Song of the Suburbs: Oh, Beaverton!

In my last post about moving to Beaverton, Oregon, I fully admitted to my ingrained urban snobbery, which had been easy to bury for the last ten years as I wore skinny jeans around various downtown and ultra-urban areas.

Today I am here to eat my slice of humble pie (purchased from Trader Joe’s, of course) and explain why Beaverton, Oregon, is a pretty good place to live. (I tried to write great in that sentence, but I’m not there yet. Give it another six months to ten years.)

First, Beaverton is incredibly diverse, whereas Oregon is very, very white. Coming from the Bronx, I thought it would be milquetoast-city anywhere we went, but at our local park there are people from the Middle East, Russia, India, China, and Korea. Plus, my friends, it’s still Oregon: It seems that no matter where they are originally from, people are breast-feeding in public and their kids are eating out of cloth snack bags.

The best cheap ethnic food around is in Beaverton. You can get great Mexican food in Oregon pretty much anywhere, but North Indian? Middle Eastern? South Indian? It’s all in Beaverton! Chennai Masala, near our house, smells like Kerala and has crispy, potato-filled dosa every day. This is a big threat to our budget.

Beaverton parks are awesome. You may be under a power line sometimes, but the Tualatin Hills Parks and Rec Department has fabulous facilities. K-Pants and I found a stroller exercise class at the complex next to our house that accepted us just as we were: screaming and out of shape. (Moms, check out Beaverton Baby Boot Camp. It’s awesome: woot, woot!). The Portland Timbers, our professional soccer team, also practices here, which provides some enjoyable eye candy.

Lastly, the commute to the high-tech forest is incredibly short. How do you think we ended up here in the first place? So although I do envy the incredible walkability and insane hipster-chicness of Portland’s East Side, seeing my husband for an extra hour and a half each day is totally worth living in the ‘burbs.

We’re Back! Live from the Pacific Northwest!

Winter is always a bad time to cross the Rockies in a wagon train. Even though we went with air travel, Nor’easters hit hard as we were making our great escape. Amazingly, our flight was not canceled; so with the help of good friends and family, we fled the Big Apple just in time for the season premiere of Portlandia.

K-Pants and I have spent the last few weeks deciding what we should get first: lip rings, nerd glasses, or unicycles. Your thoughts appreciated.

With the crib finally put back together and our little family safely—if haphazardly—stowed in a cute, suburban house next to a park, Momsicle can finally come back to life. I thought we would be back last week, but it turns out I was crying into empty boxes and aimlessly watching K-Pants throw everything down the stairs, so no dice.

Here’s the new digs:

Cute, right? And there’s a garbage disposal and laundry inside.

It’s harder than I thought to unpack when you are pregnant, watching a toddler, and your husband is at work. (That’s right! BIG NEWS: Momsicle is adding another turtle to the herd!)

I’m used to being able to unpack in a day. But this go round, every box took an hour. I would unpack some things, take a power nap, then collect the items Mr. Pants threw down the stairs during the nap. So when the satellite TV people told me the pricing they had quoted was no longer valid, it was too much for this hormonal unpacker to take. Normally I would demand a manager until I got through to the CEO, but this time I threw myself on the floor and cried giant tears.

So it’s taken a little longer to get back online.

But I’m happy to report that the last box is out and we even have toilet paper. From the house we’re renting, Mr. Pants and I can walk to Mexican food, bagels, pizza, sushi, and coffee. It’s pregnant-lady dreamland. Wait! You might say. You could walk to that stuff in the Bronx. Almost true! But have you checked the temperatures and the snowfall in those parts? Ain’t nobody walking to bagels these days.

And when the walking rounds get old, I can get in my car and drive two minutes to Trader Joe’s where I can fill the back of my car with cheese and pizza dough. I know that Buddha tells us life is suffering, and I’m with you man, but a girl can still get high on a car full of cheese once a week to take the edge off.

Here’s K-Pants doing some grocery shopping:

So here’s a toast on Valentine’s Day to the things you love (cheese), to being at home (wherever that may be), and to family. My husband and I are thrilled to put the Pants down early tonight and enjoy frozen scallops from TJ’s and some Netflix from the comfort of our unpacked family room.

Happy V-Day, and I look forward to catching up with you soon!