A Year In the Life

Today marks a special anniversary for me.  Eddie and I have officially been in Oregon for one year.  I cannot believe how quickly this first year passed.  Exactly one year ago Eddie and I were unloading our U-Haul in very cold weather and got slammed with some hail.  I couldn't help but feel nervous; thinking maybe we made a bad decision.  But we took our first walk to the nearby grocery store and fell in love with our apartment and surrounding area and knew that it would be good for us.

One funny note about our move.  We left California on March 31 and spent that night and the next (April 1) in hotels.  A census was conducted in 2010, but since we were technically homeless on April 1st which is the date the census form went by, we never filled it out.  I went on their website but never found specific instructions for how to handle our unique situation.  I just didn't know if they'd want to count us as Californians or Oregonians.  A month later a census worker knocked on our door and was confused when I explained our situation.  She wound up counting us as Oregonians.

I just took a few minutes to look at my photos from the last 12 months in iPhoto.  Here are some of my favorite moments from the year:  our first hike in the gorge, finding Simpsons references around Portland, my Seattle & Forks adventure with Kiki, flying in a helicopter, checking out the Oregon coast, visiting Twin Falls, visiting with Shaunna (and her mom) before she moved to Guatemala, going to Texas with my mom and meeting my family there, spending a few days in Lake Tahoe with my family, Sean & Heather's wedding in Lake Elsinore, getting a winery job, exploring Portland with Bree, going to free Yelp events, hosting our annual Thanksgiving dinner, enjoying downtown / waterfront living, the Sokol Blosser Christmas party with Eddie's karaoke, spending a day in McMinnville, spending a night in San Francisco with my mom & Kiki, donating my hair, exploring Hood river, and more!  In some ways I feel like I haven't done much this year, but looking through the photos reminds me that I really have gotten out and done quite a bit.  Makes me look forward to my second year here.

Anyhoo... today is also special because my dear friend, Cecilia, is in town with her fiancee.  They stopped by my winery with their friends for a quick visit.  It was really nice to see them and share some wine.  We made plans to see each other in the evening for dinner.

Eddie and I had a little free time before meeting Cecilia and Anthony so we stopped by Chris & Melissa's house to visit with my family.  It was a very full house with the Maciejewski clan and Heidi & Baron and their boys.  Even though it was a brief visit, it was so nice to catch up with everyone.  And to have some Texas sheet cake.  :-)

Cecilia and Anthony met us at our apartment.  I gave them a quick tour of the walking path on the river and a peek inside our apartment.  Then Anthony drove us all to Yakuza; a place highly recommended by their friends.  Eddie and Cecilia tried the more adventurous spicy drinks which seemed fun, but I don't like hot things.  I had their burger which was good, but I think they put some spice in there besides pepper because my mouth was tingling for the rest of the night.

We were all pretty tired after dinner so Anthony and Cecilia dropped us off then checked in to the hotel on our block.  I'm winding down now because Cecilia and I made plans to meet early for a little breakfast before I have to go to work tomorrow.

Not to end on a sad note, but I got some bad news today.  Two of my family members received heavy medical diagnoses this week; one endometriosis and one breast cancer.  I don't pray but both of these women have been in my thoughts all day.  So if you are reading this and you are the praying type, everyone in my family would appreciate your support for my Aunt Danielle and cousin Patty.

I really hate brining up a media mention after such heavy news, but I'm too OCD to skip the media mention.  I finished one of my "Lucky Day" reads from the library.  This time I scored with Ann Rule's In the Still of the Night about Ronda Reynolds' mysterious death.  I always love the way Ann Rule tells her stories because she is so tactful in the way she handles the facts of the case.  One thing bothered me about this book though: there was no answer.  We still don't know for certain what happened to Ronda the night of her death.  I feel like I didn't need to read a 300-page book to tell me that; reading the dust jacket would have sufficed.  But still, if you're an Ann Rule fan, you'll enjoy.