Insert swear words here.

Either I did something really terrible in one my past lives, or I'm storing up some really good karma for the future, because life in Havre, MT keeps going awry.

I moved again. The fourth time in as many weeks. Before I did my 3rd move I was told that on July 18th (yesterday) I would be moving into the North apartment, and could have said apartment for the rest of my stay. So yesterday when I visited the woman who is making my life Hell (hospital administrator/housing person) I was surprised when she started talking about how a nurse anesthetist is now staying in the North apartment, and so I'd have to move into a different apartment. This is the proof I needed that she has been bumping me out of my housing for other people, but it gets better.

The apartment isn't "finished."

Apartment 304 has a bed, a 2 drawer nightstand, a chair and a TV stand. No TV though. Or internet, or cookware, flatware, dishes, towels, basic cleaning supplies, or really anything else necessary for living. In fact, it doesn't even have curtains over the windows, so I had to hang the sheet off my bed over the window in the bedroom for some privacy. It does have a microwave in the kitchen....that doesn't work. None of the outlets or light switches have the plastic plates that go around them. There are paint chips on the kitchen floor and some strange looking gravel-looking dirt in the bathtub, (pictures to come soon).

Confirmed: my theory that this woman hates me.

So, I moved in (I can't exactly afford to stay in a motel for the rest of my time here). I spent a disturbing amount of money at Walmart on some flatware, a few dishes, a pot, a frying pan, cleaning supplies and a microwave (90% of my cooking skills revolve around the microwave). After putting away all my stuff and throwing up a few framed pictures of the loved ones in my life, I felt a little better. Then I went to cook up some ground turkey for tacos tonight and found that the only big coil on the stove doesn't work, so I had to rotate the meat around in the pan so it was over a 4" diameter area of heat produced by the small coil. It took over 20 minutes cook, for crying out loud.

Anyway, so in order to have the internet, I'm now parked outside of the county library which has free wireless (but is currently closed, hence being parked outside).

Moving on. Last night was the big night out with the docs and some of the office staff. My preceptor's husband is in the Navy reserves and got some big promotion, so we all went out bar-hopping to celebrate. First we BBQ'd in a park though, where I was chatting with everyone and drinking a beer when suddenly my doctor's nurse slapped me on the forehead (hard). "Mosquito," she said. Well apparently it was some mutant mosquito, because 20 minutes later everyone was asking me what I had hit my head on. My forehead was swollen and bruised like I'd had been hit with a softball. (24 hours later it is now an almost normal bite...the size of a quarter. On my forehead.) Anyway the night was really quite fun, and my doc's 19 year-old son came along so I had someone to chat with. He's a really nice kid, and was tagging along as a designated driver for his dad, so I got to ride along too - yay for responsibility!

I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my weekend. I'm sort of lost in an apartment without TV or internet...I can only read so much. Oddly enough, I still have the key to the sleeper room in the hospital which DOES have a TV, so I might just go there to relax for a while before going back to my apartment to sleep. How weird.

Oh, which reminds me: I found the strangest high school mascot ever - a sugar beeter. See, last night's bar-hopping excursion was in Chinook, a small town about 20 minute outside of Havre. I thought I was getting way too drunk when I realized that every 10 yards or so on the sidewalks of Chinook there was a painted, angry looking carrot. Alas, I wasn't hallucinating (though it was apparently a sugar beet, not a carrot), Chinook high school actually has a vegetable as its mascot, they are the Chinook Sugarbeeters. I took pictures and will soon be posting them....hilarious.

2 weeks. 2 weeks. 2 weeks.........

Jen