nearly three months...and winter

As I walked on the airport loop after church, I thought about how almost three months ago I was being driven on this very same loop to what was going to be my apartment. In some ways, I could hardly believe it's only been three months. With the weekend potlucks, surprise parties, dates, visits, new people arriving and work (especially work), time has flown by and I imagine it to be somewhere around end of the March instead of nearly mid-December. But here I am, crunching through half an inch of snow, looking at the clear, blue sky broken up with mountains and muskeg trees. No doubt, it is winter.

I finally feel like I am getting a grasp of what my job is and what I do. With the job comes new things almost constantly, so it is almost like waiting for something new to overwhelm me. However, it shouldn't overwhelm me as much as it did in the beginning. Feeling more confident about what I am doing helps, too.

It is definitely winter in that the sun rises while I walk to work and it is dark by 3:30 pm. We have been fortunate to see some amazing sunrises, sunsets and just plain sun during the day. However, the thing about it getting dark so early is that you're about ready to take a nap when you get home from work and would just rather stay home when you get there. December 21st is the winter solstice and nearly everywhere I go, lately, someone is talking about it. Keeping hope for when those longer days return.

Another sign of winter is running the heater all of the time. I do not have heat other than the electric heaters in my apartment. After receiving my November electric bill, I realized just how much it takes to run these heaters. Since then, I decided to keep them on low over night so they don't have to work as hard in the morning or in the evening when I am home. Perhaps I'll see a decrease in my bill next month? I'm hoping so. I briefly considered moving, but with my rent as low as it is, it does make more sense to stay here and pay the higher heat bill than move elsewhere by myself.

Ryan sent me some photos from when I visited him a few weeks ago. Following is a goober-tastic photo of myself in Ryan's snowshoes in our trek through the Homestead Trail:



I hope to do some more snoeshoeing sometime soon.

What has helped with the darkness lately is having better lighting at home. I purchased one of those rice paper lamps (online) and set it up in my apartment this week. Its glow lights up the room, but is much softer and gives the apartment a more home-like feel. Settling in seems to be an ongoing process, even when you think you're done.