Day 146, Pads

Day 145, Getting High

Day 144, Missoula Rabble, Ian

I feel lucky to call this guy my tattoo artist. Ian was once a middle school teacher, but now he is one of Missoula's most well known tattoo artists. He has only been tattooing for the past few years but his art looks like that of a seasoned veteran. He's an inspiration, committed, and very passionate about his craft. Ian is heavily tattooed so I asked him how it all started. "It's a lot like when you are shopping for clothes and you find something that fits," he said. "I feel like tattooing is the culture I most identify with. I like the way tattoos look." I asked Ian what he likes most about his profession. "I really like the infinite potential it has for progression," he said. "I like the pressure of it and people having expectations that you can make the best possible piece of art you can."

Day 143, Missoula Rabble, Miguel

Miguel came to Missoula by Greyhound to study civil engineering. I got right down to it with Miguel. I asked him what's most important to him right now. "To share everything," he said. I asked what he meant by that. "It feels like a rising component in my life," he said. "I sense change on a large scale. In this life." I asked him to explain this even more to me. He laughed and told me he also minors in astronomy. "I know what's going on in the stars and it's not a pretty sight," he said. "I better my eyesight and sharpen my telescope and share as much as I can."

Day 142, Missoula Rabble, Ashlee

Ashlee wants to design video games when she gets older. "I'm kind of a nerd," she said. She loves playing Xbox, watching anime, and reading Mango, an online reader application with all the Japanese comics a fan can enjoy. "I grew up with my older brothers watching anime and playing video games," she said. "I've been playing basically since I was born." Ashlee plans to design a character for a video game for her senior thesis. I asked her why she wants to design video games. "The thought of bringing people joy with video games makes me happy," she said.

Day 141, Missoula Rabble, Tina

Tina was trying to make ends meet before she decided to join the army. She was attending school and held three jobs while taking care of her 2-year-old daughter. "I'd had enough," she said. "It was an escape." She went to Afghanistan for one year and she could go back at any point because of her contract. I asked her what it was like in Afghanistan. "You're expecting the worst possible thing in the world. You're expecting hell," she said. "When I got there I found people in general were normal people just trying to make it day to day."

Day 140, Missoula Rabble, James

James, 22, has been sober for five months. James told me he totaled his car last May and made the decision to quit drinking and doing drugs. "I almost died," he said. He said his dad died back in December and it has been a rough time for him. I asked how his life has changed since he became sober. "My whole life has changed," he said. "Spiritually and in positive ways. I like who I am now." Go James.

Day 139, Missoula Rabble, Dustin

Dustin has a different kind of guys night he likes to call "nerd fest." One night a week he and his friends sit down at a table decorated with computers, cards, maps, and books for a little game called Dungeons and Dragons. "It's just like poker night or a fantasy football league," he said. "You hang out with your friends, drink some beers, and have a good time." He played back in middle school and decided to reintroduce the game back into his life about a year and a half ago. "It's a good exercise in creativity and critical thinking," he said. "Someone comes up with an idea for a story and gets everyone else to help him write it." I asked Dustin one of the reasons why he likes D & D. "You get to be the opposite of who you are," he said. "I'm obviously a scrawny dude and I get to play a big, burly dude."

Day 138, Missoula Rabble, Debbie and Izzy

Debbie and Izzy, a Great Dane, are about the same size. Izzy was pulling Debbie around a trail when I stopped to say hello. "She's actually my granddaughter," Debbie said. Her daughter is a navy pilot currently deployed in Bahrain. While she is gone Debbie takes care of Izzy. I asked Debbie about her daughter's job. "She is just a little Missoula girl who got this in her system and went for it," she said. Her daughter flies a P3 Orien. "It's a big jet the size of a 737," she said. I asked Debbie what it's like having a daughter in the military and away from home. "It has been hard," she said. "I have to let that go and know she's doing what she loves and support her."

Day 137, Missoula Rabble, Diane

We all stand for something. Diane stands for 40 days straight, twice a year in the fall and spring, for her beliefs on abortion. She is the prayer vigil coordinator for 40 Days for Life, an international pro-life campaign. "It brings a lot of people together who care for the baby and the mother," she said. I asked Diane what she believes the 40 days campaign does for women conflicted about abortion. "We are offering help to help raise a child," she said. "So many people have a pain from abortion. They don't have to. We give them information they didn't have before and give them a chance to have a family."

Day 136, Missoula Rabble, Doug

Doug, 74, is a retired civil engineer. I asked him if he had any goals or plans in the immediate future. "Continuing to enjoy life," he said. "Lots of people don't have that opportunity. They're too busy working." He gave me a list of what he thinks will make a person happy:

1. Personal health
2. Partner in life
3. "Some material things you can enjoy so you're not living hand to foot."
4. Social life
5. Philosophy

"Just don't make it too complicated," he said.

Day 135, Missoula Rabble, Adam

Adam is going away tomorrow to try to make it in the big city with the big dogs. He's moving to Los Angeles, a place he's never visited. "I have a huge security blanket here," he said. "It's a necessary evil for my career at this point. My soul belongs in Missoula." Adam has worked as an editor for television for years and he has some big ideas. One being a "Game of Thrones" type series on the Lewis and Clark expedition. He talks about it a lot if you've ever met him. It really is a great idea. "I'd love to pitch a multi-part series to HBO or Showtime about the Lewis and Clark expedition," he said. "This area is a pivotal moment of that entire journey. It happened basically yesterday." I asked him why he thinks it would be good for television. "It took them three years," he said. "People died, there was kidnapping, rape, love. Everything to make a good Hollywood feature."

Day 134, Missoula Rabble, Zane and Kennett

Zane, left, and Kennett claimed to be brothers when I approached them. I didn't believe them. Zane explained. "He was raised in a white home and I was raised in a native home," he said. "We grew up from the same environment. The same home." Zane and Kennett, 18, were raised in and out of group homes most of their youth. They met when they were thirteen. "We adopted each other," Zane said. I asked Kennett what it was like growing up in group homes. "It's a tough life. You have to learn to do things you don't want to do," he said. "It's like having a normal parent, but I didn't know what that was like."

Day 133, Missoula Rabble, Emma

Emma asks the question that so many of us do who live in Missoula and received our college degrees. "How can I make it work here?" She graduated with a degree in archaeology but doesn't think she will pursue a profession in that field. "I thought it was going to be some sort of Indiana Jones thing, but it isn't like that," she said. "In reality it's working for oil and pipeline companies." Her passion is traveling and other cultures. "[I like] learning how to go somewhere else, not imposing your ideas, and respecting the way people live," she said. "While traveling, you can see how good people really are."

Day 132, Missoula Rabble, Katharina

Katharina saves lives and empowers souls of women and children everyday. She is the domestic violence program manager at the YWCA. She helps women and their families leave abusive homes when they may not have the power or courage to do it on their own. "Everybody has a right to live a violence free life," she said. "Being able to be there for someone who is going through that process is a privelage." I asked her how she got into this field of work. "These are issues that happen everywhere, no matter where you go," she said. "Women's issues are important to me." I asked her what she has learned the most from the women and families she has worked with over the years. "Sometimes it may take [a woman] years to leave, maybe they never will," she said. "They're the expert in their life. I'll support them when they're ready to leave."

Day 131, Missoula Rabble, Luke

Missoula Rabble, Luke just got back from Germany where he spent a year working as a nanny, or au pair. "I spent my twenty-forth birthday with a bunch of eight-year-olds singing happy birthday to me in German," Luke said. He said he spent it hiking with the Boy Scout troop of one of the boys he watched because he didn't know anyone that well yet. I asked Luke what he learned after being a nanny for two boys for a year. "I realized how much of a parent I'm not," he said. "I have a hard enough time taking care of myself. I don't think I could have a dog right now." He told me being a nanny made him reevaluate his immediate future goals as a twenty-something in his generation. "It's a reevaluation of the life that you've been living," he said. "It's like running a race that never ends."

Day 130, Missoula Rabble, Gary

Missoula Rabble, I spent 8 years in band and 7 years in marching band so I have a tendency to geek out at the Homecoming Parade every year since I graduated. Today I chased down my high school band instructor, Gary, while he led the Sentinel High School marching band in the parade this morning. He's been teaching music to kids for 39 years. "It's fun making music with kids," he said. "It gives them a chance to express themselves." Gary is an amazing instructor, teacher, and person. He's one of the few reasons I enjoyed high school. I always felt like he genuinely cared about his students. I asked him about that. "I try to bring humanity," he said. "Not every kid gets the same things as other kids. I'm sensitive to that." I asked Gary what's in it for him. "For the most part they just need loving attention and nurturing," he said. "I get more than what the kids get out of it, that's for sure."

Day 129, Missoula Rabble, Dominic and Odette

Missoula Rabble, I saw Dominic and his daughter, Odette, walking hand in hand through one of the grass medians on Pine St. I found it cutely strange. I approached them. Odette immediately informed me she was here to be a flower girl tomorrow. I asked Dominic what they were doing at the moment. "I wanted to show her what a boulevard is," he said. They were slowly making their way to a friend's home for a rehearsal dinner for a wedding they are attending this weekend. I asked them both what they most like about Missoula. "I think Missoula is the best city in the country and I think The Kettlehouse is the best brewery in the country," Dominic said. Odette's thoughts? "I like the merry-go-round because it goes in circles."

Day 128, Missoula Rabble, Sean

Missoula Rabble, Sean is a self-titled "baristo" at The Break Espresso and a self-titled "mugician" outside of work. "I coined the term," he said. He told me a mugician is a mixture between a musician and a magician. I asked him what it means to be a mugician. "It's using music as a tool to do everything in life like traveling and touching people's lives," he said. "That's where the magic happens."

Day 127, Missoula Rabble, Nate

Missoula Rabble, Nate has music in the blood. "I wouldn't know what it wasn't like to have musicians around," he said. "In some ways that's how you succeed in my family. By how well you play music. In some ways." Nate grew up with a singing father, a music teacher mother, and three younger musically talented sisters. "My sisters and I learned to sing harmony together," he said. I asked him what it was like growing up with three sisters. "I had no physical recourse," he said. "It was really easy for them to terrorize me. We got along well, though." Nate's playing tonight at the Top Hat with his band Cash For Junkers. I asked him which instrument he played. "The electric guitar really lights me up right now. People know me as a mandolin player," he said. "If it has strings on it, I can figure it out."