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As I’ve been saying on social media, today is the 10th anniversary of my arrival in Portland. Moving here is still one of the best decisions I have ever made. It was brave, picking up everything and moving so far away from everyone familiar. I don’t regret it.

There are so many more career opportunities available here than where I was. I might still be working for the university, but I’d be bored. I’ve had a chance to experience some exciting things here.

There are so many cool things to do here in Portland. I was pretty bored in Starkville. Portland gives me a city feel without being too big. And I’m not that far from several major cities. There’s so much going on that I can’t do everything I want to.

Last, but not least, I have met so many great people that I would not have have met otherwise. I’ve never felt more accepted than I have here. I love my Portland family.

I’m looking forward to the next 10 years here. I’ve grown so much personally and professionally in the past 10 and I think there’s more to come.

Linked below are my posts from 2012 about my moving experience.

Leaving Starkville

Portland Bound, Day 1

Portland Bound, Day 2

Portland Bound, Day 3

Portland Bound, Day 4

Moving Complete

The movers have finally delivered all of my worldly possessions – at least the ones that I didn’t bring with me in my car. It only took 9 days longer than their original estimate. I should’ve known they wouldn’t get here in 5 days. Now I can relax and really get settled in. Like I said on Facebook, I don’t know what I’m more excited to have back: the TV, the Xbox, the clothes, or the cooking equipment. Reese has been sleeping on the couch most of the night, so I know he’s glad to have it back. Between the moving company and the management company of this place I’m living in, moving has been a little bit of a nightmare.

I hired a moving company (America’s Moving Services) that had good reviews online. After the experience I had when they came to pick up my stuff in Starkville, I researched some more. It turns out they contract the work to other companies. I don’t know if this is standard in the industry. That’s why it was a different company (World Wide Van Lines) listed on the van took my things away. Maybe this was obvious and I just missed it somehow. While I was waiting, I had a hard time getting answers out the original company. The original guy who set up my move wasn’t reachable anymore. They never called back like they said that would. They would try to connect me to people and I would get hung up on. For a while I was getting a little worried. When they finally emailed me to tell me what the final amount due, they told me to make my payment out to a third company. A day or two ago, I got a call saying they would be here on Sunday and this morning I got a call saying they would be here today. The company that delivered my stuff today (company number four) was United Van Lines. I should’ve gone with them originally. I wonder how many times my belongings changed trucks and if it would’ve been the same if I had chosen United from the beginning. The United guys were careful with my stuff, they were very cooperative, and they joked around with me the whole time. I gave them a tip. I did get charged $75 extra because they had to take steps up a hill to get inside and they had to take stuff upstairs to the bedrooms, but I was expecting that. The contract said 1 flight of stairs was free. I noticed that someone else’s belongings were on the same truck as mine and their stuff was better than mine. A little advice: don’t use moving boxes purchased from Walmart. Most of them are damaged and I’m afraid the contents are damaged. One of my boxes of precious books seems to have suffered the worst damage. I’ll probably have to repack many things that I planned to leave in boxes until I found a more permanent place.

The property management company needs to get itself together. The people who work in the office obviously don’t know much about their rental properties. They’re unorganized. I may have mentioned it before, but I overheard a conversation when I went to sign my lease where they basically admitted how unorganized they are. They thought I was coming 2 days later though the paperwork clearly stated which day I was coming. I was promised that this was a one-story townhouse, but it’s two. I should bill them for the extra $75 the moving company charged. There was supposed to be a washer and dryer here and there wasn’t, but they fixed that problem. There’s a lot of stuff that’s broken, but I’ve documented it all. They’re working on getting it taken care of. I have to stay on them since they don’t return phone calls.

I don’t even know where to begin unpacking. I was exhausted after the movers left, even though I was feeling pretty good beforehand. I went to see The Phantom Menace 3D tonight like I had planned to days ago. It went anyway instead of staying home just to get away from these boxes. My next move shouldn’t be as bad as this one. Before I left Starkville, I told myself that a lot of my current furniture wouldn’t go with me when I found a more permanent place. Some of it’s over 10 years old and is well used.

Anyway, time to get to work on around here. Now that my electronics are here, DirecTV can come install my satellite. Then I’ll get around to enjoying Portland.

P.S. – It was still Saturday the 25th when I posted this. I hadn’t changed the time zone on the site yet.

I made it to Portland yesterday, but I couldn’t write because I didn’t have Internet access. I went from Idaho to Oregon. The last leg of the trip was a lot shorter than the previous three. There were some boring parts, but the scenery was beautiful for the most part. I got to drive through more mountains. I was thankful, though, when we started to drop in elevation and I started to see trees. During the last 30 minutes of the trip, I started feeling a little doubt the decision I made to move. I’m sure everything will be alright though.

I got to my new place around 4 or 5 yesterday. It’s okay. I made a decision on it without ever getting to see it, so I was taking a risk. It was always meant to be temporary. It didn’t have a washer and dryer as advertised, but they’re working on getting me one. My biggest issue is that there’s a busy street 2 streets over. I didn’t anticipate the traffic being as loud as it is. I’ve lived on busy streets before. When I lived in my grandmother growing up, there was always traffic coming through, even 18-wheelers that woke me up in the middle of the night. The noise here is more constant thought. I’ll just have to keep reminded myself that it’s only temporary. Don’t get me started on how hard it’s been to deal with the property’s management.

Hopefully, the movers will get here before it’s time to move again. I’ll never use this company again. I did get an email from them this morning saying that my stuff is only 160 lbs over weight and not 1300 lbs like the driver said. That’s some good news, at least.

Man, I enjoyed today. What a difference a day makes. Other than a little bit of worry at the beginning that the roads might be slick, I was fine. I went from Wyoming to Utah to Idaho. Today was the best scenery day so far. I saw lots and lots of mountains. They were beautiful and breathtaking.  It was weird being at such a high elevation.  At one point my GPS said that I was around 7000 ft, but by the end of the day I was around 2800 ft. I saw a part of the Great Salt Lake. Maybe I’ll come back another time for a proper visit.

It was a long day, but I enjoyed it. I shouldn’t have to do nearly as much driving tomorrow. Almost there.

Today I went from Missouri to Kansas to Missouri to Iowa to Nebraska to Wyoming. I’m spending the night in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Today wasn’t exactly a good day. I blame it all on the snow. I’m not used to driving in the snow. When it snowed in Mississippi, everything shut down and I didn’t have to leave the house. When I left the hotel in Kansas City it took about an hour to go 30 miles. I was stressed out because I was worried about having an accident. After a while, conditions started to improve. Right when I started to get comfortable, a car ahead of me started sliding back and forth across the road. Finally, after about 2.5 hours I got to the point where I could pick up the speed a bit. I saw so much snow today even though the streets were fine for most of the trip. After seeing hours and hours of snow-covered fields, I’m tired of snow.

The scenery did get better at the end of the day’s drive. Driving through western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming just felt different. It was too dark for me to take pictures. I saw a truck stop on a hill that kind of reminded me of Edoras from the Lord of Rings movies.

Super 8 was much more pet-friendly. Reese was really good today.

I am worn out. I hope to get off the road earlier tomorrow so I can have more time to decompress before bed tomorrow night.

I never really thought of this as a vacation trip.  I’m basically trying to get to Portland as fast as I can and hopefully see some cool scenery along the way.  I wanted to spread it out so I didn’t have to drive day and night. I don’t have any fun events planned.  Having the dog makes it a little bit harder to do.

I got about 4 hours of sleep last night.  Today I went from Mississippi to Tennessee to Arkansas to Missouri.  I’m spending the night in Kansas City.  Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas are pretty boring to drive through.   Once I got close to Missouri, it got more interesting.  I ended up taking my GPS system’s route instead of the Google Maps route and that took me through the heart of Arkansas and Missouri.  Both set of directions agree for tomorrow route.  I should be on the interstate a lot more, which I think will be better.

Reese was uncomfortable in the car at first.  After a while he got comfortable and went to sleep and I would forget that he was there until he farted or something.  There was a little bit of a hassle over Reese staying here at the hotel.  They claim to be pet friendly on their website, but when I get here they say that pets aren’t allowed.  I’m trying a different chain tomorrow.

The weather was pretty cold today.  I hate that the South got hit with cold weather right when it was time for me to leave.

I probably won’t have time to do much tomorrow.  It’s snowing tomorrow morning in KC, so I’ll be getting off to a later start.

More pics are on Facebook and I’m sure I’ll add them to every other social network later.

I wanted to updates today since I haven’t written in a while.

I was busy with preparing to move and trying to visit family, friends, and my former co-workers before the move. I hope I get to see everyone again soon.

Packing is a pain, especially when you’re doing it all by yourself. It seems like every time I have to move, I end up having to do it all by myself. There were some times when I said “Screw it. I want to play Xbox for a while.” I got it all done, though, in time for the movers to come yesterday.

The movers made me hate moving even more than I did while I was packing. They got to my place at 3pm, which is a later than I wanted them too. I still had to clean to place after they left, so I was hoping they would give me plenty of time to do that. They didn’t. They parked the truck across the street. I understand that they couldn’t get closer because my driveway goes down and the truck is too low for that. Since they had to walk farther than 75ft, I’m going to be charged an additional fee of $75-$100, depending on the weight of my stuff. I’d be willing the bet that I’m going to be charged the maximum amount.

There were two movers. The older guy was Russian or Eastern European and the younger guy was Latino. I love meeting all different types of people, but there were communication issues because they weren’t fluent enough in English. Early on the older guy came running into my place and asked to use the bathroom. I heard the toilet flush about 5 times and the water in the sink run for a long time before he came out. He went back outside and I hardly saw him after that. I don’t know if he was sick or if he was supposed to stay outside with the truck. When I went into the bathroom it was rank and there was poo splatter all on the inside of the toilet. I had just cleaned that toilet before they got there and packed away the toilet cleaning supplies.

The younger guy kept dropping stuff and almost dropping stuff. The older guy kept barking instructions on what the young guy should have been doing whenever I saw them together. I ended up helping the younger guy out some, since the older guy wasn’t around.

Eventually the older guy came in and told me his estimate for how much my stuff weighed. His estimate was about 1300 lbs over the original estimate, which meant I would owe them about $1000 more than I expected. I figured it would be over some due to stories I’ve heard from others, but not that much. I WAS PISSED. This on top of everything else. I think he could tell how upset I was by this because he basically told me that we would find out the real weight when they weighed the truck. I emailed the guy who originally set up my move. He’s a Mississippi State graduate. I figured he’d get back to me on Monday. This news really put a damper on my mood. I was already stressed out enough. I got a call from the moving company today in response to my email. They said tha my actual weight is close to the original estimated weight. If I am over, it’s not 1300 lbs over. What a relief! I had a feeling that mover guy didn’t know what he talking about.

After they left I finished cleaning pretty late and put as much in my car as I could. I slept on the floor with Reese. I listened to coverage of Whitney Houston’s death on my phone. Kind of a sad way to spend my last night in Starkville, huh? I got up this morning, finished putting the rest of the stuff in my car, got some gas, and left Starkville around 6:30 this morning.

After 14.5 years, I’m gone.

It’s been a while since I updated. Things have been very busy lately.

I moved out of my apartment. Everybody else was leaving and I didn’t want to stay either. Management became bunch of bitches after the cool lady had a baby a left. They pissed me off so many times with all the stuff they didn’t want you doing to their precious apartments. I can understand why, but I need more freedom. A lot of people left and I can’t think all of them graduated. Anyway, the process of moving has kept me busy. For the past couple of weeks it’s seemed like the only thing I’ve done every night was pack, clean, or unpack. I ready to spend my free time having fun again, but there’s still a lot of stuff to do.

I now live kinda of the edge of town in a residential area without a billion apartments around. I have to drive about 5.5 miles to work instead of less than 2 like before. I like it because it gives me time to plan and listen to my new Sirius satellite radio. I’ve been getting up early on weekends lately and I’m starting to like it. Is that another sign of getting older? I might have to start eating breakfast again.

When I first came to Starkville, I didn’t think that I would still be here 11 years later. I do have an idea of where I want to go from here, but that’s something you’ll have to talk to me about in person, over the phone, through IM, etc.

Work has been busy for the most part lately, and that’s how I generally like it. I’m hoping to get involved in more interesting things. I also want to do some traveling for my job, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of opportunities for that.