July 2010 Archives

so we were supposed to go camping in lamar valley wednesday to see a meteor shower, but it rained so the meteors were not visible; however, we had a good time hanging out in the backcountry in spite of the foul weather.  unbeknownst to us at the time, someone had been killed by a grizzly bear in the vicinity of where we were staying earlier that day.  the bear has since been euthanized i saw on the news this morning.  after hiking out, wendy and i went to cooke city to grab some lunch then we headed to gardiner where we re-met up wth adam and zach.  i got a cloth frisbee and a yellowstone hankie from the flying pig camp store.  yea!  i wish i had gotten the backpacker guitar instead of a full-sized guitar so i could have toted it in with me and entertained everyone with my sweet sweet melodies. 

friday morning i SOLOED for the first time in dee plane, dee plane.  the traffic was a little hectic but i managed to get in my three take offs and landings.  mitch, the ATC manager was super patient with me.  i actually lost count of my landings and asked him how many i was on...which he didn't know and gave everyone listening to the radios a good laugh.  then when i got done, as customary for post-solo, i cut of my shirt sleeve and decorated it for the occasion.  kester and tony came into town and we celebrated by watching SALT and  drinking buckets of beer at crystal bar.  i had to be at class at 8am this morning which sucked but afterwards, we went and got brunch at NOVA which is supposed to be the best brunch in bozeman.  it was great and the owner serena from california was super nice.  headed to west for a movie, taco bus, and hang out time with that girl i like so much.  congrats to anthony patroni on getting married today! 

uh, so did i mention i hit 1000 miles on the bike yesterday on my way back to bozeman???  just south of big sky.  yup.  i have this take home test i have to complete and get graded before i can do my first solo flight tomorrow.  first solo is flight lesson number 9 and involves three consecutive take offs and landings...sounds simple--if you've been flying a plane for a while which i have not, only since june 11th.  anyway, that is going on tomorrow, weather permitting, around 11am so everybody send me some positive thoughts. ted turner is in town--his buffalo-adorned jet is gracing the tarmac with its presence. 

so we went to sola cafe for brunch because apparently there just arent that many places in the boze to catch a mimosa with your eggs but at sola you can order bubbly by the bottle and some good oj (as opposed to bad) and mix them yourself out on their patio as you cure your hangover with some sunshine, huevos rancheros bake, and hair of the dog. 

tony california was too awesome on saturday night so he laid down in the car after his one and only mimosa and stayed there the rest of the day pretty much.  while he was sleeping/puking, dave, rahcel, kester and i decided we were going floating downt the madison and the young lady at the table next to ours suggested how and where to go for that so we set out on our adventure after polishing off a couple bottles of champagne.  apparently, unbeknownst to us, there is a law in effect that goes like this:  however much fun you think you will have floating down a river, the trouble of getting your raft to the river is going to be the equal and opposite of that perceived joy. 

 

kester almost flew out the sunroof holding onto the front of the raft, we had to drive i don't know how many miles at half the speed limit, kester's arms got tired after so long being a human anchor so we switched spots and gah, holding that raft down was scary, and the whole time, tony california is just sleeping!  

we got the party lounge raft to the river following two hours of hellish handling and the floating experience was two hours of bliss (for everyone but tony california-he puked off the side a few times).  i rode back to the boze with tony and kester (actually i drove, kester entertained me, and tony slept more) after floating so i could bring my bike back from the park this morning. my ride back to bozeman this morning was awesome--saw the vp motorcade and the all the security prep (ridiculous) and got to ride with some other bikers from west to big sky, the weather held and i was dressed like baby bear's oatmeal--just right.  today in flight, i nailed some great landings and in between sessions, i got to meet the air traffic control guys.  i will be soloing on wednesday! i'm going to study and practice some guitar stuff now--xo 

so yesterday morning i woke up with some sort of bug, and i was suppose to have a non date in west yellowstone with the person i'm not dating, but due to my condition, i thought it would be a bad idea to drive for any extended amount of time.  i went to class so i didn't lose money for less than 24 hours notice of cancellation and had a really long class which made me feel extra nauseated and let's just say i'm glad i have incredible, super-human sphincter control.  airforce 2 was parked out on the tarmac, joe biden had come in from sc, jaunting around the country on our dime from the east coast to the west coast, rafting the gallatin and i think today he is visiting the park (yellowstone) which will require so much security detail and put out a lot of people when if joe biden were dressed in plainclothes, aint hardly a damn soul who would recognize him.   

so, i stayed here instead of going to west and annaliese and tony surprised me so i went and had tacos with them at la parilla and then we went to montana ale works.  while we siting out on the lawn of MAW, rachel and david kiel pulled into the parking lot because they had spotted us from the road.  they joined us for the rest of the evening, and we had a blast just chillin at maw, until they closed and kicked us out, at which point, i was tired and still not feeling my best so i dropped the kids off at the crystal bar and went home to make pallets in the floor for them because every hotel in bozeman was booked saturday night.  they didn't last too long, i went and picked them back up around 130, because they could not find a cab and the gps was taking them the entirely wrong direction.  we are awake now, and fixin to go eat someBRUNCH--the best meal of the week! xo

so when i got home from taking thomas and lauren all over the greater yellowstone area, i had a ton of packages/mail waiting and i wanted to thank everyone who remembered my birthday via text, voicemail, cards, gifts, or any combination thereof...very unnecessary but much appreciated

christmas in july isnt just my birthday its a big sale in downtown bozeman!  crazy days is going on and it is full of awesome deals.  crazy days!

i was out on the tennis courts last night with a guy named bill and he was gracious enough to hit some balls with me.  he whipped me and gave me some pointers in the process. it felt good to be on a tennis court after a 3 month hiatus.

after tennis i met claire, diane and patsy in livingston for an art crawl. livingston is a neat little town, eclectic, about half an hour east of bozeman.  at the gallery across from the sport, i met a woman named robin hogan who is from hollywood, california (i have to specify california bc the sc folks might think i'm talkin bout hollywood, south carolina).  we talked flight stuff because she was interested in learning to fly choppers some time ago, took a lesson and decided because of a few different factors that it wasnt right for her and went into accounting instead..."they're pretty much the same," she says.  i enjoyed chatting with robin and checking out robert osborn's photography, he reminded me a little bit of annie liebowitz. 

...my tummy is acting funny this morning :(

 

so between the widespread show and my birthday last weekend, a lot of things took place--the main one being me quitting the park and moving to bozeman july 14th.  during my check out in the park, i have to say i felt mildly harrassed by HR, who made it a point to say that non-employees could not be in employee areas which is fine but it was a little targeted because friends of employees stay over in the dorms ALL THE TIME, no problem, but i was told if i stay over in a dorm, i could get my friend fired...uh, ok...didn't know i was that important.

so, for my birthday, i bought myself tickets to targhee fest where the nichols and mitchells were gonna be for the weekend.  wendy and i left asap on friday the 16th to head to grand targhee resort, right outside of driggs in alta, wyoming.  the weather was awesome all weekend and it was great getting to see the mitchells and the nichols.  michael franti was kind of a show-stealer--good thing he played last.  there were some big names at this festival, los lobos played saturday night--they ahve a new cd coming out soon.  i knew mama was gonna try to call me sunday but we didn't have cell service so i drove out early sunday morning to call her and dad called while i was out and got birthday texts from folks.  willnbek bought me a beautiful pair of earrings .  wendy got me a totally wendy present and i love it--what i'm trying to figure out is where and when this girl got pictures printed...and i'm enamored with the accompanying card.  the chair lift at targhee was awesome, we rode that up and could see pretty much forever into idaho. 

july 19th, i went to class for a couple of hours and had my best day of flying YET with instructor drew myers.  i was planning on taking the first written exam last friday (the 16th) but did not feel ready for it after the practice tests. so, i'm putting it off until i am more comfortable with the material which if i study hard should be the end of next week.  then after class, i picked up brother and sister from the airport and since then we have been non-stop from bozeman to the park for a campfire, all over the park, meeting all my friends here, all over the places just outside the park like the tetons (which they did not get to fully experience because of bad weather--so bad, in fact, that 2 climbers died the day we were in the tetons)and west yellowstone (where we met greg from saskatchewan), we went to jackson, we rode through driggs and tetonia on the way back to the park, we went to the employee pub, we've been horseback riding and whitewater rafting, stopped at the half moon saloon to see greg, and we made it to music on main in bozeman last night, one big convoluted loop back to my apartment and i will be dropping them off at the airport early this afternoon.  i slept for ten hours last night because these kids have worn me out.  we are fixin to get breakfast now and do some shopping. xo

So, i have been slack with the blog, making other things my priority...flight school, not working, moving to bozeman, and so forth...but now that i'm getting settled here, i'm gonna try keep up with the blog better.  it's been since before july 4th that i last blogged so i am gonna have to take you back to that weekend right now...

we left the park around 3pm, headed for jackson, and i half-way expected to be unable to find a hotel room since it was the weekend of the 4th AND there was a Widespread Panic concert the next night in nearby Driggs which is kind of a big deal.  BUT we did get a room AND a cheap room, by jackson standards.  After checking in, we hit up the town, stopping first at TC Dunlap's favorite place--the million dollar cowboy bar--the place where the bar stool seats are saddles.  Then we walked around town to preuse our food options.  After himming and hawing over where to grub, we settled upon the silver dollar grill which is within the wort hotel.  shrimp ceviche and a goat cheese torte for starters.  ginger seared salmon and non vegan pecan encrusted trout for main.  Upon our server damian's recommendation i got the irish bread pudding for dessert--yum.  post dinner activities involved going to the more locals-oriented snake river brew pub where we had some of their award-winning beers then we went back to the cowboy bar and watched some amazing dance moves before retiring to our cheap but close-by motel.  we ate at the bunnery for breakfast, sitting outside got us in fast...there was an ever-growing wait for inside.  half our bill was for mimosas--at least we could get mimosas--in salt lake city, i knew i was in trouble on a saturday morning when i asked the host if they were serving mimosas yet and he asked me what a mimosa was--yikes! twilight zone!  anyway, we got on the teton pass to head to driggs and saw some moose and some guys riding to the panic show on bicycles--craziness.  if you know the teton pass, you know these guys were lunatics--very in-shape lunatics, i might add.  somehow they knew we were headed to the panic show as well?  before the wsp show, we drove to the grand targhee resort to get our targhee fest tickets at will call, and the trip up was amazing, it's about 12 miles or so from downtown driggs and super beautiful...headed there this, my birthday weekend.  after that, we went to the warbirds restaurant at the driggs airport.  i like small airports, they are really neat and there are always interesting people around to talk to.  we hopped over to emmy ann and todd's because i have been hanging on to an ida mae present since i got into town almost and have been dying to get it to her...she was being a total baby and sleeping when i got there, sheesh.  but i get to see her and drigga and bridger tonight and hopefully they will be awake...and all in good moods....and all with clean drawers...We stopped a t tony's pizza on our way back into driggs where the bartender guessed that we were going to the panic show?  i dunno.  anyway, the baseball player in the poster on the wall needed a moustache so wendy gave him a tail for that purpose.  he looked completely natural with that new facial hair. 

widespread was awesome...i've never been to a show and don't know but a couple of their songs, if that, but i had a blast.  we met wendy and rowan there, and they are fantastic new friends that actually took us up on our offer to come visit us in the park following the show which no one ever does so it was awesome to have them actually hit us up.  i wish i could write down everything i saw at this show...it was kind of like a small burning man, as someone pointed out in my facebook pictures.  i think rachel moan and i busted two guts laughing that day and night, great times...i definitely saw full grown heterosexual men skipping to the show--that was cool.  the surroundings at the spud are amazing so if you ever get a chance to see a concert out there--DO IT!!!

ok, so that was july 4th weekend

 

so i didn't get to fly this afternoon because like yesterday afternoon, the weather was bad.  Dugan said if we went up we would be a molten ball of plastic were we to be hit by lightning. so we just did ground school this afternoon which was preceded by great landings this morning with Dugan's verbal guidance.  Dugan isn't my normal instructor, but I enjoyed working with him today and he said if Lanceis ever gone to hit him up.  That made me feel good b/c it means I fly well rnough for him to be comfortable enough to maintain sphincter control.  What doesn't make me feel good is what happened in the Belgrade Verizon store today.  I went in there to pay a bill and there were some rowdy-ass kids in the corner whose mom was buying something (hopefully not another child).  they took turns pulling each other across the floor using the jump rope provided by the verizon store.  can you say liability?!  at one point the younger of the pair wrapped the damn rope around his neck--had he not been so misbehaved prior to that, i may have had a desire to make him stop trying to hang himself, but at this point, I was ready to kill him so letting him off himself seemed the more convenient option.  i guess he decided his bad 5 year old butt had more to live for because he undid the rope, let his sister drag him around some more, this time right into a customer--yours truly; so at over 20 minutes of waiting (there was no self-pay machine), no discipline from the mother to the kids who were also tripping patrons as they walked in and out of the door with the jump rope (provided by verizon) and even after one of these bad-ass chaps climbed on the glass counter, there was still no reaction from the mom, I decided it was time to GTFO ov there..gah...control your damn kids, people, there is nothing more rude than wild-ass chaps ruining everyone else's peace and quiet/good time.  bad kids are possibly my biggest pet peeve (right behind liars and thieves).  if i want to go to the rodeo, i will, but don't bring the rodeo to me in the verizon store, kthxbai.  there's this place called the vortex in the ATL.  they only allow 18 and up...next time i open a restaurant, it will be 18 and up.  the vortex also has a great business philosophy that you can check out HERE.  i thought I made funny menus...

ok, i'm over bitching about the kids...i thought another crazy hail storm was fixin to blow in but maybe not.  i really need to go and study so i will do that now...AIRSPACE is SO complicated, but much easier when broken down...xoxoxo