Is it getting anxious in here?

Hello all,

    Well, I certainly took a few days off from writing here, but MUCH has happened!

Saturday the 18th was a particularly eventful night!  Ann and I arranged to meet a few of our friends out for a final hurrah in downtown Missoula.  We met our friends at the Union Club, reminisced, had a few beverages and a really good time.  So good of a time that my friend Gavin and I were horsing around outside.  We were joyously pushing each other around, almost wrestling, when I slipped on an icy patch and stuck the landing face first!  OUCH!  I ended up scratching my nose, scraping of a nickel sized chunk of my mustache and lip and cracked my front right tooth in half!!!  It wasn't until Tuesday morning that I was able to go to the emergency dental clinic.  The removed the broken chunk of tooth, administered a root canal and rebuilt my tooth with this cool plastic polymer all in a matter of two hours!!  Yesterday was the first day I was able to eat something without cutting it into baby bites!  The tooth looks great, not my still healing lip yet, and all is well!

Christmas was fantastic!  Gavin hosted and cooked a gourmet four course meal for Ann, Sheena and myself.   There was a delicious salad with feta, prosciutto and a pistachio oil vinegarette.  The next course was a cashew ginger carrot soup with panchetta garnish.  The main course was a 5lb prime rib marinated in thyme, rosemary and other spices, garlic parmesan mashed potatoes and asparagus with hollandaise sauce.  The meal was topped off by a dark chocolate mousse which was divine!  There was much wine, music, gifts and good times had by all!  Sunday we went to Rita's house.  We enjoyed a bonfire in the yard, great soup and we gave Rita's son, Seth, ALL of our CD's.  He is a young musician and we had digitized all of our music onto the computer and though he would be the one to give the thousands of CD's to!

This week marks the last week here in Missoula!  We are going to our friend's Joe & Cara's tonight.  We are cooking Ann's homemade mac-n-cheese, adding spinach and andouille sausage this time.  There is still much packing and organizing to do yet, but we are still on the ball!  I'm starting to get a wee bit anxious to head back!  Ann has three more days of work.  I have some serious packing to do and New Year's approaches!

Hope this post finds all of you well, enjoying the holidays, hopeful to what the New Year will bring and your hearts full of peace and love!
Until next post!
Nate 

Bizarre dream from 12-21-10

Here is a dream I had on the evening of the 21^st. I thought I'd share...

I'm in a store where a woman asks me to go to her house to fix something. She gives me vague directions and I head out. I drive this super duty pick up truck up this giant hill. About half way up the road gets steep and muddy. I put the truck into 4 wheel drive and make it up farther and the houses now change into mini versions while the street gets narrower as I climb. I'm having trouble finding the house so I drive on. Finally at the top of the hill there is a cul-de-sac. At this point I've given up on finding my destination. In the cul-de-sac within an entirely residential neighborhood there is a movie cinema. I decide to go in. The only movie playing is a kid's film. Some animated feature with fuzzy bears being cute. I'm watching the film with sitting at the aisle to my left. I see the theater is appropriately filled with kids but it takes me a while to realize there are no adults. Kids are half paying attention to the movie, kicking seats and playing with action figures on the headrests in front of them. Next, a child with a cape and a real sword, the Child King, struts down the aisle with an entourage in tow. He approaches the children in the row in front of me and demands they relocate. Some kind of turf war I assumed. The Child King makes a threat that if the children remain when he returns there will be business at hand and departs. Unfortunately, the children do not move. I return to watching the film and a few moments later the King swoops in and skewers the first child. Somehow, the child is fine and a melee ensues. Vicious pre-adolescent warfare! The theater lights come on and in rushes about 20 police officers, who each grab two of the fighting children and storm out. A managerial announcement barks that the movie is over. I'm sure there is blood to clean up and damage control. The other kids file out as I still sit there. I do see one adult, a thin Wavy Gravy type clown, with a massive beard. I make it outside and 5 police cruisers and various black SUV's race into the cul-de-sac. A woman steps out of a black SUV and announces she has the files. About a dozen cops rush into one house and race out with the Child King and a few of his minions, toss them in the cruisers and they all race off. End of dream!!!!

He Woke With A Start

This has been an exciting day so far!  Ann got up at 6AM to get ready for work and I attempted to sleep a little more.  I have been unable to get to sleep at nights out of anticipation of the move back to Chicago.  Watching the old seasons of 30 Rock have kept me amused from the 10PM - 1AM slot of my days.  I dozed off while Ann was getting ready and one of the devious cats knocked over a folding table we had leaned up against a wall.  The noise of that woke me up and I felt I jumped a foot off the ground in the horizontal position.  I peeked outside and saw a beautiful, fresh 2" of powder and summarily found a flat tire on Wilson (our Saturn car).  Grr....  The snow was no longer beautiful as I have to put the spare tire on and at some point navigate the icy, snowy roads to the tire shop.

Working on the second fill of my 20oz coffee mug and finally feeling motivated to begin accomplishing things.  This is precisely why I am sitting on my butt writing this post!  Today's list of things to do include:
Dealing with the flat
Getting 2 new tires
Packing
Posting more of our possessions to sell on Craigslist
Finish organizing and planning our finances for the month
Calling a few friends

The ever expanding list of things do to before we go has 46 items and there are 20 days till departure!
I may post another today with better news and hopefully something remotely exciting!

Currently listening to: The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Currently reading:  The Lives of John Lennon - Albert Goldman

NOTE:  The W key sticks on my keyboard so if a sentence in this and future posts doesn't make sense just start adding random W's throughout!

Let us begin at the beginning...

Inspired by others and further motivated by my own frustrations of not writing, I have begun this blog.  I will begin by cataloging the 3 weeks, to the day, of Ann & my remaining time here in Missoula, Montana.  What this blog will encompass after the move back to Chicago, IL, I am still uncertain.  Hopefully you will join me in this writing adventure and all are welcome to inspire, critique and motivate if you so choose.

Our time in Montana has been fantastic!  Ann and I moved here after a little more than a year of dating back in Chicago.  We arrived in July 2006 and have lived in three different places.  Two apartments in Missoula and also lived about 30 miles out of town on beautiful Rock Creek.  We were married on September 22nd, 2007.  From Missoula we have been able to visit Portland and Eugene, Oregon, Seattle, Denver, Glacier National Park, the great expanse known as Montana and cross-country Amtrak and car trips.We have had crazy adventures, highs and lows, success, strife and survival.  Now it is time to move on...

Our desire to own our own house, start a family, have careers and to not be financially destitute has brought us to the point of moving back to Chicago.  We are especially excited to be in the company of family and friends again, to be able to see more live music AND to enjoy the plethora and variety of food that Chicago has to offer. 

Please follow our adventure here and our journey back to the Midwest!  Ann has her own blog which you can find at headlightonanorthboundtrain.blogspot.com  Hope all is well for our friends and family.  We are grateful to have a support system awaiting and we are indebted to our parents for incredible amount of help they have provided past and present.

Until next post...
Nate