Word From The Homefront

It has now been 4 weeks (tomorrow) since Ryan moved to Casper, Wyoming. Trust me, I would have liked to have posted something before now, but life has been a tab bit chaotic. The separation has been... a roller coaster of emotions I would say. The first week wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, but I believe that was mostly because it hadn't sunk in yet. It felt like he was just working a double, or on a scouting trip, or something like that. Nights were (and are) the hardest. Especially on Dodger. That first night I couldn't convince Dodger to come to bed. He always waits up for Ryan. I physically had to pick him up, close and lock the hallway door, carry him to bed and try to convince him to stay. He immediately ran to the hallway door, began to scratch it, and whined softly. "I'm sorry bud," I told him, "Dad's not coming home." It's been a rough transition. But every time I have found myself pouting, or feeling sorry for myself, I have just had to give myself a little reminder: At least I have Pierscen, Dodger, AND both families. Ryan is totally alone in an apt that is almost completely bare. I have no room to complain at all. But that being said, I miss him more than I can find words for. It gets boring. And very lonely. And I cry, a lot. To be blunt, it sucks. I am grateful that I have had a billion things to do, or else this would be infinitely worse. 


That being said... what does Ryan think of his new city and job? He loves it. He is loving his job. He is learning something new everyday - which is a big plus for him. The first week he was basically just studying, a lot like his internship with the Utah County Health Dept. That first week was meant to bring him up to speed on Wyoming codes and laws and refresh his memory. The next three weeks are shadowing weeks where he gets to follow his coworkers around to the various inspections. After that he has a week or two where they shadow him, and then he is on his own. Since he has been out there, they have inspected restaurants, gas stations, pools, school cafeterias, day cares, septic systems and more. He is currently working with a company that is wanting to open a restaurant there to make sure their building plans are all up to code before they start. Each time I talk to him I learn something new too. His job entails way more than I imagined and I know it's only scratching the surface. 


He says it is windy out there, but it hasn't been too bad. The first Friday came around and he wasn't sure if he was going to go fishing the next day. I was flabbergasted by this. I mean, the fishing is one of the things he has been looking forward to most. Fishing gear was one of the absolute must haves on his list of things he was taking in the Highlander. I asked him how he could even consider not going, and his response was that he felt kind of guilty about it. He felt like he had abandoned us and it just didn't seem right for him to be off playing while I was home in another state with the baby. Though grateful to hear that he cares, I told him it would be ridiculous if he didn't go. He was out there for our sake. He is starting his career! One that will hopefully allow me to be mommy. So that was all just silly nonsense. 


The next morning I received the following picture:

An 18 inch Rainbow trout. I couldn't stop smiling. We chatted a few times during his fishing adventure, but at one point he said,


"Ah! I gotta go! It's a big one!" I was really happy he decided to go. He loves fishing. As he was leaving, a guy down the shore from him wished him "better luck next time" meaning better luck catching the "big" ones. ?! For Utah, that thing is huge! But apparently, 18 inches is just a baby out there. :)


Ryan called me later to explain why fishing in Wyoming was so much better than Utah. He said that there are three huge reservoirs within about and hour of Casper, but unlike Utah where you have a ton of people overfishing the same couple of locations, Wyoming doesn't have the population to do much "damage" to the fish numbers there. The reservoirs are stocked, but the fish are also able to reproduce in a healthy manner and sustain the population. 


To put it in perspective, (and this I did not know until this conversation with him,) did you know that Wyoming is the least populated state in the union? Wait - hold that thought. Wyoming is ranked 52nd. That's right. 52nd. That means there are territories of the US of A that are more populated than the state of Wyoming. What the what?!?! Utah County has a population of 516,564 (2010 census). Half a million people in just Utah County. The state of Wyoming has 563,626. The entire STATE only out populates Utah County by about 50,000. It's no wonder he loves it out there! It's no wonder the fishing is amazing!


The next Saturday was even better.  

24 inch Rainbow.

26 inch "Cutbow" - Cutthroat/Rainbow hybrid.

I think he said this Cutbow was a personal record for him. But it was also a moral dilemma. You see, Ryan loves fishing - as previously mentioned. But he very rarely keeps them. Typically only when camping and it is meant to be the evening meal. When he is just out fishing for the day, he always flattens the barb on the hook so that he can do Catch and Release without much effort. However, since the Cutbow is a hybrid, it won't reproduce. (Kind of like a mule.) So this big, beautiful fish will just be out there in the water, eating the smaller fish, and giving nothing in return. What to do? I told him the only reasonable thing to do was keep him. Ryan's nature wanted to put him back, give him a chance to grow even more so he would be that much more fun to catch in the future. But that would mean releasing him to pick on the "purebred" fish and not giving anything in return.

In the end, he pulled a *Traci.

About a week and a half after he left, we both set up Skype and he gave me a virtual tour of our new place. It looked pretty nice. A lot more space than I had expected from our one bed/one bath. The bedroom is a good size and has at least 3 electrical outlets. :) This may seem like a silly thing to take note of, but our current place is the worst for outlets! The bedroom and kitchen both only have one and it makes life really hard! Haha. The kitchen has great counter space and tons of cupboards. YEAH!!! Again - our current kitchen is majorly lacking. The only counter space I have consists of about 6 inches in front of the microwave. Not even kidding. And cupboards? What cupboards? Anyway... I am really excited about that. The kitchen has a half wall that opens up into the living room. There is also a big walk-in closet, (not actually in the bedroom,) two pantry size closets, a coat closet and the closet in the bedroom. I was really happy about the storage space. 

Although the separation has been really hard on both of us, it is a relief to know that Ryan loves his job and is really happy with the area. It is going to be really hard to be away from family, but like they say, you grow where you are planted, and this is definitely where we need to be.

*A few years ago, Ryan and I took Ryan's niece Traci fishing. We were doing Catch and Release like always, but one particular trout was having a difficult time recovering. We put it in a shallow rock area to recover, but it kept going belly up. We tried and tried to get it to recoup, but it wasn't looking good. We explained this to Traci. She looked at the fish thoughtfully, then announced, "I'll be right back." She turned and walked a few feet away behind some bushes where we saw her kneel down, bow her head, and begin to pray. Ryan and I looked at each other and said in unison, "It's going to live!" Whether that fish was going to make it or not, we planned on releasing it somewhere downstream where it would look like it swam off and lived happily ever after. Traci returned a minute later with a resolute look on her face. "Let's eat it!!!" she shouted. Ryan and I burst into laughter. Neither of us could have guessed that would be her response. We thought for sure her little heart would pray in earnest that the little fish would live. I guess I can't say what she prayed for, but she got the answer right. That fish definitely would not have made it. So we kept it, and it made a good little dinner.