My Rambling Mind

In an earlier post on this blog I lamented on my hatred of Spring. I love Summer, Fall, and Winter (usually) for very different and distinct reasons. Spring is just...blah.

Good news though. It's often been said that Montana has two seasons: Winter and Summer. Apparently it's true. As I was enjoying the nice summer day yesterday I wondered, "what happened to Spring?" It seemed like it was winter and then all of sudden it was summer. Oh well. Fine by me.

In other news I don't get play anchorman for a while. An expensive piece of equipment was fried in a power surge at our parent station in Missoula. The details are boring. What it means is we don't have a local newscast for at least a week. Instead I get to play reporter and do live reports for Missoula every night. I love anchoring but this will be a nice change.

I want a pet. I want a dog and/or cat. However, I don't have the time for an animal and I can't afford one anyway. But it would be nice. A cat would be the most logical choice but I'd really like a dog I can take to the park and play fetch with.

New Zealand is an amazing country. I spent 6 months there and I miss it quite a bit. Everyone's friendly, the landscape is hard to beat, and life seems so carefree. I recommend everyone go there at least to visit. The North Island is cool but the South Island is where IT'S at.

I have a crush on Allie MacKay...the morning reporter for KUTV Channel 2 in Salt Lake City. I realize she's rather polarizing. You either love her or hate her. I happen to love her. I watch little clips of her segments on the Internet. She's hilarious. Perhaps I'll work with her some day.

I guess that's it. Later.

Farewell Friend

She's gone.

We sent my co-anchor Melissa off in grand style tonight. (These are pictures from tonight) I'm fairly certain I wasn't supposed to give as much time to her "goodbye" as I did, but she deserved it. Better to beg for forgiveness later right?

She was my colleague...and a damn good one at that. More than that though, she's also my friend. I will miss her terribly.

Keep your eye out for this woman everyone. I have no doubt that we'll all see her on network television a few years down the road.

Good luck Melissa! Go make us proud.

Roadkill

Are there more critters in Montana or are these animals just stupider than elsewhere?

I'm not sure what it is but I've killed or almost killed more animals in the past couple months than I have since I first got my license. Here's a rundown.

Deer: Luckily there have been no collisions but I almost ran into a few of these guys on my home from Glacier a couple weeks ago. It's a little frightening when you're barreling down the freeway at 85 miles per hour and you suddenly see animals in the roadway. I braked....hard. Which, I found out last week, is the right thing to do. Apparently most drivers instinctually swerve which is bad....or so I've been told.

Ground squirrels: These little cannibals are everywhere in Montana. They're idiots too. I ran over many when I worked in Glacier and I saw plenty more smashed into the roadway. I guess Bozeman's no different. I was driving home the other day and a doofy little ground squirrel came trotting out onto the road. I grimaced and drove right over him. I mean that literally. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw the dumb little bastard standing up on his hind legs like, "what the hell just happened?"

Birds: What the hell? The only animal on earth that can FLY and I've hit 3 in the past couple weeks. In one case a couple of blue jays were fighting in mid-air. One of them decided to quickly back off but ended up too low...and smacked into my windshield.

Snake: This one's a little different in that a) I don't know if it's dead and b) I ran over him on my bike. It scared the crap out of me though. It was probably a little garter snake but he hissed like hell as my tires ran over his tail.

Anchors Away!

I knew it was coming but it doesn't make it any easier.

My co-anchor, Melissa, (that's us being stupid and acting "newscasterish") is moving up in the world. She's been at the station much longer than I have (2 and a half years to be exact) and the time has come for her to move on.

I remember working at Big Sky Ski Resort in the winter of 2004/2005. I've always been a news junkie and I made sure to catch the local news wherever I was. Big Sky was no different. Bozeman was only 40 minutes away thus that's where the local news came from. During my first few days there I juggled through the local channels trying to decide what I liked best. Maybe it was fate that I finally settled on Melissa. Back then she was a solo anchor for the 10 o'clock news. I liked her style and preferred to watch her over the competition. My friends knew of my news ambitions and they knew that I'd one day leave the seasonal world and pursue my dream of being a news anchor. I remember a prophetic statement made by one of them. "Lincoln? What if you start looking for a job next year and you get to work in Bozeman with her?" I tossed aside the notion back then.

Now look at me. I've been sitting next to her for the past 6 months.

Melissa, our time together has been short. But I've loved every minute of it. You have taught me a great deal on how to be a good anchor and reporter. I will miss you and I know Butte and Bozeman will miss you. Watch out Katie Couric. She's on her way.

Perspective

I went to Glacier over the weekend. Most know of my love and adoration of all things Glacier National Park. This is the first summer in 4 years that I won't be spending within the towering mountain walls of the Many Glacier Valley. That fact has worried me for quite some time.

The seasonal life can ruin you. Most don't understand that because most don't take part in it. Once you do indulge however, the lifestyle becomes dangerously addictive. Why work in the "real world" when you can "just have fun." I spent my last four summers hiking and hanging out with friends. I spent my winters snowboarding and seeing New Zealand. Sure I worked in these places but when you're living that life, being a bellman doesn't seem like work. The whole experience was like college. Only for me there was no school involved and I lived within the most beautiful mountains on earth.

Thus, making the transition to "real life" can be a little traumatic. I thought my experience might be a little different though. I landed a dream job of sorts as a TV news anchor...my lifelong ambition. Not only that, I found that job in Montana...a place that cast a spell over me nearly 5 years ago when I first came to Glacier. So obviously, some good things have happened to me in the past 6 or 7 months.

But that pesky little thought lingered in the back of my mind
"I'm not in Glacier."

So I was a little nervous to go back. I expected something heart-wrenching. It didn't happen. I stared out over the waters of Swiftcurrent Lake and smiled. I was happy to be back. But something was different. I felt like a bit of an outsider. Normally that would dismay me. Glacier is "my park" after all. But then my intuition spoke loud and clear. "You feel like an outsider because you don't belong here. You've moved on."

So I'm relieved. I can go back as much as I want this summer and I know I won't be disappointed that I'm not living there.

My time there is over. And I'm okay with that.

It's hopeless

I had an epiphany today.

Unless I marry someone who gets joy and comfort out of cooking for me...I'm going to become one of those people who eat out...all the time...every meal.

It's not that I can't cook. I believe I have decent culinary skills. But my drive and ambition to cook is...well...absent. I just don't want to put forth the effort. It's so much easier (and tastier) to drive to the Naked Noodle and order me one Gaucho with Red Snapper.

However my habit of eating out does have financial implications. To put it simply...I can't afford it. (Here's a sad, sad side note. I discovered today that new hires at the Bozeman Taco Bell are making more than I am. (Another side note: Yes I went to Taco Bell because I didn't want to cook). Granted there is a serious labor shortage in this town and even fast food chains are providing some impressive incentives. But come on.) Therefore I've been forcing myself to cook a little more.

I started this morning. Scrambled eggs with salsa and cheese. Yum.