Life in Stumptown

I’m not sure it felt like Thanksgiving exactly, but it did feel really warm and cozy over at Rob’s on Thursday. Rob hosted Thanksgiving since he had the most space. His apartment has a real midwest feel to it because it has big windows that let in lots of light, is really large, and is shaped like every other cookie cutter apartment that comes in a row. So, it felt like home. Elena brought IKEA tables and chairs, so that felt like college. My friend Shanti (from class) and her partner Nea brought the 22 pound turkey, so that felt like the grown up world that I guess I’m a part of now. I made green bean casserole, corn, rolls, and corn bread muffins. Amanda made homemade mac n cheese, which I had to teach others is a Thanksgiving staple item. Rob made mashed potatoes. Elena made homemade stuffing (she had never heard of Stovetop) which was delicious, and a pumpkin cheesecake! We truly had a Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixins. I was impressed! And no one wanted more than a plate of leftovers, so Rob will continue to have a Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixins for every meal until Christmas probably! His fridge is full of aluminum foil.

Amanda and Rob watching The Office (pre-dinner).

Amanda, Elena, and Shanti

Pumpkin Cheesecake!

We played games after dinner to compete for the wishbone. Amanda, the engineer, dominated at Sets, which is a game where you have to look at shapes, colors, shading, and numbers to pick out a set of three that is the same in one aspect and different in all the rest. This is supposed to be for elementary school kids — it is rough! But, a lot of fun. Then we played Sequence and our team won with my sequence so we got to do the wishbone. She beat me and was officially crowned Thanksgiving Champion.

We had plans to go to the Portland Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade on Friday morning, but I bailed. I was so tired and wanted to utilize my one day to catch up on sleep. I worked on my paper for a bit and then went to an “interview” at PWCL for an additional position. I’m going to be on call one weekend a month to be a sexual assault advocate. I’ll be taking calls to help survivors who might need a quick referral or who I might accompany to the hospital for a SAFE exam after a recent assault. I figured this would be good experience to give me a more well rounded knowledge base of DV and Sexual Assault (SA).

On Friday night, Amanda and I went downtown to watch the tree lighting ceremony at Pioneer Square. It was crowded and we couldn’t see much, but it felt like NYC at Christmastime and it was really nice. I am completely in love with PDX’s downtown. We want to go back on a random night during December to take pictures when no one is around. We headed over to the burbs (Beaverton) to Sarah’s new apartment. She was hosting Christmas Movie Night #1 — Elf. Beth and Elena joined too. Sarah made chocolate chip cookies, hot cider, hot chocolate, and popcorn…MMMmmm!

Well…back to work…quite literally…I’m at Columbia Care. It’s been a very busy day, which is nice because it goes quickly, but a bummer because there was no chance for homework. I’ll post some pictures of Thanksgiving when I think of it. Tomorrow and Monday are going to be packed full of homework. I have to make a tri-fold (which causes me to forget that I’m in grad school), read, do reading logs, and write 1 1/2 papers. But, Monday night is the Over the Rhine concert — can’t wait!!

After a lovely coffee date with Amanda and a trip to the gun show for diversity class (yes, you read that correctly, and one gun show is enough for this lifetime), I picked up my roommates and Elena for dinner at Montage. It’s this eclectic restaurant under a bridge that serves Creole cuisine at cafeteria style tables and wraps your leftovers in aluminum foil creatures. Mine was a crab which I forgot on the table. Elena spent the night afterward and we watched Lars and the Real Girl with my roomies.

Now, the highlight of this blog is that on Saturday we had 6 football fans from the midwest in a Portland living room to cheer on the Bucks and the Spartans! It was great! Bethany and Nicole are huge football fans from MSU and fellow MSU alum Amanda came along for the ride I think I brought most of the OSU spirit, but I was very proud of Elena who wore two layers of Ohio State garb and displayed more spirit in one afternoon (slash morning because a noon game means 9:00 am to Portlanders) than I saw in her throughout four years of college. And Rob woke up for the game and made us all coffee. I can’t say that our relationship follows stereotypes when it comes to football. Sarah and Jacob stopped by too. It was a fantastic afternoon and it felt just like a Saturday in Columbus!

Rob turned 25 on November 19th. I planned a fun day of surprises:

He came to my house to take me to class (per usual), but, surprise #1, I wasn’t going to class. How unlike me, I know! I talked to my teachers and turned my work in early. Instead, I made him breakfast. I tried to mimic the Waffle Window with French toast in lieu of purchasing a waffle press. I put kiwi, raspberries, blackberries, powdered sugar, and strawberry syrup on top. We also had bacon and eggs, to which Rob replied I can no longer pull of my facade of not knowing how to cook

After he opened his present, we headed out to the Gorge to go hiking. We stopped at the outlets on the way to buy Rob a raincoat from my dad. I thought he might be getting a unique basket of some sort in the mail from Dad, but he said he couldn’t think of anything, so I was instructed to take him shopping and to dinner. I think we missed the pretty leaves being on the trees by a few days, but we had beautiful weather in the 50s and had lunch by the waterfall.

I think this picture is hilarious. What a creeper...

The view on the way home...

We went to Rob’s favorite Thai place for dinner and then to a wine bar called Wine Down on 28th afterward. Portland is saturated with Thai restaurants, but this one had an entree Rob couldn’t match anywhere else (trust me on this; I’ve been to quite a few Thai places in the last few weeks trying). And he’s been on quite the wine kick lately, so I thought that would be a fun place to go. It was really nice to spend the whole day together and not talk about what paper I have due or what job he applied to. It’s been a while since we really have just talked about life, rather than the nuts and bolts.

We ended the night at my house with birthday pie (homemade by me!). We had a really fun time sitting around telling stories with Beth and Bekah. You can learn a lot about someone when you ask, “What was your least favorite job ever?” Mine is Cintas, with the hospital being a close second (with the exception of 10 hour shifts with Dana). What’s yours?

He looks so excited for birthday pie...haha.

On work…

It’s still hard for me to accept not working as much as I’d like to. But, I’m learning a lot about how my purpose is not work and I don’t get any kind of self value from working and it’s okay to accept that I’m a grad student and will work when I am able and the hours are given to me. I am continually trusting God that He will provide — which, He’s always done. Let me give you an example — right before rent was due this month I got a check in the mail to cover it + some, quite unexpectantly from FCCS since the Union contracts went through. I obviously have savings that I’ve been using, but it’s nice not to have to dig into them. On the other hand, I’m starting to feel more comfortable at my job at the crisis line and am really enjoying it. And, I’m going to apply to be a Sexual Assault Advocate there as well.

On interning…

Training is over! I get my Saturdays and my evenings back! Yay! This week, I start counseling…hopefully. There are a variety of clients that may or may not work out…so we’ll see. I’m equally nervous and excited. There’s another MSW intern at CWS who I think I will also call a new friend. She’s in one of my classes at school too. Her name is Rachel and it’s been fun getting to know her.

Sidenote, one training session was incredibly thought provoking and intense. It was on Batterer Intervention Programs and done by people who had some pretty strange viewpoints. CWS probably won’t be asking them back and it caused quite a stir with some insensitive things they had to say. It raised a lot of issues with me and I really surprised myself when I spoke out about them along with my peers in class. I was excited to be able to speak and support my opinions, which is something I feel is a weakness for me and is generally uncomfortable.

Since I wrote what’s above, I had my first counseling session with a client. It went well!

On friends…

I am really blessed with my friends here. I had coffee with Amanda two weeks ago and it felt like a Caribou trip with Emily. I left it feeling like all my worries were unloaded and I could do the same for someone else. I really enjoy spending time with Amanda and getting to know her.

That same night, Bekah had a bunch of people over for dessert and games. We played Mafia (I’m not even going to try to explain it if you don’t know what it is…try Wikipedia). I really enjoyed getting to know her friends.

I got to spend some quality time with Bekah, Sarah, and the Buckeyes of Portland for the Penn State game. Yes, I understand the tragedy that was that loss, trust me, but it was still a really great night. They humored me and went along to a bar downtown that shows the games on TV. It was incredible! I felt right at home screaming and cheering at the TV along crazy people in scarlet and gray. I even made them come home and sing Carmen Ohio with me. I think it was quite the immersion experience for them as football just isn’t taken that seriously out here. I know where I’ll be for the M*ch*g*n game

Go Bucks!

This was parked outside.

Me with Oregon's newest Buckeye fans!

Imago Dei had a night at the Pumpkin Patch on Sauvie’s Island. That’s the place I went berry picking with Sarah. Rob, Bekah, Nicole, and I went. We had a great time filled with a hay ride, candy apples, and the corn maze, which was the best part. It was gigantic. Go here to see a picture of it from above…it’s the one with the bridge. And here are some other pictures:

I'm sorry this is the wrong way.

Me, Bekah, and Nicole

The Brady Bunch

Elena and I checked out the local outlets the other day. Per usual, our purchases were solely from the Gap. They’re not as great as Jeffersonville, but it was especially fun because we went on Halloween and there were Trick or Treaters! Again, my bargaining skills were shining through with four tops for under $16!

On family…

I’ve been a little bit homesick lately with the realization that coming home for Christmas is probably not feasible and just missing people in general. Friends included of course. But, it was really nice to have Rob’s family here recently. Rob’s sister (Kristin), brother-in-law (Mike), niece (Crystal), and nephew (Andre) were here to visit him and Mike’s sister Dana who lives in Bend. They went to the coast for a day, then down to Bend and other parts of eastern Oregon (mountains and other outdoorsy stuff), and were in Portland for about a day. They went to the Waffle Window, of course. I joined them for church, Burgerville (local and delicious burger chain), the Rose Garden, coffee in the NW, Cathedral Park, dinner at Rob’s, and Tin Shed for breakfast and the park the next day. The highlight was definitely parking right by this house. Mike ran up in an OSU t-shirt to take a picture and the owner then came out and gave us the friendliest greeting and insisted on taking our picture.

On school…

I had my first grad school exam in my DSM class last week. I feel like it went well. I’ll find out on Wednesday. I still like what I’m learning and have a manageable work load. All of the projects and papers that are left will be due at the beginning of December. Hopefully I won’t procrastinate and will get cracking this month!

On Oregon adventures…

Rob and I felt the need to get away from the city for a bit and relax. Here’s a photojournalist explanation of the trip!

This is stop #2: Lincoln City.

This is stop #1: Devil's Lake.

Sea Cucumbers.

We pulled off at this stop further down the coast. Please read the sign carefully.

Because we did not.

This is the view when you jump the fence.

You could look over this cave and see the waves crashing against the cliffs.

We stopped at another pull off up the road just in time for the sunset.

We thought this looked so picturesque with the house or the church out on the cliff by itself. It's less picturesque when you drive out there and it's actually a gift shop.

We stopped in Newport where the Sylvia Beach Hotel/Hostel is.

SBH is a three story beach house (plus basement and attic/loft) that Beth told us about.  There are no tvs, radios, or phones.  It’s all about books.  Each room is decorated after an author (Agatha Christie, Mark Twain, Emily Dickinson, JRR Tolkien, etc.).  There are several libraries full of books and comfy chairs overlooking the ocean.  It’s decorated like someone’s grandmother’s house.  It’s so incredibly cozy.  I want to take Crissy, Bethany, Emily, and Jenn there!  They also give you free breakfast (which was spectacular), hot mulled wine at night, coffee and tea.

This was our favorite little nook.

Check out the Dr. Seuss room!

Alice Walker room.

This is the Tennessee Williams room where I would love to stay with Bethany!

Herman Melville room.

EB White room. I also want to stay here with Bethany.

Half of the library.

The other half of the library.

The nook/attic.

By the beach.

Then we went to this place with the most gigantic waves I have ever seen. These pictures don't do them justice at all.

Rob didn't think the shots were good enough earlier, so he practically slid down the rocks to get a better view.

Can you see the look of panic on his face when he realized he wasn't zoomed on his camera?

Duck and cover!

This is our last stop...complete with volcanic rock!

It was a fabulous little getaway for the weekend and I can’t wait to take visitors to the Oregon coast…it is absolutely breathtaking.

P.S. Happy Election Day