Those last two weeks were so nice.

So for the last two weeks things were great. I felt totally untouched by our countries depression. I got a promotion to Collections Manager here at the Sports Hall which included a 6% raise which isn't to bad. Joe got hired at Yahoo! and he was making almost 2 times what he was making at Telelanguage. Then.. well.. we got bit. Yahoo! is to lay off 1500 workers. We expect the worse. I am mainly angry because they just just hired him. How did they not see this coming. Haven't they heard of a hiring freeze? So no more health insurance and back to worrying about randomly breaking a leg and hoping that all major injuries happen in the truck because at least that has insurance. We are hoping for at least two months severance pay. He will go on unemployment. I created a budget. Not my spend tracker as before. Now it is budget time. If we spend 2000 a month then we can live for about 1 year without dipping into our meager savings or adding to it (unfortunately). Which is pretty good I think. God willing we won't get sick (I am looking at you Alice! who cost us more in medical bills this past year then ourselves.. but you gotta love that kitty) When we first got here it took Joe 3 months to find a crappy job and the economy didn't suck as much then. So I expect it to take a while to find a decent job again. He doesn't want to settle for something as bad as telelanguage again. I agree. He is smart and has experience in many things. He deserves better, his dues have been paid. Perhaps Portland won't work out after all. I have been rolling this around in my head all day. We LOVE Portland. We want to stay here and buy a house, raise a family (although not in the public school system which has a totally crazy 43% dropout rate!) We want to walk around forest park and Mt. Tabor. We want to do things that aren't free.. really enjoy all that this progressive city has to offer. We want to finally make that trip to the ocean which never seems to be in our cards. But maybe we can't. Maybe we need to city search again. Seattle seems to expensive, big, urban.We could never buy a house in Seattle ( Art History and Labor Relations.. What the Hell were we thinking!) California.. maybe.. I don't want to go back east.Not even a little. We have not felt that terrible feeling of being trapped or stuck since we arrived on the left coast. What about west.. but not as west as here.. Colorado? It might turn blue (THANKS BARB AND RICH!!) Blue is part of my criteria for moving to a new state. I am now 100% anti-snow. I love a moderate climate more that I thought I would. We heat our house with wind and not oil! I don't see it not snowing or being very very cold in CO any time soon. Perhaps I could take up skiing (only after I get health insurance obviously) We shall see. Our lease is until Sept 1st. That is a long way away. Perhaps things will change before then. I currently don't have faith in that.