Big Sky Blog

..by the wonderful U.S. government. While I realize I am tired I am completely unhappy with my deduction. Turbo Tax isn’t feeling all that Turbo right now because I know of one credit they didn’t ask me for (renter’s deduction). I will try and recalculate it tomorrow when I am not quite so tired. I’d forgotten how exausted the change in altitude makes you until your body adjusts. Ahh well it’s very much worth the price.

I was thinking of going down to the Molly but then I thought..you lived there last time .. besides who walks into a bar at 1:15? To David who asked me about well, me .. where to start?

I lived in Bozeman for about six months in 2001. Oddly enough my move was the result of a relationship but the greatest gift I got from it was my love for Montana. I visited in April of ‘01 before moving in August and I had not even left the airport before I knew this was the place for me. In fact, my best friend who had previously lived in Montana, laughed at me. The moment we stepped outside of Gallatin Field I was in awe. I had not been in the state for five minutes when I told her, “That’s it Nacole .. I’m going to live here. I HAVE to live here.” The rest was history.

That was how my move to Montana from awful Hellifornia came to be when I was only twenty-one. It’s amazing that I did not understand, and people I tell do not understand, some advice that I was given before my relocation. The man I was dating told me, “When you get here you’ll know pretty soon. You can tell about this place .. it gets into your blood, or it doesn’t. There isn’t any in between.”

Needless to say I have been infected for the last four years. Even after I moved back to that delightful little hell on earth the maps refer to as California I was unable to stay away. At least twice a year boredom and restlessness would set it and I had return to Bozeman. Often of course the need struck in the middle of the night and before I knew it, the sunrise in the distance, I awoke from daydreaming behind the wheel to find I was half way to Montana and it was pointless to turn back. A word to the wise however it is very hard to fake a cough and call in sick when your boss can tell you are on a cell phone, without very good reception because you are in the middle of Nevada :0)

I can list two or three visits where I spontaneously left at 8pm and arrived in Bozeman at Noon (yes I’m a crazy driver) only to sleep in a hotel and have to turn back after a short walk through town. Still it was worth it to calm my nerves and to get the peace that settles over me here before heading back to the daily grind. If only I could bottle the way Montana makes me feel….