that lovin' feeling

I haven't lost it. In fact, I've got it. I've got it bad.

With the exception of the "missing" member of the family, life is about as good as it gets out here. Ben and I were just talking the other day about how content we are. Finally. We're finally in a happy place. Was it a new mattress, coming in to solve all of our problems? Maybe. That new mattress is pretty awesome. In fact, I've been sleeping so soundly, I often wake up wondering what happened to the night.

I'm pretty sure that this contented, happy feeling is a result of moving out here, though. Let me give you a small list of reasons why my life in Oregon is better than my life in Nebraska:

1. No airconditioning. On first glance, this might be met with horror. Until you realize that if you open the windows in Oregon, the humidity in the house actually drops. Amazing. Wonderful.
2. No road rage. I walk/ride the train for my daily commute. This takes about the same amount of time as my Omaha commute. It just costs 1/3 as much (maybe 1/4 as much with high gas prices), and affords me an extra 2 miles of "exercise" daily. Pretty sweet.
3. BJJ 5 times a week. This is not so much a plus for me as it is for Ben. But it IS kind of a plus for me because in Omaha, if Ben were to do 5 hours of bjj weekly, we wouldn't see him for 10+ hours during the week. Here...he can do 5 sessions of bjj and only miss about 3 hours of family time.
4. Farmers markets. Ok, there was a pretty good farmers market in Omaha. The difference here is that there are 3 within walking distance of either our house or my work throughout the week. And we belong to a CSA that delivers to my work. The one in Omaha was a 20-30 minute drive on Saturday morning, only.

It's not all happy contentedness, however. We miss our moms. We miss our Scooter (for the summer, at least). We miss our Omaha friends. We're still getting settled into the new apartment. But you know what? Neither Ben nor I have taken any allergy medication this year. Unheard of in Omaha. I ride my bike to the gym. Not unheard of, but definitely dangerous and/or time consuming. All in all, I'm probably the happiest I've been since Scooter was born. And I'm alright with that.