introduction and Chapter I

So I got the idea for this blog when I was trying to figure out where I should post these crazy stories about talking to people in Wyoming, and my experiences there. And I figured, hell, there is going to be a TON of stuff to put in here so why not make it its own blog?

First off I better preface that at heart I am a city girl. Yes, I grew up in radioactive-Richland but I was always meant to live in NYC. After spending a couple months there that was very clear to me. Very Thoroughly Modern Millie if you will. For the past three years I have been residing in the Seattle area and have been...liking it. Its not NY. And it rains all the freaking time. I'm not ok with that. Snow, fine. Rain, not. As a good friend of mine said, "In Seattle, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes and shoot yourself in the face." So needless to say I was ready for a change.

This past February I attended the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival which was hosted by the University of Wyoming in Laramie. I was in a scholarship competition and made it through to the final round. Apparently I was the first community college student to make it to the finals in no one knows how many years, and the first from my school in almost 20. So when I went to the "transfer fair" at the festival U of Wyoming snatched me up and basically started talking to me about their program and all the money I would get to pay for it. Ok. I was sold. I'm a poor college student, and to basically have my tuition paid for was ok by me!

Now, I have some good "that's so wyoming" stories from that trip, but I think I should start with the present, don't you?


Chapter I : Landlords

Currently my boyfriend and I have been doing the mad dash searching for a place to live in Laramie. And you must also keep in mind that we have a beautiful Siberian Husky who does not make us the "ideal" renters to some landlords. Anyway, I've been making my calls and the first one that caught my eye went a little something like this (LL stands for landlord) :

ME : So you do have a house that is for rent?

LL : Yeah, we might actually have two houses for rent.

ME : Oh, great, can you tell me about them at all?

LL : Well I'm still not sure about the second one, but the renter apparently just came into some money, so she's buying a trailer----

HALT!!!!! She came into some money so she's buying a TRAILER?!?!?! Who the hell are these people?!??!?!

As I put the pieces of my Wyoming experience together, I am starting to find that people in the middle of nowhere like to tell stories, even to complete strangers, maybe this is what keeps them sane. Now, I have been corresponding with this next landlord for about a week now about the house we are going to move into. It is a LOG CABIN. I know, city girl in a log cabin is a bit of a stretch, but what can you do? And Jeff (the landlord) is a really awesome guy who is always out on the ranch when I call him :

ME : Hey, I was just wondering if you knew how far the house was from town?

JEFF : Well its in west Laramie, but well one night I got really drunk and I was going to walk home, but then I realized I was too drunk to do that, so I got a cab and the meter said it was about a mile, or maybe a mile and a quarter, I don't really know, I was really drunk.

WOW. Ok, that's a little too much information from a landlord, but I guess if that's how you measure distance there, I am OK with that. And that's all I have for the first chapter, there will be more to come!

Cheer,

Erin Eloise