One week down

I was a bit nervous about spending my first weekend in Coeur d'Alene...nervous that I'd be bored, lonely, etc. It turned out, however, that things went pretty fantastically.

Amanda, roomie #1, is in Vegas this weekend, so it was just me and Sabrina (roomie #2). On Friday night Sabrina and I went to work out, and afterward we got all dolled up so she could show me around "the strip" - aka the CDA bars. We didn't end up leaving the house until 11:30pm, so it was a short night! We went first to the Iron Horse where she knew the bartender and he poured us the biggest, strongest rum and cokes ever. We just sat at a table, people watching and chatting...it was quite the mix of the young crowd and some older people as well, but a lot of fun and great music. Next, we went to The Beacon, which Sabrina described to me as "the preppy bar." It really was just that...it took forever to get a drink even though there weren't that many people there, and everyone was dressed to the nines. We grabbed a table again and continued to get pretty darn buzzed as we continued our conversation and people watching.

Finally, she took me to her favorite "dive bar," Lakers. I could smell the cigarette smoke from down the street, and she wasn't kidding about it being a dive, but the older couple who owned it were lots of fun and quickly handed us 2 PBRs before we'd even fully sat down at the bar. It was there that I met a couple of people Sabrina was friends with....definitely an odd pair. One guy's name was Steven, but he went by "mole." Not sure why. The other was a guy named Jess and he played the harmonica...quite brilliantly actually, but still, a little out there. We ended up leaving just after 2am and it was a good thing because I was on my way to sleepy-land.

The next morning we decided that we might do some early Christmas shopping together, so I looked at my bank account and was greeted with a not-so-friendly number. So, instead we decided to go on a little hike around part of Lake Coeur d'Alene, and then wander around the town. We had such a nice time! I even got to meet the crazy old man who sits in his garage and carves walking sticks with a knife. He will let you choose any walking stick you'd like and have it for free. They are all a little different because he glues natural stones (amythests, garnets, etc...stuff that he finds) on each one. He had like 80 in his garage, and he was making another one while we were there. We each picked a stick (Sabrina has like 3 now) and off we went.

We visited a store right downtown called "All Things Irish," which of course made me so nostalgic! They had everything from the Irish candies and tea that you can only find in the UK, to Irish sweaters, last-name keychains and Guinness apparrel. I spent a moment talking to the owner who was from Dublin - he started to get misty-eyed meeting someone from Ireland. It was a very sweet moment.

That night, (Saturday) a couple of Sabrina's more "mainstream" (normal) friends came over. I had a drink with them before they headed out to go bowling. I was invited, but figured that my financial situation was not agreeable to it, so instead chose to spend a cozy evening at home catching up on Grey's Anatomy, The Office and 30 Rock online (the girls don't have cable TV). I made it to bed at a reasonable hour and it felt good to have a little peace and quiet.

Today I tried to go to Les Schwab to figure out if my tires will make it in the snow, but quickly realized how small this town is when I found that BOTH of the town's Les Schwab's were closed on Sundays. WTF?! So instead I went grocery shopping and did some laundry. I'm off to the gym now because it is only 3:43pm and it already getting dark outside. It is a bit depressing to just sit around and watch the sun go down at such an ungodly hour, so I figure pushing myself to run more than a mile for once in my life might be a good alternative.

Oh, and I did buy a digital camera, but returned it not 24 hours later after looking at my bank account. A special shout-out to Best Buy for not charging me the 15% restocking fee. Here is the one picture I took of Sabrina and I on our way home from the Friday night fracas:

Don't judge us too harshly....this was at 2:15am after quite a few drinks. We were happy but exhausted (and cold, its well below freezing here at night).

Jen