Because of shitty roommate problems, I may suddenly be moving out of my house in Olympia by the end of the month and move to Portland sooner than expected, when I get back from Brazil. I still need to take summer classes, though, so I'm looking for any last-minute opportunities related to animals in the area.
I found a broad list of animal rescues in Oregon. Scrolling through it, there was one entry under exotic birds, a few for cats, blah blah, and then DOZENS for dogs. It started off like "dog rescue", "dogs for the deaf", "blind dogs rescue", then as I kept scrolling I saw rescues for specific breeds, like "chow chow rescue" and "dachshund rescue", then it combined the both like "deaf dane rescue" and "depressed dalmations lacking in spots rescue" (that one I made up, of course) and so forth. I was amazed that these places were so specialized but still managed to stay running, and most of them were in the Portland area. (Thinking about it, it's probably because these are common problems with the breeds or something.)
"They should have a center for dyslexic dogs," my dad said. " 'Krab! Krab!' 'No, it's bark bark!' 'Fruh! Fruh!' 'No no, ruf ruf!"
I have unfortunately begun to recognize signs that I have inherited his sense of humor.
Anyway, yeah, looks like I might move to Portland a bit early. The landlord keeps leaving us in these awkward, expensive positions just because he doesn't want to get involved in doing his job. He's a nice guy, but my roommates and I are at the point where we're thinking, "okay, if we don't find two roommates in the next two days for the open rooms, then we'll suck it up and pay the extra rent with all the money we poor college kids have to our name and then YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN, BUDDY, GOOD LUCK FILLING THIS HOUSE BECAUSE IT INVOLVES DOING LANDLORD-Y THINGS, GOD FOR-FREAKIN'-BID."
This involves living with my parents again for a short time after I'm back from Brazil, while I try to find a place in Portland. I love them, but I'll start to lose it if this time ends up stretching on, so I'm a bit anxious. Also because I don't know who I'm going to live with, and I'm reluctant to do the "move in with strangers I found on craigslist" things again. I've had amazing luck with that, but for all the good roommates I had, there have been two horrendous ones that cancel out all the goodness and more.
Also, as I was driving down from Olympia on Friday, my "check engine" light came on about halfway through the 100+ mile journey. After a bit my car began to do worrisome things. I was considering pulling over and checking things out, but had the feeling I wouldn't be able to start it again and decided to see how far I could get before my car started smoking or something. "Wouldn't it be shitty if my car broke down on the offramp by my house?" I thought. That offramp is at the bottom of a hill people tend to speed on, and the lane I would be in is the only lane that turns left. It's also a hot corner for bums, and 99.5% of the time there's at least one chilling there.
Naturally, as soon as I entered the offramp, my engine died. I coasted to the side as much as I could and didn't completely reach the bottom, and fortunately, there was no bum. Some dude helped me push it completely off the road and I waited for my dad, with two anxious cats stacked in the passenger seat wondering why the hell we stopped because they could sense we were ALMOST THERE WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON MEOW MEOW. We towed it to an auto shop, which of course had just closed and won't open again until Monday.
Ah well. All will make itself known in the next few days.
