Back in the States: A summer reflection.

We stop somewhere in Eastern Washington on the way back to Montana.

Coming back to the States has been an 'interesting' experience. After the stress of having to figure out living and how to get around once getting back, I have since spent most of the summer in hiding. Time to time popping into the Butterfly to work on art, but mostly staying in the apartment. Perhaps this was all the reverse culture shock. Having to come back to a place that I really don't understand. Like, why are so many foods flavored to taste like other foods? Or, why do so many people need large trucks that have large plumes of black smoke that explode out the back every time they push on the gas pedal? Although, I think the worst of all the reverse culture shock has been going to the grocery store and having to pay so much for so little. And then the discovery that Petti Rosso was no more..

When we got back it was nice and it seemed to keep raining wherever we went. We would wake up on Dustin and Natasha's couch to the sound of rain hitting the tin roof across the alley from them. The Space Needle painted orange hiding behind the clouds. But then that all changed as it became one of the hottest summers on record and the Plains around us caught fire. There have been some nice sunsets, but some days even breathing has become hard because of all the smoke in the air.

Jessye posing between our living and dining rooms.

On the upside it has been nice to once again consolidate many of my things. The apartment is nice (of course with its few flaws, like anything) and it has been fun decorating it. We are not sure when the building was built but the sidewalk outside has a date in the 19-teens and we have heard estimates from between the turn of the last century and the 1930s. Sadly everything has been painted over in white paint and the beautiful dark wood moulding has been turned into an ugly white. I do hate when everything is painted a white. To me it feels like they are stifling the beauty that is the architecture of the building. But for some reason I have noticed that even people in the architecture fields like to make sterile lifeless rooms.

Burlesco playing their final show at the Top Hat.

Upon returning to Missoula we discovered that a local band had started that was in the vain of the Balkan influence. I thought that when someone explained bluegrass and the abundance of bluegrass bands in Missoula to me that it meant that I would be able to hear lovely accordion music frequently. I was sadly disappointed when it turns out that bluegrass has no accordions. But it seems in my absence that finally there was a local band playing in a style of my interests. We got to see them play three times this summer, the first being a free show at the Badlander, the second as part of a combined act with the local Burlesque troupe, and the third as their last show for a long while as the members each went their separate ways. It was like a summer fling. Lovely and hopefully, it ended too soon.

Now is the last week before university starts up again. I have been hoping to finish some of my artworks before I have to put them away and work on them because school work will have to take precedence. Coming back the French department seems to be in even more shambles than when I left and quite a few people have 'jumped ship' as the department falls even more apart. I am hoping to change that major to a minor but everyone I talk to keeps telling me that I have to wait for university to actually start up. At some point I need to go back to Billings to finish getting my things, but all schedules seem to clash so perhaps I am just going to have to do it and realize that it isn't going to work properly.