The last month and a half or so has been madness, mostly sourced in work, but also in finding grad school and a new city of residence, starting in June. That city had been slated to be Seattle, but the folks at Antioch University weren’t super responsive to anything, the job situation wasn’t looking good and when I checked Portland (OR, of course) on a whim, exactly the opposite was true. Well, not the job part, yet, but since the university has housing that will let me take my kitties (this is my fallback plan should I not find a job), it’s pretty much a done deal.

So the precis? I’m moving to Portland in June to attend Portland State University.

The only thing that would stop this from happening would be if my grad school app was denied. I’ll be very surprised if that happens considering that the program I applied to was not competitive AND even if it were I have a lot of relevant experience plus a nice solid magna cum laude on my BA.

Until then, I am hanging onto my sanity by a thread, focusing on Portland, the light in the cave. My Parker ghosts are purged, but it’s sort of like… being stuck in Hell after you’ve slain all the interesting demons.

I know Portland can’t possibly be the utopia it’s currently representing in my mind, but trust me when I say it just might feel that way after spending the last year in rural Arizona… and the five years before that in conservative urban Arizona.

And I’ve begun applying to PSU for a job. Will keep plugging at it until something happens. I sure would love to work at the university again.