I really appreciate you reaching out and am honored that Papa Hubski is interested in the goings on of my life.

Living in Oregon has been incredible. I'll try to sum it up as much as I can.

A week after I graduated, my fiancee Kathryn and I packed up and drove West. No plans, no jobs, no housing. We stopped for a bit in KC (where we grew up) to see family and friends and continued on. We stopped in Cheyenne (which I don't recommend, Sketchiest place I've ever been) and in Boise before arriving in Portland the next day. It was as we pulled into a hotel in Boise that we received a call that we'd have a place to live for July. The housing market in Portland is very saturated and it was only because someone dropped out of a sublet that we had a place to stay. The day after we arrived Kathryn had an interview at a Montessori school in the SW where she nabbed a position as an assistant guide (in Montessori they're "guides" not "teachers").

We had a few days to spare before moving into our sublet in SW Portland so Kathryn and I went to camp on the coast for a few days. The Oregon coast is unlike anything else I've ever seen. It's so ominous yet majestic. I highly recommend seeing it.

We moved into our sublet and had such a great time hanging out with our new roommates. We were taking the place of a med student who was going to Peru to study a specific bacteria and our roommates were two med students and a recent transplant from Ecuador. Kathryn got a job for a few months working at Sur La Table (where she had been working weekends in IL) and I got a gig working at a cell phone repair shop in NW Portland. Since I had done that for three years when I was in school it was a cinch to get the job. It was about a 15 minute bike from the SW sublet through downtown Portland to the cell phone shop. Biking in Portland is awesome. There are so many bike lanes and cars are very aware of bikes. Biking is the fastest mode of transportation in Portland, unless you're going from one extreme to the other.

Kathryn didn't have too many hours during this time and I only worked two days a week so we explored as much as we could. I networked like crazy and really got to meet some cool musicians. Before moving I had contacted a guy on Craigslist about playing with him and the two months before I moved to Fossil him and I played weekly, performing once at an open mic at a hostel in the NW.

After our sublet in the SW ran out, we moved to a sublet in the SE. Again, the housing market is so saturated we interviewed the last day of our sublet, were accepted, and moved the next day. Whatever notion you have about Portland is materialized on the East side of the Willamette River which runs down the middle. The West is suit-and-tie, the East is as free-spirited as it comes. At this new sublet, we lived with three rats, four cats, a rabbit, a dog, and six other humans (two of which slept on the back porch). They were a vegan household, which I’d have been cool to try out except that the cats were always on the counters, getting their tails on everything. It’s good to mention here that it was while living here that I learned I have an allergy to cats. Our room was sick though. It belonged to a couple with a son and the woman was a painter who had filled the room with her fantastic works of art. In fact, Kathryn got me one of her paintings we always admired for my birthday.

This new sublet was a bit further from work so it took me about 35 minutes to get to work each day. But man, was it worth it. My route took me along the Eastbank Esplanade, a beautiful path that runs right along the river. It was beautiful. It was on a bike that I realized, similar to in Paris, lovers put locks in the bridge. Later on Kathryn and I put a lock on.

Towards the middle of July, I got a call from a job I had applied for in May. I was to continue interviewing for a position with AmeriCorps teaching music in a rural Oregon town. Fast forward a few months, and I’ve now been living in Fossil, OR since August. I have K-8 (amounting to 32 students) Monday - Thursday (the school district is can’t afford to have school on Fridays). I teach private lessons to about 15 students on a variety of instruments I’ve picked up along the way. Working with kids is incredible. They’re so positive and so full of energy. What the school system does through their domestication is a true tragedy.

Living in a rural town is quite the experience. The population of Fossil, including those in the hills, amounts to about 475. Aside from my roommate, 30, and myself there are two other young adults in town. Having this amount of free time has resulted in so many new discoveries, both in talent and personal.

With all this time, you’re really left along with your thoughts. I most certainly had a fair amount of inner demons that I couldn’t have worked through without Kathryn’s support. Truly, without her love I may not have been typing this right now.

I’ve picked up many hobbies. I’ve rekindled my love of reading. I’ve dabbled in charcoal pastel and acrylic painting. I’ve written a lot of music, of which I recorded most when I went back to KC over Winter Break. Life is good when I allow it to be.

Over Winter Break, Kathryn and I did find a venue and set a date for our wedding. It’ll be on a farm right outside KC on July 19th of this year. In an effort to save money, her and I have been hand making our save the dates. They’ve really turned out awesome. We split the work and then swapped when we got halfway. Wedding planning takes a lot of work, but it’s so much fun.

I think that’s about everything since I’ve moved to Oregon. I may have left out a few details, but if you read this much you’ve got a pretty good idea about what I’ve been up to the past few months.