Dog Mushing!!

I know that there are people out there who abhor this saying so I'll proceed with caution..

"THINGS HAPPEN FOR A REASON!!!"

I'm serious. Like I've said before I'm not the most religiously devout human being on the planet, but I just know that things in the mysterious universe line up for some mostly unknown reasons. As I mentioned last week I met a really nice Dad and his son at the Unitarian church who invited me to come help out on weekends that I'm up in Anchorage. Well I received an e-mail from him asking if I would help him out with the kiddos out in Seward for a little adventure/get away while their Mom was in a training.

They practice what they call the Alaska Aloha. Basically, taking things step by step and not rushing around to get things done. It's a lot how I live. Just going with the flow. It hasn't always been this way. As most people know I used to be an up-tight, schedule stickler who panicked if anything deviated from the plan. Being here, working with kids and last minute changes has semi forced me into being a much more flexible, easy going sort of gal.

We met at the sea life center, i.e. the aquarium. It was a neat building with all sorts of exhibits on various aquatic animals, plants and birds. The kids got to pet star fish and other invertebrates whose names I can't remember. There was also an out door viewing area to watch the different birds. Short and stubby ones, ones who looked like penguins but weren't and ones with long orange pointy beaks. Although the best exhibit was downstairs. There was an ADORABLE harbor seal that wasn't very old. The little girl went running from side to side and the seal would follow her. Any time she would wave her hands the seal would do the same motion. Even in a crowd of kids he would pick her out. It was heart warming. We also saw these ginormous sea lions. In all the books I've read and pictures I've seen, I never realized just how HUGE these things were.

Afterwards we drove over to the little beach house cabin that we would be staying at. It was charming and quaint and even though it was small the kids had fun exploring and playing in the upstairs bedroom. I hung out with the munchkins while the Dad drove to find the beach. Then we swapped and I drove the short distance down the road. This is what I saw:

I'm usually pretty good with words, but this left me speechless. What is there to say when you are surrounded by the crispest blue water, glistening white snow topped mountains, dogs running down the beach and little babies toddling in the sand. It's a moment in your life that moves something down deep in your soul. Being a Midwesterner through and through you'd think I'd find peace amongst mooing animals and corn cobs. However, there's something so settling, that grounds you about being surrounded by mountains. It's a feeling that's hard to explain. I felt the same way when I was down visiting in North Carolina. 

We eventually coaxed the kids to come out with us, so we bundled them up in their snow gear and headed out. We put on these fancy back packs to carry the kids down to the beach. It was sort of an odd feeling having a little 2 year old on my back. They had fun meeting all the puppies that were romping on the beach and splashing in the waves. 

Back at the house I cooked up a quick simple meal for everyone and had my first lesson in wine tasting. I've never drunk it because I never knew what I was doing. It was fun having a "tour guide" of red wine country. It has this deep, aromatic feeling that lingers on your tongue like a fingerprint. 

After everything was washed up we headed over to Millers Landing to explore the beach on the other end for a while. The tide was out and we spotted a sea otter bobbing in and out of the waves. We took deep inhalations of the fresh air and just took a moment to appreciate the sheer simplicity of Mother Natures beauty. 

The next morning I watched the little shrimps while the Dad went for a run. He came back and announced that the beach was a whole new setting ready for exploration. So we strapped the kids into their packs and off we went. Indeed, the tide had gone out and there was more beach to explore. The weather was gorgeous, save for the wind nipping at our cheeks. We headed over for a patch of rocks that jutted out into the water. Little clam shells crunched under our feet and slippery rocks lay across the black sandy shores. There is honestly no better way to spend your Sunday morning than plopping down on a rock, sunshine on your face and watching two adorable kids collect sea shells and dig in the sand. Tranquility and harmony all wrapped up into one harmonious package. 

We took the long(er) way back to the cabin to take in more fresh mountain air. For having a 30 pound, 2 year old strapped to my back I felt pretty confident about my sore shoulders and wobbly thighs. Back at the cabin we fixed lunch and lounged about a bit. Then it was off to docks to explore boats, drive around town a bit and finally off to the Seavey's place for dog mushing. 

I haven't really grasped the whole reasoning behind the sport of dog mushing. I mean I understand it's logistical purposes of pulling people and things across vast spaces to get from point A to B, but the concept of it as a sport is odd. It's also odd to think that there are dogs pulling you in a sled. Very odd. Very fun, but very odd. The Iditarod is a huge race here in Alaska where mushers compete in a week long trek, where trains of dogs pull the musher and his sled thousands of miles. Well Dallas Seavey won and was the youngest person ever to do so. The place where the dogs were trained was our destination. Our guide was not a Seavey, but none the less. If I do say so myself, he was pretty cute. :)

The plan was for me to take one of the kiddos in my sled and the other would ride with their Dad in the whip sled behind us. Well it turned out that the little girl wanted to drive the sled with her Dad , so I was alone to enjoy the scenery. There is nothing quite like being pulled by 10 beautiful dogs, wind whipping at your cheeks and being surrounded by mountains and tall spiny trees. It was breath taking. Once in a life time. Soul changing moment. 

After that it was back home. Driving in the sunset. Listening to the same CD for the thirtieth time. Peaceful in the moment. Smiling at how funny the universe can be some times...

Learning the Lindy and other Alaskan Spring Break Adventures

OK so I took a vacation. The end. Oh wait you would like some details? Ohh alright.... :)

Well I was given a pretty short notice about having time off....don't get me wrong I love my family and I love the idea of having time off. But you have to realize I live in a very sleepy town that is pretty much in hibernation until the summer. So spending an entire week here was out of the question. Also going going anywhere was also out of the question. Well I put my little noggin to work and formulated a plan. Monday through Wednesday I would spend in Homer. Thursday I had a docs appt and then would cook up some ready to go meals. Then Friday through Sunday I would go up to Anchorage. I don't usually get butterflies about trips but I was giddy to leave.

The drive up down to Homer was gorgeous, mountains peeking out from behind the trees and tiny ramshackle cottages along the road. I got there a little earlier than planned so I drove around the tiny town aimlessly and took a few shots. I was early for my...massage. Yup, I treated myself to a massage. In Homer there is this long stretch of road called the 'spit'. It juts out into the harbor and in surrounded by all the fishermen's boats and all along the road are little shops and restaurants. Since I came in the off season most everything was boarded up. The Lands End hotel sits on the very end of the road and inside is a wonderful spa where the gorgeous water surrounds you. The massage was sensual and relaxing and just what my sore body needed.

The Driftwood Inn where I was staying was located in the older part of town, where things were actually open. I was a short hop and a skip away from the beach, shops and restaurants. For dinner I walked down the road to Fat Olives and had a huge veggie salad and bowl of warm soup and then treated myself to chocolate cake. After tucking my left overs away I called my Papa Bear and walked over to the beach to enjoy the sunset.

The next morning peeling back the curtains, my windows had iced over and the sky was gloomy like a bowl of mushroom soup. I lounged about in my warm covers like a soggy potato not wanting to move. I finally did drag myself up and out and over to the Two Sisters bakery where I brought back to my room a warm sticky caramel roll and cold apple juice.

After indulging like royalty I drove up the road up onto to the bluff to enjoy the foggy scenery. I was also planning on finding a hiking spot but the nature center was buried so high in snow I could barely find the entrance. So,I settled for taking some pictures and driving aimlessly. Back on the mainland I perused the little shops that sold high end winter gear, jams and jellies, fudge and more moose paraphernalia than I can count.

My belly was rumbling so I walked over to Maura's for warm soup and a cold veggie sandwich. I walked around town some more, visiting consignment shops, getting nasty looks from book store owners and chatting with a nice docent at the Island visitors center. The center has a couple of trails and they connect to the beach near my hotel. So I walked off on what was suppose to be a pier across the frozen tundra and back up the road to my room.

So there's this famous saloon on the spit called the Salty dog that apparently anyone who is visiting Homer has to visit. Well my friend B isn't 21 yet so I figured if we ever come back I won't have a chance to see what all the fuss is about. So there I was the only girl in a dim bar surrounded by big burly fishermen. Internally I was laughing hysterically at the sight of us. This out of towner kept peppering me with questions in the "I'm trying to be nice and make small talk" way. Michael texted me and gave me a reason to head home for a skype chat.

The following morning the sky was no clearer than the day before but I dragged myself out of bed, zipped up the suitcases and checked out of the historic little Inn. I wrote in my journal, surrounded by damp air in the bakery, nibbling on a muffin and listening to the conversations taking place around me.

I drove back up the bluff to the nature center and met up with a grad student, a wiry older woman and our hiking guide for a snow shoe hike. Well, let me just tell you that there was more than five feet of compacted snow under our feet. Signs that are normally at your eye level I was now peering down upon. I kept telling my lungs and my legs to hold strong and they didn't fail me. I'm super glad I was with a guide because the few trails that were marked out were barely visible and we had to fight like jungle ninjas through all of the branches that kept smacking our cheeks. We finally made it to some old cabins that had seen better days.
Snapshots taken,deep breaths inhaled and we were back to the beginning.

Being a smart cookie like I am I found that the Pratt museum was open for free that day. The little building was chalk filled with stories of Alaskan homesteaders, I even found one with Michael's last name on an original map. My favorite was flipping through the photo albums of the pictures from the early 1900's. The nice docent from yesterday was sitting in a downstairs room with some fish tanks and I was really only half listening as she rattled off the names of all the different species. The following room had a huge exhibit of the Exxon Valdez spill from the late 80's/early 90's. The photography is what amazed me the most. I stopped at the Cosmic kitchen to fill my falafel quota and feeling perky, headed home.

Well, you already heard about the disaster that was Thursday. The horrible diagnosis at the doctors office and the being rescued by the state trooper after being locked out. Well, after that misfire I was pretty determined to stay home and sulk. Thankfully I have some awesome friends who convinced me to go out and live. So, I booked my hotel in down town Anchorage despite the bad reviews and convinced myself this was the right decision.

See, in Alaska going anywhere between towns isn't exactly rocket science. There's pretty much just one road to take and you just have to watch for a T intersection to stay on that same road and then be careful of mountain goats, bears, avalanches and falling rocks. After the driving record I'd had being the passenger with D and our heart stopping snowy adventure I was more than nervous about making the trek through the mountains by myself for the the first time.



It was the opposite of problematic. It was sunny and gorgeous and the mountains glimmered in every which direction. The problem came when I got into town and got turned around for a good hour. I seriously blame the google map directions and all of the one way streets in Anchorage. I don't know what all the fuss was about. The hotel that I was staying at was perfectly fine. The parking was a little annoying but the accommodations were just fine.

I was going to meet a friend at a dance lesson when I panicked that I didn't have any good flat shoes with me. Apparently not having had a social life for the past 5 months and living in cold weather convinced me that all I needed was my boots and hiking shoes. So I sped walked like a mad man to the mall up the road and raced through Payless trying to find shoes. Now, my friend Julie who has endured shoe shopping with me will tell you I'm not easy to please in terms of foot fashion. But darn it all, I found shoes, paid and hoofed it home in about 20 minutes flat.

The dance lesson was such a blast. We learned the swing style of the Lindy Hop. Now, mind you I have two left feet but even this clumsy goofy ball made it through the steps. We stood in a big circle and after learning the moves the guys rotated around and we swung to the music. The lesson was over and it was time to dance. Or in my case stand around awkwardly. A couple of nice guys asked for my hand to dance and we stood off to the side and bee bopped to the tunes. My friend showed me some moves and gave me a spin around the dance floor. Afterwards we headed over to Mad Myrna's for a drag show. And not the kind with tractors. I may be offending someone when I say this but guys in drag can be sooo damn hot.

Anyhoo the next day I didn't leave my bed until 1 p.m. And it was F A B U L O U S.

I drove over to Earthquake park to learn about the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake that ravaged Alaska. I took a brief hike and snapped some shots before I began to freeze and headed back for the down town museum.

So I probably shouldn't admit this here but I still have my NIU card and totally used it to get a discount at the museum. (In all fairness I put the difference in the coffer at church the next morning.) It was a four story building with rooms with gorgeous paintings of Mt. McKinley, photographs of Indian tribes and their costume dresses, exhibits of life in Alaska, paintings by hikers who can obviously paint and summit at the same time, blown glass and videos of Alaskan native tribes.

My favorite by far and away was called, AFTER. It was done by a photographer who captured images of mountaineers after completing their summit. The stark white background so beautifully captured the raw pain in their eyes and the sore chapped lips and cheeks. It was a look at pure human emotion, unfiltered, raw and in a way hauntingly beautiful.

After the museum I wandered around downtown and checked out a little St. Patricks day bazzar, called my Papa bear and then became a dreaded mall rat. Y'know it's kinda funny how people don't really notice me, I sort fade into the background. Which is great because I can sit back comfortably and do a great deal of people watching. There was the typical teenager posse, the way too young teen parents, old folks getting their excerise, the man weariing Prada looking too nice to be here and the mom trottnig behind her teenage sons so they can look somewhat cool even though mom is holding the purse strings and all the bags. I indulged in the necessary mall food of a pretzel and fruit smoothie and bought a steal of a white sweater.

I wore said sweater out to Taproot. A local bar/hang out for bands and the like. My friend invited me out to hear his friends band play. It was a gypsy rock sort of show. It was good music just didn't fit in the mood of the drunk St. Patty's day crowd. I ate a watery yet good thai style salad and then we split a heavenly piece of chocolate cake. Later an Irish band played and some local Irish school dancers performed to raucous cheers from the crowd. The music was finally blending in with it's audience.

My friend invited me to breakfast the next morning before we parted ways for our separate churches. We met at one of my favorite places to eat in Anchorage, the Middle Way Cafe. I enjoyed delicious vegan multigrain pancakes and fresh fruit. We read the news paper together then bid adieu and promised to see each other again soon.

I've visited a few Unitarian churches, a few in Illinois and one in North Carolina. Since I knew there was one in Anchorage I figured no better time than the present to go. It wasn't a traditional service. It was led by the lay leaders and the theme was poetry. They were all a little mixed up on the order of the service and several times audience members had to politely shout out where we were in the order of buisness. It had the traditional reading of annoucements, the lightining of the chalice and the introductory welcoming song. I internally groaned at the thought of 11 people reading poetry. You see Unitarians can be long winded. At the introduction of visitors portion I nervously spewed out that while I was living in Kenai I was really from Chicago. Everyone sorta ooed and then I sat down. The poetry turned out to be a lovely collection of self written and famous poet readings. I'm not an overly religious type but I do enjoy the sense of community and the moral teachings and philosophical thinkings.

After the service a nice gentlemen and his extremely well behaved two year old approached me. He was/is a psychiatrist at a local facility. He asked where I had stayed, I informed him, he asked what I was in Kenai for, I explained and then he asked if I'd be interested in coming back up some weekend to watch his kiddos for a few hours in exchange for staying at their place. Of course I said YES! I was thrilled. I know most people hate this saying but I'm a firm believer in things happening for a reason. I really am.

So, I drove back home with the gorgeous pearly white mountains glittering in all directions. Feeling happy and fulfilled..until the shock of reality set back in on Monday morning...but all in all one of the best springs breaks of my life. Truly.

Always carry keys in your pocket...

....and check your humility at the door.  I promise I'll get to telling you about my RnR trip to Homer but that's going to have to wait until later. Right now I need to vent/laugh/cry/curl in a ball/ scream about my day today. So for those of you who don't know one of the reasons I came to Alaska was to get away from the grind of my old job. I used to work as an intake coordinator at a large community mental health center. We served a lot of un-funded, low income clients. Not all but a good majority. Day in and day out I had to tell people that there was very little funding available to them and they might not get all the services they need/deserved.

Today I was put in their shoes.

It was humbling.

So with out going into the details I had to make an appt at the low income women's health care clinic. I'm a tough cookie but a week of being in pain was enough. After filling out the obligatory forms and chatting with the receptionist I was told that I qualified for a reduction in payment for my services. Good deal. Well I was talking to the aide in the office and she told me what I had come in for didn't qualify for state funding, that she didn't want me to pay a million dollars and that I could make an appt at the other low income clinic. At this point I burst into tears, told her I didn't care how much I had to pay, that I hadn't slept for days and that I just wanted to get this taken care of. It was humbling having the roles reversed. Not having insurance is a scary place to be.

OK so that wasn't fun at all. Well since I deal with stress by cooking I came home and started to make crockpot chili, burritos, stir fry, home made stock and cookies. Freezable dinners for when I need something fast. I'm still staring at the pile of dishes. Well to make the stock I needed to go out to the freezer in the garage to get my scrap veggies. So out I go and not back in did I not come.

I had successfully locked myself out.

Now the family was out for the day and I didn't have my phone on me, I'm in my pj's wearing just my slippers and a light jacket. Then a light bulb hit that not 5 minutes before I had made sure to lock the front door.

Of course.

So I go into McGiver mode and find my snow pants out in the car and the doctors boots out on the front porch. I found a key in the car and tried it on every door to no avail. All the sliding glass doors are locked and so are the windows within my reach.

Now mind you I live in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. The houses are pretty far apart where I live and I don't really/if at all know the neighbors. Also mind you I have asthma and it gets bad when I'm panicked and it's cold. Just picture in your head how I was/wasn't breathing.

I trudge off to the neighbors house, ring the bell four times and knock on the door. There is no one home. The next house down has a huge no trespassing gate up and the house past that has so much snow it doesn't look like any one has been home in months.

So like a rational person I start waving my hands like a crazy person. Thankfully the first truck barreling down the high way stops for me. It's this older guy and he starts moving his things over as if I'm a hitch-hiker. He's on the phone so I motion with my hand that I need to call someone. Long story short he drives me up the road and lets me call 911. Where I have to explain that I'm the idiot who locked herself out. And, yes the whole time I'm panicked that this nice guy is going to be an ax murderer.

Well the State Trooper shows up and he starts jamming his knife into all the locks, we have to trudge through all the snow since the gate is jammed and nothing is working. I'm muttering under my breath to have some divine intervention at this point. Next we move on to the windows, the first one is a no go and the second he's able to shimmy open. Now I have to climb onto his hands and barrel roll over the bed. I thank him profusely from the window and start calling my Dad to sob.

It's been a great day huh??

The burning situation

There really should be a support group for us live in au-pairs. Honestly.

Let me just paint a picture for you about where I live. The family has their bedrooms and great room up on the main level. My room is tucked neatly in the walk out basement behind the work out/TV area. I can still hear a lot of the "noise" from upstairs and it's usually a good indication of what's going on for the day/night.

Especially on weekends I don't like to intrude on their family time so I try and be as careful as possible not to interrupt their goings on. Well sometimes a girls got to eat ya know?? It's rather difficult when you are accustomed to going into the kitchen at 10:28 p.m. and whipping up a batch of brownies because you feel like it.

Anyway so I had some genius idea the other weekend to use up the last of my kale to make chips. So I'm prepping all the ingredients,  laid the kale out on the baking sheet, trying to go by memory on the oven temp and baking time. Stick the slimy mess into the inferno and walk over to the bay window to enjoy the view. I nearly peed my pants when I spun around and saw Dr. J snoring away on the couch. I tiptoed back over to the oven where a black plume is starting to arise....I panic...pull out the chips which are now black clouds of dust....push on the vent as high as humanly possible when the smoke alarm goes off...of course. This in turn wakes up Dr. J and I feel so ashamed I don't even know what to say. I can't even find the alarm to turn it off..I mumble something about green leaves and run for my room.

Yeah it happened again...come on ...this is me we're taking about...queen of awkward situations and looking like a baboon....

I remembered the girls mom telling me that they were going to go out for a movie this evening, so I waited until the house seemed quiet. I tip toed up the stairs, the lights were off and the dog was snoring on the couch. Well once again I almost died when I saw a blonde tuft of hair sticking out on the love seat snoozing away. Now I can't very well go and cook something but I'm hungry so I rip open the freezer praying that there is something in there that I can use. There are a couple of smushed together waffles I had made a few weeks back. It's going to have to do. Well there are two small ones and a big one but they don't all fit in the toaster. I get the little ones going first and go to warm up my syrup/applesauce concoction in the microwave. I start watching the numbers until just the right second to stop it from beeping obnoxiously. Phew one hurdle down. The little ones pop up and I put in the big one. I'm tapping my toes here waiting for this thing to be done...when I start to smell a burning aroma in the air. Crap. I quickly unplug the silly appliance and reach for a  fork to pull out the waffle. Just like your mother told you not to do...

This thing starts falling to pieces on me. I mean crumbling. So now I'm pulling waffle bits little by little out of the toaster, reaching for various utensils in some haphazard fashion. Praying the whole time the smoke alarm doesn't go off again. I finally give up and shake the whole stupid thing in to the sink and bolt...

See, we au-pairs need some serious therapy for traumas like this... :)

I saw the northern lights!!!

After a dry spell of about a week and me boring you to death I finally have exciting news!! I witnessed the Aurora Borealis tonight! This time I'm about 89% positive that it wasn't just city lights. My camera died and isn't strong enough in night shots to have captured it for you. So how do you ask did I come across this? Well my friend B texted me asking if I was free tonight....well having no life of course I was.

We were both wound up and giddy as children after eating birthday cake. Giggles and funny stories ensued in our drive around town. We ended up stopping at Sal's dinner. You see B is from the south and in the south they have this place called the Waffle House...essentially 24/hr breakfast. So when she found out that this place had similar qualities well let's just say the party had just begun. She ordered a giant plate of french toast and eggs and I teased her mercilessly about drizzling the whole concoction with sticky maple syrup. We also split a cinnamon roll that was the size of my head. Not that I needed to add to my carb load or anything....

Feeling mightly guilty about the amount of carbs that we ate we decided to head to Walmart to burn off the extra layers. On the way B looked up in the sky and noticed a green streak. Now given our track record from our previous attempt I wasn't entirely convinced. Pulling down the back country road and climbing out into the icy cold...sure enough...there was this magnificent dancing zig zag of blueish green in the sky. If I hadn't been so cold then I would have stayed out longer, but this is Alaska ya know. The view was absolutely stunning. 

We did laps at Walmart like old lady mall rats, bought taco fixings, mused about like minded nanny things and craned our necks at odd planter pots. Saw a moose inside a wire fence eating a protected tree and bee bopped our heads to Beyonce. All in all a great night.