37. Whole lotta nothing, weather

Reasons for not posting more frequently in thisahere bloggy thing:

1. Don't got nothing to say.


2. No time lately to compose posts full of nothing (which I'm very good at, normally).


3. Distaste for the vacuous - the internet's too full of people saying they don't have anything to write about and I ain't got time to read all that and I ain't got time to write about it. (Yes, ironical, I know that's really all I do.)


4. Absence makes the heart grow fonder.


5. My (neighbor's) internet done broke on me.


6. Busy eating.


7. ... I guess that's all, I guess just the six reasons.

Normally this time of year I like to write some sort of emotionally wrenching recap of the year gone by but this year I'm not going to because of the above reasons and because I'm finally starting to grow out of my late-blossoming emo stage. (You should be glad because if I had you'd be crying so hard right now.) Instead I will calmly announce that I will soon be dusting off my very first Blogger bloggy thing. Here ensues a short history of me and the internet:

I first started a blog back in the day, ca. 1996, but in those days, kids, they weren't called 'blogs'. They were called nothing, and you had to write the html yourself. In those days, the only thing you could do on the internet was make hyperlinks and blinking text. It was all very awesome.

My first blog thing was hosted by a friend at his university, and then other places, and then UCSB. Then Blogger was born and I decided to use that when I went on a trip to Australia, publishing to my UCSB page. Then UCSB took away my server space because I was a dropout. I still have all those entries (or, rather, Blogger does), but I don't got the server space anymore and will have to have blogspot host. Which means I will have to come up with some sort of descriptive or clever name.blogspot.com, and I have a very hard time doing that, which means it will be some weeks before this thing is unveiled. It will be two weeks. Because, you see, I'm going to Australia again, which means I can't post here. (This blog is strictly for Missoula-related adventures).

Thank you for your rapt attention.

Now, some news from the heart of Missoula:

It's snowing. Barely. Missoula has tiny snow. Missoula never gets snow. The only snow we ever get is in June and September, when no one wants snow. In winter, no. But right now, today, it has snowed enough to make you think that there might be snow. There won't be.

It's pretty quiet in Missoula this week. Sometimes I am able to live too completely in the moment, which is what I'm doing right now, which means I've almost completely forgotten that just a couple weeks ago I was deep in the miserable throes of having three jobs and in just a little over a week I will be deep in the miserable throes of 1. moving out (into nothing), 2. wedding (not mine) and related activities, 3. getting ready to leave the hemisphere. Got lots to do but can't be bothered with any of it. It's this week right now, always has been and always will be.

The next decade, if it happens, will be better than the last, I'm wagering. Better be.

36. Running and the weather, Missoula holiday parties

The only things anyone in Missoula cares about are sports and the weather, which is why that's all I write about here. Today, everyone in Missoula is glad that it's finally snowed, and everyone in Missoula is glad that there's a Lady Griz game tomorrow. Also I think there was a football game this weekend?

I went for a run for the first time in ages today. It had warmed up into the low 20s and was quite nice. This was before the giant enormous winter storm rolled in (so far at my house one inch of the lightest, fluffiest snow ever has fallen, softly and quietly). Last winter after that stupid half marathon I took a month off and when I started running again I felt better than I ever had, so I'm hoping the same thing will happen after this hiatus. I was able to keep up all my numerous and obsessive Sportaktivitäten for most of the semester, but lately they've gone by the wayside - a huge problem, given my piggishness and the approaching holiday season with all its stupid chocolates.

So far I've been to one holiday party and skipped two. This coming week I have four more holiday parties to not go to. One will undoubtedly involve me sitting by myself in a corner eating cookies and getting schnockered, and then going outside to barf. The cookie barf will freeze. Deers and dogs will come by all winter to gnaw on it (there will be a lot).

At the one party I did go to, I found myself at the center of the party universe, talking to a revolving cast of strangers. I am infinitely interesting (being both faculty and staff and etc. etc. - a universal ambassador for everything) and so these revolving strangers had many things to say to me that I didn't care about at all, and I found myself saying stupid things that I didn't even mean, and I was trapped in these weird conversations for hours and hours until I finally was able to make an awkward and desperate getaway.

My jobby job never ended so I had three jobs all semester. I know I shouldn't complain, and I am grateful to have gotten those two careery jobs without having to write a cover letter or anything, and blah blah blah, but I worked pretty much nonstop (when I wasn't working I was making Sport) from the end of August until yesterday and I'm glad it's mostly over. I slept 12 hours last night, woke up this morning feeling and looking like I'd been hit by a bus. I still feel like that. I guess I was tired. I guess I still am. I meant to do some productive things today but didn't (other than running, and making soup). I'm reading a book about preserves and heartbreak. Glad I found it, although I could have used it earlier - it might have made this decade a little easier for me, and I probably would have won mad canning awards at the fair the past few years.

Yeah, so I went for a 4-mile run today, am getting back on track after being derailed for a while. The operative metaphor here is that I am a train.

35.

Did you see that full moon coming up through the canyon? It was bright. And the next full moon will be blue. In Missoula it's cloudy only five times a year, so you can pretty much guarantee that we'll have a nice view of the blue moon.

Been eating a lot of potatoes lately. Here's my tentative Christmas list:

• pajama pants that aren't flannel
• pink (or not) running shoes
• pony