been a while.

dear reader,
I apologize for being so distant lately. it's not you. it's me. really.

I moved out of the dormy hotel. again. but this time it's into a great little house for the next year. four bedrooms and two other roomies so far. one more is coming next month. we have a pretty great deck with a grill, a backyard that's open with deer & moose visitors and bird residents, there's a garage and laundry and all that good stuff. it's a bit of a walk to work: doable, but I need to get a bike instead. because it's just close enough that driving seems silly.

I'll admit, I didn't want to leave the Noble. My last week there I got all nostalgic and community oriented. I love the communal aspect of living there, running into familiar faces, playing cards with my little family there, meeting new people in passing. But as soon as I moved into my new place, I was quite ready to be there. It's feeling more like a home all the time and I'm SO ready to have my own space again. It's full of transitions and new habits, new roommates, different bills.

Nadine and I went on a garage sale binge this past Saturday. hitting garage sales in Lander means you get up early and check this one tree near 9th & main where everyone lists their sales. there's no annoying yard/corner signs. don't bother with ads in the paper. just write down the addresses marked on cardboard boxes lined up next to the tree and those tacked to the tree itself, note to yourself the ones you definitely want to stop at (in our case, those that say "moving sale" and/or "table" etc) and then proceed. Since it's not a huge town, you probably know the street names and relative location just from the address. No maps or directions necessary.

I got some great deals: I ended the morning with no less than a dresser/mirror combo, another large mirror, two kitchen tables, one ugly (awesome) lamp, three interesting lamp shades, a dress that's too small for me but too cute to pass up for $1.00 (watch out smaller friends of mine, you may have a dress coming your way!), a rolling pin, an egg beater, and a game of scrabble.

Later that day we went rock climbing, I learned to lead-belay, and topped a 5.8 my first time climbing in Lander, and my first time climbing in about 8 years! It was a gorgeous day, and while I didn't climb but a couple routes, it was a great introduction to the area. I'm excited to climb a lot more this summer. This seems to be a perfect place to learn.

I keep meeting people. everywhere. they just keep showing up, passing through, tagging along. It's definitely not a boring little town. not yet at least. It's funny because people keep asking me "So how do you like Lander so far?" and then they encourage me to be honest, as if I might secretly hate it but tell them I love it. I'm enjoying it though. I miss some conveniences of larger communities (especially spiritually, interestingly enough), but overall I really like the smaller atmosphere. and I love driving, but I hate having to drive. there's quite a big difference.

alright. break's over. time to get back to work. I've been working strange hours because I tend to be able to focus better when fewer people are around to tempt me with new conversations, emails to reply to, design requests to accept (oh, sure I can do that by tomorrow... no problem. I'll just put this 3 week late project on the backburner... again). I'm getting better at saying no. But sometimes it's very difficult. and while I have a lot on my plate, I'm overall satisfied with my work and the job in general. I still think it's a good fit :) I'm very excited to design this year's catalog in inDesign. I watched some video podcasts today on creating books and using master style sheets... and I'm geeking out on getting these templates ready! I'm such a dork.