NYE

TODAY IS THE DAY WE FINALLY GET OUR STUFF!

We're on our way now to go get it all, then we're off to a party at Allison's to ring in the new year with some new friends. Hope you all have a safe and fabulous night!

Friends

On our second night here, Matt invited his female coworkers to dinner to meet me so I could potentially make some new friends. Unfortunately, since it was last minute, only a couple were able to make it, so he invited some of his male coworkers as well. We all had an absolute blast! My friend Leisha, who also works for Matt's company but whom I've known for about a year and a half, came with us, as did Matt's coworker, Allison, who is a sweetheart, and really funny! She's highly into fitness and I think I'm going to take a few yoga classes from her once we are settled.

At the Christmas party, Matt introduced me to one of the girls that couldn't make it to the dinner, Alicia, and we also hit it off right away. Tonight, we went to see the last installment of the Hobbit and then for drinks and apps at the Williston Brewing Company with her and her boyfriend, Sheldon. I'm looking forward to hanging out with both of them soon!

UHaul

The thing about moving to a tiny town in the middle of nowhere North Dakota is that most places either don't have the capabilities or the location to make a move easy. For example, there isn't a UHaul location in Williston, the closest one is an hour away in Watford City. In some ways, using them was our only option. We went with renting UPods (much like PODS but owned by UHaul) instead of renting a moving truck primarily because of the weather. Packing was a pain in the ass, we barely got what we did get in there to fit, the rest went in our cars, and in our friend's pickup. Ultimately, we ended up here with our suitcases, boxes with some of our clothes, my work files, two patio chairs, and our spices. For the past the three weeks, that all we've had to work with. Our stuff was supposed to arrive here on the 21st, but when I called on the 22nd, it still hadn't left Colorado. Needless to say, I was furious. Christmas was great because we made it great, but I had all these plans to make it amazing and, at the very least, sleep in my own bed. Today is the 27th, and we STILL don't have our stuff. At this point, I doubt we will have it by New Years, and I have to say, that really upsets me. At this point we are getting a $50 a day refund for every day they are late, but honestly I don't want to pay for the delivery at all since they have been so unacceptably late and rude when dealing with us. However, I will wait to make a further ruckus until AFTER we have our things.

I miss my bed.

Christmas in the Bakken

This was the first Christmas I'd ever had away from my family, and though I was sad to be without them,  we did get to Skype, and ultimately, Christmas alone with my husband was a day for the books. We had a wonderful, indulgent breakfast of eggs, bacon, and mimosas (a Christmas day specialty) and lounged around in our pajamas watching all of our favorite holiday movies under our Christmas tree in a makeshift blanket fort. Some of our choices included Dennis the Menace, Ernest Saves Christmas, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Clause, Home Alone... to name just a few!

While we were watching Dennis the Menace, Matt noticed that a particular shot of Dennis' neighbor, the three-year-old who helps him cheat while playing hide-and-seek with the neighbors, Gunther, bared a certain resemblance to Jennifer Aniston. I didn't exactly agree, but its sort of funny nonetheless...

Though our Christmas wasn't what we are used to, I think the day unfolded quite well. Hope your Christmas was as wonderful as ours! Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

An Oilfield Company Christmas

The oilfield is an incredibly interesting place. It's one of those "you don't know unless you know" type of places and yet I'm having a blast so far. Matt's company Christmas party was basically more of a sit-down dinner dodgeball tournament, and was so much fun! Though I didn't play, there were about 15 teams that played against each other in a double elimination, one that Matt's team was so very close to winning! Even though they may not have one the actual tournament, it seemed as though they won the entire night, showing up in costumes as "Revenge of the Nerds" wearing their FR (fire-retardant) shirts, suspenders, bowties, and high socks. If they had glasses, they put tape in the middle to add to the effect. It was wholly classic and amazingly funny. Here's Matt dressed up in his costume (yes, I added the Santa hat, which made it all the better as a Christmas costume, I think).

We also had an incredible dinner pre-dodgeball, complete with prime rib, green beans, shrimp alfredo, au gratin potatoes, caesar salad, and garlic bread. It was so much I still had an entire meal on my plate when I was stuffed to the max. Its too bad I couldn't box it or wrap it... that would have been an amazing lunch and an even better substitute to the diet of sandwiches, salads, soups, cereal, cottage cheese, and the occasional restaurant meal I've been eating for the last two weeks. Our stuff was supposed to arrive yesterday (Sunday the 21st) however, as of today was still sitting in Colorado. More on that later... I'm still too angry at UHaul to hash it out right now. Off to plan a one-pot Christmas...

Happy Christmas, Merry Birthday

Thursday was Matt's birthday. He's not usually into his birthday, which probably may have something to do with it being right around Christmas, though he may not admit it. Then again I don't want to put words in his mouth, so.... I'm not going to. Normally I'm a terrible gift-giver, especially if its a gift bought under pressure. Birthdays! Christmas! Both! It's enough to make anyone not the best gift-giver. In the past I have been guilty of every single one of the aforementioned "Ways to Annoy Someone with a Christmas Birthday", but this year I was only guilty of #1.

This year, I bought him four gifts... two for his birthday, and two for Christmas. So far only one has arrived from Amazon, so it looks like I'll be guilty of the holiday paper birthday gift wrap at least one more time.

To make his birthday even better, I decided to get together with one of his coworker/friends and get as many of his coworkers and friends together that I could for a surprise dinner at the local hibachi restaurant, Sakura, It was a major hit! No one even mentioned Christmas nor said "it must be a bummer to have a birthday around Christmas." The food was amazing and the company, even better. The chefs insisted on giving Matt an amazing amount of sake via squirt bottle... squirting it into his mouth and counting the seconds until he couldn't take any more, and they did that about 6 times, much to the amusement of his friends and myself. I don't think I've laughed with that much gusto in the longest time. All in all, I think it's safe to say that Matt had a great birthday that wasn't at all a "Birthmas".

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...

Christmas in North Dakota is a bit different than the Christmases I'm used to back home. There aren't any poinsettias (in the places I've been to at least, which I'll admit aren't that many yet), light-lined streets or a big Christmas tree in the park...but there is snow. I LOVE SNOW. Snow is incredible. It's as though everything changes when it snows, you get that certain holiday feeling about life even if it isn't quite Christmas yet. Another reason that this Christmas will be different is that its the first Christmas I have ever spent away from my family. My husband is my family now too though, so I'm not entirely without. This will be the first Christmas we will get to spend fully together, so I'm going to choose to look at the positives.

My biggest goal regarding Christmas in ND was that I absolutely HAD TO HAVE a Christmas tree. Unfortunately, by the time we got up here, all the real ones were already sold, and where on earth do you buy ornaments for your first adult Christmas anyway!? Walmart it is! I bought a pre-lit 6.5 foot tree for about $40 today (not half bad if I do say so myself), two extra strands of lights (still not enough lights if I'm being entirely honest) and about 100 some odd gold (yes, over half of them are gold glitter, if I'm again being entirely honest) ornaments. It turned out quite beautiful. It's not my mom's tree, but it's a start.

My husband, bless him, doesn't particularly like putting up Christmas trees. I, however, did so wearing a Santa hat. He did help me more than his fair share though, twisting wire into ornament hooks since the Williston Walmart (or what I like to call WillyMart - such fun! - [see: Miranda on Hulu and you'll get what I mean]) ran completely out of hooks. 6,000 ornaments without any hooks! "Manager, your inventory planning skills could use some work, please and thank you."

So, thus begins our Christmas in the Bakken.

Florida ---> Colorado ---> North Dakota

2,539 miles. That's how far we've traveled to get where we are today. Our original journey to our apartment in Denver was the longest. 1,835 miles of open road lay before us to get there, which we embarked on only two weeks into our marriage. That place became our home for the first 10 months. Our next move, to Louisville, CO, was in April, a mere 26.6 miles away (or 45.8mi if you were forced to take the route I needed to in order to get to work on time). This last move, to North Dakota, was an additional 684 miles give or take to get to.

So, in the year and half we've been married, we've lived in two states, and in three different apartments, all because I am an oilfield wife (OFW) married to an oilfield man (OFM). I'm incredibly proud of my OFM, because since he started with the company that originally moved us to Denver, he has had two promotions in so many years. During our time in the Denver/Boulder area, we were able to make many friends and go on an incredible amount of adventures including hiking a few 14ers and going on the Royal Gorge Railroad.

Our life starts anew here in Williston, North Dakota, a fresh start ahead with many more adventures to come over the next two years. This will be the story of all of our adventures in the Bakken. Stay tuned...