Big Sky Country

Mmmmm...Workahol

So, we're a nation of workaholics. I read an article on MSN regarding how much Americans work. Inventions like PDAs and e-mail were supposed to allow us more free time, but instead we Americans have used them to accomplish more work. Americans work on average an entire month more every year than they did at the end of World War II. Granted, that's fifty years, but where did our appreciation of free time go? Instead we work more when we have the devices intended to help us work less.

I think this reflects only partly on the fact that work/money is more of a priority than spending time with the important people in our lives. I say this because in this beautiful Big Sky Country, the living is expensive! It's not L.A. expensive, but it's extremely expensive compared to the career opportunities here. Having recently been in the job market, and finding a job in the real estate industry, there is a huge discrepancy between average starting income ($8.00-$10.00, w/o benefits) and the price of homes (starter homes run about $150,000) is huge. To make only $3-5 more than minimum wage isn't enough to buy a house, pay for health insurance, and food.

Well, goodbye summer vacation.

Now, on a positive note,

My Favorite Things #2

Hand soap. I love hand soap. The feeling of clean hands is an amazing thing. Because of handsoap, I can play with my dog before I cook. I can handle raw meat and not worry about all kinds of bacteria and germs. My personal favorite brand is Cucina from Fruits & Passions, which is sold at my Aunt Colleen's interior design shop. It's developed especially for the kitchen and comes in Coriander & Olive and Lemon & Rosemary scents. These soaps are made with an olive oil base so they're not as drying as other soaps and they smell really yummy. Note to all of you who want to shower me with gifts (yeah, I know you're only in my imagination) but I'm due for a refill shortly...

posted by Lindsey @ 10:52 AM 10 comments

I'm in!

Yes, I'm officially a member of the Glacier Symphony! As horribly as I thought I did in my audition, I must not have been completely abominable, as I am now a Second Violin. I am an outer chair, though, which means that I'm one of the better Second Violins. This is encouraging, but looking at the music for my first concert, quite intimidating, especially when one considers that there are only two rehearsals before the concert. Gulp!

It will be fun, though, to play with professionals again. My last orchestra experience was more schizophrenic than symphonic, especially considering that the conductor was married to the Concert Mistress (i.e. best violinist in the orchestra). Even more disturbing was the fact that He was her high school orchestra teacher, and they were married very shortly after she graduated. Icky!

The other Big Sky news is just about the same. Josh is just cutting wood for the time being. If any of you ever want to be Josh's second favorite person in the world, get him a chainsaw. It seems as though chainsaws are about on par with hunting on Josh's List of Favorite Things.

Speaking of favorite things, maybe I should keep a running list of my favorite things a la Oprah and get y'all to tell me what your favorite things are. So here goes:

My Favorite Things #1

Grass. You don't know how much you love it until you can't walk barefoot in your yard because it's only weeds. I also have to sweep dirt out of my kitchen constantly that gets tracked in just by walking from the car to the house.

Plus, there's the way grass tickles the bottom of your feet and makes a perfect cushion under a picnic blanket. Grass is my favorite color (which I will expound upon another day). Grass smells especially good in the rain and when it's freshly mowed, and there's hardly anything lovlier than watching children play in the yard.

So, what're your favorite things?

posted by Lindsey @ 11:48 AM 6 comments

MVOB or My Very Own Blog

Hey y'all! I'm a blogger too! I've kind of had a blogger for awhile, aparently, as this still has Montgomery on it. I must have set it up and completely forgotten about it, but when I tried the old standby user name and password, tada! Anyhoo, I'll try really hard to keep this up as well as my weekly emails and I can put pictures on here without clogging up all of your email accounts. Anyhow, more exciting news from Big Sky Country coming soon!

posted by Lindsey @ 12:51 AM 2 comments