sweet nothings

new email from Curtis...I emailed him back today, and we'll hopefully have this set in stone soon! oh, how exciting! I asked for pictures of the place, so I'll post those as soon as I know whether or not it will work out. He has a dog, Keeper, so that would be a fun thing.
Sweet.
Here are a couple of pictures of the farm, by the way:




Packing is going okay. I got rid of a ton of stuff at my mom's rummage sale this weekend, god bless the yokel-local's hearts. All of my books are packed and ready to go, and I have all my clothes sorted out into stay vs. keep piles, although that will probably be a "when I get home from the Park Service" project. Right now all I need to do is grab a few shirts and pants to bring up north, along with toiletries and a few pictures...I definitely do not need to bring a ton of stuff with me, since five days out of the week will be spent in the same ranger shirt, and weekends only need a tank top and shorts for me to be happy. Plus, more stuff equals more time moving and settling in, and all I want to do is drive up, live on an island, work a bit, rejuvenate, figure out life, read and visit with friends. Last summer's haul was ridiculous since I lived up there for 13 weeks and half the stuff I brought I didn't really use or need. Now I know how to pack. : ) The rest of the food that's in my house will come with me north.

I had a really, really fun date last night with my boyfriend from home...first actual datey-date we've been on in a while and it really was a great time. We had dinner at Applebee's (I had a California grilled shrimp salad with avacado dressing and he had steak, potatoes and seasonal veggies) and then we got ice cream and went to Independence Park to see if the fish were biting...last summer they ate plops of ice cream that we dropped in the lake. Unfortunately they weren't in the mood for dessert and we ended up hanging out on the dock overlooking the little fishing pond and enjoying the beautiful warm, breezy starry night. Until of course, Chuck asked me "How long has it been since you went after fireflies?" and I looked up to see a few buzzing around in the reeds at the end of the dock. We both ended up catching a couple and they were pretty and fun to look at...I definitely haven't done that since I was four! : ) After that a beer or two seemed to be in order, so we went down to Sam's Place on W. Main to enjoy a brew, catch up on the Twins vs. Brewers game and talk it up with the people there, pulling pull tabs like crazy and laughing about sports and random hometown stories. The highlight of the evening was when a group of incredibly drunk young women came in and rabbled up a ruckus in the once quiet bar...I guess they were a bachelorette party and they raised hell in there for about 15 minutes before bouncing. : )

Today is a cleaning/purging day, along with packing knickknacks and my random collections of god-knows-what...seashells, rocks, minerals, fossils...definitely don't want to fly with that crap. Oh, and the newest development in the moving plan is if this guy does come through for me, I could take the train from St. Paul to Seattle, and then fly from Seattle to Anchorage, both very cheaply. All I would need to do would be to organize a ride from Anchorage to my supposed, hopeful home in Palmer. Schwing.