Sebastian’s Quiver

Wow, it’s amazing what a difference a day makes.  One day we’re getting all of our life’s belongings boxed up and loaded into a truck in Decatur, GA, and the next day we’re living in Portland, OR.  And let me tell you, we weren’t in Portland 30 minutes before we sensed what a huge change it’s going to be.

Let me start at the beginning, but since it’s late and I’m still a bit jet lagged, I’ll make it quick.  Our great friends Julia and Kathryne gave us, and lots of our belongings, a ride to the airport.  Easy as pie.  Once in the airport, the woman behind the first class counter (yes, you read that right, we flew first class) was most DEFINITELY not first class herself.  She was a bit short with a touch of rude and impatience, but compared to the woman at the security area, she was Florence Nightingale.  If I didn’t have my wife, my son and my cat with me, and if I weren’t a decent guy, I would have rung her neck.  It’s amazing that the government can hire the stupidest, rudest, pieces of crap to secure our airlines.  If anything, these people make our airports less secure.  Do some of these people even have high school diplomas?  Can they read and write?  They certainly can’t act civil to other human beings.  They couldn’t spot a terrorist a mile way.  OK, I need to get off my rant box now.

So we got to the airport and went to the wrong terminal.  No big deal, we got there early enough that we got to our real terminal with plenty of time to spare.  The silver lining in all that was that we got to see a wonderful sunrise, our last as residents of Atlanta:

Our flight in first class (did I mention that we flew first class?) was great.  Plenty of room, hot towels, drinks, snacks and anything else that we wanted.  I even got to overhear a WWII veteran talk to another guy about some of his experiences in Europe during WWII and all the reunions that he’s been to (he was on his way to his 65th reunion, I think).  Pretty cool.  Sebastian slept for almost the entire flight, but he decided to let go a HUGE poop as we were decending into Portland.  Luckily, his diaper contained it all, but it was a close call.  Misha also did really well.  He rode in the cabin with us and he didn’t meow once the entire trip from Atlanta to Portland.

We got to Portland and you know what?  People we nice to us!  Waiting for our baggage some guy just started talking to us AND HE WASN’T RUDE!  He was just a nice guy chatting with us about our cool stroller.  And later that day more and more people were nice!  NICE!  And friendly!  FRIENDLY!  I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing.  Is this how Portlanders act on a day to day basis?  I found myself striking up conversations with strangers.  ME!  Talking to people I didn’t know for no other reason than to talk to people I didn’t know!  ME!  Can you believe it!  This friendliness, I found, was contagious.

So, in summary, we are all doing great.  My first couple of days at the office were great (everyone was, you guessed it, friendly and very happy for me to be there).  Thursday there was a bit of a party at the office and we were all eating cake and drinking wine.  Friday was Happy Hour and everyone was drinking wine and/or margaritas by 4pm.  Not bad for a first week.

Juli and Sebastian are both doing fantastic.

So, to re-summarize: Portland rocks.  I’ll take rainy winters in a great, vibrant city with wonderful people over blazing hot summers in a drab, rude, crappy city any day of the week.

I know that living here won’t be all wine and roses all the time, but it was time for me to get out of Atlanta.  I will miss my family and friends immensely, but I think I overstayed my welcome in Atlanta.  I’m loving Portland after only 2 days and we haven’t even gotten out of The Pearl district yet.  We haven’t even gone to the beautiful coast, or gone hiking or visited the wineries or brew pubs or parks or the river or the gorge or Mt Hood or really anything.  I’m excited.