insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys
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| javamonkey insights into the world of caffeinated monkeys |
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Friday, January 18, 2008 View From My Office Window  I have a fantastic view from my office window--directly across from my office is the County Courthouse. The main building, behind the trees, was built in 1904. To the right is the new addition, built in the 1990's to expand the Courthouse. If you continue to the right, you'll be walking along the historic Main Street and downtown of Sheridan. This was the view of my office last Friday, January 18th--it was snowing all day Friday and Saturday, and we ended up with about 18 inches of snow. Woohoo!! Unfortunately, most of that snow is gone--we had a few warm days that melted some of it away. We also had a "mountain wave" wind phenomenon that blew a lot of snow into drifts at the base of the Bighorns. (That also caused a lot of havoc with the county roads, as some roads had to be closed and re-plowed because of the drifting.) Now, it's mostly been cold--negative degrees cold. Today, we had a high of 28 degrees F--it felt like a lovely spring day. I was tempted to run around without a coat and scarf, but I really don't need any death colds or flu. I know that cold air does not cause a cold; however, I don't need to tempt fate. Other than it being cold and snowy, life in Wyoming is going well. Work is awesome--I got a promotion and a raise this month, which is exciting. We're about to start a new funding campaign, so I'll be working with the campaign consultant to manage the campaign (I also get a minion to help me). Managing a funding campaign is huge--great experience for ye old resume. Not that I'm looking for a new job, but it never hurts to be prepared for another offer. Or to be prepared to leverage that offer into another raise. :) In other news, I've found yet another project to become involved with--I'm working with the Downtown Sheridan Association, volunteering for their annual wine-tasting fundraiser. A little bit of effort gets me a free ticket into the event, along with free samples of wine and food. Nummy nummy. The Wyoming Culinary Institute class will be catering the event, so I'm expecting lots of num-nums. I've also signed up for a Thai cooking class at the Culinary Institute, at the prompting of a very cute guy that I met at a Cooking with Curry class that I took this week. (To be fair, I was thinking about taking this course anyway, but being asked to join the class by a cute guy doesn't ever hurt.) It's funny where you meet people around here--the guy that I met at the Curry class is an instructor at Sheridan College; he teaches survival skills. How awesome and random is that?! I'm also planning to volunteer for the upcoming Bighorn Mountain Festival--a huge bluegrass, folk, country, and gospel music festival that's happening the 2nd week of July. Again--a little effort for free tickets doesn't hurt. It does conflict with the Sheridan WYO Rodeo, but I can rodeo on Thursday and Friday, dance around at the festival on Saturday and be back in Sheridan for more Rodeo on Saturday night, and hang out at the music festival again on Sunday. I've already decided to take Rodeo Monday off work--I know I'll need to recover from that weekend. :) Ahh, forethought--what a wonderful invention. So, I know Aud is wondering about this Josh character and how that works with meeting a cute survival skills instructor at a cooking class. Well, Sheridan has no shortage of guys. And, dammit, I intend to meet them all. :) What? You all thought I'd meet a cowboy and settle down? Anyway, back to the guys. Josh is one of the first friends that I made here--we met during Rodeo week when I was here on vacation. We had a blast hanging out together. And when I moved here, he helped me unload boxes, tape various ceiling bits for painting, unpack, etc. We've been really good friends, and he's an adorably cute Southern boy (a Mississippi transplant to Wyoming). However, he's an alcoholic. He's in the bar damn near every night, and he cannot stop drinking. We've had incidents with him showing up at the apartment late at night, things broken, dry cleaning bills, etc. It's not good. He doesn't want to stop drinking, and that's his choice. But it means that I can't date him. I like him a lot--when he's sober, he's well-mannered, kind, smart, wickedly funny, well-read, literary, and a great journalist (he writes for The Sheridan Press); when he's drunk, he's an asshole. I've dated enough of those, and I really don't need to date another. So, Josh and I remain friends. Meanwhile, the search for a cowboy continues. Sheridan has been an interesting experience, as I've not been actively seeking a guy. I've been out and about doing things that are fun and interesting to me--I've been introduced to many guys while I'm out and about, but I'm not out and about for the purpose of meeting a guy. All of the things that I'm involved in are things that are interesting to me--volunteering at Kendrick Mansion, volunteering for the wine-tasting, joining the Jaycees, being on the steering committee of hYPe (helping young professionals engage), delivering Meals on Wheels, taking cooking classes, the Leadership Sheridan program, etc. are all things that are interesting to me. When I go out to the bars, I go because I want to be social and be out, not because I expect to meet a guy. Moving here was a good move for me--I needed the opportunity to focus on me, to do things that make me happy. I was in a dating rut where I'd meet someone, date, break up, and meet someone else, lather rinse repeat. Here, I've got so many other things, between work, friends, community and volunteer activities, and new locales to explore that I don't have time to fall into the dating pattern. If a cowboy wants me, he's going to have to find me and be able to keep up! (And have some pretty good roping skills to keep me in one spot.) So, that's life...it's busy and it's good. My only regret is that having such a full work and social calendar has forced me to become one of those people that carries a day planner. But if I didn't write it down, I'd forget something. And there's too much fun to be had out here. posted by jaime | 10:30 AM 0 comments |
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