Morocco Update:

Things just got more complicated. Just when I thought everything was set and all I had to do was ride out this summer.
I got my Financial Aid award letter from NDSU. They are going to give me $5,000 for each semester I will be in Morocco..which is about $10,000 short for the year. This is huge. If I can't get the loans I can't go. There is a possible solution though, but it involves me reducing my studies in Morocco to one semester.

1. MSU-Bozeman is giving me $2,000 for the first semester, which means I'd only have to come up with another $3,000 for the first semester.
2. I need two full years of a foreign language in order to get my double major. This is the main reason I wanted to do the full year in Morocco. It turns out that NDSU is going to be offering a second year of Arabic next year. I might be able to do my second half of my second year at NDSU after completing one semester in Morocco.
3. I need 10 weeks of study abroad for my double major. One semester would fulfill that requirement.

Phone calls must be made, people must be contacted. I have a lot to do the next couple days.
However, I feel like if I only do one semester in Morocco I'll be cheating myself out of a great experience. But I'll be saving myself alot of money.

I'm In A Mood.

It's not secret that I'm not happy about being in Williston anyway. I love the friends that I have here. I'm so happy that I've been able to spend an incredible amount of time with my mom and sister, Ben and Pete, and have been able to see other friends I haven't seen for years. But I just don't like this town. I figured that once I got a job it wouldn't be so bad, and I guess I JUST started working again, but I still really miss Fargo and my friends there.

The past couple of days I've been in one of my usual lonely, mopey funks. It's been hard being home because there's always people here, and when there are no people around I still have to look after Louise, who is VERY demanding. I'd like to just have a weekend all to myself. No phone calls. No text messages. No dog to take outside...who still refuses to poop for me. (bitch)

Good news is that I'll be in Fargo next weekend, and I already have plans to spend Friday night at the Legion. That should be fun. Just need to make sure that as many people as possible show up.

MY BOSS IS A GERMAN CARPENTER
(I thought it was funny)

I finally got a job...I think.
Starting tomorrow, I'll be working as a carpenter for my friends Corey's dad. It sounds like it will be super-exciting work. I've always enjoyed building things. The only problem is that the things I build are usually non-functioning and lack any sort of aesthetic quality.

I really hope things work our and this becomes my job for the summer. I'm going to get "orientated" tomorrow at 8am and will begin working on Monday.

In other news, Louise may be dead. I gave her a rawhide bone at 8:30am and I haven't seen her since. If you see a puppy that looks like this...

...and has a piece of rawhide protruding from her mouth-al region, please return her to me asap. thanks.

Week 3:

I should be keeping, at the very least, a weekly log of events and updates. I'm going to start doing my best, but for now I'm going to squeeze 3 weeks into one post.

The first week I pretty much played golf and put off applying for jobs. I finally put in a few applications on Friday and made some phone calls.

The second week was a little more interesting. Let's start with the end of the first week:

SATURDAY: I got a phone call at about noon. It was a man named James and he was calling on behalf of Kim's Lawn Service. There was no application to complete for this job...just a phone number...and an answering machine. So James calls and asks me if I want to work. He tells me that "the guy who was supposed to work today didn't show up..." He wanted me to work at that exact moment. I declined, but told him that I'd be ready to work by Monday.

MONDAY: James calls again at noon. The conversation goes as follows...
James: "Yea, is this Dennis..Doug...there...whatever your name is?"
Me: "This is Doug."
James: "Yea, this is James. Do you want to work?"
Me: "Sure."
James: "Where're you at?"
Me: "You mean where am I right now? Do you want me meet you somewhere?"
James: "yea, what's your address? We'll come pick you up."
I give him the address and he says he'll be right over. I should mention first that my sister had told me stories about Kim's. Apparently they pull up to a job with a pick-up and a horse trailer. 5 or 6 people jump out of the trailer with lawn mowers, they mow for 20 minutes, load up in the trailer, and move on to the next job. Efficient. Back to the story.
James tells me to watch for him. He'll be in a white Ford pick-up pulling a brown horse trailer. He wasn't lying. Fortunately I didn't have to ride in the horse trailer...although the smell couldn't have been much worse than the smell of the back seat of the truck.

TUESDAY: Just Read This

WEDNESDAY: Well if it's not one thing, it's another. I started the day staining my grandma's patio. I was a good time. She made me some burgers and fruit. Then I went to work mowing lawns. I proceeded to get a sunburn on the back of my calves, back of my neck, forearms, face, and nose. I was in pain, for the second day in a row. Fun summer thus far. I can't wait to see what happens next.

THURSDAY: I'm really getting bored of typing. I worked...aaaaallll day. Stained g'ma's patio from 10am until 2pm then mowed lawns until 10pm.

FRIDAY: This is where things get interesting. I had been planning for quite some time to go to Minot Friday evening to stay with Amanda, then we were going to Fargo Saturday to get tattoos and to see Band of Horses. So I was only going to work from 9am until 4 or 5pm....but...my boss was in jail...so I didn't have to work. She was arrested on charges of cruelty to animals. She has 50 dogs, 80 horses, and other livestock on her farm. They were underfed and forces to live in confined quarters. So needless to say I didn't have to work on Friday. So I left Williston at 7pm for MInot. Amanda and I got our drink on, met up with Tanuel, David, Sandy, and Ryan, got our drink on some more, and left for Fargo Saturday afternoon.

BANDOFHORSES: The show was really really really really really good. Mt. Egypt opened for Band of Horses and he was amazing. I bought one of his cd's. Band of Horses was also amazing. The only crappy thing is that at this point I had been battling a sore throat and this night was the height of my pain. People kept talking to me, and when you are at a show, there is not talking, just yelling...so by the end of the night I was miserable. I just wanted to sit back, sip on my Sprite, and enjoy the music. If my throat didn't hurt so bad I would have been all about the talking, but it just hurt too bad. So there I was, sitting down, being accused by Amanda as being a "Crab-ass" and listening to some great music.

SUNDAY: Amanda and I drove back to Minot after having lunch with my sister and some friends. My voice was almost completely gone, and chloroseptic spray does not work...at all...and it's gross...