It has been exactly a year today since I moved back to Portland from Los Angeles.  Of course I’ve been bad about keeping in touch with people (and not posting much here).  So I figured it was time for a bit of a check in.

The biggest news of the past year is that I got engaged last August.  Alicia and I are getting married this August 31st in a wonderful park here in Portland.

In October, Alicia got a job at OHSU and moved up the middle of the month.  We found a nice apartment within a few blocks of the place I had initially moved into.  This apartment search was much more difficult (and cutthroat) then when I moved to Portland from Eugene back in 2004.  Granted, I didn’t have a friend say “we don’t like our roommate, we’ll kick him out and you can move in” this time.  An example of how cutthroat it was: We went to an open house and arrived 15-20 minutes early, and there were already three couples ahead of us in line.  When the people showing the house arrived, they said “We already have one completed application in process, but if you want to apply we’ll put you on the wait list.”  They also wanted a bunch of extra information above what is normally asked on a rental application.  For example, copies of three months of paystubs to even consider your application as completed.  Granted I’ve only got Portland and Los Angeles to go on, but I’d never had that level of detail initially requested.

Around the same time as Alicia’s move up here, I settled into a temp job at the Craft Brew Alliance (the parent company of Widmer/Redhook/Kona).  Sadly for me, the job market has been a little more difficult to break into in my most recent field up here.  A lot of the positions want people with industry experience and the industries are different than nutritional supplements.  But the temp job isn’t so bad and it covers the bills so I can’t complain too much.

The fun news I just found out a few weeks ago is that I had been accepted into the 2013 Master Food Preserver Program for Washington and Multnomah counties.  The program involves 8 weeks of classes (48 hours total), and then a test at the end.  If you pass the test then you are a Master Food Preserver (and you have to volunteer 48 hours in the next year).  I’m looking forward to the classes and continuing learning more about food preservation.