Pete Nickeas

is a wonderful city.

The bars stay open past midnight. The food options are diverse. You can have a few drinks and not worry about getting picked up for a public intox. Hell, they encourage it — the downtown district has a free shuttle that stops almost every block. The view of the mountains is wonderful, and Coors Field is clean and classy.

All the things we want in a city, basically.

But since I got a job in Chicago, that will probably be our last time there. For the foreseeable future anyway.

Details to come.

But, I’ve been thinking lately.

I don’t know why I’m in the writing mood. I have a lot on my mind (with the wedding and all) but I go through phases.

Anyway, Wyoming is tolerable in the summer / spring. It’s beautiful, for sure. I don’t think anybody would dispute that. We had a chance to see some of the state outside of Casper and outside the I25 corridor.

We tripped out of town for a few minutes a few weeks ago, just to see this reservoir. It was pretty.

It’s something we’ll be doing more of throughout the summer, no doubt.

But winter?

Winter is something else here. Not because it’s cold because, I mean, eff that right? I can deal with cold.

It’s the fact that from late September, early October through early / mid / late May it’s cold, that concerns me. Doing another Wyoming winter — skipping spring and fall, basically — is going to be difficult. I’m used to seasons. I enjoy seasons.

We’ll see what happens.

Home is where you want to be when it first snows each fall/winter.

And right now, Casper isn’t feeling like home. It was to be expected. Springfield barely felt like home. But I don’t know that our current place of residence will ever feel like home.

I look back now and wish I appreciated what I had. With a decent income, we could’ve stayed there for a very, very, very long time.

In retrospect, of course, I miss Springfield. Now, it feels like I could call that place home. I have (almost) nothing but good memories about that place.

Walking distance from everyone who I hung out with AND walking distance from the bars. That in itself is pretty effing cool. Location of numerous pot lucks, breakfast and otherwise. A block from work. What more could you ask for?

Plus, we had a room with a view. A balcony with a gorgeous view of the Illinois capitol building. As dirty as you could feel working there, it was still something spectacular to see during the winter when the streets were dead and there was a light snow.

It actually didn’t snow when we were there. A lot of muck but no actual snow accumulation that lasted more than a morning. Frozen ice and shit too, but mostly just grime.

Anyway, we’ve only been here three months. It’s early yet. There’s no telling how I’ll feel after 7 months, which is where we were on Dec. 15 of 2008.

But, I look out my window, and I’m not five floors above a city. I don’t see the state capitol. My friends are not walking distance. When it snows (it has already), I don’t feel a sense of belonging.

Moving forward, though, whether I feel comfortable or not, Casper is my new home. It’s where we are. Though I miss what I’m familiar with, we’re slowly becoming accustomed to a different way of life out here. We haven’t changed our habits — just learning to tolerate those of an entire had been difficult enough.

The onset of winter, which should happen tonight (I’m not joking, it’s going to snow tonight and then it’s going to be in the 30’s until next week. Then a couple days of nice, then winter again), will undoubtedly endear us to Casper.

Until then, though, I feel like we’re in an odd state of limbo. It doesn’t feel like home but I don’t feel like I’m visiting either. Kind of like moving into a spot in Milwaukee 10 years ago. Just kinda was there.

With time I suppose. We shall see.

Until then, I’m going to start jacking fools on their way from the ATM.

Just joking.

If nothing else, not having enough money has taught us a lot. I feel like I’m ahead of the game anyway because I’ve never really had a ton of money and have been paying for some of the “necessities” since like 5th or 6th grade. I feel more responsible, more self sufficient, and more in a position to build a future based on my experiences and I’m grateful for all of that.

BUT DAMN I’D BE GRATEFUL FOR SOME MORE MONEY TOO!

Here’s the thing. I was half stupid and half broke in college, so a chunk of my credit card debt is 40’s and handles of whiskey. The other chunk is rent, tires, books, moving costs, etc.

One of the things I’m most proud of personally is not having incurred any debt since living in Wyoming. Erin and I have been out like 4 times since being here (more than three months now), and our recreation consists of at-home-drinking. Which, I’m good with. In my personal life I’m very fiscally conservative.

I just gotta get rid of some of this interest bearing debt. It’s a joke. It’s amazing what percentage of my monthly expenditures are from credit cards.

Work is going well, though. This last week was a grinder but I loved it. I didn’t feel like, at the end of the week, that I worked as much as I did. It flew. I was out of the office a lot, met a ton of people, etc. Plus, what I’m working on is material of consequence. I’m not pissing in the wind.

Here’s a random string of sentences:
Erin just started working full time. I’m debating the idea of getting another job. If work stays this busy I won’t have to, so I’m hoping that it does. My two brothers aren’t gonna make it out for Thanksgiving, I don’t think. That saddens me. I’m going back to Chicago for Christmas and my brothers will be there. Big ass party on the 26th. Everybody’s invited, as always. I’m glad winter is around the corner. I’m sick of people warning me about the Wyoming winter. GET ON WITH IT MOTHAFUCKA! I’m ready.

I think that this is the last nice weekend we’re going to have this year.

They’re calling for snow in the “lower” elevations of this county (I think that’s us) sometime next week and while it’s supposed to be gorgeous tomorrow afternoon and Sunday afternoon, it’s still getting into the low-30s overnight.

I’m still really excited for Thanksgiving since my two little brothers are flying in from North Carolina, where they’re stationed (2nd Marine Division). Mike just had laser surgery on his eye, so he’s chilling for the next couple weeks I guess. It will be nice to see some familiar places.

I finished “Great Expectations” today, which was mildly disappointing (ironic?) and I began “Team of Rivals,” which, 25 pages in, is amazing. That book will probably take in the 40-50 hour range to read, and as it cools off I’ll have more and more time.

I forced myself to run today, and I didn’t want to really. But, as there’s only a handful of good weather days left, I thought it prudent to take advantage of the weather. I’m going to run tomorrow morning and probably Sunday morning and then I’ll have to start doing different stuff once winter gets here. I haven’t ran in the winter before.

Our finances are kinda tight right now. This concerns me. I want to go out and buy a few candles, maybe some type of something to make this place feel more like home but we’re strapped for cash right now. I think a second job is in the very near future, because our combined incomes just aren’t cutting it.

Stay tuned.

Well, fall came in one day. It went from like, sunny and 80 the day before, to hail and overnight snow the next night. What the hell. There’s still snow on the top 2/3rds of the mountain. About 1,000 feet of elevation separates us from the snow, which seems like a lot but isn’t. It’s like a 12 minute drive to snow.

On the up and up though, I’m looking forward to the winter. I plan on working out a lot and reading, since we won’t be drinking in Dan, Jake, and Megan’s back yard anymore. Kinda sounds like prison. There’s also going to be some Xbox in there, obviously.

I’ve always liked fall. Back when I was in high school, me and my kid brother Jack would sometimes walk the train lines through Milwaukee, taking pictures of graffiti on the bridges and on trains if we could catch them rolling by. It was good times.

We’d park the car, walk to the spot, then walk from there. I’ve still got a whole book of photos that I ended up giving my cousin D, which, I guess I don’t have the photos anymore. But those were good times.

There’s also, walking in the cold. I enjoy that. Headphones, hoodie, some good boots. A coffee mug perhaps.

But I doubt we’re gonna be able to do a lot of that. Wind gets crappy here, and the snow is supposed to be a bitch.

We’ll see how it goes I guess. I’ve got mixed feelings.

Good:
While playing Call of Duty, I had a seven kill streak going when I realize there’s three dudes in close proximity. I doubled around, crept up on each one of them and shanked them all, one by one. 10 kill streak! Peeled off another five dudes before someone finally knifed me.

My two little brothers are coming to Casper, Wyoming for Thanksgiving. This excites me greatly. I’ve got that Thursday and Friday off, so we’re going to just hang out for a few days, probably drinking and playing Monopoly and running. That means I have to train, since they can actually run. Also means we have to save some money so we can make a big ass Thanksgiving dinner. HELL YEA

There’s a three day weekend in my future. I’m not sure what I’ll do. Something fun, hopefully.

Bad:
No Bears game. I’m going to watch Denver here in a couple minutes but it’s only because it’s the “closest” team. And they’re 4.5 hours away, and in another state.

I’ve come to two or three “profound” realizations in the past couple days. And they mostly suck.

I want to build things - shelves, tables, chairs, etc. I have not the tools nor the space nor the money to do this, though. I want to have a garage but perhaps if I make more money one day I’ll rent a small storage space and have a workshop in there. That’s until we get a home with a garage. Maybe we’ll move to the apartment complex to the south of us. I think if you live there you get a storage space. That could be good.

It’s supposed to snow tonight. Not even shitting you. I’m all about the fall and stuff, but, I mean, there’s forty degree temperature swings here. So if it snows tonight it could still very well be 70 degrees outside tomorrow.

I’m excited about the Fall.

It’s too warm to wear suits in the summer. I like fall and am looking forward to this fall for numerous reasons … because it’s good grilling weather, it’s not too cold for beer, it’s cool enough for whiskey, coffee in the morning is better because it’s cooler, the mountain side should be gorgeous, the end-of-summer dry spell should be over.

Not that it’s going to rain buckets. But any rain would be good. This rain, right now, is good. It’s been super dry here since the July 3 storms, it seems.

Anyway, I’m also a fan of thunder and lightning. It’s soothing and serene. You have to respect the power of nature and thunder and lightning exhibits in a sleek and subtle fashion what nature is capable of … it’s like a glimpse. It’s a menacing glare instead of a hard overhand right. It’s not the main threat but you know nature means business.

Anway, Erin’s cooking some burgers and corn for dinner (I’m lucky), and I can unwind after a long day by reading, listening to the thunderstorm, and relaxing. With that, I’m off. PEACE!

To you, that might look like a picture of nothing.

But to me, that’s a picture of perfection. It’s the closest thing to unadulterated land I’ve ever seen in my life.

Even in the many, many trips to Wisconsin, I’ve never seen something so pristine.

It’s gorgeous. For everything that people talk about how beautiful it is “out west,” you can’t see it from a high way. Or a road. Because, that road cut through something beautiful. The power lines, the fences for ranchers, all of that corrupts an otherwise beautiful landscape.

But this? Man, so serene. It’s wonderful.

By our guide’s estimate, it was about eight miles.

Our guide, by the way, was Jake.

As I understand it, we went farther into the woods than he’s been before, which is good. I was kinda worried over the past week or so that I wouldn’t be in physical shape to carry a bag with a gallon of Gatorade, a gallon of water, a loaf of bread, some peanut butter, and a couple other random things.

I know my brothers are laughing right now.

Anyway, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.

I think we’re gonna hike again next weekend. It was good to get out of the house. But, now that we’ve been up to the mountain, I don’t know that there’s a whole lot left to do before next summer when hopefully I can get a couple days off and go backpacking through the mountains. We shall see.

The best way to describe the hike was, starting at the top of the tennis racket. We walked down one side, then up the handle, and it brought us to wide open plains like area that was atop a ridge. We walked along that ridge for (by my guess) a couple miles, stopping to take photos and look at different bugs and snakes and stuff. Then we walked back, back down the handle, and back up the other half of the tennis racket.

Next weekend, if we go, should be fun. We’ll pack lighter or walk longer. It was better to have more fluids than we ended up needing — I think we only drank about 3/4 of the gallon of water and half of the Gatorade. We did eat half the bread.

Photos soon come ….