Around and About

Life is crazy right now.  I don't even know how to cope with the amount and complexity of work my graduate program is expecting of me.  At least once a day I wonder if perhaps I am in over my head, have I made a big, expensive mistake by going back to school.  I barely have enough time to complete my assignments and maintain a semblance of a "normal" life, so as a result, the publishing on this blog has declined in frequency and content.  I'm not at all ok with this, and hope to find a balance between work, photography, writing, home maintenance, familial relations and a social life- until that happens, I will post as I can.  

That being said, I have had no shortage of experiences worth writing about.  I have been amazed by this place I now call home.  I am so excited and find that there are more things to do than are possible to fit into a weekend.  From fishing, hunting, hiking, and camping, to Western Swing dancing, the Plantation Bar's College Night, football games, and firewod cutting...I am faced with a recreation dilemma.  

Barrels, The Colfax, Washington Fair and Rodeo

Last weekend a new girlfriend and I headed out to a neighboring town in Eastern Washington to attend the local rodeo and fair.  It was so nice to see the brown dirt paint a layer on my boots, and to recognize the familiar scent of horses and cattle.  The Colfax rodeo was the first I have attended in over a month, and having gone to every rodeo within a 70 mile radius of Lander, Wyoming, all summer long, I was feeling a little deprived up until now.

Reminiscent of Wyoming

 

 A friend and I went out to Moose Creek Reservoir for a little fishing this past Saturday, and funnily after five hours of casting and switching hooks and rods and all the other implements, we had only managed to snag one, as Dallas calls them "Slime Rockets" (Fishery raised Rainbow Trout).  Yesterday, while sitting on the edge of the wheat field and looking out upon the Western horizon, eating a dinner of trout with my fishing partner, I realized that my view is completely different from any I have known.  What I mean is that in the recent past my view has been of seemingly endless sage brush prairie, a big blue sky consuming my vision;  or back in San Francisco (my home during undergraduate studies, which seems like another lifetime ago), the view just a few miles west was of the expansive Pacific Ocean;  the horizon seemed so vast, almost endless.  Now when I look to the horizon I see four miles west before a large hill of wheat stakes claim, offering gold and sky.  I enjoy this, perhaps just for the different perspective it is providing me. My environment feels contained; surrounded by gentle hills, almost cozy. 

A beautiful evening on The Palouse, Moscow, Idaho. Photograph taken from my backyard.  This hill is as far west as I can see.

Looking Northwest, sunset photograph taken from the University of Idaho golf course

Something amazing and very strange happened the other day.  I was in my room, hammering out an assignment for my Research Literature course, when I heard a knock on the front door.  We never have visitors at the farmhouse, so I was curious and unsure if there actually was a knock.  I opened the door to find a nice looking older woman with a scrap of paper in her hand.  She smiled and said "Hello, I'm from Wyoming, and I was just on the highway and I'm having trouble finding my friend's house".  She handed me the paper, which had an address just about a half mile from my home.  I asked her where in Wyoming she was from, to which she replied "Lander".  I laughed and told her that Lander is where I am most recently from, and that I worked the Malmberg's old ranch, out on Twin Creek.  She just smiled and told me that she used to housesit Twin Creek Ranch for the Malmbergs about five years ago.  We laughed and just looked at each other, hardly comprehending the connection.  

Despite an inherent longing to be in Wyoming, riding through sage, kicking along a red dirt trail, or relaxing with friends in the Bighorns, I can't ignore all of the signs highlighting what is now so obvious.  Reflecting on these past four weeks living in Moscow, the amazing times and friends I have made, and the serendipitous experience with the woman from Lander, I can say with certainty that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. 



Now back to school work!

Twilight on The Palouse, looking southwest from the University of Idaho golf course