One month in...two to go.

I have been in this amazing valley for a month now, and have discovered two important things:

1. Things get lonely when you don't know a soul around you.
2. Things are brand new and SO refreshing when you don't let loneliness get to you too much.

Refreshing enough I have gotten out and visited many taverns and met quite a few people. It has been interesting on one hand, and truly fun on the other. I've met some really weird people, but some awesome ones as well. One, a bartender of course, gave me the number of a tattoo artist over here (as well as his number...). So today I took advantage of the local artistry:

That was cold...

UPDATE time, since someone, I won't name names, is whining about a lack of blogging from me.

Last weekend I hiked some trail along Hurricane Creek. I thought I was headed to Echo lake, but ended up (I think) at Douglas Lake. I thought I would just go for an easy training hike, with my pack fully loaded and weighted a bit extra for conditioning. Easy hike ended up being an elevation gain of nearly 1,000 feet in four miles...all switch backs, but still mighty steep!
I got to a Lake and decided to call it good, my legs were aching, and I knew I still had to get back down without falling over the edge! The heat must have really gotten to my head, though, cause I thought the lake would be a good way to cool off...it was...it was FREEZING! I should have known, since it is a high mountain lake and all! But the little skinny dip was refreshing, albeit numbing!

Week One: Complete!

I have lived in Enterprise for exactly one week today! AND I LIKE IT. I have great neighbors (even if the next youngest one is over twice my age) and wonderful co-workers. The clients I will get to work most closely with this summer are great. I have already had to get over some of my fears:

• driving a stick shift. My assigned work truck is a manual. I learned to use the clutch, and have since driven to nearby cities. Soon I will be taking her to Baker City, La Grande, Ontario, Jordan Valley, and beyond. I like stick shift!
• making phone calls. Pretty much what I get to do for most of the day. I'm having to get over my phone phobia
• asking questions. I have to do it, and it's getting easier.

I also get to do things that I really enjoy:

• I've already gone on a couple hikes in some awesome country.
• I've gotten to trail ride around Wallowa lake
• I will get to drive cattle this weekend!!!!
• Terminal Gravity Brewing has some of the nicest bar-staff and brewmeisters around
• cowboys...enough said
  

A week from now...

So in six days I will be moving almost 500 miles to Enterprise. I think it is really starting to sink in now. I have found a nice little place to rent--an apartment overlooking an old mill pond with the Eagle Cap wilderness as a back drop, Ruby Peak front and center. It is also minutes away from trail heads to one of the most inspirational landforms I have laid eyes on; Hell's Canyon.

Last time I went to Hell's Canyon was about this time last year, with a couple professors and some fellow grad and undergrad students to follow the path of the Missoula floods. (If you don't know what these are...check out the documentary Ice Age Floods from NOVA, it's worth it!) Even surrounded by people I don't know very well, I was amazingly at ease the moment I set foot into the area. I think I am meant to be out East. My personal favorite piece of poetry came from that moment:

Warped
Time bends
Unthinkable angles obtained
By an intangible yet innate force
Angles not real, not imagined either
Time makes shapes unrecognizable
Straining to understand
Efforts are futile for minds
To grasp alone
But unfocus from the issue
And like a mirage
A flitter in the perripheral
It becomes all too clear
Brief, fleeting, blindingly true
You catch time warping.

Great last minute meal

I just had to share the recipe I came up with tonight. First of all, I have spent about 12 hours each day for the last three days writing papers (what a great weekend to look longingly out the windows), so today I just HAD to make a good meal.

"Honey, you're a jerk" chicken sandwich:

• Chicken Breast
• Lime
• Pyramid Curve Ball summer seasonal blonde ale with Lemon
• Jamaican Jerk sauce
• Red leaf lettuce
• Honey mustard yogurt dressing
• Pita

Put lemon slices in beer, drink 1/2, forget about it until it is slightly warm.
"Flash Fry" chicken breast in lemon-infused warm beer on high heat.
Bring heat down once all liquid is gone. Add Jerk sauce and a few slices of lime.
Grill until done, squeezing lime over it and basting with jerk sauce occasionally.
Serve in pita with honey mustard yogurt dressing and red leaf lettuce....and a cold beer :)

27 days...worry, worry!

I have been neglecting my blog, I am sorry. But I have an excuse: trying to find somewhere to live in Enterprise for the summer. This has been a task and a half on its own! But anywho, I am heading over there this weekend to try and secure a living arrangement, or to pick out a nice campground (joking, hopefully).
Honestly, I'm not too sure why I am writing this blog post right now. I should be cleaning up my room, or doing some work on my field project, but I just need to write out my thoughts. Purge it onto you, my readers (even though I doubt you exist...anyone out there?).

1. How am I going to make friends? I know literally NO ONE out there. This will be the first time I am going to be out there without a wingman by my side, no friends to go meet others with. I am flying solo. Yeah, I'm excited, but I am scared witless! Many of you know how much of a social retard I am when I get nervous. As soon as I meet someone, I'll open up pretty quickly and all, but I suck arse at that first, "hey!"
2. This will be my first time living alone, no roommates, nada. No internet, either. I'm not too worried about that, just wondering how I'll waste my free time.
3. Will I be ready for my job? I know that I am being hired as a student employee, so I am not going to be expected to know it ALL just yet, but I can't help but feel like I am going to mess it up. All I can do is give it my all, be receptive, and take criticism I suppose.
4. Related to number one, what if everyone I meet turns out to be creepers. I am a creeper magnet, no joke. We will see, plus I am pretty good at giving the cold shoulder and standing my ground...so don't try me, creeper McCreeperston.
5. Of course, what if I get lost? I do a pretty good job getting myself turned around in Eugene and Corvallis, which I have lived in a combined total of 21 years. No one in my contacts list will know how to help me get from point A to point B 400 miles away in the middle of nowhere. Hopefully I can find a really good map, or a really nice young cowboy.

Sorry, didn't mean to have a spew-session, but...hmm, yeah, I did mean to.

College

Yeah, this is how college is....

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