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!!