another day.

well. it's been about two months since my last post.

I'm sorry.

really.

life's been so busy, stressful, etc. and I seem to always think of good stories to post here, and then life carries me away, I get wiped out, and I don't post them.

but today was a relatively normal day in lander. this of course was exemplified by a few oddities that make me think :: really? is this life right now? and somehow it's normal that these things happen?

I just got home from meeting jim & doris & elyssa for dinner/drinks at the bar at the summit restaurant. where I'd never been before, but it was nice and I had the club sandwich. and there was good company. a man named steve was at the end of the bar sketching out a building plan for his home, and michelle and doris and I tried to see who could tie cherry stems in knots with our tongues the fastest, and michelle won of course and told us stories of college in oklahoma. the owner then started us all on a rant about the pioneer's museum (more about that drama later... there's a coup in town to outst the current staff/organization of the musem), and how they have human remains on display. elyssa almost never worked there for that fact alone. cale (previously mentioned owner, also a local politician) would like to see that harvey (the remains) gets a proper burial. again. the poor man was dead and buried once, then dug up as they were building a road in town, apparently over the cemetery area behind the original location of the old fort. a road that happened to be in the backyard of the next couple that walked in the door as we were talking about harvey. they happen to have an olive oil co-op. of course.

now there's talk of having a harvey day in town to raise awareness of the cause.

I love it.

before that adventure, I went to feed the ponies with jeanne and jamie and meredith from work. promptly at 5pm we drove out to the property where some of the horses NOLS uses on rerations/horsepacking courses/etc are staying for the winter. they head back to the ranch tomorrow, so we stopped by today to bring them apple oat cookies, which they love! we dropped off some hay while we were there and they all loved it. jeanne especially loves wilson. and I got to give cookies to casper, midnight, and... some other horses whose names I've already forgotten.

also today: I got some good crack. aka. chiropractic adjustment. that's going well. acupuncture yesterday helped a lot, too. I think. I was somewhat skeptical about it, but now I like it. not in the same way that I like massages, but I like it. it releases a lot of tension. anyway, I stopped by main street books on the way back to the office, making a mental note to create more cards, and picking up a latte from maria, who puts my charge on my account so I don't have to carry cash. we talked about the books she's reading, and I did some book-cover browsing while she made my latte. sometimes I feel very alone as the only designer at work so I have to see things other designers have created to make myself feel less alone. I do this online, which is refreshing sometimes. I've also talked to a few other designers in town, once we even talked about starting a group or events or something. ideas, anyone?

*sidenote: the museum added a "free admission" notice on their signs recently. I noticed it today and cringed. it looks like hobo. and it's most-definitely an after thought, squished between two lines of text with no consideration for legibility or leading. it's a complete injustice. I'd say it's actually worse than the lander pet and ranch supply building. which I personally think is the ugliest building in town. that is, if we're not counting homes. I really do need to take a picture of their sign. for all the stories I've heard about throwing away artifacts and using endust on pieces, or taking a belt sander to wooden artifact benches... while those are all also injustices, the one that hits me most is the ugliness of what they just did to their signage.

communicating with photographers is always interesting at work. last week a chilean instructor for the school was in france and wanted to submit photos for our annual catalog call out for submissions (which ususally ends up in me receiving several thousand photographs to evaluated, judge, choose, rechoose, and place in the catalog where they're rearranged and approved by 13 different individuals before printing)... and he was using his friend's internet, and was however many hours ahead of me. this resulted in multiple days of emails in broken english, ichattings, and adjusting FTP settings to accomodate the files.

my friend mariah was in town recently and it's always so good to see her! she's an instructor friend and was scheduled to be gone saturday, headed down to a 3 week climbing camp section on a rocky mountain spring semester course. she's the only girl on the course, with 3 other instructors and 14 male students! a huge spring snow prevented her instructor team from leaving town, so we enjoyed the day saturday baking cookies, watching movies, drinking tea, reading magazines, and making cards. sweet cards. they're always so refreshing to sit and create. I really do need to create more time for that to happen. I'll try to post pictures soon! it's refreshing to have a friend who can sit and create cards, sit in silence, or chat about anything from climbing to crushes to deep theological references and how it relates to real life.

lisa was back in town for a few weeks, always good to see her. I think she just needs to move back here. and sara is now on her instructor course in the southwest. I hope instructor-life brings her back to town more often.