Portland T-Chart

Dear Leah (haven't done that in a while),

It occurred to me that I never did a T-chart for moving to Portland, so here it is. I don't have graphics, so it will have to be pluses and minuses:

Pluses: Old houses with wood floors and squeaky doors, urban but cheap living, organic co-op gardens (I hope), walking distance to libraries and cafe's which has never been the case, Christian hippies, communal living, lots of cool churches in the area, okay to be myself and to have a dream instead of a good job with a title, married and rich (not that there's anything wrong with those things), maybe I'll meet a nice chick up there you never know; lot's of art, writers are not looked at as people who should get jobs, I can still snowboard, except now add to that salmon fishing, the ocean, Seattle is closer, Hood Canal, Uncle Wes, crabbing, oysters, all seafood, maybe I can get in shape; it will be my town because no family lives there, so it's my idea to live there. If I get licensed to wire houses, there'll be tons of work, right? Because it's so hard to get licensed? Rain, gotta love rain.

Minuses: Big pay cut, gotta face it; might take a month to get licensed to wire houses -- which maybe I'll just give that up altogether and write and shlep coffee somewhere, which will mean big pay cut, gotta face it; New, I hate being new, I have to sit quietly and hear stories of all the things people did before I was around and it takes about two years to be somewhere long enough to be in a story; hard to keep up with young, witty, smart people; Christian walk isn't what it used to be in seminary -- do I need to be perfect first, or can I grow while up there? Seattle is closer (where Dad lives) and I'll be obligated to see him, which might be good in the end; along those lines, I still have to face all my demons; Rain, who likes rain?

Portland might be a whole new epoch for me, and I'm open to it, heck, I'm excited. I feel like Ethan Hawke when he fanagled his way to Mars, except, like Ethan, I'm pretty much cheating my way along. I ain't the real thing. First educated one in my family. Come from working class, gentile-type, loggers and deli-owning immigrants. Everyone wonders about me, everyone has a suggestion about what I should be. "You should be a chef. You should move to Ireland. You should start an alarm company." Nope, I'm satisfied driving around, chasing work, writing my short stories, novels, scripts, plays, blog entries, etc. Some get published, most don't, and that's cool.

Hey, I've already met some cool people up there, namely Chad, who seems like that guy who comes over and drags your depressed ass out of bed, splashes water on you, and makes you go hit the town, and you feel better for it. He goes to Evergreen Life, which is a church that meets at the Luckly Lab brewery and consists of lots of community houses and what not -- all interesting things we tried doing years back but never got off the ground. I'll be checking in with Chad next week, then borrowing his room, while he's out of town, and scoping out the scene up there. At least I can see if it's for me and God can't steer a parked car, so I'll move around a little and see where He steers. So far my whole summer has gone as planned, I just haven't made near as much money as I thought. haha.