The Myth & The Majesty

1. My grandparents are now great-grandparents; cousin Kaci had a baby boy early Monday morning. Yay! Congratulations, Kaci and Jerrid! 2. Shorty is now officially of age ... which means that this weekend we can hit a winery or two. Because that is what our gene pool dictates. 3. I'm really tired of looking for a job. But as I don't have one yet, I guess I'll keep it up. 4. The final Packers preseason game is tomorrow night. Will I watch it? ... Absolutely. 5. It still boggles my mind that football has become a "thing" in my life. Egads. 6. On the other hand, the other autumnal things I'm looking forward to include new seasons of "Community" and "Dancing With The Stars" ... and the latter only because Maks is back. 7. Really, that's no more comforting than the football. Egads again. 8. Ooh, and "Doctor Who," which isn't "new" so much as "finally available to me again." 9. Wow, I'm a n...

My first day away and what do I do? Get up at 6:30 anyway. Hey, it was still sleeping in. I'm sure that says something about me. Hopefully it's something like "go-getter" as opposed to "crazy." After spending most of the afternoon thinking about how long it was until I could leave, it was oddly hard to drive away from Storm. Odd because I'll be back this weekend ... but I'm done being employed there. And the place is very, very different than when I turned up in May. I mean, every time I go back it's a little different -- but this time it's very different than when I arrived. It's odd. Now, I sit in a rather isolated (really, the fog is amazing this morning), rather quiet house by myself. After three months of nonstop people, this is absolutely fantastic. Desperately needed. And hey, it works out well for everybody -- my grandparents get a much-needed vacation and I get away for a couple days. Even better, about the time the solitud...

Folks popping over from my Facebook page have seen this already, but for everybody else ... I love these guys. Both sets, the live ones and the puppets. Yay.

... and my gypsy year continues, I find myself at something of a crossroads. From here, I'm headed to the ranch to housesit for a bit (a week? maybe?) and then probably back to Sioux Falls for an undetermined period of time. In the meantime, I have applications to finish and just enough money to get by for a bit ... while I find a job of some kind and make myself useful somehow. Okay. Less of a crossroads, more of a snow-lined path in the fog. For the moment, I can enjoy the end of my time at Storm. I have a couple hours left of my break (gotta love a split shift) and my Pepsi here at the Gaslight. Tonight, I have a cabin to myself in the middle of a semi-occupied camp. It's been a truly interesting run and I'm almost sorry to leave ... except that what happens next has the potential to be fabulous. Somehow, that makes it much easier.

In every place I've lived, I've had a "spot." The one where I always go to relax, the one that helps ease my nerves. Often my bedroom (particularly when I was sharing a house with five other women), sometimes a lesser-traveled living room or something similar. For the last fifteen years, there's been one room at Storm that has been "that spot" for me. It's the room people forget about -- on the bottom floor of the main lodge, tucked back from the game room, and rather inexplicably referred to as the fireplace room. (There's a fireplace in almost every meeting room in this camp. I have no idea why this one gets a special designation but it's been that way through at least three directors.) The furniture doesn't match, the TV is old and enormous, it's smelled the same way for basically ever, and it is easily the most comfortable spot in this building. I have a crazy history with this room -- the first time I went to camp, we slept h...

In between my job searches, You-Tube-stolen-time (I blame the Old Spice Guy vs. Fabio thing, and I can't believe I just admitted that one publicly), and that working thing I do occasionally, I've been thinking about baby gifts for a couple of expecting friends. Back in 2004 when I started going to weddings, I kind of forgot that little jingle we sang in elementary school. You know -- "First comes love, then comes marriage..." Since then, something like three-quarters of the couples whose weddings I've attended have started having kids. Not surprising, given that the madness started seven years ago and most people don't actually wait that long to start a family. In the last year, there's been a veritable baby boom. I don't know if people are just hitting "that age" or if they're suddenly feeling more secure in their jobs (hey, there weren't as many babies in '08 and '09, and I know some of those were just people feeling ski...

14 weeks at the camp. 20 pounds lighter than in May. (Woot!) About $150 that my little green card allowed me to not spend. 8 payments made, half to my car and half to my student loans. 3 Wisconsin friends I got to show around the Hills. 2 Wisconsin friends that randomly appeared on a different day. (That was crazy.) 3500 miles on my car. 30-some miles on my boat. 8 found geocaches. (Hm. I may have been slacking off on that one.) 21st birthday yet to celebrate for my "little" brother. 8  9 half-priced bagels consumed. Around 150 meals prepared for 10 to 160 people. 7 out-of-town family members visited. 4.5 concerts attended. 1 regret. (I really should have given that cowboy my phone number...) Now, to get on with the rest of the summer!