Two Ears One Mouth

Well hello there from your friendly neighborhood Oregonian! I think that's what people in Oregon are called. I may need to confirm that or wait until someone says it so I know without having to ask. Anyway, thought now would be a good time to pop in and let you know that I'm alive and well and have been living in Oregon for about a week now. I'm sure some of you think you're interested in a recap of the road trip but trust me, you're not. It was quite long and quite boring. I'm not one who loves a road trip anyway so loading me up for 5 days wasn't exactly thrilling. Here's a quick rundown for you though, just in case you don't believe it happened: Day 1: Louisville to Kansas City We'd hardly crossed into Indiana before I started crying but luckily it didn't last long. It took forever for us to leave and starting out 3 hours behind wasn't exactly how I wanted to begin the journey but it really wasn't a big deal. We made it to th...

We are driving all the way to Oregon so there's definitely planning that has to go into such a trip. We have to make sure we buy enough ammunition, spare wagon parts and clothing at the general store which can be hard on a carpenter's salary. We have to stop and talk to people to get their opinion on what we're doing and how we're doing it and most of all, we have to ready the oxen. Oh wait, sorry, we're taking the trail for real by car, not on pix-elated computer screens by wagon. My mistake. via I'll probably never stop making Oregon Trail jokes so you should just go ahead and accept that. The original OT traveled from Independence, MO (where I almost booked our Day 1 hotel just for kicks) to Oregon City, OR. Our fair city of Tualatin lies just 11 miles west of Oregon City so we're going a bit further than the true OT but we're also in a car and not a wagon so I think we'll make it like the true explorers we are. And there's your...

Let's take the emotions down a notch from my last post and get back to that moving across the country thing. via As of last night we're officially not homeless! Hooray! We got the approval for an apartment in a fun little town called Tualatin which is a few miles southwest of Portland, aka the 'burbs. The apartment is within walking distance of lots of stores (including a grocery store and farmer's market, top priority obvs) and is centrally located to a lap swimming pool, 3 (count em, THREE) parks and 2 hot yoga studios. I'm pretty pumped to say the least. But back to the moving thing. The easiest way to move your stuff across the country is to not have a lot of stuff to move across the country. Seriously. Read any moving blog or website or whatever and they will tell you to sell your shit. Or donate it, or whatever you have to do to get rid of it because hauling it all is expensive and the farther you go the more expensive it is. I can't rememb...

As self centered as I can sometimes be, I have to say I'm a little disappointed. After spending almost 8 years in Louisville (holy crap has it really been that long!) I was really expecting to have made very close connections. I was expecting to have friends who upon hearing the news would start asking me questions. When are you leaving? Where will you live? Do you have a job lined up? How will you get your stuff there? Do you need help? WHEN CAN I COME VISIT? If I'd heard my friend was moving quite literally across the country, I'd like to think I would be asking those questions. Aside from my sister and 1 or 2 people I honestly haven't known for very long, nobody really seems to be asking anything. That makes me sad because in my sensitivity and dramatics, it comes off as not caring. I mean, surely they don't have anything going on in their lives that could need more attention than my move right? *I'm being dramatic here, I know people have important ...

A lot of things have changed. Like, a lot of them. The biggest thing that has (or at least is about to) changed is my location. In a few short weeks The Colonel and I will be embarking on a real live Oregon Trail and moving to Portland! It's official! We are driving the real live #oregontrail and moving to Portland! #adventure #PDX #PNW #roadtrip A photo posted by Rennay Cooke Marshall (@rnay225) on Apr 17, 2015 at 5:34pm PDT To make a long story short, we've been talking about moving for ages but wanted to do it the right way (i.e. save up money, purge excess crap, visit a few cities, pick one, get jobs etc.). You know what they say about best laid plans right? Turns out The Colonel accepted a transfer to Portland at the end of last week and now we have roughly a month to be moved the 2300 miles to Oregon. Holy moly. Interestingly, a few weeks ago I started watching My City's Just Not That Into Me  on FYI and thought just for kicks to take their My ...

Well my friends, I am suffering from a serious Ironman hangover! A wise person once said the Ironman is like Christmas but the days after are like a New Year's hangover and truer words have never been spoken. Although I didn't race (um, duh) I still managed to keep busy all weekend. Saturday morning Autumn and I got up for a 14 mile run at 6:30 and it was largely uneventful until the end. We tried a new hydration product we got at the Ironman Expo called zipfizz . Jury is still out on it but I may do a little product review after this week's training. The last 3 miles started to get tough and something about passing up that 13.1 mark hurts a lot. But it wasn't until the last half mile that I wanted to lay down and cry. Oddly enough, I never ended up terribly sore from that run and actually felt recovered pretty quickly afterwards. Funny how proper (ish) training works. Anyway, after the run I took The Colonel to pick up the moving truck so he and his friend cou...

Since completing the Peru recap my head has literally been swimming with blog ideas. Every thought I have becomes "That would make a great blog!" As you can see, they have yet to actually materialize. So here is a bullet list of those thoughts in hopes that at least some of them may go somewhere but at the very least, they'll GET OUT OF MY HEAD! My current priority list consists of having a place to live and being able to afford it. What does that mean? Moving and work. I doubt I've mentioned it but I am currently moving out of my apartment into a significantly larger house in the prestigious South Louisville neighborhood. Google it and you'll be really jealous. What that means though is that every spare moment when I'm not at work (to afford the place to live) I am packing or moving things to the new place. It's fun-ish and I'm glad to have the house and the time we have to move everything but the split household is starting to get a little dicey. ...

I guess a more appropriate title would be "Since I've Been Gone" but that isn't the name of a song by the great Kelly Clarkson. Anyway, how's it going? If it makes you feel better, I've not only been neglecting you lately but also pretty much everything that is considered social including the reading of other blogs and my beloved triathlon message boards. Let's not make this a habit shall we? So let's do a quick fill you in. Last week I started a new job working in dietary at a long term care/rehab facility. I like it a lot so far but part time has become 4-5 days per week instead of the more traditional 2-4. I'm sure I won't be complaining once the paycheck rolls in tomorrow but for now, I'm tired. I also managed to workout Monday through Friday last week along with my significantly more physical job so this week I was feeling the exertion hangover. Friday night my cousin came in from New York and was staying with my mom so that sucked u...