First night in the apartment

Tonight will be our first night sleeping in the apartment. I’m already excited by how quiet it is here. We’re only a block off Sandy Blvd, which is a busy street, but because of the way the apartments are constructed, there’s almost no street noise here. It is lovely.

The apartment is slowly coming together. Honest, I’ll post pictures eventually but at the moment, to paraphrase -e- it looks like a yardsale gone wrong. Lamps in various states of disassembly, cardboard, more cardboard, and then a few boxes.

Being back in Portland is at once good and very strange. I’m used to living closer in than we do now. So, on the one hand, there are all these familiar places. On the other hand, we’re in a different neighborhood. I keep catching myself saying “Back in Portland…” as if we are living in another city now.

I’m also struck by how very white it is here. Very. We went out to eat the other night and there were two people that might have been Latino and otherwise, no one who had brown skin. This happened driving across country too, but it’s not surprising in, say, Idaho or Kansas. Our house is in a part of town that is historically black, so it was in a much more ethnically mixed neighborhood. That might be part of what is contributing to the disorientation, actually.

Marlowe is also disoriented. I think he keeps wandering around the apartment wondering how all his furniture got here.

Besides that nagging sense that things are just a little off, it is good to be back. I’m looking forward to being settled so I can start entertaining. It won’t feel like home until the first dinner guests come.

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