6/12/2016 1:54 pm

Aunt Lori, I remember when you said that I wasn’t allowed to move up here for a boy, to which I agreed. However, I’ve fallen in love. Not with a boy, but with a city. Portland was such a cool city to visit. I’m not saying that I’m going to peace out of Pensacola ASAP but the likeliness of me moving to the Northwest is much higher now, it's fantastic up here. I went to Portland on Monday with my friends Kellie and Sam. It’s only about a 2.5 hour drive from Mount Rainier. We walked around and found this famous donut shop called “Voodoo Donuts.” The donut I had was heavenly. It had chocolate icing, oreo crumbles, and peanut butter drizzle. From there we walked to Powell’s Bookstore, which is basically a book superstore. It was HUGE. Thankfully, Sam and Kellie love books as much as I do, so spending a significant amount of time there was no problem. They have used and new books, so finding good deals is not difficult. Surprisingly enough, I only walked away with 2 new books. From there we walked around a little more, then made our way down to the waterfront where we just sat and chatted. That was a very very good day.

I’m still working 3-11pm shifts, but I’m perfectly fine with that. Like I had said previously, I love the people I work with so that makes the job enjoyable. I work with this Jamaican guy, Nick, in pantry a lot. He is one of the funniest people I’ve met up here. Every now and then my friends Randall and Kayla will look over in pantry and both Nick and I will be dying laughing. I find myself not complaining about having to go into work because I enjoy my time there so much. I know I’ve talked about how much I love the people here, but I really really love the people here. I can’t walk anywhere without someone smiling and saying “Hey Kristen!” Someone I’ve never spoken to addressed me by name and asked how my day was going today while I was in the EDR.

Oh! I finally have a roommate! I was a little skeptical at first because I’ve grown accustomed to having my own room, but she’s really cool. Her name is Lindsay and she is from Connecticut. She works in the cafe with 3 of my other friends, so we all get along very well. We kind of have opposite schedules right now because she opens, but I think she’s trying to switch to mid shifts so she'll be able to hang out at nights with everyone.

It’s currently 65 degrees outside and sunny. I’m off today and I’m waiting for my friend Sam to get off at 3 so we can go hiking. Tonight, we are having our weekaversary party we have every Sunday (because we all got here on a Sunday). It should be fun, as usual, except this time we have a piñata! So that's exciting. Sorry this post is kind of short, I don’t really know what else to write. Just know that I am so so very happy.