Holiday Gifts from MT

Yesterday I started my Christmas shopping. This may seem some what late to people but I've never been an early shopper. And I'm not trying to buy anything crazy like a nintendo wii or anything that a store could run out of so I'm generally ok shopping just two weeks before Christmas. And I'll even shop a week before when I attempt to finish my shopping next weekend. I had to get the majority out of the way this weekend though because the deadline to mail anything and have it arrive in time for x-mas is Wednesday the 15th. Anyways...I don't know about anyone else but coming up with gift ideas for people is not my strong suit. So I decided this year to take advantage of living in Montana. My gifts for people all have a Montana theme. Now I obviously can't say what I got for everyone but there's actually a lot of things that would fall under this theme. Huckleberries and Flathead cherries are two berries that are very prominent in the area and I've learned you can get just about anything with these flavors. Chocolate bars, taffy, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, jam, syrup, jelly beans, lemonade and more. There's also packaged meat for people who aren't from around here and don't normally hunt these animals and eat them you can give a gift of elk or bison sausage, jerky, and more.

Leaving the food realm there's a whole world of copper products. Butte is a mining town and it boomed because of copper so naturally you can get anything you want in copper. Pots and pans, watches, mugs, dishes, ornaments, vases and again...more. There's also several items that you can get with a moose, bear, or buffalo picture on it and boom...it's Montana themed! It's great. Something else I saw yesterday...moose slippers that make noise. I don't know what noise cause I didn't explore that but they look like moose feet or paws or whatever you call them on a moose. (I guess I haven't spent enough time here yet to bother to figure out the anatomical terms for these animals) There was also a really cute onesie for a baby that made me sad I don't know any babies. It had a picture of two ducks and a moose and read, "duck, duck, moose" Super cute and Montana themed! For the guys there were also some boxers features moose and bears. One had them all sitting with their backs turned holding fishing poles and it said, "Nothin butt fishin." Fishing is also big in Montana so that gift would be ultra Montana with the animals and the fishing. Obviously for someone who lives here they probably wouldn't be as entertained by these gifts as I am. I'm so entertained I bought myself something. A shot glass that says Montana and has a little black bear hanging off the side. I will also probably buy myself a stuffed moose before I leave this state. Let me know if you'd like one too.

Distracted Driving

Yesterday I completed my fourth round of driving too and from Bismark, ND. Google maps and map quest will tell you from my door to my boyfriends is just under 10 hours. I won't share how much time it takes me. But anyways I know several states and cities have banned texting while driving and during my drive to Bismarck on Thursday and my drive back to Butte yesterday I started thinking of things that are just way more distracting than texting. Don't get me wrong texting while driving is still not a stellar idea but there's some other un-stellar ideas out there that there's no way they could ever be banned because it would be ridiculous. Well when I got back to work today one of my story assignments ironically was to do a preview story on an item going before the local Judiciary Committee tomorrow night, A proposed ban on all handheld electronic devices while driving. Now, whatever happens, happens. I'm cool with getting blue tooth but still thought I'd share my ridiculous list of other distracted driving activities that came up solely from my recent 18ish hours spent in my Rav4.

1. Blowing your nose and driving. I've been fighting a cold for over a week now (I'm scared of taking sick days) so of course I had this cold while driving across the Treasure state and inevitably had to blow my nose. Gross I know but hear me out. This takes two hands. If you can do this with one hand congrats but I discovered that I cannot. And I don't know how to drive with my knees so I was trying to steer with my elbows while clearing the mucus from my nose. Not safe.
2. Trying to retrieve a GPS that has fallen off its window mount thing. Also not safe. This requires some feeling around below your seat with hands and feet but you can't just let it sit there because you haven't hit the mute button yet and that voice is soooo annoying. No way can you continue to listen to that for hours.
3. Trying to find a song you want to listen to on your ipod. Texting I can do without looking. This not so much. I need to see what artist or song my ipod currently has selected. I've done this long drive a few times now and I get sick of listening to the same stuff I've got to mix it up. And ipods can hold some random stuff so if you just randomly hit buttons you end up with Britney Spears' first album "Baby one more time"
4. Trying to open a bottle with a twist top. Again, I'm sure some people can do this one handed but I just don't work out my hands ever. My technique is to position the bottle between my legs to hold it and twist off with a hand that way I don't need my other hand to hold the bottle and it can do its job on the steering wheel.
5. Taking pictures. Of course not safe but North Dakota if you are going to put massive structures along your highways like the world's largest cow you are just asking for people to take pictures while driving. How can you pass up such a photo op?
6. Buffalo. Ok this is not an activity but living in Montana for a year AND visiting Yellowstone National Park I had yet to see a Buffalo. Then driving through North Dakota yesterday I'm zipping along at speeds that are not legal on the east coast and I see a strange animal on the side of the road. Immediately my head whips around because I'm thinking "OMG that was a buffalo!" Clearly the buffalo had my attention and not the road. Then I start feverishly looking for more because obviously I need a picture of a buffalo. Sadly, I did not see anymore. Unless you've seen a million buffalo in your life how can you seriously just casually drive past one and not be distracted?
7. Social Media. With these smart phones you can check your twitter and facebook all you want. And what else am I supposed to do on a super long drive with hours of no radio and an ipod so old it dies after 20 minutes and can hold about 30 songs so I'm obviously sick of those. Especially when I do find some AM station that is pumping out Canadian news over the radio and the wiki leaks story hooks me in. Suddenly I need to get on my twitter and CNN.com to get more of the scoop.
8. Listening to stupid people on talk radio. Yes, I can keep both hands on the steering wheel and my eyes on the road. But sometimes someone is so stupid that you just throw your hands up in a "WHAT?!" Seriously, who buys a stainless steel necklace for $150 on black Friday. How on Earth did you think that was a good idea. And mom of the 15 year old who did that, WHY does your daughter have a credit card that is linked to your bank account?????
9. Getting a craving. I was desperately hoping to pass a Taco John's. Yes, east coasters that is really the name of a fast food Mexican place out here. And no, I was not craving Mexican as my boyfriend thought when I first told him. I wanted some tater tots. Now you're confused right. Well at Taco John's instead of giving you a side of tortilla chips or even doritos like Taco Bell commercials claim they do you get a side of potato ole's. This are tater tots that Taco John's has tried to make sound Mexican by adding the word "ole" after potato. Pretty hilarious. Anyways I was not passing any signs that told me there was a Taco John's nearby and I was pretty disappointed. I considered whipping out the Blackberry and doing a google search for the nearest one. However, I did not do this activity but I highly thought about it and that would definitely be distracted driving. Looking back I probably should have because what I ended up eating was a poor decision.
10. Which brings me to my next distracted driving item. Chicken Nuggets. I have three towns I always stop in on this long drive to get gas and use the little girls room. So at my next stop there was no Taco John's all there is is the gas station and a McDonalds. At the time I decided what the heck I haven't had it in a while and I'm hungry. I chose Chicken Nuggets for nostalgia reasons. I used to love these things as a child. With sweet and sour sauce is how I always ate them. And hey they would come with fries. So although I wouldn't get my potato ole's I would get some potato. First off, I know find chicken nuggets gross. What was little Melanie thinking? But anyways eating them is not a good idea while driving. I had my dipping sauce in one hand and nugget in the other and about a pinky finger on the steering wheel. Not ok at all but you can't make a law banning nugget eating and driving. I guess you could but it sounds ridiculous and Mcdonalds would probably do all it could to stop it, and win. While this is dangerous, it is also messy. Number 11...
11. Opening your water bottle to pour water onto a napkin to wipe sticky sweet and sour sauce off your steering wheel. You could insert any sticky substance here and it would be the same. Because you can't just wipe it off with a napkin, it would still be sticky. You've got to get the water involved.

I think the remainder of my drive after that was pretty free of strange distracted driving occurrences. But of course there are a ton more out there. Feel free to share. And to my parents just take a deep breath. I got home safely despite those Mcnuggets best efforts.

Montana and Pennsylvania are Different

The title of this blog is not exactly shocking, I know this. And no, this will not be a blog about large mountains, cowboys, or snow all year round (even though it is currently snowing here) This is going to be about laws. May not sound like a super interesting topic but stay with me for you East Coasters just wait til you hear what is legal in Montana. For Montanans you'll probably just think the East Coast is super strict. Now I have to warn you that I have not spent hours doing research for this blog and I am going strictly off what I have heard people say so anything could be wrong but at least I warned you.

It all started last week with a story assignment for work. A regional DUI task force meeting was being held in Butte. It was an all day long meeting so my news director took a peek at the agenda to see which topic would be the most interesting. He decided on the discussion about a social host ordinance. I then learned that nowhere in Montana currently has any social host laws. In case you don't know this pretty much makes the host responsible if they have a party and serve people alcohol. So if someone drinks alcohol at your house that you gave them then causes mayhem or harms someone else you could be responsible. Also, if parents give their kids and their friends alcohol the parents get in trouble. This as of right now does not exist in Montana. In fact at the meeting the presenter told the audience that it is LEGAL in Montana for parents to serve their children (under 21) alcohol "up to an intoxicating level." In court she said that level is argued as a .05. My reaction in my head was WHAT?!!! I'm pretty sure that is not legal in Pennsylvania. I'm also pretty sure PA does have a social host ordinance because my parents would never let my friends come over and drink alcohol when other peoples parents would. I distinctly remember them telling me they could lose their house for that. Unless my parents were just making up lies. So some teenagers here in Montana are now trying to get a bill through the state legislature that would allow county's to enact social host ordinances. The teens claim that it's very easy to just get alcohol from parents.

Also, another thing I learned at that meeting that is completely unrelated to drinking but was brought up somehow. The presenter was talking about a law that was recently passed that now makes it illegal for children to sit in the back of a pick up truck while the truck is in motion. Ok that's nice and safe and all but I've been told since I was less that 3 feet tall that it is illegal for ANYONE no matter their age to sit in the back of a pick up truck while it's in motion. Now again I have no idea if this is indeed the law or just what people told me growing up but if it is again it is different from Montana.

And I believe I have stated this one before but Butte has no open container law. You may walk around the streets of this town imbibing freely. No need to panic if a cop drives by and you are on the sidewalk enjoying a cold one. However, I know plenty of people in college who would attempt to walk around with an alcoholic beverage and were cited for it because that is just not legal in Maryland or Pennsylvania. I actually have no problem with this law though because if your friends want to go to another bar and you have a full drink, there's no need to chug it just take it with you. Even if it is in a glass take that glass with you. Chances are it's not even the bars glass and some other person brought it in from a different bar on a previous night.

I will not complain about MT weather anymore

Ok so I won't complain about it at least for the next 24 hours. I did a lot of complaining in the spring and summer mainly because it was still snowing in May and while all my friends on the east coast were wearing sun dresses and flip flops on the fourth of July I was bundled up in a jacket it was so cold here. And Monday morning when my roommate knocked on my bedroom door to tell me there was snow on the ground I responded with a long, "ewwwwwwwwww." However, that was a minimal amount of snow and by noon it had all melted and there was no sign that it had ever existed. The rest of the day was bright and sunny. Same with yesterday and today is a little overcast but that's ok. It's especially ok because while watching the news this morning I learned there were tornado watches pretty much for the entire eastern seaboard. New Jersey, Delaware, Baltimore, D.C., and Atlanta all reporting tornado watches. (probably more places that I just didn't see flash across the screen.) I saw a live camera shot of Atlanta, and boy did that not look like a pretty day, the sky was green. Then when my boyfriend woke up in Bismarck, North Dakota he so kindly sent me a picture of the scene outside his window. Snow. And a lot more than the sprinkling we had here in Butte the other day. His snow was still coming down hours later along with 30 mph winds and the town had a no driving advisory. Now it is in the high 40's here in Butte today, which is a little chilly but really I just get to wear a brand new sweater and some cute boots. I don't have to hide in my basement from a tornado and my boots don't even have to get wet since there's no snow. So for today I will be happy with the weather I've got. I make no promises for tomorrow though.

I had to drive 6 hours to go shopping

A few weekends ago (I know I need to blog more consistently.) two of my friends from Butte and I took a little road trip to Salt Lake City. The city is about 6 hours from Butte so we just left Saturday morning, stayed the night, then came back on Sunday. The whole reason for the trip...sometime in the summer I mentioned I wanted to go there and they of course asked, "why?" They were thinking that Seattle would be a much cooler semi-close city to visit. I responded that I wanted to go shopping and Salt Lake City was the closest place that had a lot of stores that I used to shop at while living on the East coast. Shops that just don't exist out here. I agree I would love to go to Seattle but that is a 10 hour drive and not doable for just one night. Salt Lake City meant no need to take a vacation day for a three day weekend and I could still do my shopping.

So the idea was in their heads, but these were boys so I wasn't too optimistic the trip would happen. Then one day one of them told me he had the perfect weekend for Salt Lake City. A band he liked was playing there October 9th. So it was set I would get to do my shopping and the boys would get to see a band they were into. I had never heard of this band but I did not care. The Felice Brothers band would be the reason I would get to see an Express and Forever 21 for the first time in months.

On October 9th we began our little journey. We traveled South through Montana and Idaho until we got to Utah. I had never driven through Idaho before and I'm sure several areas of it are quite nice, however, the part we drove through was pretty desolate. Now if hay bails were people Idaho would be the most populated state in the nation. Seriously there were just stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks and stacks of hay all along I-15 South through the state. Granted we did pass Idaho Falls and Pocatello and then we saw some civilization. But that was quickly gone 10 minutes out of the city limits. Oh there's also a massive Budweiser factory or something in Idaho. So Idaho has hay, Budweiser, and potatoes. Sadly, I did not get to visit the potato museum.

Once we were about 30 minutes from Salt Lake City I got very excited. There were tons of cars on the road! Another thing I have not witnessed in very long. I swear when I go back to Philly for a visit in December I'm going to be overwhelmed with all the traffic. Anyways we arrived in Salt Lake City and it was a very nice, clean city. But honestly for a big city there weren't too many people just out and about walking around. The weather was really nice too, in the 70's. But that's ok. So we put our stuff in the hotel room then went out walking around looking for a place to eat. After that we continued to just walk around the city and eventually we came to a very happy place. A large outdoor shopping complex. This is where I would then spend too much money. But I told myself it was ok since I hadn't done some serious clothes shopping since probably college. I quickly lost the boys when I saw some cute boots to look at and later fielded calls from them while in dressing rooms. But eventually we found each other again, me with large shopping bags in hand. And I did appreciate them telling me all my new clothes were cute even though I know they don't care one way or the other.

Later that night we went to see the band. They were good. I was wearing one of my new white shirts. One of my guys friends bumped into me and my drink went all down the front of my shirt. This is probably why I should have waited to wear some of my new clothes but oh well the stain came out once I got home and had time to work on it. The next morning we drove back to Butte through all the hay in Idaho. So it was a successful weekend getaway and I'm glad I got to see a little more of the West while I live out here. Now I just have to find the time to get to Seattle.

Phillies in the Newsroom

I have not blogged in over a month. Didn't realize it had been that long but makes sense since all my time is basically spent working or sleeping. But the Phillies had their first playoff game today and it was so exciting that I'll stay up an extra 20 minutes to write a blog.

So obviously everyone knows already that Halladay had a no hitter tonight...only the second in playoff history. What you don't know is what I went through to watch the last few minutes of that game.

It started at 5:07, well that is 3:07 here in Montana. There was a ground breaking for a new FedEx Freight Facility just south of Butte scheduled for 3 p.m. here today. So I already knew I'd be missing the beginning of the game but I hoped to get back and be able to turn it on in the newsroom. Well the plane the developers were arriving on was delayed. So groundbreaking did not start until closer to 3:50. I got my video and the interviews that I could while waiting. Then it was time to check the phone for score updates. One of the newspaper reporters at the scene is a Reds fan so once the Phillies were ahead it was much more fun to ask him for score updates. After the shovels hit the dirt for the ground breaking is when the Phillies were suddenly up by 4 instead of just 1. It was great.

When I got back to the station it was a little after 4:30 and I still had to put a story together for the 5:30 news so there was no way I was able to turn on that tv it was crunch time. I worked on the story as my boyfriend texted me updates. This is when I learned about the no hitter through the 7th. I had one more step to go in the story. It was done then the tv went on, without sound of course so our anchor could read through her scripts. As soon as she was on set the volume went up. Now I have a job in the control room during the show and at 5:30 (when the show starts) it was the bottom of the 8th and the Phillies were 3 outs away from winning. I then spent the next 15 minutes sprinting between the newsroom, where the game was on, and the control room to push my necessary button but still catch the end of an AMAZING game. At one point I lost a shoe mid sprint. I left it and picked it up later then took the other one off to continue my sprints barefoot. I luckily did get to see the last 3 outs before a mad dash back to the control room. I was ecstatic but held it in to do my job, then during commercial break I let everyone know what my Phillies had just done. And during this whole process my news director is in an edit bay just off the newsroom and my general manager is in the lobby watching the show. I sprinted back and forth past him many times. I'm sure he thought it was for the good of the show. Really I was just trying to watch my baseball team and feel close to Philadelphia for a few minutes but sshhhh. I'm just hoping sometime in the near future I get to watch a full game. GO PHILLIES!

Adventures

So months and months ago I mentioned the Testicle Festival in this blog so I feel I must give an update. This years festival ran from August 4th to August 8th. I had to check it out so I convinced some friends to go with. It was little over an hour drive to get there and when we did it was sadly a disappointment. It was so small we ended up driving past it and having to turn around and come back. And it didn't even look like a festival but a bunch of people camping in one place. The biggest problem...it was $17 just to get it. We decided it was NOT worth it to pay $17 to walk around a few feet of what looked like people camping. Didn't even see any testicles. Oh well. At that point we were only about 20 minutes outside of Missoula, MT so we kept driving and had a nice time walking around downtown, went to a brewery, and got some sushi. So I didn't get any testicles but I did get sushi and that's even more exciting since there's none in Butte.

The next week my boyfriend drove over from North Dakota and we went to Yellowstone National Park for a day. It was both of our first times seeing the park. We went as far as Bozeman the night before and stayed there and also got sushi. Yes, I was super excited to get sushi twice in one week after not having it since February. I'm so deprived here. Just kidding. Anyways that was great then the next morning we continued the drive to Gardiner, MT, where the North Entrance to Yellowstone is located. That town was cute. A small western town on river so it was pretty and also lots of touristy activity. There's a big gate at the entrance and everyone was stopping to get pictures. We decided to pass on that and a few feet further down the road was a "Yellowstone National Park" sign. Here we did stop to get a picture because no one else was there. But apparently we started a trend because there was quickly a line of cars behind us waiting to do the same thing.

We did a day hike up to Bunsen Peak in the park. It was nothing too grueling and there were great views the entire time. Also good news, we didn't run into any bears. We saw a few other people on their way down while we were hiking up and when we got to the top there was a group of two girls and one guy sitting on a log drinking beers. Sweet idea except for the fact that you have to carry the heavy beers a couple miles up to the top of the peak. They eventually left while I was busy snapping pictures then Joey and I were alone at the top of the peak to sit on the log, take in the panoramic views, and prop my camera up in various places to try and get pictures of the two of us. Once we hiked back down we played the role of true tourist and drove to the West Entrance of the park and a long the way stopped to take pictures. Once of some elk, just like everyone else in the park was doing. It's really quite amazing how traffic in the park just stops anytime there is wildlife visible from the road. Everyone stops and gets out with cameras in hand and starts snapping away. I'm still mad that we didn't see a buffalo though. I'm starting to think they really don't exist. Just kidding. By the time we got out of the part at West Yellowstone, MT it was about 7:30 p.m. and we still had a two and a half hour drive back to Butte so we just stopped at Subway for dinner. I've never heard so many languages in a Subway in my life. Definitely a tourist hub, which probably explains why it was also the most expensive Subway I've ever been in. They don't participate in the $5 foot long so foot longs were more like $10. Terrible but everything else about the trip was great.

Now I know this is getting long but keep reading because you're about to hear about my first time EVER camping. And when I do things for the first time I go all out. My first trip out of the U.S. I didn't go to Mexico or Canada I went to the other side of the globe to Australia. I REALLY left the country. And well for my first time camping I did it the same way...went all out. I didn't just go to a camp site where you park your car a few feet away from some other people, start a fire and there's a bathroom not too far away. Nope, I went with two friend on an 11 mile round trip hike. This means the campsite was a five and a half mile hike in and getting there meant going straight up hill. Correction: up a steep mountain. We camped at Canyon Lake so we each carried packs on our backs with our survival materials: food, water, sleeping bag, tent, warmer clothes for sleeping during the chilly night. Yes, I carried probably a 20-30 lb pack on my back for 5.5 miles up a mountain to the lake on Saturday, slept in a tent, then carried it back down the mountain for 5.5 miles on Sunday. It was quite an experience. I'm glad I did it but during the last part of getting up the mountain to the lake I was not a happy girl. I was tired. The lake was pretty though and it was completely worth it. It was fun just sitting around the camp fire hanging out and drinking straight tequila...because I was told the only way to fall asleep on the ground was to drink enough. So we had a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of tequila. I don't like whiskey haha. I also really don't like straight liquor so I was chasing with water and my freeze dried camp food after it was cooked. It was pretty funny. The two guys I was with also tried to leave for a little and come back and sneak up on me and scare me. They failed miserably, which I just found humorous. Sorry guys, next time make sure I can't see you prancing through the night. I still didn't sleep great in the tent but I did sleep, just woke up a lot. And thankfully the next day it was much easier getting down the mountain. It was a fun adventure that living in Montana was definitely something I needed to experience but boy was I happy to see my shower and bed when I got back.