Today, there was a LOT of road to cover. Drive drive drive. That’s what we did. Thankfully the scenery was amazing almost the entire way. We detoured over to the Devil’s Tower in the morning. Totally worth it. What an eerie hunk of rock.

Was very tired though from lack of sleep. I think I was too excited, plus the motel guest above us had the squeakiest bed ever and evidentally couldn’t get comfy all night long judging from the tossing and turning. Ugh.

Made it to Great Falls, horked some bandwidth from an obliging connex somewhere on the main road so I could do a Google map thing and get directions to Gary’s house. My bloody cell phone has had no service almost the entire way up here. According to Virgin I should have nationwide coverage. When we hit Billings, Montana I finally found a connex but couldn’t send the slew of cell pix I’ve got to the Spotted Gallery. Argh. And here in GF, it’s got a connex but it’s on some Amex service or something bizarre like that and basically, the damn phone is useless 🙁 I’m v. disapointed in Virgin.

But other than that, it is lovely to be here, lovely to see life in Gary’s neck of the woods and am looking forward to a laxy morning tomorrow, followed by a trip up to the cabin in Lincoln for the weekend which we will use as a base to get to a farmer’s market in Helena, a huckleberry-picking trip and then a drive up to Glacier Nat’l Park on Monday. Somewhere in there we might do a boat trip along the Missouri and a little poke around the Tribune to see what a Gannett office is like 😉

Bye for now!

Well here we are in Belle Fourche, South Dakota 🙂 Yes, that’s Beautiful Fork. Not to be confused with Gorgeous Spoon or Pretty Knife.

We made excellent time today and after some time worrying about being able to see Mount Rushmore, we hit it at around 2pm this afternoon. Plenty of daylight. The Black Hills are beautiful. Maybe it was the scenery change from flat, brown-ish Nebby but it felt like a feast for the eyes to be surrounded by tall, green pines and rocky buttes and peaks.

Jo drove through BH so I could gawk and snap pix and then as we approached a single lane tunnel there it was, looking tiny off in the distance:

As we got closer though, it became larger of course. Everyone always says, “It looks smaller than I thought.” They say that about the White House as well. I think you build a monument up in your head until it becomes larger than life. Then you see it in person and of course it will seem smaller. But according to Bill Bryson, if Rushmore included the bodies of the presidents, they’d be something like 350 feet tall or something.

Anyway, we enjoyed watching some good storms off in the distance as we drove up Highway 2 from GI. Was weird to be able to watch them from the comfort of broad daylight. Out on the prairie, everything seems close but really is miles away.

We passed through Deadwood, SD on our way here to Belle Fourche. What a tourist trap. Yikes. I rarely get to see entire towns devoted to nothing more than sucking the money out of people.

Anyway, we’re here now and pretty tired. We got up at 5am this morning and hit the road by 6. We’re going to watch mindless telly and then crash. Early start tomorrow when we head off through Wyoming and the prairies of Eastern Montana. We should hit Great Falls in the late afternoon. Can’t wait!

[More photos from today]

Why do the clerks at Walgreens always ask, “Is that all for you?” when it’s my turn at the checkout? I don’t understand that.

“No, I was getting a bit bored so I thought I’d stand in line for a bit. If you’ll excuse me I’m going to go grab my shampoo and banana nut muffin. Be right back!”

Silly clerks.

So we’re in the midst of getting ready for a ROADTRIP BABY!!! W00t w00t! Yes, the kid, the aunt and I are piling in my little black car and driving off into the sunset. With a couple stops in between 🙂 A Mount Rushmore driveby on our way to Bellesomething for the night and then westward ho into the land of the Big Sky. I can’t. frickin. wait.

I’m hoping to do some photoblogging from the road and from Montany. Anyone wishing to follow along can do so here in the paper’s Spotted galleries. Crappy pix from my cell phone will end up in the Mobile Spot album and I’ll put the better ones in the album called ‘Roadtripping.’ I might even, like, blog blog from the road too. I haven’t decided. And I don’t know when or where I’ll have a connex.

Anyway, so that’s coming up. Should be fun. Nobody rob us while we’re gone, I have someone keeping an eye on things here 🙂 I got nothing worth stealing anyway. Unless you’d like a pissed off cat.

I’m exhausted. Very little sleep last night, the hottest day of the year today and a broken AC at work (great timing eh?) makes me just want to crash. After a cold moviestar shower.

Gnight!

Ohhhh how much I have missed this place. It’s almost like I can’t think properly without it nearby. I’ve been a complete bitch about it too and I hope I haven’t whined too much to my dearest friend and her hubby who graciously host all my shit. I’m sure I did but it’s a good thing they love me 🙂

I’ve just come home from an evening out at Prufrock’s. I hadn’t been there before and while I’m not much of a martini fan, I have to say their Spice Cake ‘tini was pretty good up until the little bug decided to take a swim in it. Relax, we were sitting outside.

A very enjoyable evening all around. Should do it more often. I’m told I should get out more but it’s hard to leave the kid home alone at night. Yes yes I know. Cut the chord. And I’m getting there. And I’m sure she’s enjoying it 🙂

Anyway it’s late and I have to work tomorrow so off to bedfordshire.

At the pool today I was telling Shannon about the cricket that invaded the Internet cube and showed everyone what absolute girls we all are in there. Well, apart from D who, of course, laughed at us.

This abnormally large, black cricket wandered across the floor as I was talking to D. He said, “Hey, look.” I looked. I shrieked a little which caused the other two girls in the cube to look just as I grabbed a wastebasket and put it over the cricket.

D laughed.

I wondered if I’d smushed it. So I lifted up the basket and the bloody little thing practically scampered to safety – right underneath my coworker’s desk which caused her to shriek and jump up in an attempt to get far far away.

People in the newsroom looked over. A couple of reporters came over to see if someone got hurt. It was very embarrasing to tell them it was just a cricket. There was much laughter. You’d think D would have seen our distress and done the gentlemanly thing by stomping on that sucker but no. He preferred to mock us 🙂

Eventually a girl from the front office who happened by found it, picked it up and tucked it safely away to be taken to her home and fed to her iguana. That’s hardcore. Me I’d prefer to jump on the desk and freak out. It’s not so much the fact that it’s a harmless cricket. It’s the way the *move*. So fast. It’s just creepy.

Makes a good story though. Not as good as Mike’s story about unintentionally smooshing a red cricket that had gotten into his pocket causing HIM to shriek like a girl, but close.

On a sadder note, Shannon’s bike was stolen this weekend. She’s upset about it. I’m pissed. That bike was a gift to her and is pretty much her only mode of transportation when I’m not available. She had it Friday and by Sunday it was gone. Not even a remnant of her bike lock was left. They took that too, the bastards. It wasn’t even an expensive bike. Just a regular Walmart mountain bike. Nothing special – except to her. The thieves wouldn’t be able to get much for it. I just don’t understand what the appeal was. *sigh*

Anyway.. It’s not the end of the world. I think I’ll turn in early. I’m sunburnt despite slathering sunblock on at the pool and now I’m cranky.

Happy Father’s day to everyone with fathers. And especially to both of mine.

Had an interesting evening last night. Around 11:30pm-ish my noisy neighbours downstairs decided to revert back to their primitive ways and were partying. Loudly. Beyond music so loud I could sing along, some of the girls were down in the courtyard shrieking and “playing” in the rain, drinking beer, chasing each other – you know, as if they are the only ones who live here.

I realize it was Saturday night and I hate to be one of “those” people but it was going on midnight, I was knackered having been up since 5:45am and working all day and wanted to go to bed. I knew if I didn’t do something about the noise I’d never get to sleep and I’d just get angrier and angrier.

Here’s my problem: I don’t like confrontations. I especially don’t like knocking on some stranger’s door, knowing there’s a room full of teenie meanies who are drunk and obnoxious to complain about the noise only to know that when I leave they’ll mock me and carry on. What’s more, I shouldn’t have to put up with that. It’s after 10pm and the apartment rules are clear on noise after 10.

So once again I called the police. This would be the third time I had to resort to that with them. It’s always late at night and sometimes it’s in the middle of the week during the school year when they get loud like this. I can’t call the landlord because they have no afterhours number. So I have to call the cops and all I want the cops to do is freak them out a little and get them to either move the party somewhere else or break it up or make them keep it down.

An because I’m nosey I listen to every word the cops say to them both on the balcony and out in the hall. I just want to know the outcome basically so I can work out if it’s ok to go to bed and you know, sleep and stuff or if I’m in for more noise and a second call to the cops. Besides, the first time I called the cops on them it was 3am and they were having some kind of orgy in the shower with 2 girls and 2 guys and when the cop heard that the bastard began flirting with the girls. I was livid.

But this time they sent Officer McHardass. But to backtrack a little, my daughter heard the girls shout to her friends to bolt because the cops were here. And there was a mad dash to get to the basement and out the back door by a bunch of people. So when McHardass showed up they lied through their teeth and said there were just the three girls there having a night in.

They then proceeded to spew a string of lies and a litany of their virtues to get themselves out of trouble because the cop was going to bust them for drinking underage. They told them the ‘fucking bitch’ upstairs is harassing them, that I call the cops on them if they sneeze too loud, that I have parties all the time (HA!) and they never call the cops on me, that I stomp around at 6am every morning (oh I’m sorry was my getting ready for work BOTHERING you?) and that was some of the nicer things they mentioned. Then they broke out the, ‘I’m a good person; we were just playing in the rain; we didn’t even have music on (*cough* bullshit *cough*). Then it just spiraled into some of the funniest sob story stuff I think I’ve ever heard.

One of the girls was loaded. Just completely out of her tree drunk. She started giving attitude to the cops which, of course, they did not take kindly to and eventually I believe she was arrested. But did she ever put up a fight. First, while the police were sorting out the alcohol, she was out on the balcony sobbing. Big blubbering sobs that were so fake it was amusing. She would go from crocodile tears to normal conversation mode in the blink of an eye with nary a catch in her voice as she spoke. Then she actually did start crying for real when she began feeling very sorry for herself. And she actually said, “Why me God?” Because you’re a fucking moron, that’s why. Somewhere in the distance, a man began to sing mournfully, “No-boooody knows… the trouble I’ve seeeeen…”

And then she began to repeat a bunch of Hail Mary prayers along any other prayer that popped into her little head. Over and over she prayed for God to get her out of this dumb situation she found herself in. She worked herself into quite the frenzy. She then began blabbering to McHardass that she was just getting her life together, that she’d been through so much (which apparently included about 6 months in juvey for alcohol-related trouble) and that she shouldn’t have to go through this again. She was a straight-A student, she’d been a cheerleader, a choir member and on and on went her virtues.

Then she bolted. She went out the door and started walking down the street. What she didn’t know was that the McHardass’ partner had left that way and was apparently ready for her because the next thing we heard were a bunch of violent shrieks as he tried to subdue her. Man, she screamed bloody murder. People came outside to watch the show.

Anyway, eventually the cops left with all of their beer. The girl who lives in the apartment wasn’t cited I guess because the liquor wasn’t hers although everyone there drinking it was underage. And also after the cops left all the party people who bolted came right back and they began talking about the whole thing, loudly, on the balcony (which is right below my bedroom window.)

When I call the landlord on Monday to tell her about this whole incident, they will probably be evicted. Do I feel bad about it? Part of me does. I don’t want to be crabby neighbour and I’m certainly not much of a bitch – unless you break the rules, disrupt my peace or invade my space. Then I guess I can be. But I was young. I know what it’s like to be at a party that’s busted by the cops. It’s scary.

I might even have felt some sympathy for them when I realized it was going to be a bigger situation then a simple warning to keep the noise down. That is, until they started slandering me, making up lies and saying just about outrageous thing they could think of about me and my kid to get themselves out of trouble. Then they lost any sympathy I might have given them. Now I just want them gone and perhaps in the next place they move to, they’ll learn to have some respect for their neighbours.

I guess my only worry now is retaliation which I wouldn’t put past them – but they’d have to be the biggest morons on the planet not to realize anything they do to damage my property (I’m thinking of my car and Shan’s bike which are downstairs and out of my eyesight) would lead right to them because they will be the first people I suspect. So I figure the most they’d do is confront me in the hall some time. I’d hate it but I’ve got the landlord, the tenant rules, a record of their disturbing the peace, and the fact that I’ve been a good tenant here for almost 7 years on my side. They’ve been here a few months, they’re always in trouble with the landlord for trashing the courtyard and smoking in the halls and of course the calls to the cops.

The lesson? Don’t fuck with me after 10pm.

You know when you’re watching some TV show or movie and there’s an almost obligatory shower scene with some hottie where they’re slowly letting rivulets of water pour over their bodies and they just seem to stand under the spray with their eyes closed, perfect cascading hair trailing down their backs (and how they’re makeup miraculously stays on)? There’s always a full body shot, tastefully done from outside the steamy shower where you can just make out their perky assets in silhouette because of course their shower curtain is clear but fogged up.

I always think to myself, “Who the hell takes a shower like that?” When I take a shower it’s always with minimal time to stand in the shower and contemplate life as rivulets of water wash over me. I’m in, I shampoo, I condition, I soap up, I rinse, I get the hell out, towel off and get ready for work.

But tonight, since my AC is dead for the time being I decided to take a cold shower before bed just to get rid of this humid stickiness. Since I had time, I decided to take the moviestar shower. A cold moviestar shower, but a moviestar shower nonetheless.

Well it was fabulous.

Maybe it just felt good to cool off, but I’m telling you it was wonderful to stand there under the spray not thinking about when I need to be out the door and instead thinking about nothing at all except how good the water felt. I posed provacatively under the shower nozzle with my eyes shut as the water ran down my face and neck. I stayed under the spray for some time just enjoying the feel of it. I turned and let it course through my hair. It was lovely and actually relaxing.

Of course I didn’t stay in there for an hour or anything. I do need to go to bed 🙂 But I will say that that was one of the more enjoyable showers I’ve ever had. And now I know why they shower like that in the movies 🙂

I know. What an odd thing to blog about. I don’t care. That was a damn good shower 🙂