Pick a day, any day

It's back and forth, nearly every day, whether we are happy here or not. Last night Keith said he would feel better about it were we not living in the most high-profile house in town! People come to the golf course and tell Keith, Oh I saw your dog tied up in your yard. Checkgirl at Cash &Carry says, Oh are you from Montana? You live across the street? Okay, I don't necessarily want everyone knowing where I live. We couldn't. have. picked. a more obvious domicile.

The more Keith learns about the position at the club, the more ridiculous it gets. The former managers tell him horror stories. Most, if not all of the members, are oblivious to what the position entails. Tomorrow the mens' league is holding its draft and Keith is feeding 50 out of kitchen equipped no better than a concession stand. Not to mention it will likely be a 15-hour day for him.

And I have to be in Cottonwood at 6:15 on Wednesday. That's a.m., people. That is, if they have school. Apparently some prisoners escaped from the Correctional Facility and therefore school is cancelled until they are captured. I seriously doubt, though, that they're hanging around Cottonwood.

In other equally enrapturing news, the only stoplight in town has been repaired after blinking yield/stop for nearly one week straight. I guess the stoplight repair guy was out of town.

Oh, and apparently the local computer repair guy was able to recover 2Gs of photos, videos, etc. from the hard drive of the laptop so that's encouraging. What is not encouraging is Recompute's response to my cries for mercy. They are dead to me. I hope a plague of locusts descends upon them. That, and boils. That's a good start.

I might need to cry a little.

Something bad has happened. Our laptop, sole guardian of all Mexican photos has Xs for eyes, has kicked the bucket, has bought the farm, has gone to laptop heaven. For no apparent reason. It's the horror story we all dread: in perfect health one day and dropped dead the next. We won't go into how angry I am. Mostly I am just sad. I called a local PC repair guy and he said he can try to recover what's on the hard drive. Operative word here is try. I'm not holding my breath. But I am secretly praying to the God of Hard Drives, futile as that may be.

Recompute Computers of Missoula, MT: get bent.
On a lighter note, the sun was out today and I put on my Chacos!

Drive drive drive

The deal with working in the mental health field in rural Idaho is that the people who need services don't all live in the same town or even a 25 mile radius. Driving is a requirement if you want to see people in their real daily lives. I've been led to believe that most if not all of my clients will be in Grangeville. In the meantime, if anyone wants to send mix CDs* to make the driving tolerable, here is where to send them:
222 E. South Street
Grangeville, ID 83530
*no mp3s, my car doesn't play them
Gracias. Radio here makes me want to slit my wrists. See previous posts. And I just can't justify satellite radio. Yet?

Our little house is slowly starting to look and feel lived in, despite our lack of furniture. Well, if a nylon fold-up camp chair and a plastic folding chair count, we have 3 things including the TV tray. My parents come to visit and don't have anywhere to sit! This is a major crisis in my mom's eyes. So they bought us a 2nd hand yellow formica/chrome 50s style table and it sounds awesome--we don't get it until May, but it sounds awesome. Then we're going to scour Grangeville's summer yard sales and see what other treasures we can find. I put magnets on the fridge and got out our Dwelling Unit sign, so you know we are moved in.

Keith had 3 days off in a row due to Inclement Weather and he actually went out the club today but saw only 1 or 2 people the whole day. He was a little bored and I was sitting in Nez Perce in the kitchen of a client, wishing I was home, too. Good Boy Lazlo has been very well-behaved, even staying in the house while I am gone (sometimes 7+ hours) and not chewing or pooping or starting fires or anything. What have we done to deserve such a good dog?

Snow Day! (do a little dance)

Keith woke me up and pulled me to the window and I saw white. What a nice thing to wake up to. Well, this means nobody will be out to play golf and Keith can get some other work done and then come home early. Also, this means I don't have to mow the lawn!

1st week of training down, I have more next week. I'm ready to get out there on my own (and start working only a few hours a day...this 10-5 is killing me!).

The word of the day is: Collateral

Working is hard. I forgot how hard it was to not be able to take a nap, to have to stay awake all day! I mean, seriously. I also had to get fingerprinted this week, for my job. (Only $5!) I hope I will be able to take on my own clients by the middle of next week. For those who didn't hear (and those who don't always listen--Keith!), I am doing PSR (psychosocial rehabilitation) for a local mental health agency. They told me I'm going to work with a lot of kids and some adults. From my shadowing experiences this week, it doesn't look all that hard, kind of a combination of the work I've been doing the last few years. They've said they will send me mostly to people in Grangeville, which will be nice. I'm thinking, depending on where I have to go, that I might be able to ride my bike to at least some clients'.

Lazlo and I have been taking at least 2 walks a day so we are getting quite familiar with Grangeville. I found a Health Food store! And he found some prime pooping spots! Last week Keith and I were walking Lazlo near the park and some rednecks in a pickup yelled supposedly funny but rather obscene things at me after I picked up Lazlo's poop. I guess only city folk clean up after their dogs here. Obviously, I am an Outsider. I can't not do it, though. I don't want random dogs crapping in my yard. Dog Poop Karma is serious stuff.

A friend is coming to visit this weekend and my parents are delivering our bikes to us (our 2 bikes and the Twice Bike!). And I plan to take at least one nap.

The movie theater decided to run another week of Ice Age 2 after Inside Man maybe didn't sell enough tickets? I, however, can't wait to see The Notorious Bettie Page. I'm going to call the theater and let him know, too. I don't know how they pick the movies they show, so I'm gonna assume that community input is welcome.

Tourney Day

1st tourney of the season @ GG&CC. Keith was introduced as the new manager and they announced so-and-so had a stillborn baby last night. Crazy.

I went out in a car this morning to scout photos for the website. We now have wireless in the club. The 21st century is so exciting, isn't it?

Now I'm supposed to go out and take photos of the guys playing. Sounds like fun. Poor Lazlo, home alone.

On the Verge of Adulthood

My perception of my (our) situation constantly changes. This is an easy place to stereotype. It's ripe with down-homeisms and the GOB way of gitin'erdone. But that also means that people here are genuinely nice. For every aspect of Grangeville that annoys me, there is one that I secretly like.
I wasn't sure what I would do here. How can I pass the summer in rural Idaho? Library, Lazlo, helping Keith at the club, photohunting. Then there was a position advertised; that sounded like a good place to start: Mental Health Worker. Okay, what does a mental health worker do in Idaho? And what do they have to deal with? Apparently, with the same problems as in every other town. My first adult? job...post-degree. (I feel like this qualifies for me to apply to be an Adult, but maybe I can lie and say my dog ate that paperwork.) I start training next week and it sounds like I will be working with kids a lot,which is a little strange. I have limited experience with children in general, let alone children who live in dysfunctional families and need a Mental Health Worker. I think this will be a very life-educational summer.

I'm excited to be here. It kind of pains me to admit it. I told the people who interviewed me, after accepting the position, that Keith and I had talked about the possibility of living here year round. ?!?!?!!?? What has come over me?

We moved into our little house yesterday. We're keeping it minimalist and it's nice. Our perspectives of what is comfortable and what is necessary have shifted a little since our trip to Mexico. Keith's still trying to decide where he can hang his hammock. The metal stall shower's hot water handle gets so hot you need a pot-holder to turn it off. We live next to a taxidermy shop! Let's Learn About Grangeville

• Ammunition is displayed in a storefront window. Of a "Saddle Company."

• Our radio in the bathroom receives 3 stations: the God Station, the Christian Rock Station, and the Country Station. Oh, and NPR. Okay, 4 stations.

• Reception is somewhat better out on the prairie. Then you can also get Top40 and Oldies.

• Grangeville is the Idaho County Seat; the town's population is >5,000.

• Idaho County is the largest in Idaho.

• The Ten Commandments are on the Idaho Co. Courthouse lawn.

• Grangeville Golf & Country Club is the only one in the county.

• A preacher's wife rents to both the country club manager and a Sheriff.

• A coffee shop on Main St. also sells crickets. By the dozen or two dozen.

• The Chinese restaurant on Main Street will soon be serving Thai, Vietnamese, and American food instead. (Pad Thai with Tofu?! Dare I dream??)

• Across from the grocery store is The Phone Store (& More) and The Gun Ranch.

• Just outside Grangeville, a juvenile woolly mammoth was unearthed near Tolo Lake.

• Border Days, held annually over the 4th of July, is "Idaho's Oldest Rodeo." Big doin's.

• Smoking is still allowed in one bar called The Establishment. And everyone must be 21 to enter. "This go's for dogs and horses, too."

• Here, your skill in being polite is more important than anything you say or do.

• Remember, not everything needs a response. 70% of your conversation will be rhetorical.

• Tickets to the Blue Fox Theater are $6 for adults. Only one showing, at 6:30p, on Mondays and Tuesdays. (This is where Brokeback Mountain played a couple weeks ago.)

• Hopefully today we are getting wireless at the club; I think it will be Grangeville's first public wifi hotspot (unconfirmed).
  

So I may have been over-dramatizing earlier when I alluded to the fact I would surely be crushed under the weight of the despair of Living in a Small Town. It's really not so bad. There's no such thing as anonymity, and I guess that's the one big drawback. But otherwise we're getting along just fine. So far.

Everybody's working for the weekend.

[First day of the season.]

I went to the club with Keith today. We cleaned, rearranged the dining room and the pro shop, cooked lunch for 3 people. It was pretty slow, rainy most of the day. I'm hoping to learn to repair and regrip clubs soon. My first project is revamping the bulletin board...exciting! I also looked at a house for rent in Grangeville. It would be nice to have a shorter drive. It is beautiful up there, though. I can't wait for a summer thunderstorm to roll through.

Several people came in today to meet the New Guy (and His Wife). It's hard for me to be natural at small talk, but I'm trying. Keith is better at schmoozing. I also got a great jacket today, wholesale prices are a perk of being the Mgr's wife. Overall, small town life is looking better to me. Downtown Grangeville is kitschy and it will be a great place to wander with a camera. If I don't get accosted by the locals. I guess I'll just wear my Grangeville Country Club jacket! Also, there's a one-screen theater, now showing Ice Age 2, but just last week it was showing Bareback Mountain! Pretty risky for a farm town community of <4,000.

I think we're going to pay to upgrade the internet at the club from dial-up to DSL and then we can forgo getting a phone line at our house, just use the club for uploading/blogging/surfing. And then we can make the GGCC the first wifi hotspot in town! Whoa!!