Well, well, well, if it isn’t the blog I abandoned. It is now almost July, and I haven’t made a post since April. Also, my April post was written in January, but kept in drafts until April. To conclude, you’ve only gotten one post out of me in almost 7 months. Oops.

No need for excuses, but to catch up:

1. In April, I graduated from culinary school at the CIA in St. Helena, Ca., with a degree in Culinary Arts.
2. My partner and I went on a road trip for almost one and a half months. We slept in my car and did a fair bit of hiking, camping, and sightseeing.
3. I officially moved to Portland, Oregon, and recently signed my first lease- 12 months, with my girlfriend. I moved in at the beginning of this month, and she’ll officially move in at the end of this week.
4. I recently accepted a position working in the kitchen at a Hilton Hotel’s restaurant.

Some notes:

Graduation: My close friend and roommate, Antonio, and my girlfriend came to support me at my graduation. My parents and twin brother did not.

Road trip: California to Oregon, to Washington, to Oregon, to California, to Oregon, then I went to Washington while she went to California, then I went back to Oregon, and soon she will come back to Oregon as well. Stayed with a close friend in Washington, and got to introduce my partner to the place I grew up.

Moving: The decision to move to Portland was based on several factors, but we were especially interested due to the presence of several friends in the area. The road trip was long, and we had a million new amazing experiences, but we were both eager for some stability and familiarity.

Job: The onboarding process seems to be pretty slow. I haven’t officially started yet.

The most recent challenge I have checked off the list is…

***buying furniture***

When I unloaded all my stuff into my new apartment, I was shocked to realize I didn’t own a bunch of book cases and mattresses and chairs. I’ve only ever lived in pre-furnished situations before! It’s been an interesting challenge that led to many frantic “how little money can I possibly spend on this” Amazon searches. My partner is moving the last of her stuff in in about a week, then she will help/take over the decorating and furnishing. But so far, I have bought a mattress, a small shelf to go in our closet, a futon, and two wooden bookcases. It’s been a journey, but my apartment is starting to feel more like a home and less like a sad empty box. I’m excited to see what changes take place once we’re a little more financially stable.

As for the more exciting challenges on my list, I am once again greeted with a disturbing lack of money to accomplish them. The choice between going scuba diving and paying for groceries is easy and hard. I suppose I chose an odd time to start this challenge, but I’m incredibly glad that I did. And despite the fact that it’s been many months since I’ve posted, I have certainly had many adventures over the past few months. I’ve seen some amazing things and had some incredible experiences. Unfortunately, with the amount of student loans I have, it will most likely be quite a while before I’m able to check more big-ticket items off my list. But what’s the harm in having something to look forward to?

I can’t really say when I’ll be posting again, but I can promise it will be sooner than 7 months from now. Thank you to everyone who keeps up with my blog. I have big dreams of one day turning it into a book of my adventures, but we’ll see where it goes.

Until next time,

-James