So much has happened since I last visited these pages. I have finally broken ties with Las Vegas and moved to the Lakota Reservation in South Dakota to teach art at a university art institute. It happened fast. In a matter of 3 days. Good thing I still had the camper shell on my truck. I have been here 2 weeks and could not be happier. Well, maybe a bit happier if vegetables and fruit were not so unbelievably high priced. It is almost as expensive here as Alaska.
I can walk to work which is a good idea because the gas here is at least 20% corn and that does not make my truck happy. For week one I shared a house with a woman who was supposed to have moved but had not and to say she and her 3 cats are filthy is an understatement. You know how I love cats and miss my Warrior but please! Empty a cat box, lady! I was cleaning up cat fur balls the size of baseballs, the tub and sink clogged with fur and let’s not even get into the dirt and black scary stuff filth. It is amazing what a bottle of Pine Sol and other cleaning products can do. The house is grand.
So week one I am scrubbing the art studios and other thing that had not been done for at least 3 years and a house that could pass for haunted or hoarders. I got that behind me. Spent the first Friday night in town at the fair and powwow. It was terrific. So the first week of teaching and all is amazing. I have never had a class of such great artists. Then Memorial Day weekend and I plan to visit Nebraska or the Badlands. That is when my contact lens chooses to explode or be visited by some unknown earthquake phenomenon. It is one of the really old school hard lenses the “plastic” kind. So I desperately call the whole state of South Dakota and Nebraska no one is working nor do they stock lenses. 3 days later and legally blind I drive Forty miles to a wonderful eye doctor who will give me a trial pair if I can produce a prescription. So I get one from 2010. The woman was a doll. Fantastic and totally understanding. That was Wednesday and Friday I drove up to Pierre to get a real eye exam. Lovely round cowboy fella did the impossible. On the first try he got the prescription correct and sent me home with a free month of contacts and 2 boxes of wetting solution.
Now my only challenge is how to get a birth certificate, divorce papers and passport so I can get a drivers license. Yes, you read that correctly. I still have 2 years left on my Nevada license. Hummm I wonder.
Beautywalk 