Treehugger Girl: Nesting

I have unpacked my car. Completely. People could sit in the backseat. Comfortably. After 8 months of being half-packed/half living out of the car, it is incredible to be moved out of the Honda. However, I am struggling to deal with the new sensation of driving somewhere and not having something I need in the car, forgetting that I left it at home.

That's right- I have a home. I have a roommate, Amorita, who is awesome, but works an 8-6 schedule for the Parks Service, so I will often have the place to myself. She has been living in her Subaru recently, so we understand each other well. Also, now I have a friend with 4-wheel drive! We have two bedrooms, with excellently comfy carpet, which is fantastic since I am sleeping on the floor, two bathrooms, a nice kitchen, and a living room. It's a lot of space for two girls with no furniture. I'm already feeling settled in my bedroom, the maps are up, the music is on...

I spent a few hours on saturday morning garage sale hopping, where I managed to equip my kitchen for less than $10. I am in love with my 25 cent toaster and my 50 cent coffee pot. Mmmm breakfast. Several of my coworkers have generously loaned me their unneeded furniture, so I've recently inherited a dining table and a futon mattress that i need to go pick up. We've got camp chairs, homemade art, and the spider plant, besides, so frankly, I think we're pretty pleased with ourselves.

I'm living right in
View Larger Map'>Boulder City, NV which is right next to the the park where I am working (Lake Mead National Rec Area) so that I am just a quick bike ride to work. Except that my bike is in the shop this week, with a stretched chain and a bent rear axle, but next week it will be a short ride to work. It's a nice town, calm and quaint, the only town in Nevada without gambling and a moratorium on growth. A 10 minute drive through the pass and you reach Vegas' suburban sprawl. It's nice to be separated from the city by the mountains, but it's easy to get there for frisbee games, rei, barnes and noble, trader joes, and obviously, high-class prostitutes.

Although Lake Mead (the reservoir above the Hoover Dam) is kind of gross, surrounded by invasive salt ceder and filling up with silt, the upland around it is beautiful, and increasing in area daily as Vegas sucks down it's only water supply. My job is mainly to drive and hike around the park, establishing long term vegetation monitoring plots, sometimes low on the rolling gypsum hills, sometimes high in the pinyon pine and juniper mountains, and everywhere in between. There's tons of great backcountry to play in, without the rules, permits, or crowds of people that most of the National Parks have. Beyond the park, there's great mountains calling from just a short (by western standards) drive in any direction. So, I'm pretty excited to be settling in for the winter. So many great places to play, and a shower to come home to. I am spoiled rotten. You should come visit- there's plenty of space on my new floor!!