Good old B-Town

B-Town aka Billings, MT is the place I currently reside. Oh how I love this place and how I am going to miss it. This weekend was amazing, enough said. My old roommates from college, Traci and Amy, visited! It reminded me of the good times I had a in Bozeman, MT, that's where I went to college. Traci arrived on Friday. She came to my work, saw my classroom, and a few of my students (it was a the end of the day, so many of the students had gone home for the weekend). We ended up going to my house so Traci could meet my kitties; from there, I began to cook a taco/enchilada dinner for a few friends. The guest list consisted of: Alex, Traci, Megan (my lil sister), JoAnna, Kameron (JoAnna's son), Maddy (my cousin), Barb, and Barb's boyfriend Justin. Oh, I made bean dip too and it was a hit. Boy, I was sweating sooo much from cooking in the kitchen, yuck. All in all, it was a great dinner. After dinner, it was hot out, so we decided to head outside to my deck to observe and visit (my neighborhood is very interesting, needless to say).

Alex got a new camera that is ultra amazing, it's some sort of Nikon 5 million, ok kidding but it's great! I think she got some awesome shots of Kameron. Pretty much everyone left, well except for my sister, Traci, Hoover, and Amy. We were still hanging out on my deck and my sister then decided to leave...Well when she was leaving she noticed a man passed out in my across-the-street neighbor's yard. She called to inform us of this soon to be "adventure." Well first of all, she said he was passed out towards my friend JoAnna's house, which is two blocks north of my house. So we are walking up and down my street trying to find this "passed out guy." We had finally given up and to our surprise he was actually directly across the street! He was laying with his back towards us and moaning, he was obviously intoxicated. I then called the non-emergency police (some of you may know I am very good at this). Anyways, two police cars showed up and tried to wake the man, no such luck. Therefore, two grown men had to haul the poor guy into the cop car, he pretty much looked like a rag doll. Non-the-less, it was like watching a train wreck.

The rest of the weekend was also great! We ended up going out for a bit on Saturday. We, as in, Traci, Megan (my sister), Amy, Hoover, Meg Dib, Mike, Dusty, and myself. We talked and reminisced of the good old days and we discussed our futures. All I know is I have utterly amazing friends. I am going to miss them very much so! Thank goodness for technology, we'll be connected with ease!

Today, Barb and I had a "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince" adventure! We tried going to the new Shilo 14 theater, however, all four screens were sold out. So we busted our butts and made it to the Wynnsong theater just in time! As far as the movie goes...I wasn't too impressed because it really didn't follow the book! However, I am excited to see what the rest of the movies will be like, of course, right? Here is a copy of "Alex & Corinne's Korea Pact."

Bittersweet

Tonight was fun and unexpected, all at the same time. My friend JoAnna and her son Kameron came over tonight for dinner. I made spaghetti and meatballs, while JoAnna and I visited, and Kameron played with his new Thomas the Train toys. My sister also brought me some new fish, which I am giving to my brother in just a few weeks. None-the-less, it ended up being a fun night; however, it has made me realize that in just a few weeks I won't be able to see my friends and family at any given moment. Maybe, I am emotional because a lot has happened this week...details at a later date. I think I am mostly emotional because of my current job situation, I am miserable, to put it frankly. I am looking forward to get out of this rut, so to speak. Korea will be a fresh start, and I am grateful for this once in a lifetime opportunity.

4th of July weekend!

So I realized that this will be my last 4th of July in the U.S. until July 4, 2011, yikes! Hard to imagine, to say the least. Let's see here, my weekend started on Thursday, might I add, I got off work an hour early so that was an awesome beginning. I watched movies with my little sister on Thursday night. I watched "Vicky Christina Barcelona," alone, and let me say: I would like to go to Spain someday! My sister and I watched, "Requiem for a Dream." I was not impressed, I think the movie "Spun" did a much better job of showing addiction at it's worst. Then we stayed up late and talked about life and work, it was very therapeutic.

Friday I got to sleep in! Then Alex and I went to Poet's for lunch, very delicious. I went fabric shopping at JoAnne Fabrics after lunch. This was fun and I ended up finding a prefect fabric for my apron pattern I am going to make. Plus, JoAnne's had amazing sales and I had a 20% off coupon! I only ended up spending 12 bucks. I then hopped on over to Ashley's to say hello! Ashely had this crazy idea that we should go on a scooter ride together! Ha ha, this ended up being so much fun. People were waving and honking at us, good times for sure. We barely missed a huge thunderstorm too! After that adventure, I went over to JoAnna's house to enjoy some American Classic Pizzeria for dinner. Yummy! JoAnna and I when to Wal-Mart so I could acquire a fishing license. The man asked me how long I had been a resident of Montana, I replied "25 years, but not for long." We then got into a conversation about how I am moving to South Korea to teach English. The man said that South Korea is way to close to North Korea! I told him I'm not too worried about it and laughed it off. Then JoAnna and I headed to Laural, MT to attended the Laural Street Dance. My friend Amy was in town so she joined us too! It was fun hanging out with Ashley, Brandi, Amy, Alex, Liz, and JoAnna. I actually saw a lot of people that I knew which was interesting. So after a few cheap beers and visiting with old friends it was time for me to go to bed!

Mobile upload of my fabric for my apron!

Saturday was a fun filled day of fishing with my family, and JoAnna joined us as well. We headed to Dead Man's Basin, it's about an hour away from Billings. The only people to catch fish were my dad, JoAnna, and my Papa. I had a few big bites, but that was it. Even trolling on the boat didn't go well. My dad did catch a big freshwater salmon, JoAnna caught a nice rainbow trout, and my Papa caught a carp. Oh and my mom caught a tiny little fish, a mino is what I would call it. We all headed home with sunburns and were ready to shower! We then had some BBQ! Alex and Karly came over too and we all hung out and chilled. I watched the fireworks from my parent's front window, while watching High School Musical 3, let's not forget that!

When I woke up on Sunday, I was surprised to see I had slept a mere 12 hours! I must have needed it! I spent Sunday cleaning my house and hanging out with my kitties. I went to my parents and my dad and I ate the salmon. I helped cook and it turned out awesome! We made lemon peppered salmon with brown rice and blanched broccoli. Sunday night I spent with Alex and we made outlines for our Korean Consulate interviews and researched various things about Korea. We found out that Taegu, KR has 6 Starbucks! :) We have been looking for a good ESL teaching book to read before we go; however, I only found books that were published 10-15 years ago and I know that ESL teaching has changed over the years. I'm going to keep researching and I'm going to ask the other teaching at the school if they have any books that were found to be useful!