How did I get here? A "Blast From the Past" entry.

Made that sound official didn't I?  I'm a dork.

A while back ago I showed up on Oregon's doorstep and not too long after ended up settling in Molalla.  Many of the people I've come to know, including my wife have been here as long as they can remember.  So being a transplant I'm kind of an oddity.  Ok, maybe the transplant stuff only helps explain that... anyway.  I get the question every now and then about how I went from a small town in Northeastern Washington to a small town in Northwestern Oregon.  So here's the story, I might get a little wordy, but it wasn't exactly a direct route.  I'll spare you the childbirth stuff, since we don't have to go that far back, but we'll start up at the end of high school since that was the last time I regularly lived at home.

I graduated high school.  Hurrah!!!  Actually had a decent GPA (not bragging but it plays into a later part of the story).

I wasn't quite sure where to go or what to do.  I was thinking something maybe graphic arts, thinking I was better at that stuff than I really was.  I could draw a decent picture, fairly creative, but thinking back, not quite wall worthy.  Anyway, I got a thing in the mail from a small college in Ohio and they had noticed on something I filled out somewhere that I ran cross country and they expressed some interest.  How they got that I don't know, but anyway it happened.  Maybe they sent out a questionnaire, or big brother had a satellite over Newport one day, pick your poison.  That was the kicker though, they wanted me to run for them.  Not a scholarship thing, but hey I had an opportunity to do something I enjoyed beyond high school... I was sold.

In the mean time, I found some other things I enjoyed: Booze, parties...etc.  There is something about going from a small community where my folks knew all the police, whether state, county or city, to someplace 2,000 miles away.  Yup, came out of my shell in a huge way.  Long story short, I went from a good kid/gpa to a 1.crap gpa, either lost or was on probation for the academic scholarship stuff I collected and most likely ineligible to run the next year... oh and still a freshman.  Sidenote: culture shock for my folks when I walked off the plane with my hat on backwards, a goatee and earring.  Culture shock may even be playing it down a bit too.  Not that any of those were all that bad, but when you send your baby-face-hardly-get-in-trouble kid 2,000 miles away and he comes back with his halo pierced into his ear it tends to surprise.

So anyway... things didn't go over well, especially when I owned up to the grades and it set in how much money that was not mine I just blew.  Long story short, I could go back to school for 6 months kind of probationary if I visited a recruiter.  Three days after my visit to the Navy guys I signed my name and about a month later I shipped off to Great Lakes, IL (fondly known to many as "Great Mistakes") for boot camp, and to San Diego where the boat ("ship" unless you really want to offend a lifer, oddly enough submarines are "boats") made it's home port.  The last few months of my stint were spent in Bremerton, WA when the boat ship was in dry dock.

After four years of wearing "Cracker Jacks" and "Dungarees" I moved back home for a couple months as I looked for work.  My uncle put me in contact with a guy he used to railroad with who at the time was a big wig union guy for the west coast and got hooked up with Amtrak and packed my bags for the Portland area.  Being down here is a story, maybe for another time (including rehitting a low, cleaning up my act, meeting my wife and so on).  Since I moved down (1998) I've lived in Clackamas, Gervais, Salem, West Linn, Molalla, Wilsonville, Colton and back to Molalla.  That is it in a nutshell.  Maybe one of these days I'll throw out some specifics... but that might depend on which part people want to hear about.

So for kicks and since I'm thinking about it anyway... here's a list of all the places I've lived:
Spokane, WA
Beaver, OR
Chatteroy, WA
Newport, WA (home town from 4-18)
Wilmington, OH
Newport, WA (again)
Great Lakes, IL (Chicago area)
North Island/Coronado (San Diego)
Bremerton, WA
Newport, WA (again again)
And down to Oregon
Clackamas
Gervais
Salem
West Linn
Molalla
Wilsonville
Colton
Molalla (again)

Guess you could say I get around.  Kinda.

Enjoy your day!