my trip!

hey friends. sorry for the delay... but for those of you haven't heard: I enjoyed my time in Lander and I have a new job! I'll be moving in a few weeks!

yeah. I know. it's pretty crazy.

I altered my route to get there because sections of i80 were closed, so my drive up took longer than expected, but it wasn't awful. After a great night's rest @ NOLS' dorm-ish hotel, I walked a block away to the headquarters building for my interview. Later, we had lunch with a small group of young people in the building and they all told me funny stories about comparisons between Iraq and the way the streets of Lander look on the 4th of July... as well as tales of outdoor adventures and life in a small town. Then, afternoon tours: a couple blocks on main street, a short visit in an outdoor store, a stop at the rocky mountain location they send trips out from (where I free gear rentals, and there's an entire room just for maps), and the office building, of course. (It's an educational institution, so there's admissions, alumni, development, etc.) They organized a happy hour that evening where I got to meet lots more people: other Nolsies, friends, roommates, etc. Everyone seems to be a transplant (much like CoS), each with a unique story about how, when, and why they arrived in Lander. I had a lot of fun talking with everyone, and started a joke about how they took every candidate out for happy hour, and that they'd probably all be receiving surveys in the next 24 hours asking for feedback on me, the current candidate for the design position... so the next morning, joanne and cara and I met for breakfast at the Folklore Coffeehouse (my small-town starbucks replacement, nice furniture, internet, good lattes, yummy treats) and joanne says "well. the survey results are in. we'd like to offer you the position!" yay. so then we went hiking with our ski pants, hat hair, and bo, the dog. we hiked to a frozen waterfall and had hot chocolate. and then we had lunch. pumpkin soup. and hung out and watched a movie. it was so very very chill. refreshing. it was a lot to take in. in retrospect, I probably should have used that time to look for a place to live, but that might have been awkward because I didn't really accept the job until that evening when we went out for sushi. yes. sushi. they have sushi in Lander. only on Fridays and Saturdays though. So I met a ton of awesome people, some of which read my blog! lurkers! I guess I should be careful about what I say about all of you, huh?

anyway: my next task is to find a place to live! eek. if you're in Lander, keep an eye out for a great place!

***
one of our customers at starbucks dropped a pack of gel pens off for me today! I didn't work, but Melody came home and said "this lady in a red element said every designer needs to have a pack of gel pens and to thank you for being a bright spot in her day!" I said "oh, sweet robin!" robin likes iced coffee. but on "adult days" full of meetings with adults instead of students, she usually gets lattes. robin's birthday is the day before mine. and for a while robin was convinced that I needed to be a high school english teacher and that I should visit her at work. I'll miss so many of our dear customers.