a surprise vsitor

Today marks a month's stay of my friend Nicole visiting me in the bitter cold state of Montana. Nicole has been my friend even before we both started wearing deoderant (that's a long time)! There are few people who would take the detour of coming to Montana in these freezing months, no, not a detour, a separate trip up north to the wild west subculture that pervades. She came up/out/over here to write a book, a children's book, about a yeti, but plans changed soon after she got here, stating "the yeti book just doesn't want to get written." So, she wrote a few others, and various designs in the meantime. Her trip was a gift to me as well- giving me some comic relief when my job was stressful, or life just wasn't what I was expecting. A dose of Nicole- her idiosyncrysies, quirks & spontenaety were just what I needed, and I think it'll be a charge for at least the next month or so. We went to the Boulder Hot Springs, an old inn with geothermal waters with healing and relaxing qualities a couple times. We went to Missoula, Butte, and Bozeman, three "big" cities in Montana, and explored Helena quite a bit. Missoula was full of excitement for going to school there this upcoming fall- I was quite the tourist & made my way around town like a giddy schol girl. Butte is a town in Montana where people warned us to "watch out for the crazies." We met some of the "crazies"- we celebrated & were a part of a Chinese New Years parade, an unforgettable experience. Bozeman is a hip, more upscale city full of sweet coffee shops and almost everyone looks like they're about to go skiing... Each city has a different feel- and that's what I love about traveling, meeting the people and experiencing the true heart of these places.
In other news, I have been working on my application for the Peace Corps (take two-here's a glimpse to the past)... I finished my application, references, health record, and submitted fingerprints. The next step will be having an interview- so excited. I'm feeling more confident that the Peace Corps may be the next step, post grad school, but we'll see. There's an old phrase that goes like this: "if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." For now, I'll go with the flow & if the PC is part of the plan, it'll work out :)