Twenty years ago this weekend I moved to the Pacific NW.
In didn’t happen in an orderly way and I didn’t know I was moving when I first got here.
What happened was I wanted to leave Los Angeles and I had a plan although it wasn’t a well formed plan, or even poorly formed plan. It was more like an idea that depended on a lot of luck that did not materialize.
I was in that horrible place where I had no idea what I was doing with my life and also miserably broke with a fair amount of debt to deal with.
I moved to Sacramento where nothing went right for me (details omitted, no need to rehash that horrible time) and so I spent the summer hanging out in Orleans doing odd jobs to earn enough money to make my car payments when my Aunt Aileen invited me to visit her in Portland and look around and see what I thought.
There are more details here if you feel like you’re missing out.
Right away I got some office-type jobs. I had two cousins who had just finished college living in the area so I had friendly faces to hang out with.
I started working for my Uncle the next February (career milestone in 2012!) and moved into this apartment a couple months later.
I married a local and I seem to be settled. I like this place (not the apartment, the PACNW, I only lived in the apartment for a couple years) and I like how everything turned out, but to be honest, I’m still a California girl in my heart.
This apartment is the only time I’ve ever lived by myself. I didn’t have a great TV so I read a lot of books that year.
I found these photos when I was at my folks last month. I have zero recollection of them being taken or of ever seeing them before. My Aunt must have taken them and sent them to my folks to show them how I was doing.
Obviously, I was still moving in.
It kind of blows my mind how much of that stuff I still have.
In this one I’ll point your attention to my first computer, a Mac Plus with my trusty Imagewriter. And me. I’m pretty sure I still have those sweatpants.
Oh my gosh! I love that picture!! Vintage Pam!!! 🙂
I think my parents still have those chairs, too. Except their version has the velvet backs instead of the rattan or whatever it is. I think also you get some kind of street cred as a real mac person since you had that computer. I was a PC person until I got my shiny white macbook.
This was a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to the anniversary tease from yesterday.
Wow, what an antique! The Mac, I mean.
First computers are sort of like first cars, or for that matter, first loves. You never forget them, you romanticize their virtues, and you conveniently forget their shortc
shortcomings. I’ve found myself wishing I could find a nice Mac Classic II to go L
shortcomings. I’ve found myself wishing I could find a nice Mac Classic II to go along with a restored Mazda 1800 station wagon.
I’m glad you listened to your Auntie. And that you had a cousin who liked to hang out and talk to other folks at her work, and also that she was persistent in linking up friends with family members. Things worked out pretty well, didn’t they?
To the apartment curtains: You’re doing it wrong.