PDX

When I learned that I had an entire (*gasp* entire *gasp*) weekend off, Jamie and I immediately booked Amtrak tickets to Portland for us and the bikes.  I hadn't been there in years, and had certainly never biked it, or navigated it myself.  I love weekends and I love Portland. And trains.

We spent the weekend eating, biking, and doing touristy things in the sun.  We stayed with Jamie's friends, Laura and Jeff (and Clarke and Pot Pie), in Northeast Portland by Alberta street.  The neighborhood felt so comfortable, with adorable 2- and 3-bedroom houses, constantly reminding me of the neighborhood where I grew up in Olympia, and so different from everything I've seen in Seattle.  Within walking distance to their house, we ate at three places and had coffee at two.  Everything was great but the winner: Extracto Coffeehouse.  It's a small roastery...  Their single-origin Ugandan espresso with hints of blueberry...  No one plugged into a laptop...

We biked into downtown, visited the end of the farmer's market at PSU, then went to the Saturday Market, then headed to Rogue Brewery for a sampler.  After several games of Uno with newly-made friends living in Olympia, two samplers and a shot of hazelnut rum, we zig-zagged to Voodoo Doughnut for a vegan powdered sugar doughnut and a bacon maple bar.  Back over the river for dinner with Laura, Jeff, and Laura's aunt and grandmother.

The next day we spent hours in Powells, miraculously leaving with only two cookbooks.  Next to Deschutes Brewery for their sampler and some Black Butte, with lunch, before catching the train, in a less-than-straight motion, back to Seattle.

I knew I shouldn't really ever visit Portland because I would want to pack up and move there (or just never come home).  It's true.  If I wasn't moving across the country in the fall, I would seriously consider moving down the I-5 corridor to the home of Stumptown Coffee.

Names in a Hat

Now to decide.  It's really always the most difficult part: the decision.  Decisions with deadlines.  As it stands, I am choosing between the University of Michigan, University of Pittsburgh, Indiana University, and Simmons College.  I'm leaning away from Indiana University because Bloomington does not seem as interesting/exciting as Ann Arbor, Pittsburgh, or Boston.  The acceptance deadline for both Simmons and Pittsburgh is April 15, before I will be able to visit any of the schools.  Partially, it doesn't matter because all of the programs are good.  But I will be spending two years there (or more) and I want it to be incredible.  But any of the four would be new, different from anything I've ever experienced.  But cornfields or the Great Lakes?  Allegheny National Forest or the Atlantic coast?  It doesn't matter, maybe, because no choice is a bad choice.

What to do, what to do.  This determines my future for the next few years.  Better make it good.  But it's close, nearly tangible.  When I make a decision, it will make it real.  I will be leaving in the fall, going back to school so that I never have to work a minimum wage service job again.  Anything, everything about this is an adventure.  I'm agonizing over the decision, yeah, but it'll be fine.  It's exciting.