Hello again my friends! I'm back from Seattle, Montana, Utah, Idaho and Arizona. Technically some of those stops were momentary but I feel like I've been all over the western United States nonetheless. I am feeling like I accomplished a lot of what I set out to do when I decided to go stay with my dad in Billings Montana for a month. The first thing I did? You guessed it! I went down to the local health club and paid way too much for a month membership. I've never been one for negotiating price on goods and services as some of you may already know. Anyway my membership was for a club called Granite Health and Fitness. Nice facility, clean and up to date on equipment. My only complaint... ghost town! I understand the appeal of a nice quiet gym for a lot of people. Waiting for a machine can really cramp your style and heart rate/momentum, but I really like the busyness of a gym full of people. There's an energy and buzz that gets me going when a gym is busy. Every day I went in expecting there to be more that 4 grandmas on treadmills and two guys lazily curling dumbbells. Does no one care about fitness in Montana? The answer is yes, they just get their kicks outdoors. Speaking of outdoors, I think my appreciation for the beauty of Montana took me ten years to realize. This place is really a heaven in it's own right. They don't call it Big Sky Country for nothin' but what they really should call it is Beautiful Sky. Here are the things you don't realize you miss about Montana that you don't get in LA until you have been away for a while: thunderstorms with lightening, cloud formations that shift and change all day, a sun that doesn't set until 10:00 at night in the summer, and silence when you sleep. I came at the rainiest time of year and by the time all the storms passed it left our little city in the valley as green as the umbrellas at Starbucks.
Working with my dad is like admiring someone while simultaneously wanting to rip your hair out. One day in particular I jotted this down in my note pad, "I wish I had all the strength in the world to give to my dad. He works harder than anyone I know half his age. When I think about my childhood with my dad the first thing I remember is standing and listening. With my dad it's always, 'one more stop, we just have to talk to so and so'. To explain about my dad, first I have to explain about him as a man. I know that most little girls have an idealistic notion of who their parents are. We grow up with super heroes and I'm here to tell you that, to me, my dad is amongst the ultimate. Growing up in Salt Lake CIty as a non mormon in the 1960's is no small feat in and of itself. I think in his own way my dad was always an odd ball. Odd ball, he loves that word to describe someone with eccentricity. As if a man with 100 motorcycles isn't eccentric in his own right. At the age of 16 he auditioned for the Utah symphony for their most successful conductor; Maurice Abrovonel. When he tells the story we prop ourselves up on our elbows and listen with the utmost attention. 'were you nervous?!' we would ask. To which he would reply 'Oh no, I was too stupid to be nervous' 2917 Ramada Drive" right at the end dad says "quick write this down!" My dad has worked out his whole life in whatever garage space he had that wasn't dedicated to motorcycles and covered in grease spots. I think I get my energetic go getter attitude from him.
Now that I'm home Montana feels like lifetimes ago. I'm back to my busy gym grind and hunting down a job that suits me. My life is changing and evolving in front of my eyes and I have big plans for it! I want to do something that my dad would be proud of, something worth writing about. Stay tuned guys...Imma do BIG things!
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