Yay! for Sun!

I can't believe this weather!

The River Walk at Lunch Time

You know a dream is like a river
Ever changing as it flows
And a dreamer's not just a vessel
That must flow where it goes.
~Garth Brooks

It starts with the path.

and Me lookin' fine in my shades.

I walked along the Mendenhall River and daydreamed about not being at work. This view happens to be RIGHT across from the office.

The stairs leading down to the river's edge.

I braved putting my feet in the water, and since this river is glacier runoff I expected icy temperatures. But due to our recent warm weather, the river was surprisingly comfortable!

I sat for a few moments on a grassy spot with my feet in the water. It was nice.

Alas, lunch is only an hour. I must return to the grindstone.

The Sun is Shining

I think I'll go for a walk outside now

the summer sun's calling my name
(I hear ya now)
I just can't stay inside all day
I gotta get out get me some of those rays
everybody's smilin
sunshine day
everybody's laughin
sunshine day
everybody seems so happy today
it's a sunshine day

~The Brady Bunch~
~It's A Sunshine Day~

Whew! It is HOT outside! Well, at least hotter than I'm used to these days. And I'm still in Juneau, AK, people! Yesterday reached 82 degrees and today was supposed to be hotter, however I haven't checked the temperature yet. Hold on... ok, I just checked and it is hovering around 79 and 80 degrees at the moment. It is supposed to stay lovely through the end of the weekend just not quite as warm. Although I am NOT complaining about it being this warm. I am loving this weather.

My mom would have loved it right now, it's prime conditions for swimming at her favorite beach. Lena Beach is still a place that my family likes to visit, besides being my mom's favorite, we all love it too. You might think that swimming in the ocean on the shores of Alaska sounds ludicrous, but given the right temperature it can be quite welcoming. Too bad I'm stuck at work on the hottest days of our current heat wave. By the time I can make it out to Lena for a swim, it will have cooled down to the low 70s. Which is still nice, just not warm enough to brave the cool water.

I have fond memories of our mom taking my sisters and I out the road to picnic at Lena Beach. We'd go out with a bag of fried chicken and some jojos for a quickie just to enjoy the weather, or we would actually pack up the hotdogs and other prerequisites for a cookout over a fire. A lot of the time we were joined by other family members. Our aunts would go swimming with my mom and us kids. Good times.

The cove that Lena Beach sits around is called Lena Cove and that is the same place that we spread my mom's ashes last September.

It is real tough to concentrate on my job when it is this gorgeous outside. Luckily I have managed to hold off on too much goofing around until now. So my work hasn't suffered...much. lol. It will be nice later on once I'm off as well, and I'm looking forward to our Relay for Life team meeting tonight. We have decided to have it at my aunt's house on her deck in her back yard. So I will get to sit in the sun for a bit before it goes down.

I hope the rest of you are having as great a start as I am to your summer! Below are a couple shots of Lena Beach on a foggy morning. These were taken a couple years ago, I have a few classic pictures of my family at this same spot, but I'm afraid I might end up shot if I post them. So you'll have to make do with these.


~Take care!

This is for you Claire.....

Well here it is. It's only my 3rd posting and I've come up with writers block. I can think of nothing to inspire me. I am bored. But don't worry your pretty little heads. I have searched the web for ideas to blog about. I've come up with a solution for today's entry.

You see, lately I've been feeling a little blue. You might call it the winter blues, seasonal depression or whatever. I call it "THIS SUCKS." It's only January and I'm sick of this place. I am ready to go, vamoose, scat, get outta here! Or rightly, I'm sick of this weather. It's bringing me down. I'm tired of wet feet, cold hands and chapped lips. The other day the snow turned into snain (that's what I like to call the lovely mixture of snow and rain falling outside my window).

This is my driveway, or anywhere else you look for that matter.

I'm realistic, there's no way that I could pack up and leave. Or could I? Would it be prudent of me to leave hastily? No. But that doesn't mean I can't think about it. Besides, it could happen in the future. As of this moment, if I had my way, the not so distant future.

I got a bit spoiled living in Seattle. The winters there weren't great by any means. But they weren't this endless down pour of snow. It didn't snow for days on end and then stop, make you think it was over just so 6 days later you can be depressed on your way to work (already depressing enough) because it's SNOWING once again. You might be thinking, "don't you live in Alaska? Isn't this to be expected? What's wrong with you? Snow is beautiful. If you don't like it, why'd you come back in the first place?" All good questions. I'll answer them.

1. Yes. I live in Alaska.
2. Yes. It is to be expected.
3. Um what's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? Snow is pretty when you haven't seen it in 6 months and all of a sudden there is a light dusting of it on a fall morning. Snow loses its beauty quality after the 2nd month in a row without much stopping. When you have to consistently shovel and snow blow your way out your front door. When all you see are crazy traffic accidents because people forget how to drive when the weather changes. And then when snow turns to snain, and it's not even close to spring yet, so you know it's not over. That is why snow is NOT beautiful (to me, of course)
4. Well, I don't like it. Never really did as a youth. But I didn't have much choice, seeing as how my mom pretty much chose where we lived. I left as soon as I could. Came home from time to time, it is HOME after all. Came home last time to be around my dying mom, not really knowing how long I'd stay this time. Now she's gone, but I still have 2 kids. I have to be a grown up. Which means my moving once a year stage needs to end. For now.

All this aside, I have compiled a list of PROS and CONS for Juneau vs. my 2nd (and greatly missed) home of Seattle.

JUNEAU

PRO. My family. It's huge. We're close. I love them. Without them I'd be lonely. Save for Tim and the kids, these people are my everything. And they're ALL (but a few) here.

CON. Weather sucks ass. See the above commentary.

PRO. I LOVE my job. For the first time since my summer job (I was 19) in the tourism guide business (and that can't possibly count as a job) I actually enjoy what I do. I like my co-workers, my office rocks and I get paid well. Also, because it's a government job the benefits aren't that bad. Plus I'm getting loads of experience in the lending business. (Hello! future jobs! or at least once the mortgage industry isn't in dire straights)

CON. No shopping. At all. I just got wind of this newest rumor, Payless and Gottchalks are closing. If you are not familiar with the small town of Juneau, all you need to know is that there is a WALMART, Fred Meyer, Gottchalks and Payless. Of course, a few other things here and there, but really, that's close to it.

PRO. Affordable day care. Because my aunt watches my 2 kids for half what I would pay in Seattle or any other day care in Juneau.

CON. Juneau is expensive. Nuff said.

PRO. I get the permanent fund dividend. Alaska is the only state that pays it's residents once a year. It is only once a year, but hey! it's usually over $1000.00, that is, before the economy took a nose dive.

CON. It's hard to travel. No road out, so you can't drive. You can take a ferry or small boat out, but that takes forever. The only real option is by air, and only AK Airlines flies in/out of Juneau so they monopolize the price to do so. A trip just to Seattle is usually over $500.00 round trip.

Umm that sums up my PROS and CONS for Juneau so far it's 50/50, got a little love, a little hate for this place as you can see.

SEATTLE

PRO. Friends. I left a few GREAT friends behind that I can only now communicate through email, MySpace and the phone with. I love them and miss them dearly.

CON. No family. See my PRO comment on the Juneau side of things.

PRO. Inexpensive living. Really, compared to here, it's a schmorgasbord of cheap stuff.

CON. Possibly a crappy new job. There's no guarantee that I'll end up as a loan officer or loan closer in Seattle. Jobs are scarce right now, especially in the lending biz.

PRO. Places to go. Lots to do. Technically is this 2 PROS? I'm not sure, but I lumped it into one for you. There is ultimately a variety of things to do, many of them FREE.

This is a picture of baby Reagan at a fair in Seattle. Just an example of how much fun we had for free. Good times.

CON. No family daycare. Due to CON number 1 for Seattle, there is no family, hence, no cheap daycare. Which means I go back to paying full prices.

PRO. Weather is not too shabby in winter, awesome in the summer. It still rains, but it's tolerable.

CON. umm I'm out of them.

PRO. I can drive away for the weekend, pretty much anywhere I want to go. And airfare can is WAY more affordable from Seattle.

PRO. I LOVE THE CITY!!

So that's that. There's my list. Unfortunately all it did for me was make me miss Seattle more when I realized that staying here is better for me and my family. Purely for economic reasons. But reasons none the less.

Even though Seattle obviously outweighed Juneau in a number of areas, it doesn't mean that I'll be leaving any time soon.

Juneau has it's moments



Whew! Looking at this post, you'd never realize that I couldn't think of anything to write. Google is my friend.