Amazing points...

So on my way home back to Milwaukee with Jon from my mom's house for Christmas we spotted at the best store ever. The people were friendly, they allowed us to take things out of the packages before we bought them, and did a demo of two competing products. We together spent over a hundred dollars and walked out the door with 3 things. All well worth their weight in gold I must say as we used all the products last night and, wow! Who knew that I could walk out of a store like that with a huge kid on Christmas morning smile on my face?!?!

It's too close for comfort

Ok, so it's been a while and I have some things to blog about that is for sure. Jon came to visit almost a month ago now. He took the train and I met him in Whitefish, MT. While I was waiting for him in Whitefish (very similar town to Whitefish Bay in Wisconsin) I made the best of my time. I made a coffee mug, well made as much as I painted the inside and outside with fire-able paints. Jon and I spent the first night he was here in Whitefish, we then drove to Butte, where we spent the majority of our time as I was not really on vacation. The whole time that Jon was here, from the minute he walked through the door at the hotel he was asking me, "Will you..." I knew instantly what I wanted him to end that question with. But, the end didn't come until Thursday September 25, 2008 when I had had enough and asked him, "Will I what, marry you?" to which he said, "Yes". I gave him the evil eye, and was like, "Are you serious?" and he was so of course I said, "YES!!" We called the family, and texted the friends letting them all know that we were engaged with amazing responses.

So, Jon and I set a wedding year long before I left for Butte, Montana so that was knocked out of the planning thankfully, now the more difficult plans need to come together. Like picking a date, a location for the wedding, a location for the reception, and what the colors, flowers, and the bridal party numbers will be. After about 30 seconds I had my flowers decided on, Stargazer lilies with Gerber daisies and some other very pretty delicate flowers. I have read quite a bit on weddings and what is appropriate, and acceptable for announcements, and for the reception. Jon and I both don't drink so I was trying to limit the number of drinks each person could have, but then I read somewhere that instead of having a full-on dinner with open/available bar that some people are moving towards cake and bubbly receptions. Then I read that some people aren't even doing cake professionally made, but are going to homemade pies-it will depend on what the reception hall will allow I guess. I am pretty sure I have the style of dress picked out for myself, and I am moving towards just letting my bridesmaids pick their own dress styles within the color field that I have chosen. Lots of reading, and doing yet to do. Jon wants to get married in a Catholic church, and there is planning that needs to be done with that considering I am not Catholic and I have no desire to convert.

On top of all that good news I have made strives in my VISTA position too. I have created one sustainable project for the whole state of Montana, not just Safe Space. I am working now on preparing for volunteer training that is going on at the end of this week-then we are done with all of the Domestic Violence month activities!!! I then am going to go to work on planning and coordinating a inter-agency training on people with disabilities who are victims of domestic violence. Bridgett, the MSW practicum student from MTech, and I are going to work on this training together since she has the hook-up with all the professionals that I want to be involved and I have the material and I want to boost my resume for professional content. Then when I'm home for Christmas break I am going to work on finding a grant or two that I can apply for that won't be a burden on Tonya's schedule to keep up. Preferably one basically for technology upgrades!

Home for Christmas is something else I am excited about. I bought my train ticket almost two weeks ago now and I will be home in less than two months! I am leaving Thursday December 18 from Whitefish, this means I am taking the bus up to Whitefish Wednesday December 17 from Butte. I will be in Milwaukee by December 19, this is something that pleases me greatly!!! I figured I will be gone from December 17 to January 6, 2009. This basically uses all my vacation time, but I am ok with that as I will be working a little bit because what else am I going to do when Jon is working and I am in the apartment, honestly!

She's Pregnant

I love the McCain camp. He chose a VP that has a pregnant 17 year old unwed child. Just another ploy I'm sure to get some more votes. Gross.

more pretty

look, pretty

I will stop talking about coffins after this

So, I just learned that one of my former clients from HOH passed away over a week ago. Her funeral services were today, she was only 54 years old. Far too young to pass away, she was still raising a child. That is what addiction will do I know, but it is still saddening. RIP BLL!!!

Ok, so I have something else today, somewhat related but not really. Karma is a mean mother. Don't piss her off or you will miss out on things you really want! Think about it, really, you do good you get good. However, if you do bad, or innappropriate you get bad or inappropriate. Work it out!

Is he trying to nail his own coffin shut?

Ok, so I just read that McCain has announced his running mate. The female governor of Alaska. Ok, so here is what I know so far about her, she is a girl. She has only been in office less than 2 years, and she has used her Governor power to have people fired because she didn't like the way they did their jobs. I am so proud of McCain, he must be realizing that he has no shot in this election and thus making the hugest ass out of himself and others who support him as humanly possible. This women offers nothing to the campaign, amazing choice! Let me know if you need any help digging the grave for your campaign, or need a nail gun for faster shutting of the coffin!!!

Just a point of personal concern

I can't believe the things that I see on a daily basis. Like this morning, I saw an older woman at work complaining that she doesn't want to vote republican anymore but she sure doesn't want to see a black man in the presidential office-she'd rather vote in Nader. Ok, I see at least two problems with this-the "anymore" in the statement about republicans. I mean really, who ever voted republican has deserved the last 8 years, and the death of millions blame to be shared with them and our fearless, I mean fearful, leader. I'm just glad that she didn't use the word that is so offensive, and disrespectful. And then, to waste your vote on Nader, or any independent for that matter. Just don't vote because you aren't being American throwing your vote away. Be honest with yourself, there will never been an independent in the oval office, not even as a lowly staff person. So, therefore, there should be no federal money given to them in the next election if 3% votes for him/her/they. STOP IT!!!

And then, on my way home from coffee with a lady that is a VISTA in Butte, I witnessed old people flirting. Ok, so there is this lady that drives the bus I ride to get home every day that has been inappropriate before with a gentleman and has disregarded the laws regarding smoking on a public transportation vehicle. But I digress, today anyone could have seen that he was trying to get her to do him a personal favor, and flirting at the same time. Now, I don't mind old people flirting, but I do have a problem with the type of flirting that was going on. You know the kind where they violate the personal space in an attempt to subdue the "get away from me" reflex. Please don't complain about your personal problems and over share in an attempt to get the other person to do the same. The saddest thing, she was falling for it hook, line and sinker.

And, finally, I would like to point out that we are of a certain age and that I understand that we have to keep ourselves healthy. What we don't have to do though is broadcast our attempts to get recognition from the opposite sex. I have also notice that we, when attempting become healthier, have learned to put down our friends in a passive-aggressive way. With a picture just before you go to state fair and say that someone should have said something because you think you don't look attractive enough and were going to eat a cream puff, is just inappropriate. I mean, I know we are a product of our culture but we don't have to cave to that pressure. Health is one thing, yo-yo dieting not acceptable.

Now I have said my piece and peace for that matter, I will leave you to ponder within, and amongst yourselves.

Amazingly Dirty

So today was like any other Saturday, I got up early; I rode the bus for 2.5 hours to do my laundry which takes 45 minutes. I went home I put the laundry away, and I hung out. While I was hanging out by myself I decided to text Katie to see if she might want to perhaps hang out later. She was down, and I was excited. We went to the drive-in movie theatre which is in the next town towards Billings. The drive-in had an amazing view of the mountains with the sun setting. Katie introduced me to her friend who drives this GMC Sierra DIESEL truck. The truck is HOTT!!! So, I know Katie from the Y, and every interaction I have had with her has been very polite, and friendly. Tonight she let her hair down and was just as perverse as I am, and cussed a lot. It was amazing! Her guy friend was just as cool. I think they passed the friend date! :) Then when we were done with the movie (we saw The Rocker, it was a take it or leave it with some amazing quotes), we headed back to Butte, but this time we took the back roads. It was the first time I have been on a gravel/dirt road in a long time. They took me up near the top of M hill, which has an amazing view of Butte, the whole town. You will have to check out the pictures, they don't do the sight justice. Then dude (I have been horrible with names since I got here so I can't tell you want his name is) started talking about the Packers and asked me if I shed a tear or just went out and bought a Jets jersey. I then let it slip that I had a potty mouth and strong opinions. I said the Farve was a douche bag, and a traitor, stating that he should have just taken the money and retired. Dude and Katie were like wow, right on! I think I fit right in here; it should be a good time!

Deuces Anita

Trip outside of Butte without business in mind!

Today I set off for the first trip outside of Butte that was not business related. Let me tell you, it was a good feeling when I woke up this morning at 7am for something other than to go to work! I was going to be going somewhere, yet to be determined at that point, for sight-seeing. I wanted to go to the farmer's market first and then Chris, my tour guide from church, said that we should check out the Chamber of Commerce first to decide where we were headed. His only moment of hesitation was that he didn't want to drive too far away. Dude, that was fine by me, on more than one level. We ended up deciding on a boat tour called "Gates of the Mountains". The drive was one that I am fairly familiar with because it is located north of Helena. Lord knows I have been there enough in the last month on business, however I really get a new perspective everytime I go up there so it is nice. We got up to GOTM at 10:03am, this may not be important for most people but we missed the 10a boat, and the 11a boat was full because Big Brothers Big Sister rented it all out. We decided that hanging around there was pointless for 2 hours. We went back into Helena and went to Target, this is a big deal! Butte doesn't have a Target! And then, we went for an early lunch at Applebee's, another big treat as Butte is too uncool to have one of these. We made our way back, up to GOTM and got on the boat. The ride was amazingly beautiful, and I of course took tons of pictures. They are posted at flickr.com, under anita.pollock. The drive back was good, Chris can really talk A LOT! We went to Three Bears, which is like a Costco, or Sam's. Then he dropped me off at home. Slightly sunburnt, extremely tired, and very impressed! So really, go check out the pictures, they took almost 20 minutes to load you can at least look at them :)

Have an amazing night.

Dueces Anita

Life's a funny bitch!

So, since I posted last I found a poker room that has free rolls like I am used to! I saw an amazing movie, and I made a friend :) Jon found this amazing poker room, right down the street from the house, and it does free rolls (which are key right now as I make less than minimum wage). And they were looking for dealers for a tourney this coming weekend. I went and saw Swing Vote, the most amazing movie I have seen in a long time. I'm talking I have wanted my time and money back from some studios in the recent past (hello, Dark Knight). And then on Monday night I went to dinner at a fairly authentic Mexican joint here in Butte. They even had flautas on the menu!!! Then, it all hit the metaphorical fan. My flautas were wrong, and then a HUGE moth flew in from the outside and decided it needed to torture me. I am talking the largest moth I have seen since I lived in Northfield, and those moths were dollar sized. This moth was fine until it flew like a bat out of hell towards my face, and then flitted around in the corner behind me making loud thud noises every time it hit the window. By the time that my proper flautas arrived I was saying just put them in a box to go! Eventually the lady I was out to dinner with said that it was dead, and it appeared she was not lying. I no longer heard the insistent thuds on the window from its failed attempts to be outside again. We chatted, and she drank her margaritas. We laughed, and exchanged crazy dad/family stories. I asked her to drive me by the casino that has live Hold 'Em games, and she obliged. We drove right past the casino the first time and then looped around to see if we couldn't find it another time. I spotted it on the right hand side, all the lights were off on the outside sign, but we drove in anyways. There was sign on the door that stated they were closed temporarily. The lady I was with razzed me about how I had made them close up shop and that I "won" because she had never had a casino close because of her before! I had just talked to the guy who runs the events two days prior. Life is a funny bitch!

I am looking forward to going to Helena tomorrow. Butte is nice and all but damn, I need to be out of it and it's sometimes behind the times attitudes. I am working hard on a media/stuffer for banks, churches, and the electric company now and I feel I have to dumb it down because otherwise the stuffers will not make the September mailings. I can't quote statistics in fear of shocking people in high places; I can't include pictures for the same reason. I am being stretched creatively that's for sure.

I am waiting impatiently for my new canvasses to get to the house so I can start painting again! I am pretty inspired by the books I am reading-they are like my personality conflicted :) I think that this is enough random rantings.

Oh speaking of rantings I posted a rant on montana.craigslist.org rants and raves page about tire gauges, check it out and see if you can figure out which viewpoint mine is.

Well, here we are again

I was just talking to Jon and he was like you should put down what you do on a daily/weekly basis. And I thought this would/could be pretty helpful considering I am 1200 miles away from the nearest friend or relative that I speak to on a daily basis. Today I checked out the local Hastings, which for those of you who have never been in one is a pretty cool store. They are only found in small towns west of Texas, and east of California. Hastings is like a Best Buy with no applicances, a Starbucks with no mocha frappicinos, a Blockbuster with less deals on used movies and a Barnes and Nobles with limited selection (but they buy back books and sell them). To make my experience even better they happened to be decorating for the midnight release of some new vampire/warewolf book that I have never heard of and when I asked what it was they looked at me like I was effen crazy. Apparently it's like the Harry Potter for the goth generation. Well, I don't think anything else was too exciting so I will sign off here.