Westward Hmm!

We're thinking about moving to Portland.

I mean, I like DC well enough; I'm grateful to be here; and, as I'm quick to tell people, it beats India. But I'm here because my job's here, and, apart from that, I have no particular warm fuzzies for the place. It's unobjectionable; at most, a weak positive.

My job changed the rules on me last week. I didn't post on it earlier, because I've been mulling over the implications. In a continuing series of both minor and major alterations to standard operating procedures, rather crudely designed to force people to go to Iraq, the bureaucracy has re-jiggered the rules on hardship postings. The changes are complex, but the bottom line is this: because I did not stay in India two months longer than I did, it's as if I was never there at all. (Tell that to my continuing digestive tract problems.)

And Thailand, retroactively, doesn't count as hardship at all (it doesn't, retroactively, in memory, either, so fair enough on that one). Thus, although I thought I was back in the US for up to five years, I actually have to bid on a "significant hardship" post no later than 2009. And considering I'd already decided the only thing that might entice me into doing another overseas tour would be the prospect of Bangkok or Berlin -- both now essentially reserved as rewards for Iraq service -- this kind of bums me out.

So I'm thinking: to hell with it.

I mean, believe me, I've thought that before. My current posting is largely benign, but if neither the job nor the city are wowing me, and it's going to take a turn for the worse sooner than I thought, and my top bids are already off the table -- well, really, why bother?

So I've been quietly but persistently trying to sell K on Portland (heh: I just accidentally typed "Berlin." Yes, that too, though there's a residency visa problem there.) Our incredibly well-thought-through plan is that we'd use my savings to buy a house -- they'd get us a tiny condo here -- and K would get some sort of proper, mortgage-paying job, and I'd earn pin money via freelance journalism. We'll figure out the details later.

I don't think it's actually as crazy as it sounds -- provided K gets the job before I buy the house -- especially as there's a bit of a safety net: if I can resist the impulse to create a bonfire spectacular of my bridges, my workplace has a fairly liberal re-entry policy. And I'm a thousand percent ready to dump income for increased quality of life, especially as the gain would be steeper than the loss; heck, it's like a sale on happiness.

Obviously, I've got a few concerns about Portland, especially as when I stayed there for three months after coming back from Thailand, it seemed distinctly less cosmopolitan than I'd remembered (restaurants close at ten?). And it's an annoyingly longer flight to my beloved Europe, where, so help me, I will one day live. And K's never been there at all, though it's an easily packaged city to stun someone over a long weekend, especially if I rather disingenuously take him there in August.

And, after that, we'll settle down for a while, honest.