FINALLY...

I am starting to feel as though I fit here...
I have become an avid craigslist checker for here in the area, and someone had posted an interest in starting a pub-book-club. I, of course, responded, and we had our first meeting yesterday at a pub called The Lucky Lab in SE Portland. Louie drove me (we had dinner plans with his sister and brother-in-law), and I actually went up to a random boy thinking he was the leader of the group--he had a few library books on the table in front of him--not our group leader...Anyway, total there are six of us (that showed up yesterday) and we randomly chatted/hung out for about 2 hours (they stayed after Louie picked me up, so they probably stayed longer).
There was an anesthesiologist (just moved from NJ), another girl from NJ who has only been here for a month or so (an artist), me, our group organizer (literature major/teacher), another portlandite who is a literature major as well, and a web designer also a portland lifer. We talked books, tatoos, sports, books, education, jobs, portland, NJ, books, WI...it was AWESOME!!!
We are reading The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson (my suggestion!), and because everyone is so awesome, the next meeting is going to be July 7th (because it should have been June 30th, but I asked them to postpone it a week since I will still be in WI)--and I am going to make cookies for their flexibility.

THEN I got to hang out with Louie's sister and brother-in-law, had pizza, looked at wedding photos, talked, had strawberry shortcake (with Oregon DELICIOUS strawberries!!), and watched Dejavu.

I feel human again!!!!! I like having a life. I just need a job, and then I can do more--like take kickboxing and a ceramics class.

I need to go and make a lemon cake and frosting (from scratch!!!!!!) for Louie's stepdad's birthday gathering tonight. WISH ME LUCK!!!! :)