We closed. We bought a house in Berea, Kentucky. We are home owners. We don’t quite live there yet. In fact, i only seem to vaguely remember what it looks like on the inside. Seems a bit strange huh? Surreal seems more like it. The only thing I really notice about home ownership so far is that our bank account is empty.
So as we waited to close on the house, we tried to occupy ourselves with other things. We took a trip to Moab where we climbed and hiked and generally just hung out in the 70 degree sunshine. It was great to escape to the desert for a few days while Pinedale was experiencing it’s first accumulating snows of the season. The next week I spent time in Salt Lake City at the National Recreation and Park Association conference. That was a good time and reconfirmed that I have chosen the right career path for myself. I’m not sure that “community recreation programming” is my niche, but it’s good to have gained valuable experience in it.
The Science Rockets played a 2 night stand at the Silver Dollar in Jackson, and just played a couple nights in Pinedale, most recently playing at a benefit for the Pinedale Fine Arts Council, which brings in some amazing productions. This town does not disappoint in it’s dedication to arts and community. Sometimes it’s a backwards place, but with the quality of the productions and talent they bring to town (not to mention the local artisans that are amazing), it often feels like we’re living in a much much larger community, only without the traffic and bloated infrastructure. My friend John calls Pinedale the “Center of the Universe” and sometimes we agree.
Now we’re getting ready for the Haunted house at the Aquatic Center. It’s occupying all my time and thoughts. We sold 600 tickets last year (our town has 2000 people) and expect just as many if not more this year! Jenn is starting a couple new jobs. She’s teaching an awesome fitness class at the PAC and it is being very well attended. She’s also going to wait tables a day or two a week in anticipation of her BLM job ending soon.
Time is flying. Ski season will be here soon. Jenn will be leaving for Kentucky to get her Wilderness First Responder and to spend some time with the house.
We tend to say that we are “closer” to realizing our plan, but we’re not sure that’s the right word. We are simply living within it. There is no final destination, only the next one. Close to what? It’s not as if we plan on stopping somewhere, saying “Oh well, we had a good run with all that adventure stuff, pass the remote.”
Instead, we choose to believe we are simply living in an adventure story, writing a new page daily, and we are trying hard to make sure the story is a good one. Hopefully not too epic, but one that we will be proud of in the end. Whatever that word means.
