whoa

seriously. mark this day.  i have never seen juneau's forecast look like this.

NO days with rain??!?  what?  

FIVE days with sun?!?!  

hmm...wonder if blogging about it jinxes it.

i did it!

(drum roll please....)

that's right, ladies & gentlemen.  tonight i started the first ever fire i have ever started on my own.  yes!!  i think i helped plenty of 5th grade boys & girls do this at camp one summer, but it always seemed like my directions helped them do a much better job than i ever did! 

and let me just tell you, the picture does not do this beauty justice.

(and yes, greg is out of town:).  when did i become such a stereotype!?)

thank you

between heather and chris, i have been introduced to "the 'blog' of 'unnecessary' quotation marks."  

sometimes its actually painful to read too much of at once.  

i recommend: read in small doses.

dillingham: redux & some time warp

so check it.  i get to go back to dillingham tomorrow.  its a much shorter trip (just sunday-tuesday) and there won't be any winter camping on the tundra, but i still get to stay with the hoopers & maybe catch a rousing game of "settlers of catan!" wahoo!

its been a blast to be able to travel all over alaska.  but i do sort of feel like all that travel in january & february made me feel like the cut & paste feature on my computer.  like, i can't really believe its the end of march in juneau.  the snow is mostly gone from downtown--what?!?!  and i feel like its still the middle of winter. feels like my birthday should be right around the corner instead already a month in the past.

its like i entered a time-warp in bush alaska.  which, i guess, may be an entirely appropriate way to feel out there.  its a different world; different than anything i've ever known or visited (sidenote: i love the distinction in spanish between conocer and saber.  in this case, both apply). people are kind and warm, but know i am an Outsider.  they welcome me into their lives, but we only talk about school and kids and the village--public domain things.  i guess that's how it should be. but it feels nonetheless isolating--like i've been cut& paste into a world that doesn't know me while the world i do know ticks on. 

a reference

see my recent commentary on easter triduum here.

st. paddy's day!

so!  in celebration of st. patrick's day (not really...), my sister kelly & i bought our plane tickets to Shannon, Ireland. we're going to spend 10 days on the west coast, biking around, checking out the aran islands, exploring the land of our ancient ancestors.  

kelly feels confident we'll blend in...hmmm...

i'm excited to have a fun plan on the horizon.  trip planning.  gotta love it.

rainy day

it's totally a rainy day here in juneau.  rainy rainy. 

it makes my whole body slow down.  my legs, my fingers, my brain.  its like the water seeps into my whole being and makes me chug.  

rain doesn't always make me feel like this, so its funny when it does.  sometimes it energizes me and makes me feel like i can take on the world.  other times it feels like i can sustain in it so easily because rainy-ness asks so little of me. and then other times, like today, it swells over me and all i can do is tread water.  

rain rain.  i guess that's why they call it a rainforest.