and I'm sure it will pass and I'll love working again in just a few bit. On the upside I did have an interview at another restaurant yesterday. As far as I know, it went well. Hopefully that pulls through and things will start looking up on the work front.

Best wishes. Hope everyone is looking forward to a great new year.

Cookies!

For Christmas Jon & I made cookies! Here are some pics for you!

Coconut rice is cooking on the stove and cookies are being plated

Cookies in the oven

Two Days Before Christmas

Hi out there.

I was recently musing about how I had no reason to update my blog but I had forgotten how Christmas was only two days away so in the spirit of giving (information at least) I will update my blog despite the fact that my life is somewhat lacking in excitement.

To keep with the Christmas of it all, I'll begin with my holiday plans. The start off event to celebrate Christmas was to go to the grindhouse slasher film Silent Night, Deadly Night for free at the Hollywood Theater here in Portland. This I did with Jon, last night. It was a silly, silly movie but had at least one of us humming Christmas carols as we headed out into the night.

My next line of Christmas business is going to be to send out Christmas cards to those I haven't gotten around to sending them to yet. That happens today.

On Christmas eve, Jon and I (The friends that are staying in town for Christmas) are going to go grocery shopping for Christmas dinner ingredients.

And On Christmas day, we will make Christmas curry, cookies, and apple cider. We will open gifts from our respective families. We will watch a Stanley Kubrick movie marathon. We will, of course, long to be with our respective families and may even take phone calls from them.

On the day after Christmas we will head to work at Slappy Cakes and get money.

That is all for our Christmas plans, at least as far as I know.

To quote the cartoon Kim Possible, which I once loved so much, "Call me, beep me, if you wanna reach me" I'd love to hear from you while you're taking a break from the regular stresses of everyday living for Christmas.

Love,
Rachel

Moved in

Hey all,

I hope you are all enjoying your holiday. I know that many of my followers are thinking of and supporting Mamaw in a variety of ways and I just wanted to give a shout out to all of you.

Thanks for being awesome.

Over here on in the North West I have abruptly changed places of residence. This happened so quickly for two reasons. The first of which being that I realized I could save a lot of money if I moved over to this new house when there was an opening. The second being that my friend Jon, my best Portland friend, was having some serious, crazy roommate drama and needed to move into a new place right away. It just so happened that as I realized that I needed to move, Jon also was available to take over my place (helping me not lose my last month's rent in the move).

It's even good because I have an excuse to visit my old roomies and the dog, Benny, who I was just starting to really get along with.

So, there you have it. When I get my stuff all unpacked, I believe I'll be taking some pictures. So, stay tuned for that.

New Address

Here's my new address. I'm starting my move tomorrow.

7027 SE Rhone St.

Portland, OR 97206

Now don't get upset if you've sent me something to my old address. I'm having my mail forwarded so it will still get to me.

Also, if you haven't sent me any mail, the reason I'm posting my address for you is so that you can. Thanks!

Have a good day everyone!

New faces New spaces

So, I'm moving.

I'm moving into a space, not a room (just a space that needs to be curtained off) but it's going for about 200 a month (250 including utilities) and I can't argue with that. This means that I'll actually be making more than I'm spending on rent. Jackpot!! Last month I was fine on the making to spending ratio, but the 2 months before that meant a dip into the old savings.

I'm pretty excited. Plus, I think I just found my friend, Jonathan, a place to live where I live now! 2 birds 1 stone.

That's just a quick update. Now I have a gingerbread house making party to attend.

Best!

Biscuits and books

Recently, I have been making a lot of biscuits. I have a lot of time to spend on making food so I've been making all of my meals and sometimes my bread too. However, I'm too impatient to make a yeast based bread so I've been making biscuits and corn bread. The other day, I bought veggie burgers and then I made an extra large biscuit so that I could use it as a bun. Turned out pretty tasty.

Other than that I've been reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle because a lot of people have been recommending Haruki Murakami to me recently and it is a really, seriously, long book. But, pretty easy to read. It's also pretty surreal.

In other news, I went to a job that was posted on craigslist yesterday and there were at least 30 other people waiting for an interview for the same job as me. It's just a hosting job! I had some good conversations with the other folks who were waiting to interview but the odds aren't really looking like they're in my favor for that one. Oh well, another day, another application.

That's about it. I'll catch you folks on the flip side.

post to post

OK It looks as though I have been letting things get a little out of hand on not updating the blog recently.

Part of that is because I've been going out and doing things, and part of it is because I have been going out and doing things that aren't very interesting or blog worthy.

I've been hitting the 2nd run movies a lot because they're just a few bucks and usually they make for a good end to the day or when I'm lucky I've been hitting up the independent film theater that my friend Jon volunteers at.What's nice about that is that I get to see films with a friend, Jon, it's free since he's a volunteer there, and I see films I wouldn't usually get to see. But, in the end, what is there to blog about going to see a movie.

I've also been doing a bit of christmas shopping. Nothing more shall be discussed here.

Other things on my list of activities for last week are:

1) online yoga classes - I got a 20 minute class that gets me worked up and streched out but isn't too intimidating of a commitment.

2)Work - I worked two longer shifts this week than usual. Hurray!

3) reading - I just finished Nine Stories by JD Salinger

4) job applications- I've applied for an average of a job a day this week. Not my best week but not my worst either

5) tea time- with my dear friend Jonathan.

6) crossword puzzling - With myself, Jack, Jon and more of myself. Those things are addictive and I am wickedly bad at them.

7) walking- I've spent a lot of time walking around the area, to get outside when it's sunny, to explore, to get from one buss stop to another and then deciding to just walk instead.

there is probably more but I think you get the idea that my life has not been full of exciting adventures as of late so I haven't had much to blog to you all about.

Hope everyone's day is going well. Here's wishing for adventures to come!

Me right before a night time bike ride the other night. It gets dark so early!

With sunshine comes sunsets!

Today it was sunny! Oh, the wonders that a sunny day can do for you when everything's been gray for so long. Also! tomorrow I have work and sunshine means it will probably be busy and I'll get to stay for longer and thus get paid more. Get Money!!

Besides that, today I saw a sunset! It was spectacular. Not only do I not usually get to see the sun on a normal day but because of this I never get to see a sunset! I had forgotten how wonderful the sun moving over the horizon (or I think it would actually be the earth spinning so that it looks like the sun is moving over the horizon) could be.

So, in an act of humble gratitude I would like to issue the following statement:

Dear Sunshine,

I missed you more than words can explain. Thank you for coming back to me.

Please do not leave me for so long again. Being without you is being without a life force. Even if I can be emotionally strong, my body betrays me. My serotonin levels dip and I sink into a sleepy and unproductive state.

Now that you are back I am revived. I will remain faithful to you both out of principle as well as need. Please do the same for me.

Yours truly,

Rachel Ogburn

postcard?

Does anyone know what happened to this postcard?

A number of my postcards have been lost in the mail since I moved to Portland, OR and I'm hoping that this one did not. Let me know if you received this card.

Thanks!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving comes with two things this year. 1st: Extra work!! yay! I got to work both the day before thanksgiving and today the day after. That makes for one happy occasion. Wednesday was actually a little bit crazy in the restaurant. And here I was thinking that people would be fasting for the big feast. Also, I got a bit lucky today and got snuck some extra time in at work. Cha-Ching!

2nd: New people. This year I spent thanksgiving with nine people I have never spent thanksgiving with before. One of them my friend from work, another being my roommate & boyfriend, and the rest strangers! It was a pretty good time and Jonathan, from work, took a few pictures that you all can check out since I'm putting them on the blog!

Jon's a good photographer with sneak attach shots of me checking the recipe

Pot pie pre-bake.

Late! Wah Wah!

Today I was late for work!

Bleh!

I live 2 blocks away and I was late!

I am not a total slacker. Neither of my alarms went off this morning!! I don't even know why because both were clearly set.

I got a write up.

I am never late to work.

If anyone had called me when I was 3 minutes late then I would have been only 7 minutes late. That's how close to work I live, and how important it is to me to be on time to work!

Then, when it got slow early, I got sent home first because I was late to work. How am I going to pay my bills when I am only getting 3 hours of work in a day?!

Ah!! Bad morning.

Looking for a new place

Right now, as I type, I'm living in a wonderful location with fairly nice roommates and a hot cup of tea next to me. So, why, you might ask, is the title of this blog "Looking for a new place? Well, the reason is this, I don't like how anti social my roommates are. The ones that live downstairs are actually really nice and they talk to me when they're upstairs BUT the ones that live upstairs (one in particular) frequently go on loud rants about how humanity sucks or some other topic that I generally just don't want to hear ranted about.

I can't handle it. I don't want to be caught in my room at least once a week afraid to go out into the land of ranting. I want to live somewhere where if I have 6 people over they're not getting the stink eye from my incredibly anti social roommates. I would prefer to live farther away from work, in a stinkier part of town, than have to feel bad about occupying the communal spaces in my house. Also, I'd like to find cheaper rent.

It's a strange dichotomy because on one hand, I generally like all of my roommates and would enjoy spending time with them but on the other hand, there is such a pervasive air of unwillingness to socialize that I feel uncomfortable spending any time with them. I know, it doesn't make sense and that's why I want to move, because of something that doesn't make sense.

Anyways, I have just started to house hunting process and will probably live here for a few more months, at least.

Wish me luck on the adventure of finding a good place to live!

Postal

I just wanted to write a quick shout out to all of those who have written me mail and most recently I've received a few solid post card contributions to add to my mail collection.

Shout out Dogfish Head post cards and South Carolina post cards!

If you're thinking about adding to my mail collection you can send me mail at

808 Southeast 43rd Ave.

Portland, OR 97215

Tea bags

I recently got sick and am now feeling much better. I still have a few of the pesky remnants of a cold but, in general, I am all better or so I hope.

Since moving to Portland, I have been especially into drinking teas. I've always enjoyed a good cup of tea but now I find myself buying tea whenever I find it on sale and offering tea to my friends as a reason they should come over.

When I got sick, my tea intake, which had been at about 1 cup with a fresh tea bag went up to at least 2 cups a day sometimes more. And I have no way of counting my tea bag reuse but I know for a fact that today I've reused at least 2 tea bags once. I'm just trying to give you a picture of what kind of tea drinking has been going on here.

Why am I explaining this to you? I don't know. But something else I don't know is why, at the end of my birthday I started collecting my old tea bags? So far I have 20. some of them are almost dry while others are still soft and fresh from the cup. I hope that none of them mold.

Here's a picture or two of my newest collection.

My collection

Close up.

Still Ill

What?! WHAt?! I've been sick for the past few days and have no interesting things to update you all on. Sorry :((

I'm taking a new cold medicine that seems to be relieving my body of many of it's more painful symptoms so that's a relief. I got an extra few hours of work yesterday but getting to work seemed to throw my body back off and the rest of the day I just slept, drank tea, and ate soup. Bleh, story of my week.

Helpful note: if you haven't tried split pea soup you probably won't like it. I didn't anyways.

I'm trying to get out of the house more today as my energy level is at a new high for the week. Yay!!

Birthday Dinner

A few days ago was my official, 25 hour long, birthday. That's right, daylight savings time happened on my birthday this year thus increasing the time I got to spend celebrating my birthday. I did sleep through at least 9 hours of my birthday because I was fighting off something awful (unsuccessfully it turns out). But the rest of my 25 hour day I celebrated every minute!

At work they sang me slappy birthday-because I work at Slappy Cakes- and whipped creamed me in the face with delicious homemade whipped cream. However, my real birthday celebration took the place of a delicious meal that I had for dinner. I invited two friends I've made at work, my two couch surfing hosts, and my one fellow new Portlander that I met while at the Hostel and had most of them make something wonderful for my dinner.

Here's how it turned out:

Dana, my couch surfing host: made a delicious salad, two kinds of leafy things, carrots, tomatoes, crazins, feta cheese, and yellow peppers.

Rosie, her roommate: grated the carrots for the salad

Cory, my fellow hosteler: made a delicious steamed yellow squash dish that incorporated lemon juice, butter and Parmesan cheese as well as squash.

Jack, a friend from work: roasted some simple, yet delicious, carrots with the basic ingredients of salt, pepper and olive oil.

Jonathan, another friend from work: made the main course of fettuccine alfredo spicing it up with a bit of nutmeg.

And I made a somewhat sloppy but still sweet and tasty Chocolate Chess Pie for dessert.

All in all, it was a successful meal and as a delightful bonus Dana and Rosie made me the cutest card and brought me delicious french truffles!

Front

Inside

Back

Good things often come in envelopes

Benny Bee

The other day my roommate, Nicole, came back from a visit with her family. I was pleasantly surprised when she came home since I had missed her being around. But, I was even more joyously surprised when I realized what she had brought with her.

Yes, she had purchased a half-off bumblebee costume for her little dog, Benny. $5.00 for joy to fill everyone in the household, except for Benny, of course. Look at the serious unhappiness in that dog's eyes.

Just wanted to give you a quick update on one of the cute animals that lives in our house and his costume wearing antics.

Sunny days.

It's been beautiful here in Portland OR ever since I returned home from Augusta, GA. It's almost as if the city is welcoming me back. The weather has made the neighborhood and surrounding area ripe for our picking. Here are the last few of my days in pictures.

My friend Jonathan and I went Hiking to Mirror Lake.

learning to be outdoorsy

Mt Hood behind Mirror Lake. Beautiful.

A tree we saw on our hike.

A sunflower I saw whilst I was walking around the neighborhood

note how clear and blue the sky is in the background

A tree with some beautiful leaves in my neighborhood

Moss growing on a wall down the street

Return to Portland

I'm back in Portland. It turns out that it takes forever to fly to and from Portland, OR.

Thankfully, however, my day of travel was broken up by a really great lunch with my parents!! I found out at about 8:00 am that I had layover in Philadelphia on my way back west from Augusta, GA. Upon notifying my dad about my flight itinerary we decided to meet in Philadelphia. Luckily that was my longest layover and I had a few solid hours to spend with them. I'd like to say now. Thanks Mom & Dad for lunch, snacks, and my birthday gift! All are/were greatly appreciated. And seeing you made my day (maybe even my week).

Other than that sweet moment of happiness, most of my travel experience involved me falling asleep with my mouth open on planes and waking up very, very thirsty. Still, eventually, I returned to what is now my home town of Portland, OR and what I found surprised me. The weather was beautiful. I caught the MAX train back into town and from there rode a bus home. All in all, I got the the airport in Augusta, GA at just past 9 in the morning EST and arrived home from the airport in Portland, OR at around 2am EST. It was a long day.

AGS Augusta Georgia

In the southeast preparing for A WEDDING!! Get excited people. The weather will be sunny. The temperatures moderate. The day joyous. Things are almost in order. Nails have been done, cakes are being made, and centerpieces have been assembled.

Although, I forgot to bring my digital camera (Grrr...) I recently purchased a double pack of disposable film camera. Documentation of the event may be slower appearing but it will exist. Trust me. I wouldn't want you to miss out on these nails of mine, which are a luscious coppery hue or the awesome decorations that we've been working on. I also wouldn't want you to miss out on the main event with all it's fall colors and warm weather (to any who are reading from the Northwest).

Never fear. Pictures will be here. Stay tuned for more from the wedding front!

Visit time

This week is different from the last and will be different from the future.

This is because I am A: taking a whole week off of applying for jobs/interviews/work to: in the beginning of the week hang out with my awesome sister, Stephanie, who is visiting me on her move to Colorado and for the 2nd half of the week I'll be in the beautiful Augusta, GA helping one of my aforementioned favorite couples get ready to get married and then getting to witness the beautiful union AKA the wedding. I'll be back in Portland on Halloween Evening and we'll see what happens then.

And, lets not forget reason B: It's raining. It has been beautiful in Portland up until this point of the year and now begins the long dreaded, rainy, winter season. It's probably going to rain until the end of Spring is what they tell me. At least I came prepared with rain boots and a rain jacket. But, this is going to take some getting used to. I have been walking most places, as well as enjoying the parks, and bike routes. What's going to happen now? Will I just start hiding inside? Will I be forced to drink copious amounts of hot tea, and eat unreasonably large quantities of warm soup? I better get stocked up on some good teas now. I hear you can get them cheap from Trader Joe's.

I'm about to head out with My visiting sister, Stephanie, to Trader Joe's to stock up on teas and camping foods!

untethered

Recently, I've been feeling a little un-moored not having my usual friends and family around. It's strange to start over, have to make new friends, find new jobs, make connections with people you're not sure about making connections with.

It seems like this feeling comes and goes but that it is stronger now than usual. I wonder what it is in me that needs to adventure and to test if I can make it on my own. It seems like it would be safer, I'd keep more relationships in tact, and put down roots if I just stayed in the same place. At the same time, the idea of putting down roots is, in itself, terrifying because it seems crazy to root yourself somewhere when you don't know anything about anywhere else and you don't know what you're doing there in the first place.

Do people deal with these issues their whole lives? I sometimes want things to be simple and to know what is a good decision but I guess that wouldn't be very exciting.

Here's hoping that all of you are figuring out the answers to your questions and continuing on your own adventures as best you can.

Bedtime!

Going to sleep is now not a miserable, cold way to spend the night and is, instead a pleasure. Why is this?

It is because I recently purchased a bed to the tune of $55. An air mattress was all right for a while but I soon realized that sleeping on air is like sleeping on a bed of icicles. Not comfy. I discovered this inconvenient truth around the 25th of September and now, almost three weeks later, I have reconciled things.

Here are some pictures of my new bed.

My new bed with the fitted sheet and first two flat sheets on it (the fitted sheet came with the bed)

My bed with the fleeces I order when I felt I might freeze to death on my air mattress

My bed fully made up* with Mamaw's quilt at the bottom.

*the situations illustrated in these photographs are unlikely to be found on a day to day basis.

Hello again

I went to my second of two interviews in two days today.

It was a short interview (as opposed to the hour or longer I've spend at "working interviews" with other potential employers) but I think it went well. Unlike my first interview no inappropriate questions were ask. If you're wondering to yourself, "...hmmm, I wonder what an inappropriate question is?" I've compiled a short list of ones that I was asked at the first job interview.

Questions you shouldn't ask potential employees

1. Do I get sick very often? Am I a relatively healthy person? Would I have to miss work because of illness?

and on a related note.

2. had I been to the hospital frequently in the past?

3. Do I have a history of mental illness?

4. How much do you pay for rent? (In relation to how many hours I was going to need)

There you go. I, actually, believe that it is illegal to ask a future or potential employee all of these questions. Plus, the job is minimum wage plus tips that are shared in between all of the employees of the restaurant. So, not great money. I'm worried that it's the only job I'll get but I still don't want to work there. Am I not desperate enough yet?

Needless to say, I would much prefer the 2nd job since the pay is better ($10/hr plus tip out), the tasks more engaging, and the workspace more professional. Also, they operate off of a set schedule which I love. Of course a barrage of inappropriate questions, not being asked to me was another compelling characteristic.

Outside of the employment chase my life continues to adapt to Portland. My body aches, in a wonderful way, from a running and yoga class I took yesterday (and hope to take every Tuesday if I don't have to work on Tuesdays) and my eyes are dry because I stayed out later than I'm used to hanging out with some new friends (yay!). I explored downtown today as it was beautiful and sunny today and I got down there extra early for my interviews.

That's pretty much all that is new in my life. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what's up with yours.

This just in!!

Rachel Ogburn, recent transplant to Portland, Oregon has just landed two, not just one but two, job interviews in the past 15 minutes.

The story goes like this.

Rachel, was having an unusually slow Monday. Waking up late she had gone to the library and to the grocery store. That's about it for her days accomplishments. Then, her roommate, Rebecca, suggested that she apply to work at Tony Bentos, a small sushi restaurant. Realizing that the window for restaurant applications was almost closed for the day, Rachel hoped on her bike and pedaled, fast as the wind, to Tony Bentos and handed in her resume.

After this she returned home to make no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies, which are, as this author types, solidifying into true cookie form. As she was about to pour the cookie mixture onto the wax paper that it requires for the hardening process she heard the alarming sound of her phone ringing. When she looked, what did she see but a 503 area code flashing on the screen. Rachel knew that this was a Portland number and answered promptly. It was Tony Bentos! They liked her so much that they called her back only an hour and a half after she handed in her resume.

Rachel agreed to attend an interview tomorrow at 3pm and to train for the job if they chose her. And in a much better mood she went back to doling out chocolate no bake cookies. When she had just spooned the last cookie onto the wax paper what happened? Why, Rachel was called again by a number beginning in 503. This time it was a restaurant that she had applied to host at last week calling to schedule an interview for tomorrow or Wednesday at 3pm. Seeing as she already had one interview scheduled for tomorrow she chose Wednesday for her interview with the second callers.

And then she sat down to quickly update her blog about the success of her day.

Rachel thanks everyone for checking in and apologizes for her liberal use of corny writing style and referring to herself in the 3rd person all post.

She wishes you all happy adventures and thinks that soon she'll be rolling in the dough.

New friends...hmmee?

OK it's hard to type the sounds that I want to make sometimes but the gist of that title is: I'm potentially making new friends at work and in general!

I am apprehensive though, since having friends can often times mean spending money. Usually, that's OK but right now I'm running a tight ship on the money front and can't really afford to spend money. Does that mean I can't afford to have friends?

I'm looking into joining a group called Hands on Portland which is a very large volunteer program in Portland where I might meet people and make friends for free! That would be nice.

Another, money saving bonus, is that as a host on the weekends I get to eat a meal for free!! Yay! I love getting free food so much :D. Now, if only I got to work the rest of the week and got food for that as well :D.

I haven't heard back from Target yet and feel hopeful that Target would have no reason not to hire me and will hire me shortly. Yeesh... It's getting pathetic when I'm praying that Target will hire me.

Thanks for tuning in.

Until next time.

Friday!

Well, it doesn't really matter because I'm not actually working M-F. Actually, maybe I should be sad because I have to go to work tomorrow (but I'm not because it's $$)!!

Still! Friday brings exciting things as I am about to go to Brides against Breast Cancer and help set up dresses and such for an expo.

Also, I get to take the little dog that lives at my house out for a walk beforehand. Obviously, my life is full of crazy thrills.

I'm about to start on my dog walking duties but just wanted to check in and let everyone know things are moving right along in Portland, OR.

I've made a new friend named Dennis. Yesterday he showed me around a popular bike/walk ride on the river. I've also found a donation based yoga/running class only a few blocks from my house so both of those things are exciting.

On the job front, I've been turned down for the bank teller position that I applied to as well as a position to be a seasonal card sales person :(. I heard back from a guest house that they will be hiring in December and that I should keep in touch. And I have heard nothing back about the parking garage work, event planning internship, or the office assistant position that I have applied to. Still, my hopes remain high. I will get a job!

Thanks for checking in and until I have more adventures of which to tell.

Getting Social (plus crepes)

Look at what I made!! Cheesy Crepes, Sautéed kale, and heirloom tomato slices. Delicious. You can tell by my obsession with food that I am still not totally flourishing on the social front but good news on that note. Things are getting better.

That's right. I'm on my way to no longer lonely. This week I made a serious effort to be proactive about my social situation so.

Monday, I had coffee with a potential friend. A friend of my friend Amber (thanks lady for the connection). It was a good meet up. We talked for hours and I think that he was very sympathetic to my social plight.

Tuesday, tonight, I went to a $3 movie with my friend Cory. He just moved here too and stayed in the Hostel with me. So, we're kind of in the same situation.

Wednesday, tomorrow night, I have no plans.

Thursday night I'm going to go to a track where the Oregon Road Runners Club has people meet to do workouts. It will be good to meet some other runners.

Friday I'm volunteer setting up wedding dresses for a program called Brides against Breast Cancer. It is only a couple hours but it will take me to a totally new part of town and that will be exciting. Plus, I'll get to meet some fellow volunteers and hang up pretty wedding dresses. What could be bad about that?

Saturday and Sunday I work and will be in contact with other employees of the restaurant at which I now work.

This adventure is becoming less lonesome bit by little bit.

Lonesome Baker

Lately, I have not been occupied with having a job or friends. And not having a job, I have not had the money to spare on fun things outside of the home (nor do I have friends to do those fun things with). And I have been baking a lot to occupy my time.

Little did I know, before moving to Portland, how depressing it is to make enough rolls or cookies to feed 8 people happily and then having to eat them all yourself because you don't have any friends. That was a lesson I soon found out.

Luckily, now I have a job and while it's only a weekend job and maybe won't make me a whole lot of money, At least I'll get a chance to make friends. Until then I may try to hold off on the baking.

Pale September

OK so first things first I still love Fiona Apple. But secondly, and no less importantly, fall, the season with all the best colors, the time of changes, the collection of moments when things are the most perfect that they can be, autumn, is HERE.

Let me preface the rest of this post by stating that when I first came to Portland some of the people that where staying at the hostel with me thought it was funny to deceive me and tell me that the leaves probably wouldn't change color here and if that's what I needed than maybe I had moved too soon! LIES!

Fall is here. Fall is here! I've seen the leaves beginning to change colors, I've seen piles of dried leaves on the ground, I've smelled the smell of bonfires. And while it is an uncommonly warm (almost 80 degree) end of September day I know for sure that the real fall is on it's way. Here are some pictures I took as evidence of the beginning of this fair season.

One of the trees in front of my house beginning to turn.

Tree in front of the library where there were also leaves on the ground.

gainfully employed...or at least getting closer.

Hope springs eternal! Or, at least, hope is renewed.

I have heard back from one of the places at which I applied to work. It would just be a hosting gig and I would need another job seeing as it would probably only be on the weekends but still, there is hope.

I also, applied to be a bank teller which, as my friend Krista reminds me, could be a job that develops into full time+benefits. That would be simply magical. I even had my first phone interview in pursuit of this teller job.

Other than that, I have been settling in to my new abode. I got a library card at my local library which is all of two blocks away. And as a special thing the library was doing for their website I had my picture taken with my new card. Really integrating into the Portland community here.

I am getting used to my new home but still need a dresser or some serious storage space. I may get a real bed in a day or two. We'll see how things go.

Things are on the up and up and all I could ask for now is a little bit of dessert.

Yard Sale! Yard Sale!

The past two days have been days of acquisition.

Yesterday, I bought myself some beautiful sheets from an estate sale ($2 total) and today I bought myself a beautiful print ($1) , some very pretty coasters (.75 total), a useless but whimsical clock ($4), and a very cute desk to do my computing on ($10)

My room still has a ways to go as I'll probably need something to put my coasters on and to hang my print with but I'm still pretty thrilled. Here are a few pics of my new treasures.

My new desk. So cute!

Close up of my clock. You can see why it isn't functional

Coasters with real pressed flowers in them!!

Beautiful print on Indians/Native Americans

My bed with yellow sheets, my desk & computer, and of course the quilt that Mamaw made for me.

Rainbows, Reservoirs and Wrought Iron Fences.

There's a man in camouflage pants sitting in an old lady chair in the entrance way of the lobby and as I sit at my tiny, Nickelodeon green slimed computer there are two others at the table with me, also, on their respective computers.

A Bostonian boy in the corner on a the couch relentlessly questions a French hiker and this is what I am a part of as I finish my night at the hostel. The day has been at some points long and at some points very short.

I spent a painful hour and a half being turned down by restaurant after restaurant at the street on which I've been wanting to work but then I went on a beautiful bike ride and remembered how nice the city can be when the sun comes out.

I ended up at a park known as Mt. Tabor Park and saw a beautiful view, a reservoir, and a rainbow. That was all very scenic. I also came "home" to a very talent filled open mic night and a surprise skype call from the very best of boys, Zachary Ward.

In short, the day ended well although I think that little, if any, footing was gained on the job front.

The Hawthorne District

The Hawthorne District is full of hipsters and good food.

Here is a gingerbread cookie and mango "ice cream" sandwich which was so delicious

I'm staying at a really awesome hostel where everything is sustainable. They compost, they recycle, they use 100% renewable energy sources such as wind. It's pretty nice. Today my game plan is to print resumes and apply for jobs as well as to explore the area which will soon be my home. Maybe I'll even head downtown to go to Powells, the awesome bookstore in town.

A place to hang my hat

I found a place to live! I found a place to live! I'm super excited. I've been corresponding with 6 or so different households over the past few days and they have either had residents that were too old, had too many guys, were not in good locations, or they had too many pets. Until now!

Now! I have found a household, of mostly girls all in their 20s and in a pretty convenient location with only one dog at 808 SE 43rd Ave. It's in the Belmont district which I think is a pretty good place to live. I move in on the 25th. Yay!

Just wanted you all to know things are on their way to being settled.

colorful houses, plants, and intersections without stop signs

For those of you who have never been to this fair city, the city of roses, quick update.

Portland is filled with colorful houses overwhelmingly productive gardens and bunches and bunches of intersections that, as far as I can tell, have not stop signs or traffic signals of any kind.

Here is what I've gathered.

Pink house close to where I'm staying

The tree about town, the Douglas Fur.

Blue house

Intersection with no know traffic guidelines

Somebody's delicious looking green tomato and beautiful garden

orange scooter and house with orange trim

yellow house with beautiful old tree in front

Flowers! Azaleas?

Rain!

Today was a very serious bike riding kind of day.

I hopped on the bike at 8:36 this morning and rode to my couch surfer host's house (arriving at 9:17). I was there to get a little social time in after they got off of their night shifts and also to pick up some stuff I had left there on accident when I moved residences. After that I worked my way back over the next 40 minutes of so to my home base and fixed a little lunch.

From that point, I went on another bike ride over to Burnside St. Where I applied to a few different places (restaurants, a toy shop, a chocolate shop). All of which looked charming and seemed at least a bit interested in hiring me. So that was good news. On my bike ride back it began to rain and I started to feel like a real Portlander, albeit an unprepared one since the most rain protection I had on was a sweater.

Now I'm at home base waiting on the rain to stop so I can go out and buy a back rack for my bicycle. I might have to just don a raincoat and brave the rain though as it shows no sign of stopping in the near future.

rain out of a skylight in the kitchen