thrihyrne

Today is a conventionally gorgeous day: blue skies, moderate temperatures. Portlanders are out in droves. I started out the week well in that this morning I did indeed get up and go jogging at 7:00, once it was light. I'm getting up at 5:30 to match my schedule more with

evannichols' and to actually have a schedule, but it was dark until sunrise at 6:48. After a very productive morning, I went to BHFT to have lunch with

evannichols, which as always was an absolute delight. As part of our routine, we spend some time looking out at Portland in front of a large bank of windows, and it was clear enough to see Mount St. Helens. "I must be in Portland!" I said in wonder. "Here, with you!" "Yes," he replied. "This is no dream." Sometimes it really does surprise me, having been here, then 18 months back in Virginia, and back here once more. I was able to see both mountains on my bus ride home, and with the sun coming in on my side of the bus, I have now received my first (thankfully low-grade) sunburn. Hopefully there won't be more of those as I'll be in search of sunscreen. Then again, the weather forecast for the next several days is rain and low 50s.

I should be having a brief phone interview today between 2:30 and 3:30, which I'm trusting will happen even though the person who emailed me didn't confirm the time I sent her. Ah, well. I'll hang out here until 3:30 and if she doesn't call, I'll call back before going out into the loveliness to run a couple of errands.

Current Mood: optimistic
Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/511627.html

Firstly, I am remiss in wishing

jaiden_s a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY yesterday! Joyous felicitations to you, my fellow redhead and lover of such! :D

Ostara/the Vernal Equinox may have been two days ago, but this morning after my alarm went off and I had my now-daily 5:30 a.m. chat with

evannichols (I'm trying to get more on his schedule- both simply to have a schedule and also to stay more in touch, especially on days when I don't go to meet him at BHFT for lunch) before glancing outside. There, in the dark, I saw… snow. Of course! :P My Grand Plans™ of running each morning have yet to manifest themselves, but I must admit that the weather hasn't been cooperating. Maybe next week.

( and the ick )

And now, for some more coffee, though I'm going to take it easy. Yesterday I made a full pot of coffee… and drank it all. :P Not healthy!!

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/509985.html

I posted about the fun conversation I had with a fellow knitter a couple of mornings ago— well, this morning I was sitting at a table at an area outside of a Starbucks inside an office building where I usually hang out and eat my breakfast (yogurt with granola/almonds/craisins that I bring with me) while the 15 or so minutes pass by before I catch my bus to Beaverton, when someone stopped and said, "Hello!" It was my knitting buddy from two days ago, who had had a similar idea as she was heading out that way a second time this week. I was floored; I'm used to feeling invisible or at least not seeing anyone I know whilst out and about on my commute. So we talked and knitted on our ride and I gave her my info (and let her know I'd blogged about our meeting) and have added her to my friendslist over on Ravelry. Just very cool, all around.

I'm also really looking forward to this holiday weekend. Not just because I'll have another three-day weekend, but because Jen will be spending it here with me, and Julia will be in southern California. I don't mean to intimate that we don't get along or anything like that, but it will just be so lovely to have my friend here, and for us to do what we want and eat and chat and read and watch movies and make fires and go to Bipartisan Cafe and get massages and it will all be so simple because it will only involve us. And the cats. But they do their own thing and don't have issues about inclusiveness.

And a total side note: my dear friend emansil_08 sent me The Chosen to read as part of an xmas gift, and I am positively devouring it. I beta'ed her Yuletide story, which was written for that fandom, and said (before I had any idea she was sending me a copy) how interested I would be to know the canon material. I am really enjoying it. I started it last night, and thanks to my commute and being a fast reader, I'm already 3/4 finished. :P

Crossposts: http://thrihyrne.livejournal.com/501590.html

I spent this evening with

evannichols and

snottygrrl, Evan graciously picking us up and returning us home as

snottygrrl and I are (in my case, anyway) contentedly without cars. Evan had planned the meal and cooked, and the three of us talked movies, books, LJ and Dreamwidth (and I'm now over there! You can find me as Thrihyrne, and I'll work on updating it in days to come), other media and generally enjoyed each others' company. Not to be overly dramatic, but in recent years, especially during my time in Virginia, I really didn't feel that I had much in the way of compatriots and friends—

persephone100 the 2 hour away exception — and being back here has reminded me of the many gifts of friendship that have been bestowed on me. Having friends with whom I can spend time without involving plane tickets and/or passports has been more novelty than the norm in my life in recent years, and I am so incredibly grateful for the fact that I do have people so close. I've been so fortunate to meet

winnett last month (and we'll meet up again in person soon, I hope!), and there's Evan and

snottygrrl, and

sanguinity and

grrlpup, and the gifts go on and on. This is not at all to denigrate the devoted and intrinsic friendships that I have with loved ones who would require a plane ticket. It was just lovely to be with two other, voluntarily childless adults, sharing an evening and basking in affection that I felt was a true privilege.

For the first time in ages, I really slept in on Saturday and needed it after my week of getting up so early. But once I was up and had coffee in hand, I spent several hours having unhurried, thoughtful conversations with family and friends, including emansil_08,

persephone100 and

cim_halfling. I also had a massage on Sunday. :D I got it from Joseph, the fabulous massage therapist who I used to see regularly when I lived here before. That is one great perk of living at Julia's: being able for him to use the treatment room. There's something marvelous about getting a massage without having to go anywhere! I also had a major library run, taking back loads of movies and some books and picking up a slew of unfortunately heavy books to bring home in my backpack. I'm currently reading The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ by Philip Pullman, a book I'm borrowing from a work colleague, amazingly enough. I've also started my second major tome by Jared Diamond, his perhaps more famous one, Guns, Germs and Steel. It's pretty interesting stuff, and great reading while on the bus and train. I will say that walking to the bus and it being light outside was quite novel— and much appreciated. I did agree to switch back to the early shift for Wednesday to accommodate a fellow CSR's doctor appointment. One day of doing the early shift again won't be too bad. I'm really enjoying my work. I still have plenty to learn, and I'm not always as fast as others, but I'm already pretty savvy about what's going on and I know that my actual interactions with clients is professional and personable. I am weighing out options about whether to stay at Julia's for more than another month or to get serious about finding something much closer to my job. It's not as black and white as it could be, and there are many positives as well as many negatives to both— and an unfortunate amount of psychological elements to it, some of which really do make me want to move out again so as not to deal with them. The universe has been incredibly good to me in recent months; I trust that will continue.

Lastly, I uploaded my Yuletide fic. Yay!! Perhaps I'll do some more writing on my Tolkien stories over Christmas, as well as while on the bus. Speaking of, I had another of my "Wow, I really do love this city/area" moments while crossing the river this morning, seeing the mist on the hills and loving that I can get around everywhere I need to on public transportation. That's pretty cool. :)

This morning was my third and final (I'm nearly 100% certain) interview for the customer service position out in Tigard. All that for something which will probably pay only $10-11 an hour, which if they do offer it, I'll need to think long and hard about versus making $10 an hour and working from home. The commute given the hours will not be fun and will be quite time-consuming. OTOH, there's far more room for growth and I wouldn't have to rely on my own equipment. There's no firm offer yet so I won't worry about it if or until that happens. The interview with the operations manager went pretty well, especially considering I got up at 5:45 this morning to be able to catch a bus what was supposed to come by at 6:38 but didn't arrive until 6:45— and I had two other connections to make in order to get there in time for an interview at 8:30. It all worked out. So afterwards I walked back out to the main thoroughfare and stopped by the Burger King there to use the bathroom before the sojourn home. I was washing my hands when a woman came in and asked me, "Did you see a pair of glasses?" and we both looked into the empty stall. No glasses. Then I looked at her. They were hanging on the front of her shirt. I pointed them out to her, and she was so grateful and gracious. It made me smile. I've done that before in the past with my reading glasses before I had a chain for them.

My next adventure when Julia gets home is to go to the DMV to switch out my Virginia ID for an Oregon one. It can be incredibly difficult to prove one's residency if one doesn't pay any utilities and all of one's bank statements are online. But this clause makes it doable: A verbal statement from any person residing at the same residence address you listed on your application. The person making the statement must accompany you and present one acceptable proof of residence address. So she's going to take me (conveniently there's a branch very close by) and make said verbal statement and show them her driver's license. After that she's going to rake leaves and I'll put them in the yard waste bins. She asked if I would help and I said I would, especially if it didn't involve actual raking as it, like dusting, is a chore that I absolutely despise.

The last bit of good news is that I've begun writing on my Yuletide fic!! It's already getting a bit more detailed and atmospheric than I'd intended, but I figure I'll go with it and see how it progresses. The Gimli story is coming along, too; I need to do some research (maybe in The Hobbit) to see how far it is from Erebor to Hobbiton and to the Great Smials. Fun stuff! I should probably pick an actual season in which the story is set since the next part will be above ground, as opposed to in the Glittering Caves or underneath the Lonely Mountain.

So Jen came down on Saturday from Vancouver, WA— this is my dear friend that I stayed with in Eugene my first days back in Oregon. She's just relocated across the river from Portland, so we'll get to see each other on a much more regular basis- and using the bus systems, it costs $4.55 one way. Not bad! :D We did a lot of lounging, much conversation, and I fed her this time after all of the cooking she did for me while I was with her. There was also Scattergories in front of the fire, some quality time spent at Bipartisan Cafe, the closest laid back cafe near me (and where I spent much time doing internet stuff with their free wifi when I first returned), a viewing of "Secret of Kells" on my computer, and she also joined me for Trinity Episcopal Cathedral's service of Lessons and Carols Sunday night. That's the choir I sang in in '09 but I haven't rejoined. Yet. I would wait until after the Advent/Christmas season anyway, but if I do get offered this job in Tigard (and if they pay enough to make the commute worth it), I won't be able to because there's no way on the bus that I can get from there to downtown by 7:30 on a weekday. :( But it was great to go to the service, one that I've been singing since my freshman year of college which is (gulp) 23 years ago. Yeah. My 20th reunion is next fall sometime, and I think I may go. But I digress…

Jen headed home on Monday after lunch and I did my usual stuff for the rest of the day. Today I combined a prescription refill and heading out for another modeling session on one bus ticket and gave myself plenty of time— if the frequent service bus had actually shown up. I ended up 20 minutes late for the art class but thankfully was able to get in touch with the coordinator who gave the professor a heads up. I have one final person to talk with at the Tigard job tomorrow morning at 8:30, which quite unfortunately means catching a bus at 6:30 a.m. to get there in time. YUCK. At least I've been given some bus tickets thanks to participating in this work thing associated with my food stamps. That's a major help.

( So here's Jen and me, with Babs looking on with... approval, I suppose. :P )

Highlights from the past couple of days:
‡ A really thoughtful bus driver yesterday who actually announced each stop before getting to it
‡ A two-part conversation with

elfscribe5 over two days; we haven't spoken on the phone in a long, long time
‡ Engaging phone conversations with Jen and emansil_08 this morning, plus a card from emansil_08 as well
‡ Having an interview yesterday, even though it turned out to be a group of six of us; we got an overview of the positions and we each gave some of our relevant working background, asked some questions, and were told they'll review our resumes and will [perhaps] call some of us back next week for actual individual interviews (though that just means more bus time for me, but I think I'd groove on their customer service so I do hope they call)
‡ Having a great modeling session today from noon to 3:00— I even got a round of applause at the end! I did work pretty hard, alternating a sitting and standing pose with only two short breaks and one 10 minute one. That said, it meant the professor let me go around 2:35 instead of 3:00 and I already had my time slip for 3 hours of work. However, the business office isn't open on Saturdays so I'm still going to either have to go out there again on the bus (which means more of the cash is eaten away) or, hopefully I can go to the branch of campus that's much closer to me and cash it out there.
‡ Getting out of my modeling today and checking my phone and discovering a voicemail from my potential long-distance paramour. There's something pretty amazing about having a voicemail from someone in New Zealand. Out of curiosity, I called the number back (it's a Skype number and somehow seems to come up as a domestic 10-digit number) and got him! We're going to talk again later tonight, so I'm definitely looking forward to that.
‡ Along those lines, the wireless router I ordered from Amazon showed up this morning instead of some time after Thanksgiving, as I had expected. Once I get it set up I'll be able to video chat with said intriguing individual in NZ. :)
‡ For fun I downloaded a Cirque du Soleil video to my computer and will watch that this evening while knitting until my phone call comes in
‡ Lunch with

evannichols tomorrow!! Should be wonderful to get caught up and I'm really looking forward to seeing him again.

( yesterday's public transport adventures )

So I suppose the latest on the job front is that I still have the contingency employment to work at home; I just need to buy a Linksys modem and it has to be Linksys, not some other company. In the meantime, if I hear from the temp folks about work, I'll definitely take it; I can do that while I wait to be scheduled for at-home training in Voicecurve's software and all that good stuff. I think I will continue to apply for university jobs because if I can swing that, I'd really prefer that environment, and Voicecurve is at-will, so at any point I can say good bye. I need an official fully certified 'hello' first, but that will come, I trust.

I did some writing on my Gimli story on the train, and spent some time internally shaking my head at how marvelous it is that I am back here in a place where I can ride public transport all over the place. I'm back in a city! After the insular and limiting time in Harrisonburg, being here makes me a bit giddy at times. I'm not taking advantage of all that the city has to offer since I'm trying to keep my monetary outflow to as close to $0 as possible until I have an inflow, but all in time. The other thing that's really great is my relationship with Julia. I can really appreciate her for who she is in a way I didn't before; I'm in a very different place internally, plus I'm not writing obsessively nor spending all of my time online. We've had a couple of Scrabble dates (we both love to play) and we've even shared some dinners together, something I would never have done before. And the house is warmer thanks to her inset fireplace thingie. So I'm so much more content in this space, which makes a world of difference.

I've been here for under two weeks; I have estimates to get on my car thanks to the accident; I need to commit financially and time-wise to attending my would-be 20th high school reunion in Wenatchee, Washington, to which I'm inclining after spending time with my grade-school friend and her family. I left after fifth grade (1981), so I might well not recognize most of the crowd, but it being a smaller college town, I think I just might recognize some key people from my formative group. And that would be really amazing.

Today I let myself write to

veloona via handmail, which also prompted me to find the nearest physical post office (where I could send said letter tomorrow), and I spent the afternoon with another recent relocator to Portland via the pagan meetup I attended last Wednesday. He has a month on me in the area, and in the area near to where I am now, so I gratefully allowed myself to be taken out to areas I perhaps should have discovered on my own.

New mantra: haven't even been here for two weeks.

Another amazing thing: seeing Mt. Hood in her glory under a cloudless blue sky. And seeing Mt. St. Helens. I lived in Wenatchee when MSH exploded, an episode forever etched into my memory.

I'm not sure what the future holds, but since I suck and don't yet have pictures of my neighborhood, my room, the house, etc., I give you ( text )

More pictures to come.

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I'm in Portland! (d'oh!)

Belated birthday wishes, snow, and less pleasant topics

Knitting companion, part deux, and weekend thoughts

As though I needed more reasons to love Portland.

A chatty, leisurely weekend

A funny thing happened on the way to the bus stop…

Fab visit, with a pic!

Plenty to smile about

Job stuff yesterday, and Portland is beautiful

Quick Portland update

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January 2023

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