For the past two years I was living in Great Falls, Mont., working at the Great Falls Tribune. It was ... an experience. Before that I was a college student at the University of Montana-Missoula. And before that I lived in and grew up in Lake Elmo, Minn., graduating from Stillwater Area High School. I'll come back to those things from time to time as I recount things that are important to new stories. What's important — for the time being — is now.
I started working at the Missoulian in Missoula, Mont., on June 12. My formal title is assistant news editor but that's the title that everyone on the desk gets, I think. I'm just getting into the swing of things and so far it seems to be going OK. I haven't screwed anything up too terribly, yet. Right now I'm working on wire pages. For those of you who don't know what that means, I'll explain more later. Eventually I'll work up to doing the Montana section, A1 and features pages. At least that's my hope and what I've been promised.
Today, Monday, is my Sunday. My work week is Tuesday through Saturday. I work nights, or afternoons I guess because it's not an actual overnight shift like some people do. (I'm sorry for those people, and thankful that they do those jobs because I know I wouldn't be able to do that.) Typically, I'll work from 2-11 p.m.-ish.
Mostly I like my schedule. It doesn't hurt that it's summer in Missoula, though. At the Trib (which is what I will be calling my former job from now on), I worked form 3-12 p.m.-ish. I've already found that there are things to do here when I get off work. There, in the windy place (known as Great Falls), I would get off, go home, play with my dog a bit and go to bed.
Another difference might be that I know people here. Some of my college friends still live in town. It's been nice to pick up where we left off, like time hasn't changed. In reality, we all know it has but we'll leave that discussion for another day.
I was lonely in GF. Being a twenty-something who works nights does not give you the means to make friends easily. Being a twenty-something who has odd weekends doesn't help, either. And then there was the issue of my stupidity. At least that's how I look at it.
I left college riding high. Boyfriend, best friends and a great job offer. I assumed my Missoula mecca would follow me to the windy place. It didn't. Boyfriend and friends had ups and downs. Job was a learning experience. And though GF is 2.5 hours away from Missoula, sometimes it seemed like 25.
I didn't try. My days were spent with my new best friend, the silliest of the silly dogs in the world: Seeley. Without her I would have gone crazy, become a hermit and starting to stink. Maybe not in that order. She and I would walk and play. My other favorite thing to do (when I could afford it) was to bake. Or watch Gossip Girl or Dexter or The Tudors or ... the list goes on and on. I never once attempted to make friends. I didn't have time with all my dog time and TV watching and baking. Duh.
Life here is not the same. Here, I live with boyfriend and boyfriend's boyfriend (as I like to call him) and boyfriend's boyfriend's dog and dog. It's nice to be surrounded by people who love me. I'm not often bored.
I'm sad my weekend's coming to an end. I didn't do much. Yesterday boyfriend, dogs and I went on a nice bike ride. Boyfriend, friends and I made sweet and sour pork for dinner (nearly gluten-free ... nearly) and it was delicious. It was a relaxing, nice end to the week.
Today was more productive. Boyfriend, dogs and I went to dog park. (See attached photos, beautiful flowers are in bloom!) I cleaned the kitchen (it hasn't been done since probably 1982, or somewhere near there), painted my nails, started my laundry, baked cherry turnovers, made roasted pepper-sauced tortellini and eventually, when I'm done writing this post, will read the Game of Thrones after taking The Silly and maybe The Buddy for a walk. Boyfriend even started project one of cleaning in preparation of moving out of boyfriend's boyfriend's house.
It's all coming together. This first week was more learning. I will bike to work this week. I will take short lunch breaks. I will wake up before 11. I will start my life. My new beginnings.
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