Pacific Northwest vs. the South

Our arrival to Mississippi is getting closer and closer! While I am excited about the move, I also have my trepidations, which the recent deadly storms in the South are not helping. I thought that for your entertainment (and so I have something to do since I really don’t want to do the dishes), I would make a list of goings-ons that I will miss about Portland. Believe it or not, while I still would prefer to live in the Seattle area, there are things that I will miss about Portland (or maybe just the Pacific Northwest in general. Here goes:

Things I will NOT miss about Portland:

-Weird People. Don’t get me wrong, there are weird people everywhere, but Portland is infested with them.

-Traffic. I cannot wait to move to a town of 10,000 people where rush hour traffic does not exist. It makes my stress level much lower while driving.

-Construction in the worst possible places at the worse possible times. I don’t know what it is about Portland, but they have the WORST roads ever, and they are ALWAYS under construction. Seattle at least has the sense to do major highway construction work at night and on the weekends. Portland does it in the middle of the day, and they close the road down to one lane right where two on ramps are merging onto the overpass. Not to mention just daily traffic getting from one side of the city to the other side.

-Our current married housing from the University. While I love the fact that the scholarship pays for rent, and I really have gotten used to this apartment, I look forward to having: laundry machines; a dishwasher; a house with a door big enough for our couch to fit through; a shower that is not underneath a staircase; not having an upstairs neighbor who constantly overflows something in her bathroom that starts dripping into our bedroom; counter space in the kitchen; windows that actually open; a circulation system that actually works; an electrical system that post-dates the Triassic and has a ground prong; a fume hood over the stove;… I’m sure there’s more I could add to this list, but I’ll end it here. At least they got rid of the orange shag carpet that was in here before we moved in.

-The weather. I love the cold, but I do not enjoy the cold and the rain. If it rained less, I would love it more.

Things I WILL miss about Portland:

-Family and friends. I have lived away from them for the last five years, but the majority of my cousins and family have always been a half a day’s drive, even from Moscow. Now they will be a long plane ride away. And that definitely sucks.

-No sales tax. Need I say more?

-No tornados. Again, need I say more?

-The Pacific Ocean. If you know me at all, you know I love the beach and everything about it.

-The mountains. Mississippi’s highest peak is Woodall Mountain at a jaw-dropping 806 feet. Sorry, people of Mississippi, that is not a mountain. Not even close. You don’t know what a mountain is.

-People watching. While weird people are annoying and creep me out, I must admit that you can spend an entire day in downtown Portland and not get bored looking at passersby. Although, I am sure the local Wal-Mart can provide this luxury, but then there’s the fact that involves going to a Wal-Mart.

-Proximity of malls. And shopping in general. Not at the Wal-Mart.

-The seemingly needless, but very necessary, number of coffee places. I love how, from my work, I can go around the corner to a Starbucks, go less than a ¼ mile from there to another Starbucks, go around the other corner at work to another Starbucks, or I can walk across the street to the Tully’s, and across the street from the Tully’s is an espresso stand. The nearest actual Starbucks from our town is MS will be about thirty miles away.

The weather. I know I said I wouldn’t miss this, but the South is extremely humid, and I hate humidity, so I will miss the “dryer” air from the Western Cascades. Also, it gets hot down there, and I do not like hot. Hotter than 75 is too hot.

Powell’s Books. I love that store. Cheap books. What could be better?

Feel free to add to my list!