Dinner at High Heskett

We're just back from a wonderful evening with Bob and Lynne, Lynne's friends from WI Ellie and Joanne, John and Bob's friend Loring and his partner of 25 years, Melody, and Bob and Lynne's neighbors Deborah and Greg. The drive to Bob and Lynne's takes about 25 minutes and their house is located at the top of a hill near the science school. Their place is the ultimate Wyoming getaway my favorite features are the enormous stone fireplace and plank floors. We had a blast hanging out with everyone, enjoying a wonderful dinner and lots of laughs. I'm feeling dog tired at nearly 11:00 PM so unfortunately I'll have to come back to this post tomorrow to share more details. I watched Good Hair while John was out skiing in the afternoon. I guess my expectations were a little too high and Good Hair turned out to be a Bad movie. John had a really good day of skiing including a 45 minute hike up a mountain to a remote area carrying his skies all the way up. He called before skiing down to report his exact location in case something went wrong, and about 10 minutes later he called from the bottom of the slope to report that he was safe and sound.

I couldn't resist posting this handsome photo of John posing in front of the cozy fire he built last night.

Idaho Falls, ID

Whew... I'm really just too tired to blog tonight, but I'll give it a shot. I slept pretty well at the western cabin all by my lonesome and didn't let a few creaks and rattles disturb my slumber; although truth be told I didn't go to bed until I was absolutely exhausted because I was a little nervous about being there alone. Bob and Lynne picked me up for our field trip to Idaho at 8:30 sharp and I was at the bus stop right on time. We stopped for coffee and bagels in Wilson, WY and then off to ID. The drive to Idaho took a little over 2 hours although the distance from Wilson to Idaho Falls is only 89 miles. The ride takes longer because there's simply no way to drive 65 over the pass and up the mountains and around the curves and turns so the speed for much of the trip was below 50 mph. We made it to Idaho Falls just after 11:00 where we shopped at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, looked in on a furniture store, had delicious lunch at Cafe Rio, Bob went to his doctor's appointment and Lynne and I shopped some more at TJ Maxx and made another stop at Bed Bath and Beyond. We met up with Bob at the mall and all shopped at JC Penney and made a stop at Barnes and Noble where I was able to pick up a copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a book I've been wanting to read for a couple of weeks . Our last stop at the mall was at Precision Mountainwear where I picked up a pair of soft shell ski pants and a soft shell jacket. Yikes performance gear... are you reading this Gretchen? Finally we decided to check out "downtown" Idaho Falls to complete the trip, but the drive to downtown took less time than the actual scoping out of downtown Idaho Falls. It was 3:30 or close to 4:00 when we started the drive back to Jackson. I had my picture taken in front of the the Welcome to Wyoming sign and shortly after my photo shoot we were back in the town of Wilson where we stopped at the Stagecoach bar for beers and a little mixing with the locals. The same band has performed at the Stagecoach every Sunday night for the last 40 years so we're planning to stop in on Sunday night and I'm hoping we can talk John into going. We met a couple really nice people at the bar and they're expecting us back on Sunday so we can't let 'em down. A note about the Stagecoach, it has a drive thru liquor store! I've never seen such a thing so of course I had to snap a photo. After the Stagecoach it was definitely time to head back home because Bob and Lynne had plans to hang out with their neighbors, and I was anxious to see how my purchases would go over at the Swedish cabin (shower curtain, towels, kitchen stuff, mats, etc). On our way to Solitude we spotted a woman stuck in a snow bank in her Subaru station wagon, fortunately she had a tow rope so Bob was able to pull her car out of the snow. It turns out she's a hospice nurse who was answering a patient's call when she got stuck. Her job seems stressful enough without the added stress of not being able to get to a patient in need; so glad Bob was able to help her out. I made it back to the SW around 7:00 PM. I think john will be pleased with my selections but I predict another trip to ID is in our future. I'm spending the night at SW because Bob located the circuit box so I don't have to blog in the dark tonight and since I'm already settled in here there's no point packing up at this late hour. John's flight arrives tomorrow afternoon at that's just perfect because February 23 is the 2nd anniversary of our 1st date:-)

So this is Christmas and what have you done, another year over, a new one just begun. Two years ago tonight I was in a very different place in my life. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed bury myself under the covers and wallow in my own misery. Thanks to my dear friend Erin I didn’t spend New Year’s eve 2008 under the covers feeling sorry for myself and I will be forever grateful to her for picking me up, dusting me off, and kicking my ass into gear. It takes a special friend to tell you that your other friends are tired of getting invites to your pity party! At the end of that New Year’s Eve party the guests gathered around the piano and sang Let It Be ;if you’re not familiar with the song it goes a little something like this…And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree,
there will be an answer, let it be.
For though they may be parted there is still a chance that they will see,
there will be an answer. let it be

I listened to this song every morning at the gym for weeks maybe even a month and eventually let go of past mistakes, past relationships, and past regrets and started living in the moment and enjoying my life again. So here it is two years later and life feels so good. I feel like I’m where I was meant to be and that everything that happened happened for a purpose. I also know however that no matter how good or how bad something is that it will change so I resolve to enjoy the happy moments in 2010. Happy New Year! Let it Be