a different green

What's up? It's been a while.

I've felt the pull lately to be doing this again so I'm going to listen to that feeling and go with it. It would've been nice to let things be back at Christmas of 2012 when I left off but I want to keep doing new things and I need a way to check myself. I need to put it out there so I know that I'm doing it and not cheating myself out of new experiences.

First, we should catch up cuz a lot has happened since I last posted.

In January 2013, my brother and sister-in-law had a little baby! My first (human) nephew which was awesome! I took a trip back to NE to see them and to hang out with my high school friends. Good times.

In March 2013, Andrew and I moved into a house on Burnside and 62nd. It was great but on a busy street and didn't really have a yard.

In May 2013, I graduated from PSU with an MSW. The last year was relatively easy. I stressed out about it here and there but I realized towards the last quarter that I really had it in the bag. The teacher was cool and liked my writing style and gave me unreasonably good grades. The internship was hard to leave but it felt great to lighten my load for a bit. Also, my sister had another child, another nephew! I love being an uncle and I love babies!

In August 2013, I took my first trip to San Francisco. It was a graduation present and the best thing ever. I loved the city and he had such a great insider perspective on it. I made him do a lot of touristy things but he knew all of the best lesser known places to go. One of the highlights was seeing a production of Hedwig.

In October 2013, my parents came up to visit and they participated in the Cascade AIDS Walk with me and my team from Goodwill. It was wonderful to have them here and to have them meet Andrew. We played a lot of cribbage but unfortunately, I didn't have any vacation time so I didn't get to spend as much time with them as I wanted.

In December 2013, I got a new job! I was hired at a brokerage office as a personal agent for people with developmental disabilities. It's a small non-profit run by two awesome guys who are the closest to being my peers as any boss I've ever had. I loved putting my notice in at Goodwill. Before doing so, I had tried to make my job work, even writing a new job description for a position that was needed. In the end, they didn't really want to keep me and I didn't want to stay so I left. I took a long weekend vacation with Andrew, Dean, Sophia and her partner Tim (formerly known as X-box) to Manzanita. We had a lot of fun and I want to do it again sometime. After that, I flew back to NE to spend the holidays with my family. I started at the new job on December 30th (which made my taxes easier to do).

On to 2014! In January, I had to buy a car for my new job. I wish I didn't have to own a car but the job is worth it.

In February 2014, Andrew and I decided to take a last minute trip for our birthdays to Astoria and stayed in a motel. It was an easy lazy time but not long enough.

In March 2014, we spent the weekend at the Ester Lee motel in Lincoln City. Again, nice but not long enough.

In April 2014, we decided to do it right a went away for several days to a cabin in Blue River, OR. It was beautiful and I don't think Dean had been more excited and energetic in years. He loved it so much!

In May 2014, my little niece Hayleigh graduated high school! I went back to NE and drove to Kansas with my brother and his family. It was nice to vacation with the whole fam.

On June 11, 2014, Dean passed away. His health had been failing off and on for the previous month or so and it was time. We did a home euthanasia with a very caring technician. Sophia and Andrew were there with me. I never knew I could be so emotionally distraught. It don't think I really knew grief until then. I did receive a lot of comfort from Andrew. While I had over a decade with Dean before we met Andrew, he still had bonded with Dean and took the loss hard as well. And I found comfort in the fact that Dean had a great 13+ years. He passed away two days before our 13 year anniversary together.

In July 2014, after I got back from Country Fair (which was a lot better than last year as it was my first year working security), we got another dog. We went to the humane society a time or two before finding a good match. We set out to get a 6 yr old  male Bernese Mountain Dog and came back with a 2 yr old female Huskie/German Shepherd mix that we named Ava. It's been different, going from a old man dog to a young energetic thing. She's a little too clever, very talkative, and seemed to fit just right with us.

In August 2014, I got a Dean memorial tattoo. I never thought I'd get a color tattoo but I really liked the concept and it's my favorite photograph ever so I did it and I am very happy with it.

In September 2014, we closed on a house. I think Andrew wanted to provide a yard for Ava. He had been toying with the idea of buying a house here and there but after we got her, he got more serious. It's a nice house with a great yard on a quiet street. When I first got to Portland, I couldn't imagine living this far out but it's not that inconceivable anymore. Most of my friends live out this far and it's a great neighborhood now. Plus my friend Tim moved just down the street from us and his friend Aaron lives between us so we got a lil gayborhood going on. Also this month, my bike broke. I still haven't got it replaced but I've just been riding my old bike. Supposedly, the frame is covered under a lifetime warranty but the break was in a odd spot and Corey's not sure Jamis will replace it. I don't plan to get a new one until the new year.

In November 2014, we took Ava to the Gearhart beach house and she loved it. This dog loves to run and was built for the beach. I can't wait to get her back there.

In December 2014, I took my first train ride state-side (I took a train in Germany from Munich to Dachau) up to Seattle. It was a lot more about the journey than the destination and I loved it. I want to take more train rides. It's silly but riding a train has been on my list of things to do for over a decade and it took this long to do it. And that's part of the inspiration for this reboot. There's not a lot of change going on in my life right now and I can see myself getting comfortable with where I am. I'm in a stable job, stable housing, a stable relationship, and I have a young healthy dog (knocking on wood through that whole statement) and that's great. However, this was where I was at when I started this blog and I could see myself working into a comfortable rut. So, once again, in order to shake things up, I'm going to document my new things. I'm planning on mostly using a twitter account located here. If I want to write more, I'll post to the blog but the blog updates the twitter account automatically and it's a lot easier. I don't always have a lot to write but it's important to me to be documenting it and I can easily tweet out something. So there it is. Follow if you want.