The Chevy dealership has hired me full time to be their warranty processor. I am not allowed to disclose my wage for a while (AKA: until the current lady leaves). But it's a step in the right direction.
I will only be working 5 days a week. Normal business hours 8-5 or 9-6 Mon - Fri. Finally... FINALLY... I can now say that this stress is a universal relocation stress, not a specific to Portland, or specific to NY experience. I was looking at my budget books from when I first got to Brooklyn. Everywhere it's written "Do not panic. You are going to be just fine." Words to live by.
Now, it's still going to be tight wallet times. But the quality of life has skyrocketed.
- No crazy dentist issues + no more entitled manhattanites.
- Weekends off.
- Insurance (health and dental) for significantly less than the health exchange was offering.
- Ability to recalculate my student loan payments.
- Less time commuting (saving about $100 per month on gas).
Which means things are looking up for sure. I may actually have time to experience Portland and stop posting whiny no-money blogs... but actually upload some fun photos of places I've been going.
Speaking of fun places, I made it to Powell's City of Books. AMAZING. The selection is unlike anything else. It's even better than The Strand which boasts over 2 miles of books or something... or books to the moon and back. Yeah? Well, Powell's has an entire city block of books. They have multiple stories. And apparently it's a huge hotspot for book tours, author readings, book signings and stuff. THANK YOU. PLEASE TAKE ALL MY MONEY.
Mister and I have been greatly enjoying some of the food carts located about 2 blocks from our house, specifically Operation Wings and Unicorn Burger. This city also has a crazy obsession with Viatnamese cuisine. Everywhere you look it's Pho, Pho, Pho. Which is great, but how competitive can the noodle soup business be around here?
Also another interesting point to note... Portland comes in second only to Vegas for highest amount of strip clubs per capita. I swear, probably 25% of the female population earns money taking their clothes off here. And they've got something for everyone, live lingerie modeling, Vegan stripping (only serves vegan food and they only take off vegan clothing)... they even have plus-size strip clubs up in here. Keep Portland Weird indeed. I'm going to have to start keeping a list of all the terrible and hilarious stripclub names.
I will get out, find interesting things and report next week. Two more weeks of 7 days a week and then I will be a normal human!
XO,
N
Phở is a really big deal in Vietnamese culture. Even though you lived in NYC, it likely wasn't where there was a big concentration of Vietnamese people. No one cares who has the best spring rolls, but everyone has an opinion on who has the best phở. Even though it's only been around for 90 years, it's big business. And Americans have caught on in the larger urban centers. Portland sounds like a really good place for a hot phở market.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pho