Tai Chi

Tai Chi is a meditative martial art based on softness and awareness rather than force and resistance. It is a series of movements practiced at a slow, rhythmic speed that promote relaxation, calm the emotions, focus the mind, strengthen the immune system and improve balance.

I have always been fascinated by this practice – and finally decided to give it a try. There are numerous reasons why now is a good time: namely I thought this would be a great form of physical therapy to continue healing after my surgeries! Also they were running a special deal on the first month’s membership – so I figured why not!

That seems to be my motto lately: Why Not!

Why not take a pottery class?

Why not go to Talkeetna on the train for a pie making class?

Why not pose for an artist?

Why not sign up for Yoga & Tai Chi at Spirit Path Yoga?

I am so enjoying myself! I’m sure I look like a complete idiot out there, since I have no idea what I’m doing, but I don’t mind. It’s fun and it gets me out of the house. My teacher keeps assuring me it will get easier as time goes by.

There were four other “newbies” when I went to my first class, but I seem to be the only one to come back for more. The rest of the class has been practicing together for several months, so they are very coordinated and look like they know what they’re doing.

Who knows, by the time I head off to Thailand for my archaeology expedition I just might be good enough to be able to practice on my own!

As an added incentive, the teacher mentioned something about her teacher going to Thailand himself to give a few classes over there: maybe I can stay over an extra day or two to learn from a real master? I need to look in to that possibility further.

Things Are Looking Up

My weekend-getaway to the Knik River Lodge has some further developments to report: I’m really getting excited about it!

First: I was talking to a friend about my plans and mentioned that I really would like to take a helicopter tour while I’m there but it’s just too darned expensive so cannot justify taking one. They charge $325.00 for the tour which includes a 30 minutes helicopter flight, glacier landing, complimentary hot drinks, and the use of non-slip overboots for the guided tour on the glacier itself. BUT – as luck would have it – I managed to find a Groupon special for only $159.00 (over half off) and thought “Why Not!”

So, now I’m going on a helicopter tour!

Second: I posted a link on my facebook page about it and my friend Marlene saw it and offered to go with me. Now I have a traveling companion to share this experience with! She is in Panama at the moment, but should be home soon so we can coordinate our schedules and book our cabin.

This just keeps getting better and better!

Painting My Birdhouse

At the beginning of March, as you might remember, I signed up for a pottery class at the Clay Owen Studios where I made a birdhouse. When I finished making it, Autumn – the owner – told me it would have to set awhile to dry out before it could be fired. She said she would give me a call within the next week or so to let me know when it was time to come in and glaze it before the final firing.

Well, life being the way it is, she forgot. Actually, I did to – until the other day, when I finally contacted her to ask what was going on. She apologized and said it was definitely ready for me – so I made an appointment and scheduled myself the perfect day to go in.

That was today! I headed on down to her studio after work and spent a very pleasant 2 hours carefully painting my creation.

There was one tiny little problem with my birdhouse, however: the roof fell off during the initial firing! Autumn wasn’t entirely sure what she was going to do about that, but said that more than likely the glazing will act like a glue on the final firing and hold everything in place for me. Otherwise, we’d have to figure out something else to do.

That actually made it easier to paint, truth to tell. I ended up with a blue birdhouse, green leaves, red berries, and 3 dragonflies: one orange, one yellow, and one purple. The roof is blue with red flowers.

Hey! I just realized something. I basically have a rainbow: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Purple. That’s pretty cool.

Again, Autumn said she would call me in a week or so to come pick up my creation. Hopefully we both remember this time.

Continuing Down the Healing Path on My Own

I am very happy to announce that I no longer have to go to physical therapy!

It’s been a long and rather painful journey, but thanks to Carol, Marlene, Bill, Korey, and Kaz (my physical therapists at Alaska Health Quest) I am healed enough to be turned loose on my own!

Yay!

On a brief side note here, I have to say that Premera Blue Cross has been just wonderful throughout this whole ordeal. They have paid exactly what they said they would, with no muss or fuss at all.

The final numbers are:

            Total price for the neck: $99,224.64

            Total price for the shoulder: $32,252.32

            Total price for physical therapy: $ $5,550.00

            Grand Total Billed to Insurance: $137,026.96

            My final cost: $12,732.76

Now that I’m on my own, I do still have exercises that I’m supposed to do – I’m not completely out of the water! But my sister-in-law gave me one of those big blue exercise balls, so I’m good to go.

I have also signed up for Tai Chi lessons at Spirit Path Yoga: I’m pretty excited about that. My first class is tonight: we’ll see how it goes. I also plan on taking their stretching class on Sunday morning. I figure between those two classes and my exercises at home, I should be back to 100% in no time.

Pet Peeves

One of my biggest pet peeves is being interrupted: I really hate that.

Invariably it happens this way:

I’m at work, talking to a coworker about an issue with the job at hand. The architect walks up and immediately butts in and starts talking about his issue at hand. He doesn't apologize, or say “Excuse me” or anything like that. He just starts talking like I’m not even there.

Yes, it’s almost always a man. I’m sure some women do it as well; I've just never encountered it.

No, it’s not always the same man. It can be – and has been - pretty much any man I've ever worked with.

What this tells me is either A. a woman’s conversations are clearly unimportant and aren't worth the air it takes to voice them, or B. his issues are way more important that anybody else’s issues and should therefore be moved to the front of the line regardless of what else is going on.

Can it be, perhaps, that the guys aren't even aware that they’re doing that? Can they be that self-involved that they don’t realize that other people have things to talk about?

Or am I just being over sensitive?

What do you think?

Some More ME Time

I had so much fun on my last two trips (Seward and Talkeetna) that I went ahead and booked myself on another weekend get-away: this time, I’ll be staying at the Knik River Lodge. This is actually quite near where I grew up, so it will be like old times: combing the riverbed for driftwood, hiking thru the forest, climbing trees and drinking in the gorgeous scenery. I am so looking forward to it!

From their website (www.knikriverlodge.com) it looks like I will be housed in my own private cabin with a king sized bed. The restaurant is a yurt, which will make it seem like I’m back in Mongolia for dinner. For entertainment during my stay, they offer helicopter tours, ATV tours, glacier dog sledding, and guided hiking tours complete with ice climbing. While I would absolutely LOVE to go on a helicopter tour, I really don’t have the money for that. So I will simply settle for hiking around on the trails by myself.

I plan to bring my camera, of course, as it will be July when I’m there and the foliage will be just beautiful. I will also bring my crafting supplies to work on, since that is very relaxing for me. As always, I will have my Kindle as well: my cabin comes with a private deck with unrestricted view of the glacier, so I can sit and read will into the night.

Don’t get me wrong: I would much prefer to share this and other such trips with Him, but I must admit I am really enjoying this ME time. 

The U.S. Postal Service

I have a friend who moved to Australia a few years back, Joanna. She is originally from Poland and does the most beautiful Beadwork you’ve ever seen!

Anyway, I bought her a few“Alaskan” things the other day. You know: a couple mugs, some coasters, a deck of cards, a hot pad & dish towel set, some coffee – that sort of thing. I thought it would be fun to send her a little surprise, you know?

So I go to the post office last week and ask them what box should I use? They point me in the right direction and hand me all the paperwork that would be required and off I go to package it all up.

Today I went back to the post office to mail it, and the lady (the exact same one who helped me last time) says “Oh, you’ve used the wrong box. If you use this one, it will cost you $85.00 to mail it. You should use that one over there, instead. It will cost only $35.00 to mail it.”

Mind you, the box I used was the one she told me to use.

So, I go get the NEW box and transfer everything in to it, tape it all together, and get back in line. When I get back to the lady “helping” me, she weighs the box and says “that will be $58.00 please”

WTF! Not 5 minutes ago, she told me it was going to be $35.00! I don’t get it. How could the price have gone up in that short of time?

Actually, the lady “helping” me didn’t even understand what had just happened. All she could do was tell me what her computer told her.

So – Joanna, if you’re reading this – expect a rather expensive box in the mail soon!

Chocolate Tasting

The same company who hosted the Tea Tasting Class that I attended last month (Summit Spice & Tea) put on a Chocolate Tasting this time – so of course I had to go. They also have an Oil Tasting Class, if anybody is interested.

This time the café was set up in a more intimate way, with the 3 tables separated out so that eight people could sit together as if for dinner. The places were laid out with a glass of water, a cup for tea, and a piece of paper with a grid of 15 squares (5 across and 5 down.) Each square had a little chunk of chocolate placed on it, and a separate paper listed the information for each piece identified by its corresponding number from the grid.

As before, the class began with the instructors giving the basic information on Chocolate: where it came from, how it’s grown & made, some history of its use, things like that. After fielding a few questions from the group, we got to the important part of actually tasting our chocolate.

The first two were each 60% Dark; a Trinitario chocolate from the Caribbean and a Criollo chocolate from the Dominican Republic.

These were followed by a 64% Dark from Costa Rica, a 66% Dark from Bolivia, a 68% Dark from Oregon, and a 70% Dark from Honduras.

Then we had three 72% Darks, from Tanzania, Cuba, and France – followed by two at 75%, one from Madagascar and the other from San Francisco.

Getting darker now, we got to the 80% and 85% ones from the Dominican Republic and Ecuador respectively.

We ended our gastronomic chocolate tour with a 100% Dark that is typically used for baking, just to give us a taste of the pure product with no additives.  

As with the last class, I received a 15% off coupon and was able to purchase 4 of my favorites: a 60% bar, a 70% bar and two different 75% bars.

An Experiment

A friend of mine always tells me that I should go to a bar and pick up men. He seems to think that all I need to do is go sit there and allow all the hundreds of men to come talk to me – which honestly is sweet of him. But the reality of it all is that when I do go to bars, absolutely NOBODY comes to talk to me. I’m not sure why that is: am I too ugly? Am I too old? Am I too intimidating? Do I dress wrong? Smell bad? Have spinach in my teeth? Who knows…

So the other day I decided to conduct an experiment.

First, I placed the following ad on Craig’s List, in their Strictly Platonic section:

I will be in the bar at Suite 100 on Friday after work. It would be nice if somebody came up and talked to me.
Go on, take a chance! Who knows, you might actually like me.
I get off work at 4:30 and will be sitting at one of the tall tables reading my Kindle, eating a bowl of chowder, and enjoying a drink.
I am 47, tall HWP, long red hair & freckles, single, no kids, well read, well traveled. I do have drama, but that's because I have a life.

Then, I fielded all the hundreds of emails I got. I was quite surprised at that part, let me tell you. I had no idea I would get such a response! 

A few of them were entirely inappropriate, complete with pictures of certain male body parts. 

A surprisingly high number of the emails were from 24 year olds – mere children! What’s up with that, anyway? I clearly stated that I was 47 – and yet these guys were still trying to entice me over for a quickie.

Several emails were from honest men who were intrigued by my posting but were not able to go on the date specified and asked if I would be interested in meeting up some other day. Honestly, I actually accepted some of those offers. I am always interested in meeting new people, and they sounded nice. Time will tell.

But a vast majority of the responses I received were from guys – of all race, size, and age – saying they would be there. I started to get a little bit concerned, actually. I pictured myself at the bar surrounded by a mob of men all vying for my attention. Rather conceited of me, I know.

So, on Friday, I headed on down to Suite 100 to see what the night would hold for me. I got my table, set up my kindle, ordered my drink & a bowl of chowder, and settled in. 

An hour and a half later, I paid my bill and left.

Absolutely NOBODY came over to talk to me. 

NOT ONE!

Build Your Own Birdhouse

I bought a DealSaver Coupon for a Pottery Class the other day, and had such a good time at it!

 

It was more of an assembly class, though, as the potter had all the parts pre-made for me. All I had to do was decorate and assemble. Still it was a lot of fun. Autumn (the owner & potter) was very nice & friendly, and showed me all the tips & techniques. 4 people had signed up for the class, but for whatever reason I was the only one who actually showed up. And of course I showed up early – but Autumn let me start early anyway, so that was cool. 

 

I started out with just the base, which was still wet and soft (of course). Using extra clay and some molds, I added my embellishments while Autumn worked on a vase she had been commissioned to make. Once I got my dragonflies placed on the base and the hole cut for the door, Autumn showed me how to flip the whole thing over and attach it to the floor. That’s when I realized I had put all my dragonflies on in the wrong direction! I didn’t think about the fact that I had been working on it upside-down… Oh well, that just added some Charm! Next I got to work on the roof, this time using stamps and a pick. Putting a roof on the top of a dome is not that easy; hence the lop-sidedness of my creation. But again – More Charm!

 

My little house has to dry out now, but in a week or so Autumn will call me to come back and finish up. I assume I will be painting it, and then firing it in her kiln. I have no idea how I’m supposed to hang the thing up – but will figure that out when the time comes. It may end up staying in the house: perhaps up in my craft room.

My Weekend Getaway

Saturday morning I headed off to the Railroad Station bright and early. The depot had some exhibits set up inside for the Fur Rendezvous celebration so I got to peruse them while waiting for the train. Since its wintertime, the train was not cram-packed full – so I got a row of seats to myself and could curl up to read my book without interruption. I treated myself to breakfast in the dining cart even – which had to be the worst food I've had in like EVER.

The early morning fog eventually lifted but left behind the hoarfrost on all the trees; everything literally SPARKLED in the deep blue skies as we went past. It almost hurt to look at – which was when I realized that I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses. Oh well…

We got in to Talkeetna and were met by the guy from The Roadhouse who was sent to carry our luggage for us. We checked in and got settled in; my room was upstairs tucked in to the corner overlooking Main Street.  There were two ladies on one side of me (both were there for the class like I was) and a couple with their dog Hector on the other side. The bathroom just across from us was shared by all.

The Pie Making Class was from 3:00 to 5:30, and since it was only 11:30 I had plenty of time to hit the trails. I bundled myself up and headed on out the door. 10 minutes later, I started peeling off layers! It was a lot warmer than expected, especially since I was moving. But oh goodness, was it gorgeous out there!

There were three of us in class that day: Trisha (the pastry chef and owner of The Roadhouse) said that she could take as many as 5 to 7 people but I honestly don’t know how they’d stuff them all into the kitchen there. It’s a working kitchen, so the whole time we were learning about pie crusts and baking, the other cooks were bustling around making orders and washing dishes.

And may I just point out here that Trisha is probably about 5’4” tall – and the kitchen is built for her. It is most definitely NOT built for a 6 foot tall Amazon.

They had 4 different filling possibilities we got to choose from: I chose to make a Mixed Berry Pie, Trisha made an Apple Pie, Marie made a Black Berry Pie, and Tia made the Blueberry-Rhubarb pie. All of them turned out so good! They had our pies boxed up and waiting for us at the train the next day, along with recipe cards and tips of the trade.

After our class, Marie broke out a bottle of wine she had brought with her and we all sat around the fireplace chatting. Several locals ended up joining us, including Trisha our chef, and we had a great time. Eventually, however, my stomach told me it really was time for dinner – so I headed on down to the brewery for a veggie sandwich and some beer.

The next morning turned cold – I walked down to the post office to mail off some cards I had written and had planned on just continuing on with my walk but turned right around and went back to the roadhouse. It was just way too cold for me! So instead I sat down in the common room to read my book, listen to the guitar player, and do some people-watching.

It warmed up later on so I did eventually go on another walk, making it across the river and out into the woods there – then back through town and back off down the old runway. Thankfully, Denali decided to put in an appearance so I got a few pictures of that.

All in all, it was a good trip. I met some really nice people and got a bit of exercise in. There were a lot of memories of Rob & me to deal with, however. I wasn't really expecting that, and it hit me pretty hard. 

Closet Doors

Back when I painted my craft room, I realized that my closet doors were just one big blank spot in the room. My friend thought I should just paint them – but that gave me the great idea of having somebody paint an actual mural on them.

I found myself down at the table one morning wondering what I should have put on them, when I realized I was staring out the window at my back yard full of fireweed and wild iris.

“How pretty that is.” I thought to myself.

So, I contacted my friend Audra at the Star Dust Dezignz Studio and asked if she would be willing to step out of her comfort zone and do just that for me. Her usual canvas of choice is actually glass: she paints beautiful flowers and whatnot on glassware for the table. But she does such beautiful work; I just knew she would be fine.

http://stardustdezignz.com/

It actually took her a while to warm up to the idea. But finally she agreed so I hauled my closet doors out to Palmer and handed them over.

Taking the closet doors down was no problem at all, particularly when my friend Rob did it for me. He even thought to write “top left” and “top right” on the edge of the doors so that she would know up from down and left from right. 

Getting them to fit into my tiny little Yaris was not as big a problem as I thought it would be, either. Lay the back seat face down; lay the passenger-side front seat back; then open the hatch and slide them in cross-ways. Voila:  two 6-foot bi-fold closet doors really DO fit!

Not a week later and Audra called up to say they were ready to come home. She sounded really excited about it, too. I hopped in my car and headed on back to town, arriving at the studio within the hour.

Let me just say this: wow. I am so pleased with the results! She did an awesome job, as I knew she would. They are EXACTLY what I wanted! I can highly recommend her to you, if you have closet doors you’d like painted.

However, once I got them installed back in my craft room, I realized right away that something was wrong: the trim around the doors was orange and clashed horribly with my new pretty flowers.

Thankfully, that was easy enough to fix. The very next weekend found Thing and I with paintbrush in hand changing the orange trim into a beautiful dark green (matching the accent wall adjacent to the closet).

I love it!

Just For Me

I’m really getting the hang of this “just for me” stuff, and am quite enjoying myself.

Last week was my tea tasting class (see previous posting), this week will be my Talkeetna trip (posting soon to follow) and the following week will by my chocolate tasting class (again, posting to follow).

And to keep the ball rolling, I just booked myself in a pottery class! I’ve always been interested in that, just never really did anything about it. So, for this class, I will be making a bird feeder. Apparently, the instructor will have the major pieces already made: I will simply be putting it together and embellishing it. The class includes coming back for the glazing portion as well.

When all is said and done, I will have a new bird feeder to put outside my kitchen window!

I’m pretty excited about that.

Tea Tasting

Last week was my tea tasting class at Summit Spice & Teas – I had a lot of fun with it.

They had the café set up with tables in a big U shape for the 20+ people who attended the class. Each person got two small cups, and each table had a big urn to dump leftovers into as well as a small bowl of saltine crackers to “cleanse the palate” after each tasting.

After introducing themselves, our instructors talked to us about the history of tea, how it’s grown & harvested and then how it’s processed into the teas we drink. Then they started pouring the teas to taste and talked to us about the particulars of each one.

In total, we tried eleven different black teas (one we tasted twice, a first brewing and then a second brewing):

6 from India

Darjeeling Soom TGFOP 1^st

Jun Chiyabari

Ceylon Courtlodge FBOP

Ceylon Lumbini FBOP EXS

Assam Rembang

Assam Sewpur TGFOP1

3 from China

Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha

Keemun Mao Feng GFBOP

Golden Needle 1^st

1 from Africa

Kenya Milima Estate

1 from Vietnam

Nam Lanh Estate FBOP

My favorites were the Assam Rembang from India and the Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha from China. We got a 15% off coupon for attending the class, so I’ll have to go back and buy them.

Research for Thailand

I will not be going on my next big vacation until sometime early 2014 – but that gives me plenty of time to study up and do some research on the subject.

With that in mind, I went to Title Wave the other day and picked up a couple books to add to what I already had. I now have a stack of what I hope are some really good books waiting for my attention.

The Civilization of Angkor 

     by Charles Higham

Ancient Angkor 
     by Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques
Discovering Our Past: a Brief Introduction to Archaeology 
     by Wendy Ashmore and Robert J. Sharer
Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practices 
     by Colin Renfrew and Paul Bahn

Those first three really do look interesting; I think I will enjoy reading those. That fourth one, though – it’s more of a textbook for a class – not sure that I really want to get quite that in-depth on this. But we’ll see how it goes.

Who knows, I may find it completely fascinating and devour all four of them in one month!

Being Open to Possibilities

I believe in keeping an open mind. Things sometimes happen that you do not expect, and if you’re not paying attention you might miss an opportunity for something new and wonderful. Of course, it might also lead you down the wrong road – so you still have to keep your wits about you. But I do try to stay open to new ideas, at the very least.

That being said: twice now in as many weeks I have come across a rather interesting proposal. Well, two proposals, actually – but each one dealing with the same subject. And I’m inclined to believe that “something” is in the air - some “change” is about to take place. I can either choose to go with it, or not.

Specifically, I’ve been “approached” by members of the same sex hinting at the possibility of budding relationships.

Now, I am not lesbian, by any means. Nor am I homophobic or a “gay basher” in the slightest. I truly believe that if a person is able to find love and have the complement returned to them in kind – it really doesn’t matter if it’s a man and a woman, a man and a man, or a woman and a woman. My own personal line would be drawn at relationships with members of another species!

Still, if I were to see where this particular trail leads too, it would be with the caveat that I am simply not interested in a romantic and/or sexual relationship. But it’s entirely possible that I might find out something about myself that can assist me in my life’s quest.

So, what should I do? 

Any advice?

Life 2.0

Actually I’m probably on revision 5 or 6 by now. I've lost count. But the point is: I am reinventing myself yet again. Not exactly by choice, maybe - but I am doing it, slowly but surely.

One of the ways I am doing this is by treating myself to some road trips. The first one I've already told you about: spending the weekend in Seward a while back. My next one will be a train ride! I saw an ad from the Alaska Railroad for a package deal and figured “Why not?” 

So: round trip tickets from Anchorage to Talkeetna, overnight stay at the Roadhouse, and (drum roll, please) a Pie Making Class! How cool is that? I get to learn how to make pie. Unfortunately they didn't have any openings until March, but I guess that gives me something to look forward to.

I am also registered for a couple classes at Summit Spice & Tea: first a tea tasting class in February and then a chocolate tasting class in March. And I bought myself tickets to see some folk music at the PAC in February.

Basically, I am doing all the things I've been wanting to do but haven’t because I knew he would not be interested.

What I am not doing is going out on dates.

Everybody kept telling me that’s what I needed to do, so I tried it - with disastrous results. I probably should apologize to the man who took me out for drinks only to have me burst in to tears right in the middle of it all. I’m sure that was not at all what he expected.

But I did at least lean something from the experience: I need to concentrate on ME now. At some point in the far distant future I might be ready for something else, but for now it’s just me.

Jury Duty

My first day of Jury Duty was about as good as it gets: Monday was a holiday and the court house was closed! Yet another reason to be thankful for Martin Luther King.

For my second day, my number was called so I had to go in. Right off the bat, I learned something new = the metal plate in my neck does in fact set off the alarms at the security gate! Thankfully, Dr. Kralick gave me a card to carry with me that explains what’s going on. Also thankfully I remembered to bring it with me.

Once I got settled in upstairs in the waiting room, I ran in to a friend I hadn't seen in probably 15 years. He’s the one who recognized me at first, but once he stopped to talk to me I remembered him immediately. He and his wife had been good friends back in the day; hopefully we can be again. Then, once they started reading off names, I came across another good friend I hadn't seen in a while! Two in one day – that’s pretty cool.

The case I got assigned to (actually all three of us got assigned to it) was another sexual assault case. I say “another one” because last time I got called for jury duty I ended up on a case involving a 57 year old man and a 5 year old child. This time, thankfully, it was not quite so bad since both parties involved were adults within a year or two of age.

The jury pool for the case consisted of at least 75 people, so right away they started winnowing out people for various reasons. I made it through the first purge, but on the second one I did get excused. So, I went to work.

I’m still calling in each night, but the odds of my number being called again are fairly low so I just may be done with it.

Photo Books!

I read a really interesting book a while ago:

77 Days in September

by Ray Gorham

On a Friday afternoon before Labor Day, Americans are getting ready for the holiday weekend, completely unaware of a long-planned terrorist plot about to be launched against the country. Kyle Tait is settling in for his return flight home when a single nuclear bomb is detonated 300 miles above the heart of America. The blast, an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP), destroys every electrical device in the country, and results in the crippling of the power grid, the shutting down of modern communications, and bringing to a halt most forms of transportation.

Kyle narrowly escapes when his airplane crashes on take-off, only to find himself stranded 2,000 miles from home in a country that has been forced, from a technological standpoint, back to the 19th Century. Confused, hurt, scared, and alone, Kyle must make his way across a hostile continent to a family he’s not even sure has survived the effects of the attack. As Kyle forges his way home, his frightened family faces their own struggles for survival in a community trying to halt its own slow spiral into chaos and anarchy.

Based on scientist’s predictions of what would happen if a single nuclear bomb is detonated over Kansas, 77 Days in September follows Kyle and his wife, Jennifer, as they are stretched past their breaking point, but find in their devotion to each other the strength to persevere.

-----

Anyway it got me thinking. If something were to happen, all of my photographs are on the computer! I’d loose all of those memories…

Then I got an email from Groupon offering a deal on the ShutterFly photo books, so I thought I’d give it a try. When all is said and done, I’m hoping to have one 8.5x11 book for each expedition.

Since I've never done it before I thought I would start out making one of some of my favorite local hikes. This will give me a chance to get familiar with the process first, so that the “important” ones turn out as good as I can make them.

Last night I went through most of my photos and picked out 15-20 of my favorite hikes. Then I went through and picked out 4-5 pictures from each one to highlight the occasion. This weekend (maybe even tonight) I’ll start in on the actual process.

Wish me luck!

Road Trip

I really needed to get away this past weekend – just way too much drama to deal with constantly – so I took myself down to Seward for some ME time!

The drive down was very pretty. I took half a day off work on Friday so that I could drive in the daylight. I was able to take my time and not worry about the icy roads, stopping several times along the way to get out, stretch a bit, take some pictures, and breathe in the crisp fresh air.

Once I got in to Seward it was very easy to find my hotel. I stayed at the Holiday Express which is located just off the docks, so I got a great view of the harbor out of my second-story room. I checked in, got my things settled, and then set off for town to find something to eat.

I didn't do as much as I had planned on doing while I was there. I cried a lot. I slept a lot. I didn't eat much at all. I walked the docks. I visited the SeaLife Center. I took a drive down to Lowell Point. I took pictures. I made cards (I had brought my crafting supplies with me). I wrote letters. I read my Kindle. I watched TV. I turned my phone off and didn't talk to anybody the entire time I was there.

Basically, I relaxed. Finally!

Admittedly, I could have done almost all of that at home, and for a lot cheaper – but I’m glad I went. A big Thank You goes out to my niece Katy for taking care of my girls for me, too!