Things have been going well out here. Though nothing is perfect.
Sylvia and Josh moved out here a few weeks ago. Sylvia was a friend of Lauren's in High School and college. She moved out here with her boyfriend Josh. It is really interesting for us to sit back and listen to their thought processes and experiences involved in choosing Portland. They needed to get out of the Berkshires. They had never been here before. They decided that they wanted to live in a big city. They decided they wanted to live near the ocean. They decided that they did not want to live on the east coast. They looked at all of the major cities and locations on the west coast. San Francisco was too expensive. Northern California did not have the job market. Southern California was not their style. Eventually, it boiled down to Seattle and Portland. They chose Portland for a variety of reasons. Portland is smaller. Portland is closer to nature. Portland has more of a small town feel. Portland has better public transit. Portland is cheaper.
The similarities are uncanny.
It is nice to have some folks out here from the home front. They came over on Friday night to watch the Sox game. We ordered take out chinese, drank Oregon Pinot, watched the game and had some nice chats.
I have been working for Yahoo! for 2 weeks now. I am half way through a 4 week training program. Last week was their annual 'employee appreciation week'. The entire week was jam packed full of fun events. We had cornhole, ping pong and guitar hero tournaments. We had trivia, bingo and 'name that tune'. We had team projects where everyone built bridges out of popsicle sticks. The shut the business down on Thursday at 2pm. We had a talent show. Yahoo!'s got to show off their stuff. The winner received a check for $500. Then we had drinks and snacks. We had breakfast and lunch served to us free of charge.
It is, overall, a pretty nice place to work. The cafeteria is nice. There is a free soda machine. Unlimited drinks. We have two large flat screen televisions. One is always on MSNBC and the other is always on ESPN. There is a cafe that has espresso, cappuccino, lattes, real frut smoothies and more free of charge. We have game rooms with an xbox, ping pong, chess, checkers, etc. They do well for making a semi-crappy job good. And the pay and benefits are excellent. I was able to provide Lauren with health insurance. That might be the best benefit.
But I am worried. The state of the economy has rumors of layoffs circulating throughout the nation. My job is based on businesses having money to advertise on the internet. That is based on people having enough money to shop.
I can only keep on plugging away.
Lauren and I have been attending a church. http://www.imagodeicommunity.com/
I dig it. Pastor Rick really knows how to lay down a message. It is right in our neighborhood. We ride our bikes there every Sunday.
Today's sermon was about Christmas. As Pastor Rick jokingly stated, this is because 'we all really hate Halloween." Imago Dei is a part of Advent Conspiracy. http://www.adventconspiracy.org/ They are a network of churches that are trying to encourage people to leave the consumerism of Christmas behind. As Rick said today, 'Consumerism is a relgion'. And it is one that leaves us perpetually unsatisfied. The idea behind this program is to get people to buy less, worship more and give more. Our church will be holding a fundraising event where it encourages people to buy less presents and give more to the community. The money last year went to building bridges in Africa. In addition to that, this year they will be focusing of high school dropouts in Portland and our homeless population. He tried to make the point pretty clear that this is not charity or simply giving. It is about a change in thought processes regarding Christmas.
We went out to our pumpking patch yesterday. See Lauren's blog for pictures. It was the first time that we have done something for a 'second time' in Portland. Lauren baked a delicious apple pie yesterday and is making some pumpkin pie later in the week. I strongly encourage anyone that has not had home made pumpkin pie to try it. It will rock your world.
She just made some fondue. And I am hungry. So we will have to continue this another time.
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