Wednesday, July 2, 2008

One Year

One year ago today I started work at the library feeling nervous, enthusiastic and relieved. A year ago last week Nico and I drove into Washington state from Arizona, happy to be away from the heat and somewhere green and cool.

One year, but it seems like more.

Some parts didn't take long at all. Falling in love with Portland and Seattle took less than a day, each. Driving to the ocean took 30 minutes. Learning that a six pack of Guinness costs more here than we're willing to pay on a regular basis took about 5 seconds. And coming to the full realization that we lived in an ostensibly rural area, with all that encompasses, took a couple of months, three at the most. This fact might have been immediately obvious to others, but I'll admit I was a little slow on the uptake. I've been called a Pollyanna by a couple of my coworkers.

Other things took a lot longer. It took 8 months for Nico to find a job that paid a living wage. It took 4 months before we found a restaurant we really liked within a half hour's drive, 4 months before I found anyone who could qualify as a friend outside of work. It took a little longer than that to realize that the town we lived in was a hole, that we could never make it work for us in even a temporary way no matter how hard we tried. It took us 10 months before we were able to move someplace else.

And some things that I expected to happen still haven't, whether through chance or my own lack of action.

I still haven't driven the loop of the Olympic Peninsula...


I haven't visited the Hoh Rainforest...


And I STILL haven't seen a banana slug! Damn! That was the one thing I expected for sure to see.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those banana slugs are much prettier than just plain old slugs.

Mairi said...

They're also a sneaky, wily bunch. That's why you haven't seen them.