We're Not Hermits!
February was filled with social events for us. After living in Missoula for 6 months, we were finally ready to welcome some new friends into our home.
We scheduled our first pizza party for Friday February 8th with Jen and Honey. It ended up being a very long day and I'm happy to report that we managed to stay awake so late to hang out with our guests. Why was it a long day? Well, something came up so that my students couldn't give the SPOT presentation in Deer Lodge so I had to go. The first "show" was scheduled for 8:30AM, which meant that I had to pick up the rental car around 6:30AM. I am a morning person so it wasn't unreasonable for me to be awake and alert at 6:30 in the morning. It was, however, early for me to be awake, alert, dressed in something besides my pajamas, and anywhere but at my dining room table sipping coffee with Mike. I arrived at Deer Lodge Elementary and met the principal, Rick. He showed me to the gymnasium, where he had a screen and extension cords waiting for me, along with a 100, or so, 5th and 6th graders. I set things up and, after a lovely introduction, talked about Astronauts and Aliens to the children. As usual, talking to/with the children was great fun! I had two more shows - one for 3rd and 4th grade and another for K-2 - and between shows Rick showed me around the school buildings, gave me a brief history of the town, and introduced me to his staff. I was terribly impressed with how happy his employees were. The teachers were friendly and happy to talk with me and the staff were, too. Instead of sending me out for lunch, Rick invited me to eat there. I was happy to accept the invitation, to eat with the teachers, and to experience the cafeteria food (complete with 1/2 pints of milk!). I spent some down time reading in the library. My entire experience with Deer Lodge schools was positive but my favorite part of the day happened just before I left: two 3rd or 4th grade girls approached me and asked me for my autograph. :)
By the time I got home I was exhausted but invigorated. To my surprise, the happy energy from my day in Deer Lodge carried through the night. Jen and Honey came over around 6PM. We spent the evening chatting and eating and drinking. Before we knew it, it was past midnight and yawns were punctuating our sentences. Jen and Honey bundled up and walked home. (They lives a few blocks away.)
We spent Saturday recovering from all the fun we had on Friday night. Between naps, we cleaned the kitchen. On Sunday, we were recovered enough to hit the slopes. Andrew, Sherry, their friend, Jen, and Honey all arrived at our house around 8:30AM. We hopped in the car with Jen and Honey and followed Andrew and Sherry to Lost Trail. True to form, we stopped in Hamilton for some breakfast pastries. This is one reason we like skiing and hiking with Sherry in the Bitterroot - she knows where all the best food is! There was no traffic and when we got to Lost Trail there were only two lines: one to buy our tickets and one to ride the first lift up. The afternoon was spent skiing...practicing our tele- turns, riding the lifts, practicing more tele- turns, falling, sitting on our heels, and feeling the burn of doing squats all day. The skies changed from scattered clouds to snowfall back to scattered clouds. It was a lovely day and Mike and I decided that we'd be back for more...
A week later we returned to Lost Trail. Mike demo'd some new, more burly, skis for the day and we decided to explore the entire ski resort (all 6 chairs). The hill was virtually empty. It felt like our own private resort, which was odd because it was President's Day weekend. President's Day weekend in Colorado resorts is worse than any other holiday. When we lived in Boulder we only went skiing once on that holiday weekend and vowed never to do it again because of the crowds. Again, we recognized contrast between skiing Colorado and skiing Montana.
On Wednesday, our neighbors invited us over for dinner. Kevin and Teresa are newly engaged and they are very fun to hang out with. Unfortunately, they are moving east this summer to be closer to their families.
On Saturday, we invited Jim and Teresa over for dinner. Jim had helped us unload our boxes from our moving truck back in the scorching heat of July. Then they invited us for dinner that night. We were so grateful for Jim's help and for their hospitality on our first evening in Missoula. The Thai feast we prepared for them was a token of our gratitude. Past that, it was fun to plan and create a meal like that again!
Mike and I love to cook together. We enjoy sharing in the creative process together and have realized (see my blog on Bledsoe) that finding other people to cook with, really cook with, is rare. In fact, the last time we made a Thai feast was for the last birthday I celebrated in Madison - a midnight meal with Jim and staying up 'til dawn as a farewell before our move to Boulder.
Entertaining Teresa and Jim was easy. They exclaimed that we were spoiling them, which was just what we were going for. :) Another night of fabulous conversation, wonderful food, and yummy drinks ended around 12:30AM when our new friends went home.
