Bike to work

There’s a week in May that is devoted to biking, Internationally. One day is all about women bikers, one day is for just getting out, and one day is international “Bike to Work Day.” So, on May 15, I got to the North Entrance just before six o’clock to join eight other people who were also biking “up the hill.” It’s a five mile, (something like) eight hundred foot rise. The road sucked. It was soft, squishy, and I spent a lot of time walking my bike up hills. I just couldn’t do it. I’m in pretty good shape right now but was totally ashamed to have to stop several times and just get off my ass so that I make it up the hill. You could argue that it’s a different muscle set than I’m used to using. You could argue that my bike is a hybrid so the tires aren’t as good for going uphill as the folks that I was with. I might argue that I still need to get into better shape.
Still, it was a beautiful morning, and for the most part, I was following Heidi, Vicki, and Carrie up the hill, so I got pictures with them. Rachel, Lynn and Stacey came up soon after. So did another woman and her husband whose names I am forgetting. Dagan and Brandon rode up the road since they both had skinny tires. Riding on the road scares me. Especially during tourist season. Those people are generally Nuts. However, there was no way in hell that I was going to ride down the Old Road by myself, so I did take the main road back down. Only five cars passed me, in two groups, and I was able to get to a pull-off both times. It was a freaking exhilarating ride. I made it up the hill in about 50 minutes and down the hill in about 20. I think I was screaming “Wheeeeeeeee! Wheeeeeeeee!” just about the whole way down. It was fantastic and something that I’d like to repeat. Maybe in September when there are fewer wing nuts on the road.

Donkey Basketball

Making the T-Shirts

Okay. You all know that I’m weird. Strange. A little off. So when an ad appeared in the Gardiner newsletter for Donkey Basketball, Heidi and I discussed whether we wanted to play. We both thought it sounded like fun but weren’t too sure about writing. So we caviled for a little bit but finally decided that it really was too cool to pass up. How many times do you think you’d have the chance to play Donkey Basketball (and raise money to help a local with medical bills)? Um, like, none. So to pass this up would be the height of utter foolishness.

Going to get the Donkeys

I called and signed up. Or tried to anyway. Unfortunately, there were already the maximum number of teams. So I went to Plan B and joined the National Park Service (NPS) team. Except that the point person for that team didn’t want to play, she was just trying to be helpful and have a team. Since I was the first person to respond, I became the default captain. Oh, yeah. I’m the CAPTAIN. And that was my nickname. My first email was to scout prospective teammates. We gathered a pretty good team. My next decree was that we all should have nicknames (the only team to do so). I also decreed that we would wear white t-shirts and wear brown pants (Carhartts or Red Ants Pants). That second one was dumb. Have you ever tried to get on a donkey wearing stiff pants? It just doesn’t go well.

Playing

The big night came. You may have noticed that I already have a post for Park to Paradise on this day. “But, Jessi,” you might wonder, “You set up the food for P2P, you ran 5 miles that day, did you actually go and play Donkey Basketball as well?” The answer is “Yes, and I even fit in a memorial service for a former boss as well.” It was a long-ass (see what I did there?) day. By the end of the night, I felt like I blinked and 15 minutes passed. I’m pretty sure I was “this close” to hallucinating.

Bringing in the donkeys

But, this is not a post about exhaustion, it’s about Donkey Basketball. It was fun, it was fantastic. For the whole two minutes I was on a donkey. I got off to retrieve a ball and COULD NOT get back on. My pants were way to stiff and I just couldn’t manage it. At that point, I had been on the donkey, my mission was accomplished, so I called a teammate over and had him jump on.

The whole team

Taking a shot (I missed, but I tried!)

Yep, this was necessary

Back Fence

This was a huge one. For years, it's been a pain in the ass to get in my back gate. It was wedged up against the garage and it took a good hip bump to open the damn thing.
Check it out. It opens!

Home Repairs-Stone Fence

My house is from 1926. It's old. It needs some help. So this is the year to do some major repairs. First things first, the stairs on the front of the house. It really appeared that the rocks were ready to start falling out. I needed to not be the one house bringing the neighborhood down. The mason was awesome and my wall looks beautiful. Now, I can sit outside and enjoy the sun without getting up with crumbling asphalt sticking to my legs. Best part? Josh had left some rocks that he wasn't going to sell so they got incorporated into the wall, on the ledge between the upper and lower areas.
It's so pretty!

March Against the War on Women

On April 28th, women gathered across the United States to protest the war against them. Some people say that there is no war. Then why do women get paid 75% of what men get paid to do the same job? Why is being a woman considered a pre-existing condition in health insurance? Why are our rights being considered lesser than those of unborn babies? My friend Bridgette was the organizer for Montana. She's a wonderful woman, a mother, a great coworker and someone who is not afraid to stand up for what she wants to believe in. There were 40 women (and one guy) from Gardiner in a group of 200 women. Unfortunately, this is Montana and there was a huge snow storm which deterred a lot of people from coming but it was still a great turnout.

Speechifying

Yep, I drew this. If you don't know what it is... you need some help.

Running

For a little over a year, I've been running with Heidi, and sometimes on my own. It's not fun. I'm not going to go there. Well, except when it is. We decided to bike to Rescue Creek, run for awhile, and then bike back. It ended up being 2.5 miles for each of the two activities. Leigh Anne joined us for the running portion (she is training for an 8 mile run up a mountain, silly woman). It had been raining off and on all week but it cleared up just enough to get out for that hour. Afterwards, a beer and some Bananagrams were enjoyed by all.

Trying to get pictures of me doing our celebratory "We're almost done" leaps

Dave's Sushi and clinicals

There is a restaurant in Bozeman that has the best sushi in Montana. It's a small place with something like eight tables but it's always packed because the food is fabulous. See below:

Carrie and I went up to Bozeman to do our clinicals and, since we started at 7 in the morning, we decided to sleep at Josh's. As a thank you, we invited Josh and Courtney out to dinner and had a ton of fun with good food.

The practicals went well but it was a long-ass day. We got there at 7 and were on our feet pretty much the whole day until we got done at 5. We took blood pressures, temperatures, pulse ox, and some histories (which we really weren't supposed to). We also cleaned a lot of rooms. Because it was a Sunday, it was pretty slow. I was hoping for some fun April Fool's mishaps, but, alas, it didn't happen. Also, there had been a pretty big snow storm so a lot of people stayed indoors. Thank god that's over.