The Little Red House

May 31^st, 2008

A few brief pieces of exciting news! I have a house! It’s a cute little red ranch on the corner of 3^rd and 9^th. It’s in a tidy little neighborhood with avenues running north and south and streets running east and west. 9^th st. takes me two blocks to the county park and courthouse, 3^rd ave takes me 5 blocks to the post office, grocery, bakery, and coffee shop! Weirdly, my little house is also right next door to my boss, Cliff, and his dog, Milo. I’m happy to have some four legged company! (I miss you zeeeuuuususs!).

The neighborhood is a total throwback. People hang out on their porches until dark in the shade of their willows and maples, music seeps into your windows from neighboring front yards, there are picket fences and craftsmen’s everywhere you look. It is the type of place that would relieve many people of their nostalgia if only there was an old chevy driving down the streets.

In other news my roommates and I drove down to Missoula today! Missoula is smaller and more mountainous version of Ann Arbor (and conveniently enough it houses the other other U of M). It certainly doesn’t compare maybe in sophistication and it is certainly quaint, but it feels like the lively center of Montana where there is youth, intelligence, music, arts, etc. A man on a corner gave us Barack Obama pins and reminded us to vote in the primary (all of us already did in our own primaries…except for me of course…*le sigh*). While McCain is obviously the winner of the Republican primary, Ron Paul could actually give him a run for his money in this state. I’m finding it very exciting to be in the state that will be the deciding factor in the democratic presidential primary!

The drive to Missoula was incredible. We went all the way down the western shore of flathead lake which took up a good 45 minutes of the drive. It was BEAUTIFUL. Especially in the morning mist. Past Flathead Lake was an Indian Reservation which looked impoverished except in the more developed downtown at the southern edge of the lake. The signposts were written in a Native American dialect as well as English. Past the reservation was a bird refuge where I saw an eagle on a signpost, and past the refuge was the largest bison range in the world (where I saw a lot of hills but no bison).

I got a free Huffy at Free Cycles Missoula! We volunteered for a few hours fixing up an abandoned bike of our choice, and then it was ours!!! I learned how to grease up a chain, tighten some bolts, take off a fender and replace a reflector and voila!!!

So it has been a good week!