I shot this shortly after takeoff from Missoula International. (Yeah, we have flights to Canada.)
There's more snow now than when this was taken two weeks ago.
Oooh, check this out. I just discovered the Missoula airport cam.
A Drivel Runs Through It
Saturday, March 29, 2008
I shot this shortly after takeoff from Missoula International. (Yeah, we have flights to Canada.)
There's more snow now than when this was taken two weeks ago.
Oooh, check this out. I just discovered the Missoula airport cam.
I didn't even know what day of the week it was today until I got on the computer and checked. I thought it was either Saturday or Sunday. I've spent most of the last three days sleeping and am completely discombobulated.
This cold has kicked my ass. I might even think it was the flu, if it weren't for the fact that I had a flu shot last fall. I also haven't had much in the way of muscle aches or fever. Just vicious chest congestion, sore throat and mild cough. Those are better, but now it's moved into my sinuses; my ears feel about ready to clog up.
Aren't you glad I am such a detailed and revealing writer?
Thought so.
~
This from the New York Times today:
The collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a "strangelet" that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called "strange matter."
WTF?
Rank this Big Bang particle accelerator right up there with nuclear power and global warming for idiotic things whose potential catastrophic results far outweigh any benefits. Sometimes I think that the human race is going to do itself in Darwin Awards-style with some totally stupid experiment like this.
~
The big news around Missoula (and across the globe) the last few days has been the removal of the Milltown Dam, allowing the Clark Fork and the Blackfoot rivers to run free for the first time in more than a century.
While a host of politicians took the opportunity to congratulate themselves, I'd like to thank the average joes (and janes) who stood out on the sidewalk on market Saturdays, collecting signatures and educating people about the danger this rickety old dam and its toxic mining sediments posed to Missoula and the entire Columbia River drainage.
Nice work, guys.
~
In other local news, Missoula's venerable Wilma Theatre recently had a new marquee installed, and its provocative profile has raised a few eyebrows. Go check out the picture for yourself on Joe Nickell's blog.
~
I sort of hate to draw attention to this creep, but there's a new blog in town named "Missoula Sucks," wherein the anonymous author unleashes his eighth-grade-level venom on everyone from Missoula's mayor, Missoulians in general, fat people in general, Hooters haters (aka lesbians), kayakers, hippies, tree-huggers, "art fags" and land-rapers. (Yeah, this guy's all over the map.)
He claims to be a Montana cowboy, but I've never heard a real Montana cowboy who actually says things like "Montany" and "newfangled."
~
We got snow again last night. I don't know why everyone is so surprised about snow in late March. This is, after all, Montana. I have seen snow every month of the year except July. I think it's great that we're finally having something resembling a real Montana winter. Maybe our mountains won't be as likely to go up in flames this summer.
~
I am currently taking applications for the position of Cabana Boy. Duties will include light household chores, cooking, back rubs and other miscellaneous tasks. Inquire within.
And th-th-th-at's all, folks!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
I woke up at 5:24 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep because of the nastiness in my chest, so I got up and fixed myself a hot mug of Theraflu. Then I propped myself up in bed and got cozy with a book. Tango snuggled in. As I adjusted the blankets for him, I spilled the entire HOT mug of Theraflu all over myself and my bed.
It's got to be one of the stupider things I've done in a while. It soaked my pajamas, sheets, blankets, pillows, mattress pad. You can imagine the cussing and crying that took place while I struggled to re-make the bed through all my snot and phlegm.
Yeah, I'm sure you didn't need that image. I didn't, either. Deal with it.
I'm happy to say that, while I still feel like sh*t, the rest of the day -- shower, more Theraflu, pancakes, a very long nap -- has been a marked improvement by comparison.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
I'm sick. Blech.
I thought perhaps my antibacterial gels and wipes and compulsive handwashing and nasal irrigation would help me avoid the crud that everyone seems to have gotten recently, but nooooo. Apparently 14 hours on airplanes was too much for even my best germophobic efforts.
So far the worst of it is that I lost my voice yesterday morning and it hasn't yet returned. Croak.
Monday, March 24, 2008
I had the perfect Easter, as far as I'm concerned.
After sleeping in and doing a little spring cleaning, I went with my friend Korla to help bottle-feed bum lambs at her friend Barb's house. Barb rescues orphaned or "bummer" lambs from a local rancher. If a ewe dies or has triplets or rejects her baby, many ranchers are too busy to nurse them along. I've helped my friend Gay with lambing and trying to save bums, and it's a round-the-clock job for a few weeks.
Today, Barb had 15 lambs in warming pens and maybe another dozen outside, ranging from tiny babies still covered in afterbirth to big, sturdy ones frolicking about. Some of the littlest ones are on the brink of death and it takes lots of coaxing to get them to suck from a bottle. But watching them perk up once they do latch on and begin getting nourishment is so worth it. I have thought for a while that I would like to rescue bums myself, if and when I have my own place.
On our way back to Korla's house, we stopped at the local, small-town convenience store and gas station to grab a couple sodas. I became aware of a sort-of twilight zone realization I get once in a while, which is that when you get just a short distance from Missoula, you enter Montana.
We were maybe 10 miles from downtown Missoula, but it may as well have been another world. The input was all different -- trucks with actual mud on their mudflaps, country music playing in the store, men in Carhartt coveralls, the genuinely friendly smile of the girl behind the counter.
Don't get me wrong -- I love Missoula. This town is authentic, quirky and culturally rich. It has great restaurants and coffee houses, an excellent university and a million things to do. As towns go, Missoula is one of the best. I'm also fortunate to live just outside city limits, so I get a dose of rural and quiet every day. But it takes driving 20 minutes or so to feel like I'm really in Montana -- and that's the Montana I've been trying to get back to ever since I returned to the state in 1992.
My living choices have been dictated by the confines of jobs and school, which necessitate being in a city, when what I really dream of -- what I've dreamed of for as long as I can remember -- is to live at the end of a quiet lane in the middle of almost-nowhere, with my horses, my chickens, my cats and my bum lambs. Someone to share it with would be nice, too. Oh, and a garden.
So close, yet so far.
Anyway.
Korla fed me leftover Easter ham and we had the Coldstone ice cream I'd brought, and then I drove down a dark road back toward the lights of town.
~
Updated March 26: I've been informed that this particular rancher would not, in fact, let the bum lambs die if Barb didn't rescue them, so I've changed that paragraph. I stand corrected.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
So.
I had a date tonight.
It was nice.
And because discretion is the better part of valor, that's all I'm going to say.
Consider yourself smirked at.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
I got home late last night from a quick weekend trip to New York City to attend a workshop. It's hard to believe I've been to the Big Apple three times now, and all in the last three and a half years. It's even harder to believe I was once the girl who was terrified to fly and had hardly been anywhere outside of Montana and the West Coast. I feel so worldly.
I wouldn't want to live in New York, but I sure do love to visit. The Big Apple is delicious in small bites. This trip, I visited Bloomingdales for the first time (I didn't buy anything); Carnegie Deli for the third time (corned beef and cabbage on St. Patty's Day!); and MOMA for the second time (focusing on photography and design, which I missed last time).
Manhattan's neighborhoods and street layout are starting to feel familiar to me -- I can now hear a numbered street or avenue and place it in midtown, upper east side, upper west side, etc. The subway system is not exactly second nature yet, but I'm getting there.
I spent two nights with sort of a friend of a friend in her artist loft apartment in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn. DUMBO stands for "Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass"; it's a historic neighborhood of 1800s-era brick warehouses next to the East River. The building I stayed in was right under the Manhattan Bridge; close enough to hear the roar of trains passing overhead.
The third night I scored a bargain rate at a Times Square hotel, the Paramount. It was noisy and small but I loved the headboard -- a giant reproduction of Jan Vermeer's "Girl With a Pearl Earring." I am becoming a fan of Phillipe Starck, who designed the Paramount and the Hudson, where I stayed last time I was in New York.
I also visited the South Street Seaport with a fellow workshop attendee. We had a lovely dinner there, dining on salmon and lobster and flirting outrageously with a handsome waiter/actor named Tony.
I love Montana, but it's great to get out once in a while and be reminded of what a big, beautiful, crazy, crowded world we live in.
Friday, March 14, 2008
This is one of several pieces by UM art student Ashley Sears currently on display in the University Center Gallery. Her work absolutely blew me away -- brought tears to my eyes in about 30 seconds flat.
The group show, BFA Senior Thesis Exhibition 2008, runs through March 21. Get in there and see it if you can. It's on the second floor of the UC.
~
Another local artist, Molly Murphy, has a show up through May 24 at the Missoula Art Museum. Molly's gorgeous, intricate work blends traditional Native American beadwork with contemporary sensibilities. I could stare at her "Tulip Reticule" for hours.
~
My friend, Bigfork painter Nancy Cawdrey, just introduced a newly redesigned website. I am in love with her horses, roosters and ravens.
~
One little post can't possibly do justice to all the art in Montana or even Missoula. We are surrounded not only by incredible natural beauty, but by phenomenal talent and creativity.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
This gets my vote for best lecture title of the week:
"The Careful Art Of Tracking Porcupines"
Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 At 7:00 pm
Location Info: Montana Natural History Center, 120 Hickory St., Missoula
Presenter: UM graduate student Katie Mally.
Suggested donation: $3.
Information: Montana Natural History Center, 406-327-0405.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Friday, March 07, 2008
I just wrote a short article for PhotographyREVIEW.com: "The End Of An Era: Polaroid Ends Film Production."
Yeah, that's me in the picture -- age 12, maybe?
I'm also continuing to edit and write reviews for the site.
I'm finishing up an alumni profile for the Montanan magazine.
And I wrote the lead story, about UM's high-profile visitors, in the current Montanan's Around the Oval section.
Lots of other fun stuff going on, too: A workshop, travel plans, water aerobics, spring snow and taxes. Yes, the taxes are fun, because I had an accountant do them (cheaper than H&R Block! I was surprised) and I'm getting a nice refund.
Yay!
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
From Ralph Nader's recent column, "Double Standard":
Ask your member of Congress to introduce a one page bill that says the following: Whenever Congress and the White House take our country to war, all able-bodied military-age children of every member of Congress, the President and the Vice-President will be conscripted automatically into the armed forces.
That simple law will generate deliberations containing relevant, accurate information and assumption of proper constitutional responsibilities by the Congress and the President.
Saturday, March 01, 2008
I took this a week or so ago; the snow has mostly melted since then. Winter is sliding into spring. Today we had hail, snow and gusty winds -- add a little sunshine and then I'll be convinced spring is really here.
The birds are already convinced. I've been watching them gather twigs for nests and do all the other birdly things birds do in springtime.
Luna sits at the window and makes squeaky noises while watching them. She's such a bloodthirsty cat, although apparently not enough to actually spend much time outside hunting in the cold.
Tango is still sluggish with winter, too. The three of us snuggled together in bed today and took a long nap.
Life is good.
I occasionally get emails from people who have found my website and want advice on things to do and places to visit in Montana. In the interest of sharing the wealth, here are some excerpts from a recent email exchange with a fellow named Mehdi:
> I would be glad if you could recomend me some nice places to visit in Montana, since you seems to know your state very well....
> I'm from the French Alps, born and raised on the steps of the top of Europe (Mont Blanc) and I know mountains quite weel.
>I would love to see places that are not well known, off the beaten paths.
When you are near Glacier, you might like to visit Whitefish, which is a charming small town. Also, Flathead Lake is very beautiful.
If you want to get more off the beaten path, you could instead go east from Glacier and stop in Browning. Browning is the main town of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. It's a struggling community, but the Museum of the Plains Indian is very interesting. Then you could go south to Choteau, which is a small town famous for its dinosaur bones (take the tour! it's great). Keep driving south and you will be alongside the Rocky Mountain Front, which is desolate and incredibly beautiful.
If you are going to Glacier and Grand Teton, you really ought to stop in the middle and visit Yellowstone National Park while you're at it.
Roughly halfway between Glacier and Yellowstone is the "big" town of Missoula. Missoula is a fun place and has lots to do. Shopping, good restaurants, a university, rivers, hiking, etc.
Butte is a fascinating old mining town with an incredibly rich history. Be sure to stop and see "The Pit" if you go.
Bannack is my favorite Montana ghost town. It's very beautiful. Virginia City and Nevada City are nice, but more touristy.
Montana will be beautiful in late May, with green grass and lots of new calves dotting the fields. But be sure to pack some warm clothes as it can still be chilly.
The Travel Montana website is excellent and you will find a lot more information there.
Enjoy
your visit!
Patia
