Why the hell?!?!

So as I travelled back from New Jersey on Black Friday I sat next to a woman on my flight to Dallas and we got into a conversation. It was innocent enough, she asked me a few wedding related questions (I was pouring over the new winter issue of The Knot!) and then she asked an innocent question, "is your fiancé on the plane too?" When I told her no that we were doing the long distance thing because he lived near Philadelphia and I lived in South Dakota I should have expected her reaction. A very astonished "South Dakota! Who would ever want to live there??"

I've been asked a variation of this question many times since I made the decision to uproot my life and make the trek halfway across the country but her question was slightly different, it asked why would anyone want to move there not just me. I answered my typical answer that I received a job offer and took it because hey, sometimes a job is hard to find now a days. But after our conversation died down I began to roll the question over in my mind.

Why would anyone want to move to South Dakota? I think back to the late 1800's, the state is vast and largely untamed prarie lorded over by the Oglala Lakota and the Sioux. Both tribes have made it very clear that white settlers are not welcome in these parts. So what drove people to move out here? To pack every belonging they had and brave the trek out to this wilderness. To those who has just come across the unforgiving prairies the Black Hills must have been a welcome site, a resources lush area jutting out of the flat landscape.

I know why Deadwood was inhabited, there were stories of gold in the hills and thousands of men flocked to the town to try their luck at mining. Rough and tough men of all kinds able to handle the tough winter and blistering summers of the Midwest. But what of the families that followed them in later years? Why would they risk everything to move into hostile territory?

I would like to think it was a sense of adventure, or maybe just a knowledge that the cities would soon be no good for them anymore. Maybe it was to lay claim to their own land? I'm sure it was all those reasons and then some. Ask yourself, what would cause you to take a chance like the people who headed to the Dakota territories?

My answer to most people is simple as to why I took this job and moved, because it was there and it was a good opportunity. However, I'd like to think there was more at play. I am a descendant of one of those brave souls who packed their family up and headed west to South Dakota. They set up a general store in a town just 15 minutes from where I sit now. Perhaps it is their legacy running through my veins that drew me back to this land. Or perhaps it is my adventurous spirit that decided that this could be a great adventure. Either way I find myself content here in the hills, out where the sky is clear, the people are genuine, and there is buffalo meat on every menu in town.

With a heavy heart

I am not really sure how to start this post. I could tell you that the Halloween tours I created and directed when really well, over 300 people came and my boss was super impressed. I could tell you that I am elbow deep in decorating the museum for Christmas and that I am super short and that I have to use a ladder to hand stuff on the 9 foot tree my boss insisted we HAD to have. I could tell you that recreating a Victorian Christmas is harder than I anticipated and I feel 8 levels of overwhelmed and have four days to complete everything. I could say any of those things but the entire time all you're wondering is why does the happy go lucky jersey chick have a heavy heart.

It is because I have lost a friend. A friend who I thought would always be there to make me laugh and say the things that everyone was thinking but didn't want to say. A friend I thought would be an uncle to my future children, who would teach them how to love techno and what the really good geeky shows were all about. A man who was supposed to be standing beside my fiancé as his best man at our wedding. He was and will always be the best friend of the love of my life and he passed away last friday. He left behind a beautiful wife, a bouncing baby girl, and a vast clan of family and friends who loved him.

I know he is not really gone. I can feel him still here in his laughter which rings in my ears, his sister's voice, and maybe one day his daughter's as well. I know he is in a better place and he is no longer in pain and I can see the silver lining in that. But he is and will continue to be, sorely missed.

Meet Millie the Museum Cat!!

Quick little post this week folks but it'll be a fun one! So today at work we were cleaning up from the Spirited Tours and my boss and I thought we were going crazy because we kept hearing a cat meowing. Well after about 10 minutes of this caterwauling we decided to go investigate. On the first floor the meowing was louder and the closer we got to the back door the louder it got until finally we opened the door to find a little friend crying on the step. This tiny tabby cat was freezing and trying to get out of the 20 degree snowy outdoors. Well we couldn't let her in the museum but we did let her into the Orientation Center and she took to us like a southerner takes to grits.

We have temporarily named her Mildred Adams. Mildred after the only child raised in the house and Adams after the last family to live in the house. We call her Millie for short. She is super cuddly and we are trying to find her owner but on the off chance she doesn't have one my boss says we can keep her as long as she doesn't go in the museum :)

September and October

So I have been told I am slacking on my blog posting. Which is true so I am going to attempt to cram a bunch of really awesome stuff that has happened into 1 blog post. Here goes nothing!!

The last weekend in September was a really busy one for me. The company I work for was holding this HUGE fundraiser where they auctioned off a Tom Brady signed foot ball, a gold panning trip, a Cal Ripken signed baseball, and a Ben Afflek signed Argo poster (the costume designer for the film lives in Deadwood). The most important object though was a 7.34 Troy ounce gold nugget. It was a copy of the biggest nugget found in the black hills by Potato Creek Johnny. The proceeds from the auction were to go to our museum, a clock shop in Rapid City, and the Wounded Warrior Project. Michael Martin Murphey came and sang!

My girls got all dressed up!!!

And I got to wear this awesome hat!!!

The nugget ended up going for $40,000! We were super happy. And now on to the snow!!!!

So on October 4th (literally the I've been in SD for a month mark) the weathermen in the area predicted snow. They said we were going to get between 12"-15". Which for Deadwood is totally doable and you can still pretty much function without much of a problem. So when I went to sleep on October 4th at 10:30 PM this is what it looked like.

Just a little bit right? Couldn't really do any harm right? WRONG!!! I woke up to no power no heat and this!

I can no longer see my front lawn or the road really and as you can kind of see it was still coming down. I also started using the snow as a fridge since mine clearly didn't work!

By the time I went to sleep that night it looked like this.

No more porch for Ellyn! It's covered in 2 feet of snow!!! Mind you I took this when the power came on for 20 min that night at about 9 pm and then it promptly cut out again.

When I awoke the next morning (still without power) it had finally stopped snowing but it was bitter cold and the wind was blowing like crazy. Because we had had 65+ mph wind throughout the snow TONS of trees were down and I have never seen snow drifts this high since the NJ blizzard of 1996. This is what my back door looked like!

But I braved the weather. Looking like an Eskimo!!

I went outside and dug myself out of the snow. Finally that day the power came on after a 36 hr outage. I have never been so happy for heat!!! Funny thing is the next day I went out and cleared my driveway in a T-shirt and leggings since it was 60°!!! South Dakota Problems!

Now finally and the most important news to share is about when my boyfriend Anthony and his parents arrived. We did all the touristy things. Went to Mt Rushmore, saw the buffalo, and Crazy Horse. I dressed him up as a rodeo clown :D!

(Sorry honey!)

We went to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs which was awesome!!!

Most importantly though...

WE GOT ENGAGED!!!! Anthony put over 400 love notes up on the walls in my house and when I came home from work was playing our song (Can't help falling in love by Elvis) and had the ring in a red rose before getting down on one knee!!! :D

We even got the first things for our wedding.

So like I said, it's been a busy couple of months :D Ta Ta for now!

Photo Blog from Exploring the Black Hills

Alrighty so my mom and I had an absolutely amazing day tooling around the Black Hills today and saw a ton of things so instead of explaining it all I am just going to post all our lovely pictures and tell it through them!!

This is Pactola Lake, it was absolutely beautiful

First to Mt. Rushmore. Mom and I were really blown away by the size of it, which I guess we shouldn't have been but it was truly picturesque.

We made a Mountain Goat friend at Mt. Rushmore!!

My "artistic" shot as mom calls it.

Next to Crazy Horse. It was a neat monument and I am sure it will be great once it is finished but I am unconvinced it will be finished in my lifetime!!

This is what it will eventually look like but in seventy years they've only done what you see above. Still worth the sight to just see the size versus Mt. Rushmore, its even BIGGER!!

Made a friend here too.

Next to Custer State Park. Mom and I really REALLY wanted to see the buffalo and this was the first one we saw.

Then a momma and her babies crossed the road in front of us.

Then we got into a little crunch. A heard of about 400 were in the road/crossing it so we got stuck for a while.

And stood about 2 feet away from our car.

Finally they crossed and this is them roaming on the plane.

Then we ran into burros!! Also very friendly with people.

Also saw some Mountain Sheep!!

We then drove down the Needles Highway. There were 3 tunnels like this and it was awesome!!!

Me with the Cathedral Spires behind me :)

This is the Needle Point, it marks the beginning of the highway.

Finally ended the day with a wine tasting at the Prairie Berry Winery and this Red Ass Rhubarb was Raspberry and Rhubarb and was my favorite but not mom's.

Small Town Living and Oddities in the Attic

Alrighty so this week so far has gone very odd. Ignoring the fact that me being in South Dakota itself is odd it has just been different than expected.

First thing that happened this week was I went into town to get some ink for my work printer, because apparently it ran out of all of its ink at the same time :(. I walk into the store that supplies my company and there is this little old woman behind the counter. She had on old 50's style cat eye glasses, complete with rhinestones and as I walk up to the counter she says "Oh you must be the new girl from Washington everyone's been talking about." Wait, WHAT??? A. Do I really stick out that much I mean its not like I am wearing anything DC related and B. Who is everyone, how do they know about me, and why are they talking about me? I am like 98% sure I've never seen this woman before but she knew I was new to town. Not in a bad way, she was very nice and asked me if I wanted to come over for dinner sometime (I politely declined) but it was very funny, sweet, and unnerving at the same time.

Second, all is lined up for my first public programming event to go off amazingly!! This is awesome but also is requiring a ton of very quick extensive planning. I am doing Halloween Tours (they're actually called Spirited Tours) at my new museum. Which looks like this, in case anyone missed it!

Looks pretty cool right?? It's a perfect place for a haunted house esque tour. Especially considering there are literally a dozen ghost stories about the place and locals refuse to walk on the same side of the street as it. So I have been spending a ton of time up in the attic figuring out what stuff we have to use in the tours (like stuff they used in the past, not artifacts) which would be fine except like any really old house its not entirely sealed right so there are some bug issues. So to isolate that problem I've been freezing the stuff I bring down for 48 hours (standard museum procedure) to kill any possible bugs before I can use it. Well I finally was able to take my first group of things out of the freezer today and put my second group in! Yay progress!!! Alas duty calls and after getting them out I wasn't able to break into the boxes to see what I had to work with right away.

Later in the day, after dealing with the most patronizing, condescending, rude visitor I have ever had the displeasure to meet in my life (he literally asked me if I was qualified to do this job and asked me completely seriously if I could count and demanded I prove it to him) I decided it was time to break open the box. And Look what I found inside...

Hahahaha. There was a bunch of Halloween stuff as expected and it is my job to make sure everything still could fit someone (i.e. wasn't ripped) and all the lights worked. So I got paid to dress up and play with black lights today. It was fun. Oh yea and there was this hat too!!

Much prettier than me in a mask. Antwan really liked this pic thus reinforcing my belief that I was made to wear birdcage veil hats! Anyone with ideas on how I could incorporate them into everyday fashion please feel free to speak up.

Lastly, these came in today!!!

Look it's all official, I have a business card that says I'm a curator!! :D I was/am very excited! Well Mama Van Evra is coming to visit tomorrow for a few days so I'm sure I'll be posting some more with pictures soon. Love you and miss you all!

Long Distance

So I know it's late for most of you on the east coast, subtract 2 hours and that's what time it is in South Dakota. Either way it's late. It rained most of the day here so I stayed inside and hung some more pictures watched my Ohio State Buckeyes decimate Cal 52-34 and during most of the game I got to talk to my man.

Most of you know him, some of you are lucky enough to have met him but on the off chance that someone starts reading this that doesn't know me or my life I suppose I should explain. He is amazing and that is quite literally the best/only way to put it. He puts up with me (which is no easy task: anyone who has ever argued with me can vouch for that) and he loves me. We met a while back and it's kinda been awesome ever since, I can't see myself with anyone else. He makes me laugh on my worst days and listens when I am making absolutely no sense and even helped edit my dissertation. I couldn't ask for a better man, mainly because there isn't one.

But you see he's not here with me yet. He's going to move out here eventually and I know then it will be amazing and well worth the wait. Right now sucks though. It's Skype conversations where we get interrupted half a dozen times and phone calls and texts. And I shouldn't be complaining because even with the interruptions Skype is a wonderful thing and it's not his fault it's just what happens because he has to Skype me while he's at work but...it sucks. I love him more than anything and we've always been a long distance relationship but this is different, it's so much farther. Instead of counting hours until I get to see him it's months or weeks. I can handle that too but I miss the little things so much.

I miss riding in the car and holding hands. I miss the way when he smiles at me with that I love you look in his eyes he has a parenthesis on his left cheek. I miss the feeling of his hand in mine. I could go on forever.

I love South Dakota and the people and my little town here. But lying in bed wearing one of his nerdy t-shirts sprayed with the last of his cologne I managed to swipe curled up with the stuffed animal he bought me when we first started dating, I really really miss him.