Orange You Glad I Said

I'm eating oranges on my birthday, on my last day of vacation before the semester begins (kind of). The sun is shining a little brighter every day and I'm about ready to hang my grandfather's clock above the piano.

AK is a wonderful place full of all kinds of interesting adventures. I'm attending school at UAA, and have recently (finally) decided to major in math. Carey has a great job teaching in the anchorage school district and after years in the cooking profession, I'm ready for the steadiness and great hours (vacation too) of teaching - probably high school.

We bought a house last Spring/Summer, I spent the whole summer on a new ASC yacht (last year for that probably), and jumped right back into school. Before summer was over, Carey and I spent my two week vacation together in Juneau, ferry hopping to Petersburg for a week, then Sitka for a night (or two?). In Petersburg we were greeted by friends who took us fishing (in the rain no less). After a whole day, each of us had caught a beautiful fresh Halibut. Carey took the prize with her approx. 108 lb Halibut, which Nathan and Trinity helped us haul home and clean, eventually sending us the meat via Alaska Airlines (video of the catch is currently available on Carey's Myspace page). Petersburg is nothing if not quiet (other than fish noises). Sitka has a to-die-for restaurant - nuff said.

I like long walks on the beach and cozy campfires.

I'm taking piano lessons so I can get decent enough to play in front of people, was on the UAA debate team but have since quit that (maybe resume to a limited degree soon); I'm assistant coach to the East High DDF (debate, drama, and forensics) team which is way more hoot-hooty than I thought it would be.

We miss family and friends in the lower 48, but Anchorage has been very good for me. It's easier to find yourself when you isolate yourself a bit, but you also feel guilty for leaving other people out of your life, as much as you'd like to be around them all the time. We've made more than a couple new friends up here who we will be in contact with even if we move back to Oregon/Washington (which we plan to do in about, oh...2 more years I'd say roughly).

I've been into cooking sushi a bit, and I just got a slow cooker/crock-pot that I'll be delving into (thanks Dad). The slow cooker is some Euro- somting or another and has a two chambered insert that allows you to use it to keep two seperate buffet items hot, like a chaffing dish. Very exciting for the rag-tag get togethers we've been hosting for random (mostly teacher) friends who we invite over for holidays and poker nights and what-not. Really just an excuse to cook for people - it's hard to keep "the skills" in working polish when just cooking for Carey and me.

Alaska is fascinating, and home prices are steady (though gas prices are crazy - diesel esp. like 3.59 or some s*($, but we use regular which is about 2.3something I think, maybe 2.5). On a walk with the dog the other night, just around the block, his feet got so cold that he just wanted to stop. It must have been at least ten below zero, and I had to cajole/drag him along behind me - a very unusual position for our big black lab. The liberal talk radio station KUDO is great too. There's tons of crusty strange people who have radical takes on life - similar to Oregon, but not nearly so mellow and touchy feely. To be fair, it isn't too much different, except that Alaska is bush-country (not Bush country). Despite this, there is very little beating around the bush, and more just going straight for it. Anchorage doesn't have a very broad progressive/green community, or doesn't seem to - lots of Independent parties and an old guard of Alaskan separatists (though I'm still checking on this). Then there's the whole Palin thing...

I got a job as a Supplemental Instruction Leader (study group coordinator/leader) for a Calculus class at UAA. I'm excited to be paid to go to class for once - not that I'm economically motivated, but even at 9.50 an hour, the perceived value of any commodity goes up when someone starts paying you for acquiring it. I'm trying to get a job at the campus paper too, but we'll see.

Carey likes teaching and has been warming up to the debate thing. She has many loyal fans among the students owing to her high expectations, candid communication, and interpersonal enthusiasm. I think she mostly likes being the boss, but who knows. Either way, she has had many marvelous success stories credited to her name since joining with the Anchorage School District.

Buddy on the other hand is just idling until the good days coming in the latter part of this Spring, when spittle and breath vapors don't freeze to your fur moments after they hit the air. Also, his view out of our big living room windows is obstructed by a mostly permanent layer of ice coating the interior, and only melting a little bit on top when the sun blares into it for a few hours. We're in process of making giant curtains to hang in those big windows; the fabric is awesome and we can't wait to see it done. Between that and replacing the windows someday, we hope to keep our house a little warmer next winter than it has been during this cold spell.

Our favorite things lately, other than laying in the afternoon sun on the couch and dreaming about seventy degrees, have been: our organic produce box every other Wednesday from Full Circle Farms, the hoarfrost on the trees, Payday + Costco, video games, regular games, the internet, and Babylon 5 DVD's. And Buddy of course, and friends near and far. Music, art, writing, and self-guided study distract me in phases and ebbs - I am ever the undergraduate 'absent-minded professor'.

I met a man this summer fondly referred to as "Old Goat." His spanish is way better than mine and we enjoyed many conversations together; he told tales of pyrotechnics at Burning Man that he worked on, Alice in Chains Allison Krauss and a slew of 70's psychadelic rock band members he's known or ran security for, and long yarns about the Bohemian struggles of the formerly unpopular borough of Fremont in Seattle where he's been actively involved since the Seventies. -except when he was living in Mexico which is a whole other story.

All things being equal, Carey is well and I am well. The glasses are half full and progress is being made. We're dreaming of some kids and a hobby farm in the Coastal or Cascade regions of Oregon, Washington, (Northern California...Italy...Vancouver...)

Well, even though there's many other wizard things to discuss, I'm going to get moving here - it's getting cold even in my pajamas.