Moving to the Reservation

So today was the big day: the day I moved to the reservation. This morning I woke up in Hood River and had breakfast with Dustin and Pickle at the Riverside Grill. After breakfast I said goodbye to Dustin (sadface) because he was heading back to Seattle then I drove up to my parents’ house before leaving for Pendleton. I hadn’t heard back from the woman who was in charge of my housing here yet, but decided I needed to take my chances and start the drive out here anyway with the mindset that worse case scenario I could rent a cheap hotel room in Pendleton for the night and figure out my housing tomorrow when I go to work at the tribal government building.

I was pretty emo during my drive out here. I was feeling super anxious about the move and the fact that I hadn’t yet heard from the woman in charge of my housing. The drive was almost exactly two hours from Hood River. It was really pretty too which made me feel a little better. When I finally got out here I stopped in Pendleton for gas and the gas attendant gave me directions to the “town” of Mission – where I’m living. I drove past the casino and then past the tribal Government building where I’ll be working. Then I came to the Mission Market and saw the trailer park. I’m not going to lie, my first thought was “OMG this is ghetto!” After that I decided to drive back to the Casino to use the bathroom and waste some time until (a) my family arrived – they were just about an hour behind me, or (b) the housing woman called me back. Luckily after using the casino restroom I got a phone call complete with directions to my new trailer. They basically consisted of: turn right at the stop sign by mission market, take the first left and it’s the second trailer in on the left. She also told me that the door would be unlocked and the key hidden inside. I was so relieved to get that call. But when I got to my trailer the door wasn’t unlocked. Bummer. But it was easily remedied by a phone call and a five minute wait that ended in a cleaning woman coming to my house to open the door. Then finally I was in.

I brought my things inside and started to unpack as I waited for my family to get here. When they finally got here my brother kept talking about how ghetto my new place is and my mom kept hinting that she is basically convinced I’m going to get murdered here. But when they were here we discovered that not only do I have an old, nasty window air conditioner in the broken closet in the spare room, but I also have central air conditioning: win. I’m going to need it this summer since I’m basically in the Oregon desert.

After I unpacked a little and my family had a look around we went to the Wildhorse Casino. I’m not really a gambler (my mom and dad and brother go to the casino together, but I always pass up the opportunities – there are other things I’d rather do with the little money I have ha). But my dad gave me $20 to gamble with today because he wanted me to have a good time. He and I sat down at the roulette table (it’s like the only thing I know how to play) and slowly but surely my chip pile started to grow. My dad lost some money and decided to get up and go play something else. I stayed and for a while I was the only person playing. But after about an hour I had won $32.75. I tried to give my dad back his $20 but he wouldn’t take it, so I was feeling pretty good with a little over $50 in my pocket. My dad then bought us all dinner at the buffet. It wasn’t the most amazing dinner, but it was pretty good considering it was from an all you can eat buffet at a casino. After that my family decided that they wanted to do a little more gambling. I however, was done, so I said goodbye to them and headed to Pendleton to go to Wal Mart to spend my roulette winnings on some sheets (Dustin gave me a pair of his old sheets and his old comforter, but the sheets were for a full size bed and wouldn’t fit on the Queen size bed they furnished me). I also bought an iron and a mini ironing board (because grown ups iron their work clothes before wearing them haha – also I don’t have a washer/dryer here and my first day of work, grown up clothes were really wrinkled).

After Wal Mart I came back to my trailer, popped a Harry Potter movie Dustin gave me from the trunk of his car this morning into my old laptop (which is doubling as my TV for the summer), and ironed my outfit for tomorrow while I waited for my family to stop by to say goodbye before heading home. They just finally stopped a few minutes ago, told me again that they were worried about me, I assured them that it would be fine and they left.

Now I’m super tired and I have to leave for work in a little more than 8 hours, so I should probably go to sleep soon. I have to admit though, I am a little nervous to spend my first night here alone and I kind of wish Dustin or someone were here with me for moral support, but like I assured my family: I’m sure everything will be fine.

Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of everything (I’m too tired tonight – this day feels a million years long)! Get excited everyone!