Portland, OR

Work sent me to a tax conference in Portland, Oregon. It started on Sunday afternoon so I had to fly out on Saturday afternoon to make sure I was there in time. Jackson had work commitments so I went solo. It was really hard to give up a weekend with my two favorites to go to a conference, but duty called.

Sleeping in with MacK

She thought I forgot to pack her up, too!

My little airport shuttle service

Flying to the Pacific Northwest ("PNW") from Indy is getting easier, but it is not there yet. You can get direct flights to Seattle, but since I needed to get to Portland it was a little trickier. I stopped in Chicago on the way there. I never noticed the Garrett popcorn stand in the airport before, but since this was a work trip (read: meals paid for!) I decided to stop in. SO GOOD!

Their popcorn is just beyond

We don't generally fly in the daytime (since we are always maximizing our time away by catching evening flights) so it was kind of fun to be by the window and looking out on the world while the sun was still up.

Over Montana I think...

I got lucky and had an empty seat next to me on the long flight. Alaska airlines also has free tv, movies and messaging! You can still send iMessages from the air for FREE. I was so pleased! I grabbed an Uber to the hotel and settled in for my stay until Thursday morning. Note: my Uber was only $30 with tip from the hotel to the airport when a taxi was $50 and my guy drove a 5 series BMW. Taxi services are so over.

Funny story about checking into my hotel room. The conference was at a pretty fancy place, the Hilton Portland Downtown. I got to my room on the 17th floor and there was a floral arrangement there. I was SO excited. I thought Jackson felt bad that I'd be there alone for the week and sent me flowers. As I got closer to the flowers I saw there was a card and it was not for me. Whoops. It turns out the flowers were delivered to the wrong room and were for a hotel employee due to the recent passing of his beloved father. The concierge thought I was the kindest person ever for calling to let them know of the mistake. I told her I didn't know anyone who would keep someone else's flowers! I told her the only sad part was I thought my husband was being thoughtful and he wasn't. We shared a good laugh at that one.

Anyway, the conference did not being until Sunday afternoon and since Portland is 3 hours behind us, I was up early. I'd signed up for a spin class about a mile from the hotel so I put on my workout gear and headed that way at about 8:15 that morning. Holy cats, Portland has an absolutely massive homeless population. I never felt downright unsafe, but I was very aware of the fact that I was all by myself on the now quiet streets of downtown Portland. I did my best to miss camps of people and just picked up my pace a bit to get to the cycling studio. I did and the class was AMAZING. I loved it so much. There is just nothing like the energy in a group cycling class with blaring music and everyone just giving their ride their all. I love it. By the time class was over the streets were busier and I felt much more comfortable. I got cleaned up, grabbed some lunch and headed down to the basement of the hotel to begin the long couple of days of tax classes.

I love what I do and I love taxes so the first day was not bad at all since I was still fresh. Monday's sessions started at 7am Pacific and went until about 5 that evening. I had an invitation to a (free!) fancy dinner that evening so I went. We ate at Portland City Grill on the 30th floor of a building in downtown with awesome views of the Mt. Hood and the city itself. I loved it. The food was incredible, too. The fresh fish in the PNW is not to be missed!

Mt. Hood in the background

Other than the one fancy dinner, I pretty much kept to myself. I didn't know many people at this conference and accountants aren't exactly the most exciting people so...ha! I spent time in the hotel's very nice gym, watched World Series games and read books. It was not bad!

Hotel views

Mt. Hood's side peaking out

Fall in Portland is awfully pretty!

My very favorite part of the conference was the guest speaker for the leadership series. Wes Moore is an author and I absolutely adore him. Back in 2014 his debut novel called "The Other Wes Moore" was Ball State's freshman reader. This meant each incoming freshman had to read it and be ready to discuss it when they got to campus. Since I'm a huge book nerd, I read it, too. I LOVED IT. He came to speak on campus, but we were out of town and I missed him. When I saw he was speaking at this conference I couldn't believe my luck. He was, as I expected he would be, absolutely incredible.

His first book was about how his life differed from another kid in his neighborhood in Baltimore with the same name. The author becomes a success by any metric and the other Wes Moore ends up in prison. It was such an interesting read for me because it discussed how big and small decisions impact our lives. The author went on to be in the Army, a Rhodes scholar, a Wall Street banker and now he runs a huge non-profit. He is such an incredible example of perseverance and determination. His speech was great. I laughed, I cried and I was completely plugged in for the whole hour. That is saying something after days and days of lectures on different tax topics. After his speech I stood in line to chat with him. I just couldn't keep it together and just wept and told him how I was so proud of the work he was doing. He gave me a big hug and thought I was just the sweetest. He also wanted me at all of his speeches because I was "the most encouraging audience member ever." He was lovely. He reminded us to make sure that it mattered that we lived. That challenge is not an easy one.

Wes Moore has a second book out, "The Work," that I read while I was in Portland. I love it, too. It is all about finding your life's purpose. It is pretty fitting for where I am in life right now asking "what is next?" and "what do I want to be when I grow up?"

A very worthy read

Even in my new, very relaxed part-time working schedule life I find it hard to just sit down and read. It was nice to be away from the tugs of housework and actual work to just recharge a bit. The conference ended on Wednesday evening so I had a bit of downtime to pack up, watch baseball and hit the gym one more time before heading back home. My flight home was Portland to Seattle (a quick 30 minute flight) and then on to Indy. We were delayed leaving Seattle, but I eventually made it home only about an hour late due to strong tailwinds! Interestingly, I found an abandoned copy of Hillary Clinton's new book, "What Happened" in the Seattle airport so I picked it up and began reading it on the way home. I'll post a review of it once I've finished. :) 

Seattle looking beautiful from above

Jackson was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and we headed home to little MacKenzie. It is always nice to brush up on new professional skills and be in a new place, but it is also always nice to be home!