Back to Cool California

It was 103 degrees in Portland. And we slept on the top floor of an un-air-conditioned house with two small windows and several fans that ran all night. I told G., "If we move here, we gotta get a/c." Now that I've lived with it, I can't live without it.

And yeah, we're thinking of moving there. G. grabbed the real estate and jobs classifieds from the Portland paper and it looks like we could afford a lot more house there. Plus, there'd be trees. And family (i.e. babysitters).

G.'s already called realtors in our area. There's this realtor named Les who gives out tomato plants in the spring, notepads all year long, hosts a pumpkin patch in October and an ice cream social in summer. We see this guy's face all over the city. Imagine my surprise at finding a message on our answering machine tonight from none other than the tomato-giver himself! And he left his cell phone number! I feel like I've had a brush with fame.

Moving would be stressful. Jobs are not as plentiful up there, and we don't have any professional contacts, which would be necessary to set up private practice. You don't have to be licensed to provide mental health services in Oregon, which means lots of jobs go to unlicensed (i.e. cheap) workers. I haven't found one opening for a psychologist in the metro area.

I'd hate to leave my other sister who lives about 40 minutes away. I'd hate to leave my friends. But I just keep seeing all those trees. I've always dreamed of living in a place with lots of trees. My current city ain't it. And with the housing prices the way they are around here, we're pretty much stuck here. Our house has gained almost $200,000 in value in the last 4 years. But, all the other, more tree-full towns around us have gone up a similiar amount. So. we're stuck here if we want to stay in the Bay Area.