thank you and a real update
so...thank you.
you have all been so supportive and i am VERY grateful. i know that i am stressed out about this. my body thinks it can subsist on coffee and about one meal a day. but as long as i am eating at least one meal a day (a real meal, not an apple or an egg) i'm not worrying about it. i need to lose some weight anyway, and the light-in-my-shoes feeling that comes with a little fasting feels good. also i'm trying to develop some healthier habits.
so far i'm getting a resume out per day. for jobs i'm actually interested in. i'm setting up informational interviews. the idea of actually doing something i WANT to do gives me some hope. i'm trying to focus on that right now.
i've got a mix of canning/freezing planned for the ridiculous harvest of food that happens whenever ross or i spend time with my mother in law during the growing season. we have carrots? i will try carrot soup. and freeze it if it is good. we have potatoes? i will make ham and potato soup, which i know is awesome. and freeze it. we have crazy quantities of tomatoes and tomatillos and peppers? salsa is a good way to cope with this. all these things will save us money, and probably be better for us than the store-bought stuff.
while ross and i were in wyoming we went hiking practically every day.
i've been trying to keep that up-sort of. i want to get more exercise and this is a good time to pursue it. i walked about 3 miles earlier this week, and this morning (gasp!) i went jogging. i'm pitifully out of shape for it, and it isn't my legs, it's my air. i run out. so i alternated between jogging and walking for a mile. but i still got the adrenaline rush (which will help ward off any jobless depression that might think about sneaking up on me), and i feel good about doing it. it may be pathetic, but it's more than i was doing before. and i know my endurance is good. i could walk 5-6 miles no problem if i had the right shoes, maybe more. it's the heart-health i want to boost. i can't promise it will last, especially with winter coming on, but it's a good start. combined with the stress and starvation diet, i might even lose some weight!
my first motorcycle class is today. my bike still has a leak and is un-insured and we are not fixing it or insuring it until i get a job, but i'm already signed up for the class and i want to get this certification. i'm a little nervous about the weekend part (tonight is classroom only), but accomplishing something i'm nervous about will make me feel better, not worse.
wyoming.
wyoming was beautiful. simply beautiful. and i only wanted to push ross's grandma off the mountain 2 or 3 times when she started talking about politics, or called me a "chicken" because i didn't want to sleep in the car (really i want to avoid neck cramps and i don't think name-calling is cute) or when she pushed and pushed on an issue about which we had already made a decision...or told ken (ross's grandpa) what he could eat and gave him wrong driving directions... 2 or 3 times, really.....
honestly i'm very grateful to them both. they were mostly extremely pleasant to be with. they both whooped me at cards(which is fun for me), helen did an AMAZING job booking the trip and finding good places, and her artist's eye was really great for directing us to the kind of things we wanted to see. ken's warmth and compassion and love for ross moved me greatly several times and i'm so glad they got a little time together. they were both exceptionally generous with us, and it was nice to be able to go at our own pace hiking and then meet up and talk about it afterward. we took literally hundreds of pictures and i'm only going to share a few here due to volume, but if you want to see more, you can visit our website (dsotm.net) and go through the portal to the same place our wedding pictures are up, and see them there. they are public, so you shouldn't have to remember your passwords to do this, though if you want a reminder, i can surely look things up for you.
lake jenny lodge was the first place we stayed. they are all inclusive. ross and i went horseback riding as part of the package, which was great fun even if it was just a trail ride with no galloping. climbing through the mountains on horseback requires it's own kind of awareness just to make sure you don't get scraped off the horse by a tree or boulder. we hiked 6 miles up several hundred feet to hidden falls and inspiration point and met a very nice south african man, with whom we talked for at least an hour. great guy. we stayed in log cottages with fantastic service and got mild nose bleeds from the aridity that stayed with us the duration of our trip. the meals at lake jenny lodge are amazing. huge breakfasts and 5 star 5 course meals every night. ross and i skipped lunches because we simply weren't hungry the meals were so big (exercise during the day probably helped as well). things like elk and rabbit and duck and bison were, naturally free range and therefore it was one of the few places i could eat meat. and it was truly amazing. at some point i will have to try to replicate some of the ideas i got there. the elk came out in the evenings with their eerie calls. we saw a pika climbing inspiration point that came out of the rocks and squeaked at us. very cute.
next we had two nights at jackson lake lodge. this is a FANCY place where celebrities go to spend a lot of money and get a terrific view(seriously the gift shop had $50 t-shirts, i still don't believe there is such a thing as a t-shirt worth $50). the hiking isn't as good, but the view is truly amazing. it looks out over the willow flats where the moose like to go. we saw one, but it was too far to get good pictures of. fires are frequently set in this area and allowed a controlled burn in order to let the lodgepole pines germinate. you can see the smoke from one of these in this picture - which was taken off the main deck at the lodge. like i said, amazing view.
then we went to yellowstone where we stayed at the old faithful inn. that place was worth pictures all by itself. built in 1904 by a 29 year-old architect, this place has a 4-sided fireplace and stairs that go up 4 stories to a "birdcage" where the orchestra used to play for people to dance below. sadly the stairs no longer allow this. the geyers and hotsprings were also pretty amazing and beautiful. thermophilic bacteria change the water and the silica-based ground all kinds of bright colors. the blue areas are too hot for them to live. also there were bison. and mule deer.
we saw moose going back to jackson lake lodge for one night and got some poor pictures of them. the best was seeing them at the wildflower inn, the bed and breakfast we stayed in our last two nights. everyone had gone to bed but ross and i. ross was in our room with the computer and i was in the common room reading. there was a patio off the common room with sliding glass doors open to screens and i heard this...munching sound. i turned around and snuck into the patio and saw MOOSE eating the trees not 10 feet away from me! it was so cool. i got ross and we watched them, but it was too dark to get pictures. we also saw a coyote running through the backyard the next morning. we took a tram to the top of rendezvous point, a serious ski mountain out of teton village. there were para-gliders and a breathtaking view.
you have all been so supportive and i am VERY grateful. i know that i am stressed out about this. my body thinks it can subsist on coffee and about one meal a day. but as long as i am eating at least one meal a day (a real meal, not an apple or an egg) i'm not worrying about it. i need to lose some weight anyway, and the light-in-my-shoes feeling that comes with a little fasting feels good. also i'm trying to develop some healthier habits.
so far i'm getting a resume out per day. for jobs i'm actually interested in. i'm setting up informational interviews. the idea of actually doing something i WANT to do gives me some hope. i'm trying to focus on that right now.
i've got a mix of canning/freezing planned for the ridiculous harvest of food that happens whenever ross or i spend time with my mother in law during the growing season. we have carrots? i will try carrot soup. and freeze it if it is good. we have potatoes? i will make ham and potato soup, which i know is awesome. and freeze it. we have crazy quantities of tomatoes and tomatillos and peppers? salsa is a good way to cope with this. all these things will save us money, and probably be better for us than the store-bought stuff.
while ross and i were in wyoming we went hiking practically every day.
i've been trying to keep that up-sort of. i want to get more exercise and this is a good time to pursue it. i walked about 3 miles earlier this week, and this morning (gasp!) i went jogging. i'm pitifully out of shape for it, and it isn't my legs, it's my air. i run out. so i alternated between jogging and walking for a mile. but i still got the adrenaline rush (which will help ward off any jobless depression that might think about sneaking up on me), and i feel good about doing it. it may be pathetic, but it's more than i was doing before. and i know my endurance is good. i could walk 5-6 miles no problem if i had the right shoes, maybe more. it's the heart-health i want to boost. i can't promise it will last, especially with winter coming on, but it's a good start. combined with the stress and starvation diet, i might even lose some weight!
my first motorcycle class is today. my bike still has a leak and is un-insured and we are not fixing it or insuring it until i get a job, but i'm already signed up for the class and i want to get this certification. i'm a little nervous about the weekend part (tonight is classroom only), but accomplishing something i'm nervous about will make me feel better, not worse.
wyoming.
wyoming was beautiful. simply beautiful. and i only wanted to push ross's grandma off the mountain 2 or 3 times when she started talking about politics, or called me a "chicken" because i didn't want to sleep in the car (really i want to avoid neck cramps and i don't think name-calling is cute) or when she pushed and pushed on an issue about which we had already made a decision...or told ken (ross's grandpa) what he could eat and gave him wrong driving directions... 2 or 3 times, really.....
honestly i'm very grateful to them both. they were mostly extremely pleasant to be with. they both whooped me at cards(which is fun for me), helen did an AMAZING job booking the trip and finding good places, and her artist's eye was really great for directing us to the kind of things we wanted to see. ken's warmth and compassion and love for ross moved me greatly several times and i'm so glad they got a little time together. they were both exceptionally generous with us, and it was nice to be able to go at our own pace hiking and then meet up and talk about it afterward. we took literally hundreds of pictures and i'm only going to share a few here due to volume, but if you want to see more, you can visit our website (dsotm.net) and go through the portal to the same place our wedding pictures are up, and see them there. they are public, so you shouldn't have to remember your passwords to do this, though if you want a reminder, i can surely look things up for you.
lake jenny lodge was the first place we stayed. they are all inclusive. ross and i went horseback riding as part of the package, which was great fun even if it was just a trail ride with no galloping. climbing through the mountains on horseback requires it's own kind of awareness just to make sure you don't get scraped off the horse by a tree or boulder. we hiked 6 miles up several hundred feet to hidden falls and inspiration point and met a very nice south african man, with whom we talked for at least an hour. great guy. we stayed in log cottages with fantastic service and got mild nose bleeds from the aridity that stayed with us the duration of our trip. the meals at lake jenny lodge are amazing. huge breakfasts and 5 star 5 course meals every night. ross and i skipped lunches because we simply weren't hungry the meals were so big (exercise during the day probably helped as well). things like elk and rabbit and duck and bison were, naturally free range and therefore it was one of the few places i could eat meat. and it was truly amazing. at some point i will have to try to replicate some of the ideas i got there. the elk came out in the evenings with their eerie calls. we saw a pika climbing inspiration point that came out of the rocks and squeaked at us. very cute.
next we had two nights at jackson lake lodge. this is a FANCY place where celebrities go to spend a lot of money and get a terrific view(seriously the gift shop had $50 t-shirts, i still don't believe there is such a thing as a t-shirt worth $50). the hiking isn't as good, but the view is truly amazing. it looks out over the willow flats where the moose like to go. we saw one, but it was too far to get good pictures of. fires are frequently set in this area and allowed a controlled burn in order to let the lodgepole pines germinate. you can see the smoke from one of these in this picture - which was taken off the main deck at the lodge. like i said, amazing view.
then we went to yellowstone where we stayed at the old faithful inn. that place was worth pictures all by itself. built in 1904 by a 29 year-old architect, this place has a 4-sided fireplace and stairs that go up 4 stories to a "birdcage" where the orchestra used to play for people to dance below. sadly the stairs no longer allow this. the geyers and hotsprings were also pretty amazing and beautiful. thermophilic bacteria change the water and the silica-based ground all kinds of bright colors. the blue areas are too hot for them to live. also there were bison. and mule deer.
we saw moose going back to jackson lake lodge for one night and got some poor pictures of them. the best was seeing them at the wildflower inn, the bed and breakfast we stayed in our last two nights. everyone had gone to bed but ross and i. ross was in our room with the computer and i was in the common room reading. there was a patio off the common room with sliding glass doors open to screens and i heard this...munching sound. i turned around and snuck into the patio and saw MOOSE eating the trees not 10 feet away from me! it was so cool. i got ross and we watched them, but it was too dark to get pictures. we also saw a coyote running through the backyard the next morning. we took a tram to the top of rendezvous point, a serious ski mountain out of teton village. there were para-gliders and a breathtaking view.