North Dakota Warm

I know, I know…I’m so delinquent!  But in order to be a good JAG, I’ve had to sacrificed this blog…oh yeah, and I’ve been watching a lot of Charmed.  I’m not proud of it but it’s true and if this blog is about nothing else, it’s truth…

Anyway…As I sit an ponder why it is that everytime I want a team to win the Super Bowl, they don’t, I also decided it was time to update.  So lest anyone think I’m still learning taxes down in Fargo, here’s a quick glimpse of what’s been happening since then.  First, I passed the IRS tax test.  I’m a certified tax preparer…don’t even ask.  Trust me, you’re much better off with Taxslayer.  Second, Christmas came and went, fast.  I was shocked and overjoyed to see my favorite Notre Dame fan on my parents’ porch Christmas morning.  And I think it’s safe to say that Kurt was thrilled to find that this year’s theme coincided well with his personality.  Behold, Wild Wild West Christmas:

 Also, I’ve had a lot of graduations and milestones these last few years (law school, passing the bar, COT, JASOC, etc.) but I think I made my parents the most proud on Christmas Day 2009…. 

 Did it require gunning down my grandma and opa with a nerf gun?  Yes.  Did it take 2 tie breakers with a gifted competitor (aka my cousin, Emily)?  Of course.  Will I treasure my Wild Wild West Competition Winner plague forever?  Absolutely.  It’s already displayed proudly in my office…at home.  I don’t want to intimidate legal assistance clients.

Third, I completed TDAC (Trial and Defense Advocacy Course) down at Maxwell AFB in Montgomery.  This of course meant being back at Maxwell almost exactly a year from when I first started COT.  It sent a weird chill down my spine but simultaneously I felt reassured knowing I had survived one full year in the Air Force.  19 more to go!  Kurt had a couple friends from law school who were about to start COT so we had them over for dinner (edible thanks to Sally John’s fabulous vodka pasta recipe) the night before TD0.  What I would have given for a couple of COT survivors’ brains to pick the night before I started.  The get on a plane, get on a bus, walk around a corner and get screamed at thing isn’t an ideal way to start your Air Force career.

Alright, so I survived three weeks down in Montgomery, fit in a docketing conference while I was there, and then came home to play some serious catch up.  My office endured a full acquittal during my absence and everyone was beat.  It was a long busy fall and the beginning of the year has taken off with a similar pace.  The tax center is up and running, 2 court martials scheduled for the next 2 months and an annual awards banquet under our belts have kept us more than busy.  Speaking of the annual awards banquet, check us out!

Our own Marie Aubrey was a nominee for Civilian of the Year and don’t be fooled by the picture, she was much happier to be there than it appears.  Also, I got to wear my mess dress again which any milage I can get out of that bad boy makes me feel better about the money I spent on it.  I did have to buy captians shoulder boards at $45 for the pair but I’m hoping I get to use them more than once too.  I also really broke in my mess dress by cleaning off a couple of inches of snow from my car while wearing it.  I would say mess dress goes with pretty much any occassion except snow removal.

And finally, the last update I have is to announce that I have embraced a couple of truly North Dakota winter activities over the last few weeks.  Last weekend I went curling for the first time.  I was told I was both “a natural” and “graceful.”  Hey, stop laughing!  I swear people said that.  We did have a casualty though…a fellow JAG broke his wrist while attempting to walk on ice – it’s hard folks.  This weekend I attended the 97 KYCK Cardboard Sled Races just a few short blocks from my apartment.  I actually knew the winner too!  Here’s the winning monster truck, a sled shaped like an outhouse (why not?) and the aftermath:

So I think that about covers it.  I’m sure I’ve missed something but having covered curling and Wild Wild West Christmas, I just can’t imagine there’s much else left.  I’ll leave you with an image I see every morning and every night.  I’ve grown to accept and even appreciate it.  My apartment’s warm, my cats love me (not enough to refrain from knocking over my plants but enough), and I learned today that I can figure out to do when I blow a fuse (panicking and screaming, “I’m missing the half time show, I’m missing the half time show,” is not it) – right now that’s all I ask for.  Thanks for tuning in.

At Least I’m Not the Last Article!

http://www.jmls.edu/academics/advocacy_dispute/nota_bene/012810.htm

Fargo

At the risk of not playing hard enough to get and giving you all (who actually reads this anyway?) too much of a good thing, I’m back.  Two days in a row is a lot, I realize but something needed to be said that got overlooked yesterday.  Fargo, North Dakota is full of really nice people.  I know a lot of jokes can and are made about a person who chooses to live in Fargo.  But after spending a week here, I found a lot more can be said about them than the fact that they clearly have a high tolerance for pain induced by prolonged exposure to subzero temperatures.  They’re also really really nice.  

Everyday this week I’ve interacted with several of the same people over and over again.  Now I can promise you that a week of walking into the same Federal building in Chicago everyday would have produced the same blank stares and the same thorough and invasive search of all my belongings everyday.  But here the security guards remembered me after the first day.  I’ve already had conversations with them about the weather (obviously), how I like Grand Forks, how I like the Air Force, and what I’m getting them for Christmas (I hope they were kidding).  In short, they have been nice enough to provide me with some of my only conversation all day that doesn’t involved income tax returns. 

But the security guards are only the beginning.  I’ve parked in the same lot every day this week.  A guy named Al, who wears one of those hats with the ear flaps that tie on top, sits in the little booth on the way out and hand writes receipts if you ask for one.  Since I’m here for work, I need a receipt everyday but it only took one day for Al to have my receipt ready for me so I only have to have my window down for the very bare minimum amount of time.  He smiles and points his finger at me like old men do and tells me to have a nice day.  There are a lot of places in this world where you could pay for parking for years in a row from the same clerk and they would never have the time or energy to tell you to have a nice day, let alone write you out a receipt and sign their name to it.

I was almost convinced that none of that stuff was worth mentioning but Fargo pushed me over the edge when I got back to my room to find a handwritten note from a repairman name Norbert who had worked on the noisy heater in my room.  He confirmed that I wasn’t imagining the “terrible pounding” (his words not mine) I had complained to the front desk about and sincerely apologized for any sleep I might have lost.  He said he had installed a new unit and hoped this one would be “beter.”  I also had a message waiting for me on my phone that said they were really sorry about the inconvenience and that 3000 Priority Club points had been added to my account.  Maybe I’m stingy but 3000 points is totally worth a crappy night’s sleep.

Anyway, I won’t go down the cheesy road of talking about how despite the cold the hearts here in Fargo are warm because that just makes me wince.  But Fargo is a good place and it’s just another example of how the Midwest has some of the nicest people in the world.  And to be fair I’m not exactly a world traveler but I hope some day to see quite a bit of it and I’ll keep you posted on whether my opinion of the Midwest changes – I don’t expect it will.

Fargo is Warmer Than Where I Live

It’s true.  Fortunately, I’m tucked safely away at an IRS tax course in balmy Fargo, a good 65 miles south of frigid Grand Forks.  So don’t any of you feel bad for me.  But all kidding aside, I’m freezing.  My dad used to say that you knew it was really cold when the snow squeaked, not crunched or squished, squeaked.  Right now in North Dakota, dogs are howling continually in response to the high pitched squeaks made by all of us unfortunate enough to be walking around outside.  As I was walking around downtown Fargo today I thought of a million brilliant ways to describe the cold so that it could truly be understood.  Of course, now as I sit in my warm room at the Holiday Inn Express (Priority Club Platinum Elite Status here I come) I can’t think of any of them.  My poor little Kia Spectra (aka the Rehder Red Racer) probably could though. Every time I hit a bump I feel like it’s so cold that something crucial is going to crack off.  I’m being as kind to the old girl (do we think it’s a she?) as I possibly can.  Before I eat my breakfast in the hotel lobby, I always start her up and let her idle for about 20 minutes.  Then I make the 5 minute drive to the Federal Building/Post Office in downtown Fargo where I have my mind numbed by hours of income tax law.  So I may be spending more on gas these days but if it prevents (I’m feverishly knocking on my desk hoping that it’s actually made out of wood) paying for major repairs necessitated by driving a 2003 Kia at a starting temp of -20, it’s well worth it.

Enough of my incessant whining about the cold.  This could go on for months.  I need to suck it up and honestly, we’ve been blessed that it started as late as it did.  Also, I’ll be making my escape for a couple of weeks this winter at the beginning of January when I head down to Montgomery, AL for a trial advocacy course.  Plus, I believe most of my loved ones are currently covered in giant mounts of snow which, oddly enough, completely missed North Dakota.  So I’m now not only feverishly knocking on my desk but also counting my blessings with the same zeal.  Oh yeah, and it doesn’t really matter how cold it gets because I have this:

Do people judge me when they see me wearing it?  Absolutely.  Do I knock things off shelves and pump into people without realizing it when I’m wearing it.  Oh definitely.  Do I lack all peripheral vision when wearing it with the hood up (which is the only way to really properly go about wearing it)?  Of course.  Is it also the best thing the Air Force has ever bestowed on me?  It’s way up there on the list.  For those of you I am lucky enough to see at Christmas time, plan on seeing it make an appearance, even if it’s not that cold.

Moving away from the weather and onto what, in the life a JAG and a lawyer in general, is a pretty big milestone.  I finished my first fully litigated courts martial.  It was originally set to be a members court (in the military jury = panel, jurors = members for future reference) but on the morning we were supposed to start, the accused (= defendant) decided that he would rather have his case heard by a military judge.  I was honestly a little bummed because I still have never done a court or trial in front of a jury but it also really simplified the process and made what could have been a 5 or 6 day trial take only 3 days. 

Overall it went really well.  Although I spent more than one night at the office till 2300 (= 11pm) responding to last minute motions, it was all worth it.  The accused was found guilty of many of the charges (there were several) and his sentence included almost two years of jail time, a bad conduct discharge (BCD) and a reduction in grade to the lowest possible enlisted rank.  I got to do the opening statement, several directs and crosses, and the sentencing argument.  I also was able to argue several of the motions I spent what seemed like days writing which is really rewarding, especially when you win most of them.  One the judge decided not to rule because the defense withdrew it.  The judge did a feedback session with us after the court was all done and the coolest thing was when he wouldn’t believe me that this was my first court.  Thank you John Marshall trial advocacy program and Cook County 1st Municipal. 

So I won’t go into any more detail here but thank you to everyone who didn’t give me a hard time for falling off the face of the earth for two weeks (if it was even noticed by anyone besides my cats).  Looking forward to seeing everyone over the holidays really pulled me through.  Oh, another thing that pulled me through was coming home everynight to my Christmas lights which, thanks to modern technology, come on every night at dusk and thanks to my mom and dad, are perfectly symetrical and the perfect balance between colored and white lights.  Just in case you don’t believe me:

Those white blobs are twinkling stars that the picture really doesn’t fully capture and the bigger white blob in the window is my little tree.  Is it wrong that Christmas lights are a necessary part of my life?

To bed I go, for tomorrow awaits temperatures dangerously below zero and learning how to calculate first time home buyer credits on a tax return.  Both of those thing require a good nights sleep to tackle.  Night!

Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

When I joined the Air Force, I knew, just absolutely knew, that it would lead me to great adventure and excitement.  Hence the name of the blog.  I knew I would see new places and things I would never have dreamt of.  And I was right.  100% right.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d end up visiting Houghton, Michigan. 

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m absolutely not complaining.  Instead my point is that you can’t always predict how exactly you’ll be surprised.  Saying you’re ready for whatever life, or in my case the Air Force, throws at you is one thing but saying you’re still willing to swing for the fences when they lob you a softball is another.  My recruiting trip to Duluth and Houghton was a softball by all accounts but I made it my adventure.  Here are the beautiful sights I saw in my trek through the northern regions of our fine country.

Houghton, MI – On the UP, this beautiful city nestled in Michigan’s Cooper Country has a population of about 7,000 and can boast of being ranked one of the 100 Best Small Towns in America. (yeah, my source is Wikipedia)  Houghton is also the home of Michigan Technological University which is why I went.  I visited their ROTC Detachment, a visit which included a lot of engineers trying to stay awake while I rambled on about loving my job.

Duluth, MN – Although I actually stayed in Superior, WI, I did most of my major sight-seeing in Duluth.  Duluth is just a short 3200 miles from the Atlantic Ocean via the Great Lakes and a few canals.  I was there on a cold, rainy, post-tourist season day but still found it to be a lovely town to walk around.  This was not my first time in Duluth and I can only hope it will not be my last.  I visited the ROTC Detachment at the University of Minnesota Duluth and again gave a few cadets the extra shut-eye they so desperately need.

And finally, Bemidji, MN – On my way back to North Dakota, I couldn’t resist stopping in Bemidji and I think from the picture it’s obvious why.  Unfortunately, besides Paul and Babe, I didn’t see much else.  I didn’t have time to make it to the mouth of the Mississippi, which, having grown up on the muddy waters, I may have really blew a chance to visit my roots.  Oh, hold on, I’m actually going to be stationed in Grand Forks for at least another year and a half so maybe it’s too early to say all hope is lost.  Adding that to my To-Do List…visit roots.

So lots of other little things have happened since my last post (in August, oops) but I’ll just cover some of the highlights.  I completed my first courts martial.  Guilty plea but that still counts.  The Company Grade Officer’s Association (of which I am the secretary) hosted a killer post-ORI extravaganza (no, not a party, an extravaganza).  Katie Forsberg is now Katie Hendrickson and I wore a blue dress to commemorate the day.  So did Kristi and Herby.  Katie wore white.  Maybe a picture would help:

The wedding was absolutely gorgeous (though a little toasty at times) and the reception was perfect too. 

Also, I had my 5 year reunion for St. Olaf.  Not a lot ot talk about there.  It was a good time but I always feel like pictures say it better:

No, Joe did not just smell something bad and no, Kurt did not go to St. Olaf.  Kurt did however get to learn and see more than he ever cared to of St. Olaf.  Apparently you have to have gone there in order to think wearing St. Olaf gear and singing your school daily is cool.  Weird.  Oh, and yes, we absolutely sang it at Katie and Kristoff’s wedding reception.

The final and most recent thing that’s gone in my life is that my parents took on their own adventure and again came up to visit their daughter in her North Dakota apartment.  We had Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night since I won’t be home this year.  My mom cooked and we were joined by my sponsor and his family.  It was a great meal and night.

Now although I won’t be home for Thanksgiving this year, in very short order I will be able to tell you what a Indiana Thanksgiving is like.  At this point I’m assuming it’s magical.

Well, I think that brings me to bed time.  Work has been a bit of a bear lately and it’s apparently causing my brain to try to escape through my temples.  The good  news is that I’ll hopefully have 2 more courts under my belt with in the next few months.  Here’s hoping I can pull them off without damaging my brain any further. 

Thanks for tuning in and I look forward to hearing from/seeing/talking to you all in the near future.  Remember, it’s the holidays, an effort must be made.  I’m taking suggestions on how to move forward with Christmas cards without my best friend.  I’ve already considered moving to Des Moines but AWOL just looks so bad on your permanent record.

The Almost After and So Much More

So to answer my mother’s question, no, I have not “given up” on my blog.  The last few months have been, as most of you know, interesting.  And I chose that word carefully.  There have been ups and downs.  Hills, valleys, sunshine, rain, the gamut.  What I’m left knowing is that everything is going to be ok.  One way or another.

And at this point you’re probably all thinking, spare us the melodrama Anna, show us the pictures of your apartment.  I am at your service.  We’ll start upstairs this time because the least has changed there.  What was once a guest bedroom is, for now, an arts and crafts room:

Boring, I know.  Bring on the scrapbooking jokes.  I plan on getting a new bed pretty soon and when that happens, my old bed will go in here for visitors.  Though I feel it must be said, I have been very lucky to have as many visitors as I have so far.  Elizabeth drove all the way up from Des Moines alone and my parents have been up, my mom doing the trip twice.  Not to out-do Elizabeth but she drove the whole way from the Quadcities alone…that’s slightly longer.  The reason my mom came up the second time was to pin me on as a captain.  Yes, after continuing to draw breath for 6 months I got the obligitory JAG promotion to captain.  It’s great because we get paid more, we get salutes from a handful more people, etc.  It’s terrifying because now people expect us to know what we’re doing which I can safely say, 75% of the time I’m still only making a somewhat educated guess.  So here’s a picture of Lt Col Harding and my mom pinning on the captain’s bars.  Please don’t ask why I’m making that face, if I knew I would have avoided making it.

So back to the apartment.  The only other new thing upstairs is the curtains in the study which honestly, is so not worth a picture.  So let’s move downstairs.  First, try not to fall over the cats.

Quick question, is the look on Jonesie’s face a little too similar to the look on my face during the promotion ceremony?  No?  Good answer.

The living room has probably seen the most dramatic change.  For one, there’s furniture.  And lamps.  And art. 

And from there, into the dining room:

On to the kitchen:

A lot of changes in all of those three rooms so I’ll just give you a minute to flip back and forth between the before pictures in the old post and these.  Awed?  Good, then the basement is going to blow you away:

Don’t worry, although you can’t see all of the 4th Ave. Drinking Team label anymore, everytime I walk down into that basement, I’m remind of my roots.  Once you move in, being a part of that team is in your soul.  A few bins of holiday decorations covering the lower portion won’t change that.  Nothing can change that.

Moving on something closely related to being on a drinking team, it’s the basement bathroom.  Still mostly gross but usable on very limited emergency type occasions:

And now back upstairs.  On the way up, make sure to take note of the cats’ new water and food dishes.  They’re extatic.

All that remains is the great outdoors.  In the next couple months I’ll post anew with the changing weather but today was absolutely perfect and if you don’t mind, please just think of Grand Forks as such.  Somehow, pretending winter won’t ever come makes each day a little better.

Front:

Back:

To the left you can see the air conditioning unit that I have not yet had to turn on.  Yes, that is a hint of pride you detect.

Alright, so that’s it.  Those are the digs currently.  What else has been going on with me?  So sweet of you to ask.  Well, tomorrow at 8am I’ll hop a plane out of Grand Forks and head down to Scott AFB, which is in southern Illinois down by St. Louis.  Hopefully while there I will learn a great deal about 18th AF’s philosophies on military justice and more importantly, see some of my family.  It’s sad when I’m close because I’m only 6 hours away.  So I’ll be at Scott all week and then after a quick jaunt to Maxwell AFB in Alabama, I’ll be back home in Grand Forks.  That’s right folks, Grand Forks is my home.  I haven’t been there much this last month which the cats have been more than a little irritated with me about.  And unfortunately September isn’t looking that much better between recruiting in the Twin Cities, a wedding in St. Paul, and my 5 year college reunion in Northfield, MN, my weekends are pretty full.  But at least they’re full with things I’m going to really enjoy and heck, maybe even see some of you! 

And as my parting gift to every last one of you, I give you the Peddle Pub:

It’s exactly as it sounds.

The In-between…

So my apartment is long from finished, I’m quite sure it never will be, but it’s much more livable than it was in “The Before…”  So I decided to do a in-between post so everyone could see the evolution.  This Friday my parents come in their new RV bringing with them Tom and everything he owns.  So a week from now, if all goes according to a well thought out plan, the apartment should be looking infinitely better with the addition of some more furniture, electronics and whatever else it is exactly that Tom brings to the table:)  So without further ado, here’s what my living room looks like now:

Does it look much different then before?  No.  Is there any rhyme or reason to it? No.  But it has some place to sit.  It might be a slightly odd place to sit.  It might lack color, art, or design but give me time…

Next is the dining room.  We have some improvement here but we’re still struggling:

The boxes along the wall are not a decorative piece and the winerack will probably need to find a new home but hey, at least there is somewhere to sit and eat now.  Of course the most intricate thing I’ve cooked so far is fruit salad and I’m not even sure if that counts as cooking but were I to cook, this is where I would sit and eat it.  Imagine it.  Just imagine it.

Speaking of cooking, let’s take a look at the kitchen:

Again, still empty despite the wonderful microwave my sponsor picked up for me on the side of the road.  And not only empty, a little slanty too.  My pub table and refrigerator list dangerously toward the door but that’ll work itself out…hopefully without an extremely heavy appliance falling on someone.

OK, now for the upstairs.  At the top of the stairs, the bathroom:

That was boring.  How about my closet:

Alright, that’s pretty boring too.  Well, maybe except for the fact that for someone who wears a uniform everyday to work, I own entirely too many clothes.  And don’t even think that this is all there is…

So, maybe the guest bedroom will be more interesting:

Wow, I apologize.  That was really lame.  Uh, go Cubs?

How about the master bedroom.  I use the term master loosely.

That’s a little better.  The bedroom is probably the room that I’ve been brave enough to hang things and decorate things in the most.  It still has pictures leaning against the wall and bare spots waiting for furniture, but again, stay tuned. 

Here we have the office which is where this brilliant blog is being written.  Try not to be too awestruck.  It’s only a room.

Here again we have a room lacking some charm, some character but at least it has a clock…

And finally, here’s my porch:

It needs furniture and I made the unfortunate discovery that the porch light doesn’t work (despite the switch, fixture, and new bulb) but there is some color now and if you look very closely between the rails of the porch you can see some of the grass I planted coming up.  Here’s what I don’t recommend though, planting grass seed and only having a watering can to water it with when it requires at least 8 full cans to properly water.  Your neighbors will think you’re weird.  Though on the topic of neighbors, one of mine did tell me she likes to watch me garden.  So Mom, no worries about me living alone and no one keeping an eye on me.  The lovely old woman two doors down watches me while she smokes.  She’s going to give me emphazema but she might just notice if I disappear. 

Well, on that creepy note, I’ll sign off.  Work is still good.  We have some courts coming up later this summer and I should get to be co-trial counsel (for those not versed on military law, that means prosecutor) on a couple.   I write a couple legal reviews a day to keep my mind nimble and I spend the rest of my time trying to fix things that aren’t really that broken.  Oh, and from time to time I see a legal assistance client I can actually help.  Most just leave now knowing they need to hire an attorney…a real one.  So that’s it for now.  I hope everyone is doing well at their respective bases/schools/jobs/lives.  For you military types, I’m posting my DSN so in case FLITE has elluded you (I’m not teasing, it slips away from me frequently) you can give me a shout.  Everyone else, you know how to reach me.  I miss you all everyday.

The Before…

I know you’ve all been waiting with bated breath to see pictures of my new place, so here they are.  And yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, it looks like total crap.  It’s got drywall dust all over and it’s missing many lighting fixtures.  It’s a work in progress.  I think once I get it cleaned and decorated it will be all that much more satisfying to put up pictures of how sweet it looks…here’s hoping.  Oh, also, I found out my stuff that’s been in storage won’t be arriving till the 27th…arg, what’s a girl to do with no furniture?

Here’s the front:

And the entry way:

That’s looking into the living room.  It needs to be painted and that white stuff is drywall dust.  I’m operating under the assumption that it will look better not covered in a fine white mist.  Now here are the living room and then dining room:

So this is one of my favorite things so I had to show this.  This is the built in cabinets in the dining room…cute right?

Here’s the kitchen:

Here’s the scary stairs down to the basement and the lovely graffiti left by previous tenants.  By living there am I automatically a memberof this team? 

Now moving upstairs…

This is the upstairs hall and bathroom:

And the bedrooms, there are 4, all pretty much look like this.  Some have more windows and are bigger or smaller but this gives you a good idea.

So that’s it.  Home sweet home.  Right now it looks like a lot of dust and work but hopefully in the near future I’ll be putting up some after pictures that are a little nicer.  Also, as a side note, work is great.  Super busy but learning millions of things every day.  Miss you all!

I Will Not be Homeless!

Just a quick update.  I found a place to live!  Yay:)  It’s a pretty cool old brownstone right off of downtown.  I’ll post pictures soon.  Just wanted everyone to know that Jack, Jonesie, and me will not be living on the street.  Might not seem like a huge accomplishment but Grand Forks turned out to not be very pet friendly so it actually is.  I’ll keep you all updated!

Back in the Windy City and then on to the Snowy City

Before I get into my new exploits in North Dakota, I wanted to fullfill a promise.  I told my friends in Chicago that since I spent a week with them that I would blog it so all my Air Force friends could read about them.  Kind of the reverse of what we’ve had so far.  So here goes.  I spent 5 nights in Chicago and somehow managed to wrangle up enough people to go to Cubs games 2 of those nights.  Actually, my awesome friends worked out all the details so all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the games.  The first night we did so from a rooftop.

The down side of the rooftop is that it was a little chilly and windy but we struggled through…because there was an inside section with a buffet.  But just to prove that we did go outside at least once:

Did I mention it was windy?  Also, quick shout out to Christine (pictured above with wind tussled locks) who just got engaged earlier this week.  Congrats guys!

The next night we actually headed into the park to watch the game.  Unfortunately, unlike the first night, the Cubs were not able to pull out a victory.  We still had fun though.

Besides a quick trip to John Marshall and a few dinners with friends, the last thing on the Chicago agenda was a Costco sponsored party for Tom and me.  Per usual at 4022 N. Sheridan, there was tons of food (stellar beans as always, Liz, cheesey potatoes to die for, Elizabeth, and enormous quantities of meat courtesy of the newly engaged)  Unfortunately I took no reasonable pictures that night so your imaginations will have to paint the picture of the last night I sat, wind swept and merry, on the balcony of 4022.  A picture is not necessary to cause one solitary tear to role down my cheek.  Too dramatic?

The next morning Tom and I packed the car, the poor little red Kia that has seen so much, to its fullest.  Despite my desperate pleas to save my dying plants from their brown thumbed captors, Tom would not let me pack them all.  Only one plant made it to North  Dakota…only time will tell the fate of the rest.  So with only one plant in tow, we headed to Minneapolis were we spent one night.  One great evening catching up with friends and a 7 mile (nice and easy) run with Tom’s sisters later, I was on my way to North Dakota alone.  Well, not fully alone.  Jack and Jonesie (for those of you just tuning in, these are my cats) were nestled safely in their carrier somewhere in my car admist suitcases, dufflebags, boxes, and one plant (can you tell I’m upset about the plants?). 

We made it to North Dakota.  Although it rained as I drove through Fargo (yes, it’s still mostly under water), the skies cleared and the rain stopped by the time I got to Grand Forks.  The base is about 15 miles outside of the actual town.  At the gate you are greated with the large painted words, “Warriors of the North.”  I checked in, got the cats settled in and then met my sponsor.  For those of you new to all this (as am I), a sponsor is someone assigned to you prior to your arrival at any new base who is responsible for getting you settled in and acclimated.  So I met my sponsor and he took me to dinner at his neighbor’s house in the on-base housing.  Not only did I get a home cooked meal out of the deal, I also got a plate to take home which lasted for 2 more meals.  As we were eating, something strange started to happen…by the time I returned to billeting that night, this is what I found:

That’s right.  This was my welcome to Grand Forks AFB.  The cats were confused.  I dropped my phone in the snow.  I think I saw a squirrel run backwards up a tree.  Just one short week ago I was safely in the warmth of the Bible Belt, and now look at me.  But on the upside, my room at billeting is huge. 

So now I’m here.  I’m looking for a place to live (which is actually proving to be pretty difficult – Grand Forks does not equal pet friendly), getting in-processed on base (only 4 shots so far…), and starting to figure out what kind of job I’m actually going to be doing (apparently something legal).  Everyone here is great (so far so good anyway) and I have my own office with chairs and everything!  Once I get it spruced up a bit I’ll throw a picture up here.  I know how you all love pictures of really mundane things. 

I think that’s all I have for now from Grand Forks.  I miss everyone but don’t worry, I’m doing fine up here in the north country.  Though my o’s seem to be getting a little longer…