Keeping everyone in the loop

Since we've moved to our new home in Portland, I've been bursting with things to talk about every day, and no real outlet to share with everyone. Keeping up with all the separate email conversations I'm having with friends and family is sometimes overwhelming, and I decided to start this blog to share all of my thoughts (well, not all of my thoughts...) since I feel like some people are getting left out of the loop. Also, I'd rather ramble a bit every day to the collective mass than to avoid sending emails because I can't think of what to say to an individual.

This is not meant to replace my personal conversations with any of you, and I encourage everyone to send emails as well as comment here on my posts. In this digital age, where I'm a click away from talking to anyone and everyone, I still feel very secluded in my new surroundings. We've had no friends over for dinner, no watching Buffy with take-out Thai food, and no Book Clubs. It's a big change for both Sean and myself, and we're starting to really feel the distance between us and our friends. Maybe we'll feel more connected with this blog.

Just because we don't have any friends here yet, I want to make sure that everyone knows we're not completely alone, and we're far from miserable! I have had a Tea Time at our house (three lovely Etsy biz women came!), I've attended Tea Time at someone else's house (and met 5 different biz women!), we love our neighbors and speak to three of them regularly, we had drinks with a crafty couple at a bar near our house, and Sean is getting to know his 3 coworkers. I even met my favorite hairdresser EVER (Becky Dawson at DO! rad cuts and color salon)--pictures of the new cut are coming soon. Everyone we meet on the street is a potential friend. And believe me, we meet a lot of people on the street. Hehe. The cashier at the bicycle shop even talked to me about Somerville for a while when I was there.

Our first month in the Pacific Northwest has been stressful, lonely and also full of interaction and new beginnings. It's all so very new.

In case you're wondering, I chose The Myth of Rain title because all we ever hear about Portland is how much it rains, how depressing it is, and how we're going to hate it. Everyone seems to think it's the worst thing ever and we'll be turning tale to come back to New England as soon as we can pack up again. I just wanted to clear a few things up about the rain:

1. It doesn't rain as much in Portland as it does in Seattle. Don't get them confused.
2. It didn't rain one drop the first two weeks we were here. Sunny, warm days welcomed us.
3. It has rained the past two weeks, but you can usually see the storm rolling in, drizzling on you for a bit, then moving along. Sometimes I don't even notice it.
4. I used an umbrella one day, and was the only person on the street with one. The rain doesn't even get you wet most days!
5. A little rain is 100 times better than shoveling snow off our porch, steps, walkway and driveway. I am not afraid of falling on the ice, or of being under- (or over-) dressed. I love it.

There was some crazy weather yesterday though. We drove from blue skies at our house, to gray clouds and mist on the highway, into a hailstorm a few towns over. The hail lasted a few minutes, then we drove back through black skies and home again to a light drizzle. With all the hills, valleys, river and mountains of PDX, you can expect to experience weather changes as you move around the area. It's also great to be able to see the weather moving and changing around you since you can often see for miles.

I can see how the rainy season could be depressing if we were here for a few years, but right now the threat of the rain is really just a myth.