Break Out!

I was coming in from the backyard Thursday afternoon and Cruiser raced out the door. I needed to take a shower, so I left Cruiser out and took my shower. When I came back downstairs and looked for him in the backyard, no Cruiser. There was a nice hole dug under the fence to the front yard, though. So I put on my coat and shoes and open the front door to go looking through the neighborhood for Cruiser, and he comes running up the walk all covered with mud before I even have a chance to step outside. I guess he knows where he lives! Poor Cruiser, the actual adventure does not seem to have been as exciting as the reality.

Today it is warmer and raining and Spring feels possible. I stopped by Home Depot and the garden center isn't open yet, but the front of the garden center was full of plants and I checked to see what Idaho gardening has to offer at the end of Winter. Nothing had leaves yet, but they had Quaking Aspen, and fruit trees, like pears and apricots. They had all the berries, raspberry, blackberry, blueberry. A few weeks ago you could buy all the berries bare root, but these were in pots. Then they had forsythia, which blooms early and they don't have in So Cal,


and red twig dogwood, which I think is the plant that shows off those red branches in the snow that I always see around here.


I went for a walk and someone had crocus in their front yard that were already blooming. Boy am I ready for Spring.

In the six months that I've been here, I've seen two people run stop signs and one person run a red light in front of me. I figure Idahoans are an irreverent bunch that will often not stop at a stop sign or a light if there is no reason, but these three were not even looking to see me coming. Everyone does stop for crossing geese, though. Just as often, I've sat stopped in a line of cars as we all wait for the geese to cross the road.

My meeting for Artist's Way was last Thursday night and we were a smaller group that night because two people couldn't make it. I brought my chocolate truffles, but someone else had the same idea and I left with chocolate peanut butter fudge. The guy in front of me at the Starbucks paid for my coffee without telling me and then left. That was pretty nice. After our meeting I thanked Margo for starting this Artists Way group and inviting me. She said they really just get together for me. I don't know if she was just kidding, but that is pretty nice, too. I think I was only here in Boise for just over a month when Margo asked me if I wanted to do the Artist's Way. I think that is a bit amazing, that someone here knows me well enough after a month to know I would be interested and then to ask me. That kind of thing only happens to Idaho Shelly.

Tomorrow I get to drop off Hazel at the Idaho Watercolor Society Capitol show and then I am hosting the show for two hours on Monday. I have not heard back from the guy that gave the resume writing workshop about my new resume, so I am going to go back to the workshop on Monday and see him in person. Then I have an appointment with another employment agency on Tuesday morning. This weekend I am working on that commission.