Cemetery walk

At a predominantly Russian cemetery in SE PDX:





At a predominantly Russian cemetery in SE PDX

january so far

being home in illinois was awesome and i already documented it in a hand-written journal so i don't feel up to adding another iteration of it here. it was one of the best being home for the holidays experiences i've had in a long long time.
january is already half-over. the new year was rung in at a so-so house party in tualatin. since then it's all been about getting back into the swing of work and finally feeling like i can fit in to some degree mere weeks before leaving for good.
we had a last-minute rush to push thru a massive technical roll-out of our updated product which involved a two-day work binge with all hands on deck, the work load allocated sometimes fittingly, sometimes not. i saw myself working in Microsoft Front Page doing very basic coding for an online manual. i was able to see project management in a bad light, and also observe how my colleagues operate under considerable amounts of pressure from the managing partners. all ended well for the most part.
today is an incredibly foggy day and it's nice to look out the window at the raindrops and the treetops that are immersed in cloud. i want to escape to a field and take a walk but i would need to drive to some place to do that. this is one thing i miss about the DG homestead: the quick and easy access to a field, forest, marsh, creek, prairie.
last couple weeks have been busy with social activity, more than we usually do here. portland downtown (i mean the heart of downtown, not SE) on weekend nights are a cesspool and i won't miss that. one thing i probably will miss is voodoo doughnuts which, although a trendy indie establishment, offers some delicious donuts 24/7. my favorite might have to be the bacon maple bar: a long-john-esque donut with maple frosting and bacon strips on top. so good... (See left pic)
now that my time is drawing nearer to a close i am beginning to appreciate the nuances of my company a bit more (typical). that is not to say i want to stay doing what i am doing for a lifetime just bc of a few quirks and money incentives. i will miss the native american teepee room that my boss decided to craft in an otherwise highly professional office environment, much to the chagrin of animal lovers and those who are culturally sensitive (See right picture). and i'll also miss the time when the boss read excerpts of a Dr. Seuss book to us during a team meeting to incite motivation. or the time when everything was put on hold at 3pm so we could drink eggnog and rum and spiked apple cider. or when we stopped everything early to drink fine champagne. or the time when...