Nome, AK airport

Nome, AK...its a less than beautiful day outside. Wind, snow...oh and lots of wind. One more leg until Unalakleet, but they are cancelling all sorts of flights. Hopefully things clear up in the next three hours or I maybe in Nome for awhile.
If only the cafe wasn't closed on Saturdays.
Meanwhile me and my four hours of sleep rested eyes are going to try and do some reading. Wish me luck!

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Unalakleet part one

I am offically on my way to Unalakleet, Alaska...sitting in the airport me missing my own house warming. Oh well. I am on my first major adventure for work! Meanwhile, I will sit here in the airport in a fire resistant coat listening to a woman who doesn't think her new headphones will work in her iPhone because they have the word ipod on the package. *rolls eyes*
It's going to be quite the trip, I can tell already...For better or worse.

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Mid-week update

While I would love to let you think that the last few days I have been off saving the world...I have not. I have had a bad migraine which basically consumes my soul. For those of you that get migraines, I know you understand what I mean.

Just to catch everyone up on the last few days, I have prepared a lovely outline of what I consider to be important events.

1. Kepler went to my parents house with us on Monday for dinner. Kepler apparnelty doesnt like cats...cats apparenlty dont like Kepler.

2. Two of my best friends have or already have had birthdays this week which means I have spent some sweet and oh soooooooo overdue girl time. Shopping, lunches and tea. Oh man. Its been amazing!

3. Also two of my friends got new jobs and another friend bought a new house right up the street!!! So many exciting thinigs happening in everyones lives. I am soo proud of them all! I think I have said, "CONGRATULATIONS!!" more times this week than any other. If this keeps up, I am just going to put a party hat into my bag and carry it around at all times. Never know when another joyous moment is going to pop up...and frankly, everyone should probably have a party hat in their bag, to be on the safe side.

4. My nephew caught a bird, in a bag, in his room. Enough said.

5. I am frantically trying to come up with a painting for an art show in Feb. The due date for submissions is Jan. 6 (my Momma's birthday!) and I have no idea how I think I am going to get this done on top of everything else. I am kinda hoping this is my Christmas miracle.

6. Currently I am in the the proccess of booking my frist trip to the North Slope for business....check out the photo from my post back in August. I imagine it will be quite different this time around...you know...completely dark and covered in snow. Deadhorse, AK in December, here I come!

7. The water at home has nitrates in it...which I believe to be a contributing factor to this wicked migraine...so I try and drink a bunch of water at work and super hydrate myself early in the day. However, this just means I feel like a water-logged piece of french toast...bloated to the point where I question my own bodies structural integrity.

Okay...well thats about it for now. Have as lovely of a day as this goat statue seems to be having. 

Christmas Joy

Its December 9th...and its really sinking in that I am really behind the ball on this whole Christmas thing. I was working on entering things into the database at work today and I kept typing "Christmas" instead of "Chris". *sigh* even my subconscious is stressed out....so today at lunch I hopped in the car, drove across town and on a mission to surprise Dan with a fresh wreath. Store one, no wreath...store two wreath, and by the time I was finished I had just enough time to drive back across town, find that my ninja puppy had escaped once again (apparently he is a climber), re-engineered his containment and got finished JUST in time to watch him take a poo by the door, which was of course exactly ten minutes before my super important teleconference with an unnamed big oil company and other state and federal agencies. *sigh...again* But I made it!

I will say today I started out kinda bummed out, stressed and frustrated, and then I had pretty constant stream of great talks with friends, family and lets be honest, I even had some good talks with the dog. Thank you everyone, whether you knew it at the time or not...all of you brought quite a bit of joy to this Christmas-procrastinator.

p.s. I didn't get to give Kepler his first bath yet (I told a few people this was on my agenda tonight)...there was painting going on in the garage and the last thing we needed was a soapy puppy in the paint can. This weekend however will be the epic first bath in the sink more on that to follow.

Escape artist

I dont get it. How can something so small be so smart? Kepler has managed to escape containment two days in a row. I think I am goign to have to get some concrete involved in order to keep that crazy dog in the kitchen.

 

I however, am not Kepler. I am not strong enough to move six times my body weight. Which leads me to my next point...I didn't go to the gym last night. I know I am huge failure.  I feel that sharing this with you will hold me accountable. I felt super guilty typing that sentence. I did get my gym clothes put on. (Real love by the way is standing outside at -30F in shorts waiting for a puppy to figure out the perfect spot to take a dump) That counts right?

 

We did however manage to save 300 dollars on a fridge by buying it yesterday and I finally convinced Dan to let me get him a smart phone which are both huge personal triumphs as far as I am concerned. Thats right folks Mr. My Plan-Is-To-Have-Free-Phones-Forever now has a nicer phone than I do. This very well could be a sign of the Armagedon so take note, you have been warned. So even if I didn't make it to the gym and my squish factor is increasing as we speak, and Dan had to clean up piles of puppy poo this morning...I gained some bonus points. To give the guy credit, for him...his sexy new android is still a free phone as far as his checking account is concerned. As for me, I will be reminding myself how much I love him on a monthly basis.

 

I have included a picture of me approximately one month ago wearing the same shorts in a much more appropriate climate...ahhh Thailand....

Back in the swing of things

 

Blogs are one of those things for me that are really great, in theory. "Oh, I will have plenty of time to get a blog running...and keep it beautiful, up to date and semi-interesting" is a statement I have thought more than once. Then there is this thing called life, and it keeps getting in the way of me spending more than four minutes on the computer when I come home from work. Not that life is a bad thing...no no no. Life is amazing! Its just hard to juggle life post-graduation, new job, trip to Thailand, new house, new puppy, Christmas AND a blog. So, my heart filled appologizes to my neglected blog. It is finally time, to get this show on the road. I need to document all these exciting things and get my act together...and the fact that it is roughtly -30F outside right now and all my desire to leave the comfort of sweatpants and hot tea to go outside in the world has left and probalby wont be back until temperatures come back above zero.

 

Things you will read about in the next few months will include...
1. How winter in Alaska and I have a very love-hate relationship. I am kinda like my new puppy..I LOVE to play in the snow but I also like to be able to feel my feet...and I prefer to pee inside when its below freezing.

2. No matter how cute something is...I dont want to clean its poo. Dear Kepler (new puppy)...I love you...but I can only deal with so many turds per day, and you sir are quickly reachinig your quota.

3. Remodeling in the new house. The house was built for a super tiny little woman in the eighties...I dont particulary care to feel like an old-lady giant when I have to use the restroom. Man those toilets are small! Lets face it...a girl can only  have so much orange-oak and brass in their home before they start to go crazy.

4. Hosting our first Christmas. Now that we have a new home, my parents and cousins will be joining us for a Christmas dinner at my house. No pressure...just a major holiday dinner for the family. Its December 7th and we dont even have a tree yet. Stay tuned to watch me as I frantically turn the old lady house into a winter wonderland. I am from North Pole, Alaska afterall...this should be second nature to me.
5. My new job. In the world of spill response I will be traveling all over Alaska to save the world...and hopefully learning a bit more about this great state while I am at it. How about if I dissapear again, instead of thinking that I am lazy, just assume I am off protecting the seals and children from a major environmental disaster...I like it better that way.
6. Trying to get back into peak physical condition. I am tired just thinking about goign to the gym later...its a rough way to get back on the fitness bandwagon. We were doing really well about getting to the gym before we had to pack/our vacation in Thailand/move into the house...and then we kinda stopped. So rest it up little triceps, you are in for a beating in about two hours. (which is conviently enough time for me to finish eating the cookies I packed to snack on today)

Alright. Back to work before I end up with a non-decorated old lady home filled with puppy poo between the unpacked boxes that I can't move with my flabby triceps.

Fresh Start

Here it is, the beginning of the school year and for the first time in 20 years I am not going. (Goodness that makes me feel old!) I have successfully finished my M.S. this summer and now am in fall awkwardly watching every else go back to school. So what did I do? I packed up my things for a weekend up North with Dan. I had dreams of all sorts of wonderful things while he was at work...knitting (forgot it at home), drawing, photography, berry picking...you name it and I was going to do it and enjoy every moment of my non-school attending freedom. However, a horrid migraine came in and stomped my face back into Suck-ville. So with the exception of a few excursions, such as a drive up to the official "North Slope" through Atigun Pass (Non-Alaskans, think Iceroad Truckers), I napped while Dan worked away. To be honest, its just what I needed.



So here it goes, my new life as a real, grown up. No more excuses, just me doing the things I want to, with the people I love. Hopefully this becomes a place where you can follow my creative en devours, my passion for travel and experience all things Alaskan with me. I want to hear your comments, share stories and hopefully use some of the advice that you provide.