I just booked a ticket to Portland, OR, for a four-day weekend ten days from now. In the original plan I wasn’t supposed to go until March, when Karen K., librarian extraordinare, was going to be there for a conference. But her trip got canceled and then Midwest friends started planning their own trip, and did I want to come along? Unexpectedly, I did.
Portland’s the last stop on the Recon List I started seven years ago. Seven years ago…that’s the first time I’ve realized how long it’s been, and how crazy it is that it’s been that long. Seven years ago was when I first wanted to leave New York, and didn’t have an idea of where else to live. I’d only been to a few states and cities, and didn’t have a job or person or purpose calling me to a specific location. So I started asking people where they’d recommend, places they’d been that they liked. Austin kept coming up, as did Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Portland.
I hopped onto any trip my friends were taking and explored all sorts of places in between visits to Austin, Chicago, Seattle, Philadelphia. I moved to Wisconsin and visited more places, St. Louis and New Orleans, and finally got San Francisco, and LA, late last year. Portland was the only city left on that original list of places to explore. Not a bad rate of exploration for a former homebody.
In ten days I cross Portland off the list, and on March 1st I move to Chicago. We will see what new adventures are in store, on both counts.
