transitions

After a whirlwind of a week finishing things up at my workplace, sorting and organizing all my things to get packed up, and last-chance festivities with my friends, I left Homer at 7:30 am Monday morning. It was a long long day of travel - Homer to Anchorage, Anchorage to Seattle, a long layover, Seattle to Sacremento, and a drive northeastward to Grass Valley, CA. I didn't arrive at my destination until 9:15 pm.

My final throw-down in Homer was a sledding party. It was fitting. I had to get my fill of winter in before heading south (which I haven't - I miss the snow!!), and it was fun and informal and I am going to miss these people terribly. I DO miss these people terribly.

I've came and left so many places in the past couple of years, leaving is really getting to be tiresome. Its emotionally draining - struggling to find your own place in a new place, and then having to let that go once you do. 

However, one thing I love about transitions is realizing what things you've gotten used to and take for granted.

The first thing I noticed as my grandpa (who picked me up) and I were leaving the Sacremento airport was how SHINY all the cars were!! Cars in Homer...are not shiny. And thats an understatement. I would say that a third of the cars are old beater station wagons - paint peeling, wheels rusting, the works; a third are pick up trucks; and the rest are a random amalgammation of well-used cars. Much of the roads in Homer are gravel, which means cars are MUDDY in the summer. In the fall and early winter, the roads are still wet enough that a wintry mix of slushy icey dirt coats the cars. Many have cracked windshields or crumpled bumpers from inintential trips into ditches. And I'm not trying to sound disparaging - it gives these old cars character. And its refreshing that people exist who don't buy a new car every 5 years.

Speaking of cars, I was absolutely floored by the price of gas here. The lowest I saw it on our drive up from the airport was $1.77 - In Homer, it was $3.56! I had no idea gas prices had dropped so much. And yes, everything is more expensive in Homer, but THAT much more expensive? Man.

Lastly, I forgot that removing your shoes upon entering a house is a particularly Alaskan habit. I never like wearing shoes unless I need to, so it wasn't a difficult habit for me to pick up, but now it almost feels sacreligious to walk around a house with shoes on. It makes sense up there though, for the same reason the cars are so dirty - in the summer, you would end up tracking mud everywhere, and in winter, snow. 

On a less relevant, but equally interesting note (at least I think so) - fun fact about my current location: We are right by the town of Rough and Ready. This is the foothills of the Sierra Nevada - the midst of gold country. Back in April of 1850, Rough and Ready seceded from the Union...Come July of that year however, the town residents realized that they would not be able to celebrate Independence Day, and subsequently rejoined. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This is my favorite holiday....

I'm a visual learner.

Dear neglected readers (who may or may not exist, I don't even know. But now is not the time for me to wax poetic on the narcissism of public blogging), I am back to commenting on politics.

I don't really feel like the subject is my forte, but like I've said before, it's been pretty fascinating to follow things from up here.

Mark Begich defeated Ted Stevens today for Alaska's spot in the US Senate.
First off, Ted Stevens is 85! I had NO IDEA he was that old. I'm pretty sure that's older than both my grandparents. And we were all concerned about McCain's age. And really, at 85, I would want to be relaxing and enjoying my old age. Not arguing legislation in our city's capital. So, maybe this is a good thing for him. The Anchorage Daily News quoted him saying:

"I haven't had a night's sleep for almost four months,"

"I've been living about three different lives, and it's hard to even answer your questions properly....I wouldn't wish what I've been through on anyone, (even) my worst enemy."

Um, yeah.

I know all my Alaskan friends are happy about this, if only to prove that not ALL Alaskans are voting for a CONVICTED FELON.

But anyways, the impetus for this post was actually this diagram. I was actually pretty surpised at how BLUE Alaska is. Granted, you have to think about population density, and how the vast majority of Alaskans live in south-central Alaska. But still. I thought it was cool.

That all being said, I'm southbound back to the Lower 48 in FIVE days. Which is a shame, because winter is just getting good (I went sledding under a full moon last weekend).

creativity

Two posts in one day! Pretend its because I'm trying to make up for those past empty weeks.

I'm taking a world poetry class at the college in town. There's kind of a long explanation to how I got in to that, but its not that important. One nice thing about Homer is that because it's such a transient place, they waive non-resident tuition fees.

At any rate, a poem I read for that class was the source of inspiration for this.

Poetry Was Like This

Poetry was a trail of footsteps along brick pathways

feet intentionally seeking out the crispy fallen leaves

to crunch and scatter.

It was trudging to class as the dawn was just breaking,

warm air exiting my mouth in a cloud of condensation

and my books clasped tightly to my chest,

as if I could learn by osmosis all those chapters I hadn’t read for lecture.

 

Poetry was the jolt of unexpected eye contact

across the room when I made a comment that sparked your highly particular intellect.

Poetry was every evening that I, alone, mindlessly completed problem sets,

            pencil stains along the side of my hand

                        eraser rubbings strewn across my desk,

all while my consciousness had taken off in the night to your apartment,

where you, alone, poured over syntax and imagery

            and I wished I was as creative as you were.

 

Poetry was a girl seeking reality in her fairytale,

who worked so hard to comprehend the mountains and the sky,

when the universe refused to be boxed up by chemical equations

and her handle of vocabulary lacked the phrases able to encapsulate the earth.

Poetry was longing for the esoteric,

            and the beauty of enigma,

because understanding is not a prerequisite for love.

November?!

Hello dear friends! I apologize for neglicting this journal. Its been a while. We actually haven't had much more snow since the last post, but it has stayed below freezing, so there's definitely some snow around. It's just nice that the weather is not dominated by rain all the time. Its cold, but its nice to have blue skies.

Last Thursday I took the GREs. I cannot TELL you how glad I am that those are over. I did fine - got a respectable score, but really, I'm just glad that my evenings are no longer consumed by learning vocabulary words and reviewing high school level math (hah, which I definitely had largely forgotten).

Yesterday the broomball group played out on the reservoir - the lake has been frozen for over a week and people have been ice skating a lot. I wish I had skates. But broomball was pretty fun. Usually we play at the indoor hockey rink.

On Saturday, my friend Catriona and I hosted the 3rd Homer Hash run. Since it was the day after Halloween, we called it the Hunger Halloween Homer Hash. Since we were the hosts, we had to set the trail - which meant we set off 10 minutes before everyone else and created a trail and hoped they wouldn't catch us. And they didn't! And actually half the group got lost. Haha, oops. But it was so fun, and the two of us dressed up. And then I got named. After you run 5 hashes, the group gives you a hash name. This was only my third, but they made an exception for me since I'll be gone before the 5th one happens. Hash names are traditionally extremely baudy and crude, and I think I slid by ok. Because my job here has to do with water testing, my hash name is now H2Ho. haha.


That second picture is part of "Religion" - at the end of the run, we all make accusations and toasts, and sing the "down down song" (which Catriona is holding up in the background). It was during this time that I got my name...Basically, its all extremely silly.

Friday was Halloween! Sadly, my camera died and I definitely don't have any pictures. But I ended up going to a costume party with Kyra and our friend Eva. They dressed as bees (which is appropriate because they jointly share/care for a honey bee hive), and I dressed as a panda. The party was ok, but similarly to high school prom, I had much more fun getting ready and dressing up then actually attending the event. I actually dipped out early to go to a scary move halloween sleepover at another friend's house. Thankfully, I managed to avoid legitimately scary movies (which I admit I'm can't handle at all - I'm a huge wimp) and only watched campy ones.

My family left the country yesterday! Thats kind of wierd. I'll be joining them on December 13th, and probably stick around through January. I"m leaving Homer on Nov 24th. It's soon! I don't like it one bit...