Secrets, Stumptown, and Cohabitation

Do you know how hard it is to keep a secret from the Internet?  Especially when that information is exciting and kind of a big deal – to me anyway.  I’m typically pretty quick to share good news. There’s something about sharing it with friends, family, and you, dear readers, that makes good news even sweeter.

Except this time, it isn’t just my news. It’s his too, so when we found out that the apartment that Boyfriend and I have been on the waiting list for since August had a unit available in December, I chose to hold onto that as our thing for a little while first.  Instead of taking to the Twitters or this space here or Facebook, I sort of just basked in our news, our plans, our next steps before sharing it publicly.  We shared it with friends and family, of course, but kept it a little close for a short while.

It’s also a little bit bigger than that – than just deciding to shack up together. The apartment building we’ve been on the waiting list for is in Portland, Oregon, which means I’ll be leaving Colorado before the end of 2010.

Go [Further] West Young Woman

I knew when I decided to move to Colorado almost exactly a year ago, that I’d stay in Colorado as long as was right and that my next move would likely be to the Pacific Northwest. In April, my friend Melissa and I visited Sean and others out there, knowing that there was something about this city that was going to leave a mark on me.  In April, Boyfriend and I went from friends-who-ran-into-each-other-at-happy-hours, to can’t-get-enough-of-each-other silly, smitten, loverfaces. Chris often talked about how much he loved Portland, and throughout the summer we kept having “Wouldn’t it be fun to live in Portland someday?” conversations that evolved into a “Let’s go to Portland to sort of… get a feel for it” trip in August, at which point we found our perfect apartment and put our names on the waiting list, hoping for something towards the end of the year.

Remember when I wrote about how I believe he and I have been on a collision course leading us to meeting exactly when we did? When I wrote that, I left out the part about how we were already talking about moving around and exploring together – and knew we were headed to Portland sometime.  I’d found a partner that not only wanted what I was pursuing because he was supporting my dreams, but he was also already building a life that ran his dreams right into mine at exactly the right time.  Collision course. You could say I picked him up on my way out to the west coast

Home Sweet Apartment

Anyway, last Tuesday, we got the call from the apartment manager that a unit – an apartment, a home – had opened up in building we wanted in the neighborhood we wanted – in the middle of December. We knew when we got that call, we’d be jumping on it – so as of Tuesday of last week, months of daydreaming and loose planning finally manifested and it’s now official:

Chris and I are moving to Portland in 5 weeks.

It’d be way too obvious of a statement to discuss how excited I am for the next chapter, a new adventure, and exploring a city that I’ve visited twice and loved immensely both times. It’d be just as obvious a statement to discus the bittersweet feelings I have about leaving the home, the fit, and the family I’ve found in Colorado.  I also haven’t even really addressed the {!!!} surrounding the feelings I have about moving in with my best friend and love.  I’m totally confident that these feelings of excitement and transition will show up here as they’re processed and as it happens.

For now, I’m going to bask. And after a week of sharing that with Boyfriend, my friends, and my family – I’m thrilled to share that news and this adventure with you, dear readers.

So… do I know any bloggers in Portland?

{Photo credit}

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Tagged as: Boulder, cohabitation, Colorado, cross-country, moving, oregon, Portland, relocation