See the world, they said.

I am in a near-complete stranger's house. I don't even remember-- wait, it's Tony.

Nate, one of the new teammates, went to college in Fort Collins, Colorado. We'd spent a few days in Fort Collins taking chainsaw classes and then Nate asked if anyone wanted to stay the weekend with his friends. And so, here some of us are.

We played a most sinister drinking game, whereupon I yet again reaffirmed that I, unlike many of my peers, have a pretty good idea of when to call it quits. Like, say, before you start demanding your head be shaved into a mohawk by a fellow drunkard. Nate now has a very sloppy mohawk that's kind of an off-center wedge that looks nothing like the Chuck Liddell mohawk he demanded. I socialized a little before talking to Kat, using the internet, and falling asleep on the couch with the laptop on my chest.

On my last team Americorps did not feel like living life. I was in New Orleans, for God's sake, and I felt stagnant. It was suffocatingly controlled, mechanized, automated. Funny how just a change of leaders can make it so much better. Garrett and Chris were sad to see me go, and ever since they've said that they miss me, but that they're also jealous I got out when I did-- Carmella's stricter than ever, they say, and some of their new members to replace the ones who were booted off are a little infuriating. My new team leader, Coby, is the most laid-back guy around; when I told him I scraped the truck on a rock he just gave an amused half-smile and said "You'll probably lose your driving priveleges but that's all. It's no big deal. Don't worry about it."

But here, we live in a firefighting bunkhouse. We hike through the mountains and light bonfires and cut and stack brush and logs for a living. At the end of a workday, we look out over peaks bristling with pine trees, dusted in snow; sometimes fog rolls in over the tops of the peaks and the peaks turn indefinite. Opportunities are afforded that I would not otherwise have. Staying with new friends in their friends' houses, doors opened to us, partying at night.

I'm eating pancakes and sipping on a White Russian.

It's been a good month.