Stubby Legs, Big Night

Dry Cleaning Was Not Budgeted For

Cuds already eyeing the cocktail menu. Snugs is reading something important. Nobody is waiting patiently.

The thing about being a plushie is that nobody asks if you want to go outside. You just get picked up, tucked under an arm, and suddenly you’re downtown Missoula in March, hoping your seams hold. But Cuds and I had a date at SakeTome, and some things are worth the logistics.

Photographing sushi with the energy of a food critic who also just won the lottery.

SakeTome does this thing where the whole room feels like it’s inside a cherry blossom, lights strung everywhere, pale pink blooms cascading from the ceiling like they grew there on purpose. I had my cocktail, garnished with a little dried orange slice because of course it was. I sat there turning pages like I was reviewing important documents, which felt right.

Here’s the thing about stubby plushie legs: the walk downtown is genuinely a project. And yes, dry cleaning is required afterward, which is both undignified and somewhat expensive. The return trip was... let’s say ambitious.

Team Cuds and Snugs

But we made it home. Settled in. Pulled up F1 TV for Practice 1 of the season opener, two worn-out plushies on the couch with sushi still somewhere in the memory of the evening.

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March 11th’s Wild Swings

March 11th seems to specialize in outdoor adventures that don’t go as planned, from frozen fingers and angry legs to 30-hour endurance tests and spring’s impassable trails. Yet across two decades of posts, the date reveals something valuable: the real victory isn’t conquering the mountain but simply refusing to surrender, finding glimmers of freedom even when circumstances trap us. Read more…