How time flies...

Well, it's hard to believe that four days have passed since my last post. I was with Lindsay tonight, and we had the discussion about just how fast time flies as you get older (and when you're having fun, of course). As of this week, I have been here an entire month so far...doesn't seem like much until I consider that I will only be here for about 10 months total before leaving for the Peace Corps (or Ethiopia...cross your fingers). For those of you into numbers, this means that this time in Missoula is 10% done, but 90% left (wahoo!). We're also in our fourth week of classes...which means I am 26.7% done with this semester and 13.3% finished with the entire 30 weeks of the two semesters. Boy, how time flies by. But Missoula may be a place where I spend lots of time after the Peace Corps...I love it here. It's one of those cities where people come to visit and just end up staying. Amazing.

Well, some updates. I attended the "World's Largest Garage Sale" on Saturday morning, which was in lieu of REI's Scratch-and-Dent sale...which Lindsay and I decided would probably have been much more worthwhile. The garage sale was, well, not quite as impressive as I was expecting. Some spots literally smelled like a grandma's basement (like, other people's grandparents...not mine....my grandparents have basements that smell very lovely). However, there was quite the variety of goods involved in this sale, including several saddles, many many knives, and a Cadillac with a "free" sign on it...must have been a mistake. I did end up with a very wonderful purchase of two pairs of vintage earrings, which completely made my day. They were 2 pairs for $1.00, and in hindsight, I wish I would've splurged and bought a few more pair. One pair can be seen in my picture, where Julia and I are acting a little crazy with my aviator sunglasses:

...which brings me to the next section of today's "What's Going on with this Crazy Lynn Girl". Saturday night, we went to the River City Roots Festival, where they close off Main Street and have a music festival with many, many bands. We saw two bands--The Mammals, who were a bluegrass band from New York (very, very good music!) and The Gourds (since I am musically illiterate, I do not know how to classify their music...rock? bluegrass? who knows....but they were also very good). Fun times in downtown Missoula. We were lucky that the rain held out until Sunday, which must not have been too pleasant for those music-watchers.

And yes, you may have figured out....it rained Sunday!!! How exciting. Except that now it has rained more than once since then, which may not be acceptable. Oh yes, it also hailed for a while. Now, let me tell you the irony about this situation. Before I left my apartment on Sunday to bike downtown (which is 2 1/2 miles, mind you), I checked the weather online. This is a common practice before I leave to go anywhere on my bike. The weather said "Showers in the afternoon". So, I grabbed my raincoat and shoved it into my already bulging bookbag and was about to head out the door. But then, my mind got the best of me - "Lynn, do you really have to be that prepared and neurotic? Uhhh, you're always way over-prepared for everything. Just let it go...it's not actually going to rain! Leave the jacket at home....this is so like you, to be just sooooo over-prepared and anal about everything". So, listening to whatever voices were going on in my head, I left my raincoat at home. When I arrived at my destination downtown, I also decided to lock my helmet to my bike, rather than bringing it inside with me like I normally would. I figured this would be alright because it is blue sky, and the weather.com website didn't really mean that it was going to rain. They were just saying that. Looking at the blue sky, I also decided that I didn't need to cover my seat with a plastic bag, because that would also be over-preparation. Well, all that bit me in the butt. It poured, it rained, it hailed, it poured, etc. And it all soaked into the padding in my helmet, so I would have a nice shower when I had to put my helmet on later. Okay, I guess things could have been worse....but this is the irony. So, from now on, I have decided that I would much rather be prepared than "go-with-the-flow-ish". Hmmm...well, I kind of like "go-with-the-flow-ish".

Sunday night, we had a group cooking session, where we each brought fresh vegetables (well, except me...I brought coconut milk...oh, there is so much I am learning about food) and prepared a Thai curry dish together. It was amazing. And this is from someone who has never liked Asian food before, besides my Mom's stir-fry (which comes from a recipe from the Campbell's Soup Cookbook....). But, so many new things I have been trying!

Yesterday and today find me working, working, working....on the grant, on my AmeriCorps paperwork, on reading, on papers, on everything. Oh, sidenote - I have now been promoted to "Administrative Director" of our Fulbright-Hays Grant....which basically means that I am the compiler, the editor, the formatter, etc. and have to make sure that it looks nice before we turn it in. Oh yes, and compile a database of participants with their contact info and short biographies. The bonus is that I get to be listed under "Key Personnel" in the grant write-up, and what the heck, it will look great on my resume. Fortunately, the grant is due in a week and a half....and then the insanity will change from grant-writing into the many, many hours of training (okay, only 50 hours) that I will have to do for the YWCA. I love training!

Tonight, I took a trip to REI, which is definitely my new favorite store (hint, hint). The trip was due to the fact that Wisconsin-cold is much different than Montana-cold, and I was in need of some good layering clothes. Plus, I had a 15% off coupon because I recently became a member of their co-op. Lucky me. This means (drumroll, please....)...fleece! Yes, one of my favorite things! But, I also got a base-layer shirt, which I find will look very nice even not as a base layer. I may just employ it as a regular piece of my wardrobe.

Anyways, I must go to bed, as my eyes are sore and I have a slight migraine.

But, not too fast...here are some pictures as well:

The top picture is of The Gourds at River City Roots Festival...the bottom one is me, Julia, and Becca enjoying the music and trying to take goofy pictures of ourselves rather than just asking someone else to take one. So fun.