Can I be honest about something? I miss Portland. I miss Portland every day for one reason or another. Sometimes I listen to Bon Iver or Vampire Weekend and wish it was cold enough to put on a hoodie and snuggle into our big green chair with the Pants. Sometimes I want to see someone in skin tight jeans and know that person is a hipster, not just a normal person like me sporting faux-denim leggings. Sometimes…I want it to rain. Like really rain. Not this pleasant, warm, complete-with-thunder-and-lightening kind of Texas rain, but rain that inspires a mug of tea and a pair of thick socks.
I miss the fleeting smell of patchouli and moms and their kids in matching Keens and events entitled “MindShare” where free beer flows like ideas in a burgeoning tech scene.
I miss microbrews.
I miss the big things, like riding my bike and walking places without sweating away twice the calories I burn walking there and having old friends and loving family within arms reach. I miss little things like eating food from a cart that isn’t a taco and the existence of street level gutters.
Riley misses a world without fleas.
There’s a lot to miss when you leave a place you love. But for every thing we miss, we think about the things we’ve gained. Like jobs, for instance. Flying Spaghetti Monster bless you, P-town, but you sure weren’t doing much for our sense of career advancement or financial security. SA has given each of us the opportunity to work. To work hard. And earn a living working hard.
Except for Riley. He’s a lazy SOB.
In fact, we’ve even received vindication from public radio about the wise-ness of our move:
Many Americans saw their take home income fall last year. That’s according to new numbers out from the Commerce Department. Incomes fell in 49 of the country’s 52 biggest metropolitan areas. The only areas that saw incomes rise were Washington, DC, San Antonio, Texas and Virginia Beach, Va. [From NPR’s Morning Edition]
And then there’s the people we’ve met. People we never would have known existed if we’d kept up our happy blissful existence living in the same place. Our minds are quietly broadened every day we live here, by people we didn’t know we needed, but who brighten our day every time we see them, in a place that is for most intents and purposes the opposite of where we thought we belonged. And the weather? Sweating aside, this is most certainly the tannest we’ve ever been.
Cheers, y'all.
So cheers to you, SA. We’re here, we’re a little more queerer than the usual, and we’re here to stay…for a while at least.
PDX to SA 