Orange week

This week several students at UM took part in the Orange campaign to bring attention to the 1 in 20 children in Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS. 700 (1/20 of UM's students) orange shirts printed with ORPHAN were sold to students as a benefit for an orphanage in Kenya. The shirts have been worn all week to demonstrate the impact of AIDS on African children. It was really cool to be a part of this project that will make a difference in the lives of orphaned kids.

I have two days of class left to attend and then it will be finals week! Looks like I will survive the semester with my sanity intact :-) During break, I plan on going to the movies, listening to some audio books, attending a couple concerts and enjoying the holidays.

A few of the Pugs remain under the weather and hopefully with their antibiotics they will be feeling better soon. My Harley has been cuddling close to me the last few days and I'm glad that's comforting for her. Always makes me happy to hear their rhythmic snoring and snorting.

Winter continues it's welcoming grasp on Missoula. The campus is beautiful and it's peaceful strolling to class with light snow falling down. Sounds like the weather will be warming to the upper thirties, so I'm sure that will make things nice and messy outside.

I have some major edits for English to get back too but I wanted to get a brief update out before the weekend. Not sure if there will be another post before finals but we'll see.

Peace,

Mark

Let it snow!

Winter roared in with a fury last night and we now have over a foot of fluffy snow on the ground. There are many powerlines down around the area and luckily the power has stayed on at our place. I've included some pictures of what we woke up to this morning.

I'm another week closser to winter break and there's so much to do. My list includes: doing the final edits for my English Comp. portfolio, a Powerpoint presentation in Study Skills, and a research paper in Anthropology. Oh yeah I need to study for finals too :-) At least this work will keep me out of trouble! School has been an awesome experience and I'm looking forward to Spring semester.

I've had a little time to relax the past couple of weeks. We went to a performance of "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You" (a Missoula Reperatory Theatre production) a week or so ago. Sister Mary was a funny, smart satire of Catholic dogma that played to a full house. The cast was amazingly talented and I'm looking foward to the next production in February.

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and safe travels to those of you who will be traveling. We'll be hitting the road Thursday and driving out to Superior to spend the day with Dustin's family. Hopefully Mother Nature will cooperate for us. Til next week....

Peace,

Mark

Return of the Rocket Man

Elton John dazzled Missoula during homecoming weekend and unfortunately we weren’t able to get any tickets. When Elton left town, we were certain our only chance to see him had come and gone.

Recently it was announced that the Rocket Man would be playing an encore performance in Missoula this coming April. Tickets went on sale last Monday and again they quickly sold out. This time though we got lucky and managed to get tickets! We’re stoked about seeing Elton in concert and the long wait will be worth it.

School is starting to drag a bit and the pressure is definitely building. So much to do and 4 weeks to get it all accomplished. Oh well, it will make winter break that much more enjoyable. I got an A on my last exams in Study Skills and Mass Media. My Anthropology exam was last Tuesday and it was a killer. Fingers are crossed on that one.

I’ve started my research paper for English Comp. and it’s looking to be a pretty good challenge. I decided to write about the conglomeration of today’s media companies and how it’s negatively affecting Journalism. We’ll see how that works out :-)

My new trach is causing a few problems and we’re trying to get to the bottom of things. Hopefully it’s not new irritation but we’re giving it a few days before we go back to the doctor. I’m just hoping that we won’t be going back to square one.

That’s the news from the week gone by here in Big Sky country. Take care and have a great weekend!

Mark