So the beloved and I are in the big city, population of
70,000, for a few months while he pursues his Master’s degree at the University
of Montana, or as he likes to call it, The School of Nuts and Raisins. Missoula is a lovely little town, full of
quaint little shops, trendy restaurants and bars, and more health food stores
than you can shake a free range, hormone-free chicken at. It’s an eclectic, pretty town, with the beautiful
Clark Fork River running right through it.
The university is a picturesque place, especially during this time of
year when the leaves are changing to beautiful shades of red, yellow and
orange, falling, and rustling under your feet.
The scent of fallen leaves is heady!
Bayley likes to take advantage of the Autumn abundance and does her “business”
regularly in the piles of leaves that are raked to the curb in our little
neighborhood. Thankfully, I don’t see
too many kids playing in the leaves… I
DO pick up her more, um, solid, deposits, but for some reason, she feels the
need to mark her territory in the maples…
Bayley is not a city girl and while she is a people magnet and draws
them to her furry self like flies, she has also caused more than her share of
hand-over-mouth reactions from various up-scale diners at a lovely little
outdoor café which is on one of our frequent walk routes. Ah, diners at Caffé Dulce, Bayley is a ranch
dog extraordinaire and cares not that you are dining on your POACHED HALIBUT
CHEEKS (wild Alaskan halibut cheeks poached in white wine, beluga lentils,
grilled radicchio & a grapefruit & Serrano relish for $28). She will poop right smack in front of you, shamelessly, half on the sidewalk and half on the grass.
And largely. And be very proud of
it. The lesson I learned that day: bring two bags or be willing to drive back…
It fancies itself a progressive town, and it is, but one
thing Missoula is not is racially diverse.
I wondered at the lack of that in such a university-centric place,
especially because the University of Montana is a research oriented school,
which usually attracts a very diverse student population. Wondered so much that I had a look and came
up with a handy pie chart and found out that one of the many things that
Missoula shared with her sister in nutty raisin-ness and another town I have
been to many times, Boulder, Colorado, is an overwhelming whiteness. I have lived in Honolulu (as culturally and
racially diverse as it gets), Tulsa (a hodgepodge of cultures and a
surprisingly progressive city) and the East Glacier Park area (wonderfully, and
also surprisingly, complex for anyplace, much less a very small town in far
Northwestern Montana). There are small
pockets of diversity here in Grizz Country, but not many. I have seen one non-Caucasian person
in our neighborhood, which is a really nice little area with sidewalks and tree
lined streets, and is populated with normal people who work for a living. Seems odd to me.
Another lesson I’ve learned over the past few weeks that the
universe has a sense of humor and smacks me with it every once in a while. One of the few things that the Horseman and I
disagree on is hunting and the issue has caused some slightly high pitched
discussions in our home. Now I am all
for sustenance hunting. Harvesting an
elk or deer, while it’s not something that I care to do myself, is a rite of
Fall in most areas of the country, and especially so here in Montana, and I say
have at it. I don’t agree with trophy
hunting, but I don’t say a word to anyone about it. If it’s legal, it’s your business. I won’t do it, but I defend your right
to. Heck, I live with the trophies of
hunts gone by right in my very own home.
However. In the past few weeks I
have been on the road behind vehicles carrying the following: a dead moose on Hwy. 2, two dead mule deer, strapped very precariously to the back of a truck on
Hwy. 93 and today, a dead elk on Reserve Drive at lunch hour.
Yep. Me. The animal loving, tree hugging wife of an
ex-outfitter, forced to stare at critters that I am still in awe of being able to see regularly in the wild, now bereft of life. There’s some irony, eh? The universe reminds you to suck it up and
put on your big girl panties once in a while.
I’ve been putting on a lot of big girl panties lately!