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In 1995 I got my wish. When I was 16 my mother, brother and I moved to the Oregon Coast. I loved it! At one point we were 15 minutes walk from the sand dunes, one of my favorite places in the world. We lived near Coos Bay and the area of the sand dunes I was near was seldom visited except around holidays. I could go out to the top of the dune and look around, for as far as the eye could see sand stretched out to the North and almost as far to the West. Past the West sand was the never ending ocean. To the South and East was more sand and trees hiding the city and houses. I was usually the only one out there, I could stand on the top of the hill, with the wind blowing in my face, sand brushing against my legs, and the world was mine. It was a great stress reliever. I miss it very much.
The ocean was another favorite place of mine. Though it took me an hour and 15 minutes to walk to it (I did it once just to prove I could), it was only 10 minutes to drive to the nearest beach. There were many beaches along there, I've been to all of them. My favorite is Shore Acres. There is a beautiful victorian garden there with many kinds of flowers, including lots of roses and a pond. At Christmas time they would put up lights and decorate the whole thing. It was so beautiful! I loved to walk along the shore acre cliffs, it was my favorite thing to do. It's the most beautiful place I have ever been to.
We lived there for 2 1/2 years and then moved to Colorado.
At first I hated it, I had no friends and missed Oregon, the beach, the
rain, the dunes, my friends there. But then, as time went on, as I made
friends, and found the most awesome church I've
ever been to, as I saw more and more of the land, I grew to love it. I did go visit the Great Sand Dunes and quickly decided they weren't so great. Though they were very high, the highest one was about 5 times the height of the highest one where I lived, or more, standing at the top I could see all of the dunes. Beyond that is flat monotonous land.
What I loved about Colorado were the mountains overlooking the city, the Garden of the Gods with rocks to climb and take pictures of, the back areas where we went 4 wheeling in beautiful country, downtown Springs with the beautiful Victorian houses, the wonderful summer thunder storms and rain. My friends and my church.
After living there for a year, some of the greatest time of my life, before moving to a tiny town about an hour drive from Billings, Montana. I thought it was bad when we moved to CO! Billings is the biggest city in MT with a population of 100,000. That is scary! I'm a city girl at heart all though I do love the country I like to have access to big cities and Billings does not qualify.
We were only in Montana a few months when my mother went into the hospital with cancer. Those were the worst months of my life. Watching my mother lying in the hospital, very ill, barely alive, not knowing if she was going to live or die, was more than I could bear. I think back to that, and I just have to take a deep breath and sigh with relief. Now, she's home, she is alive, happy, and very close to being well. I don't know what's going to happen with her... she still will probably live at least 5 more years. Ouch. That is a frightening thought. She's 46 1/2 years old. Probably 5 more years. I pray to God she lives to see my children. I need her.
I have lived here in Billings since August 1999. I have lived in Montana since March before that. My heart longs for Oregon and New Life. My heart longs for me to be able to form strong friendships here. I am working on it and am finally feeling like I fit in and belong here, but it's a hard and slow process. I missed Colorado and Oregon so much it hurt until I went back to Colorado for two weeks vacation. Then I realized that I had fallen in love with Montana. I loved Billings. I love the friendliness of the people, the low crime rate. It's a slower, calmer city. Now that I have gotten used to it, I really love it. It's big enough to have a walmart supercenter and a mall, but small enough to be a neat little place. I love it here in summmer, it's so beautiful. Not as much as Oregon, but as much or more so than Colorado. I love the rims too. They're great for rock climbing!
I don't know if we're going to move again or where we're going to be. I don't really care. I just want to stay in one place. Grow roots and not have them ripped up. Make friends and strengthen them. Learn to settle down and have a life. That is one of my greatest dreams.
I also like to do things on my computer, play on-line games like Chess and Poker, or play Minesweeper or Hearts off my hard drive. I also spend time making graphics and new web pages, or just drawing pictures. I like to surf the Internet to learn more about whatever subject I'm currently interested in.
I spend a lot of time reading, often I will read one thick book (like the Fields of Bannockburn or the Redwall series books) a little at a time while reading several small books (like the Chronicles of Narnia or The Black Stallion) at the same time when I get tired of the thick ones.
I also like to write my own stories. I have many great stories in my mind I have tried to put on paper, but I lose paitience with them. So I write short stories and poems and many letters by e-mail and by snail mail. I also do a fair amount of sketching and every now and them some painting.
The other things I do a lot of are go for walks and hang around with my friends, stargazing or sitting in a restaurant talking, swing dancing, bowling, skating or whatever.
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