What a long, strange day it's been.

It went a little something like this:

4:30am - wake up with a start, toss and turn, try valiantly to go back to sleep.

5:00am - give up and get up... make coffee, check email, check in for return flight this evening.

5:30am - oatmeal time.

6:00am - check Portland weather, check bag for cashier checks and all other required lease-signing information for the NINETEEN MILLIONTH TIME... finally clean the oven which was sprayed with Easy Off about a week ago and hasn't been used since.

6:45am - shower and get ready.

7:30am - pace... play with cat... check bag for cashier checks and all other required lease-signing information for the TWENTY MILLIONTH TIME.

7:45am - leave for airport... no traffic, yay.

9:35am - leave for Portland... no canceled flight, yay.

11:05am - arrive in Portland... no rain, yay.

11:15am - head to Lloyd Center to kill some time and buy "something" for the apartment, just because I wanted to leave a newly purchased decorative item to watch over the place while I wasn't there.

12:30pm - purchase cute silver photo frame from Marshalls... eat lunch... try to read and kill more time.

1:00pm - head to 2pm signing appointment at apartment ten blocks from Lloyd Center.

1:10pm - arrive at apartment where neighborhood cats are happy to greet me... realize I'm not in Oakland when they all have tags and owners and are just friendly little kitties instead of feral rabid beasts... look at my watch, sigh, then continue up Broadway to see what else I'll be within walking distance of, in addition to Peets and the MAX and crazy ice-rink mall I will never shop at (other than today)... scrapbook store, tattoo shop, vet, 2 brewpubs, 1 pizza place quite highly ranked, 3 movie theaters, lots of interesting restaurants, Fred Meyer (my new BFF)... SCORE... head back.

2:00pm - sign lease and all other required paperwork... hand over my cashier checks... point out hole in floor and make guy write it down ("I did not do that!")... see guy to the door.

2:20pm - FREAK OUT completely.

2:30pm - measure rooms and document layout for later furniture placement planning... lament proximity of exterior garbage bins to living room windows... lament 4 pairs of outlets in the whole joint (apparently people didn't need too much electricity in the 1930s when the place was built?)... further lament that only one of them is a 3-prong pair of outlets... think of all my electrical needs and FREAK OUT again... realize all the rooms are well lit so no lamps are needed (three outlets free - woohoo!)... wonder what I'm going to do about my electric toothbrush (hmm).

3:30pm - start off on a nice long walk to explore and CALM THE HELL DOWN (people do this every day... the lamenting will only serve as incentive for me to begin the house hunt shortly after relocating... etc etc).

3:35pm - realize that I'll be living in a neighborhood called "Sullivan's Gulch" (really)... wonder who I am all of the sudden... remember the neighborhood cats who lounge on car hoods and trot up to say hello... decide it's a lot like Alameda... decide it's all good.

4:30pm - circle back, hit Fred Meyer for miscellaneous necessities and the latest Portland Magazine featuring all kinds of articles on why it's the best time EVER to buy a house in Portland and restaurants I would kick myself for missing out on.

5:00pm - drop stuff off, spend another 30 minutes FREAKING OUT trying to visualize all my crap fitting into this place.

6:00pm - give up, head to Rogue Brewery for celebratory beer and pizza... read Portland Magazine... calm down.

7:15pm - head to airport.

9:05pm - leave for Portland.

11:00pm - wonder how many more times I will actually walk up the stairs to my Oakland apartment... FREAK OUT.

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I've done day trips for work before, but usually with laptop in tow and always within the same state. It was quite surreal to do all of this today, and still I'm amazed that nothing has gone wrong. The more things go right, the worse the "wrong" thing is gonna be whenever it happens... (Still freaking out. But in a very tired way. And I think, a very happy way. I definitely grinned when I saw the pine trees on the train from the airport to downtown.)