MVP Gold

So I'm trying to earn my damn MVP Gold. And the weather is not freaking cooperating. Yesterday the flight was cancelled because of the wind out here in Unalakleet or the freezing rain in Anchorage. Today the flights are on weather hold because of more freaking freezing rain. What did I do to piss the universe off?

All I need is 6,480 miles. And then I get a free drink on every flight. And I'm rid of those pesky flight change fees. Gah! I'm beyond frustrated. Not to mention I was supposed to be hanging out with Montana man today. 3 hours ago. I'm not a very pleased panda at the moment.

Here's a pretty picture so this post isn't entirely me ranting

Ketchikan day 3: More training

I think out of the three days of the training the second day was the longest. I'm not really sure why. I was most tired today due to the amount of wine consumed the evening before. There was a lot of hands on activities today that made it fly by. Plus, you know, free pizza which makes everything better.

Warm enough for a skirt!

Meet bunny. Isn't she freaking cute?

This would be my bar outfit

Pedro and I partied last night

I don't really have a whole lot to say. I head to Juneau tomorrow for a 12 hour layover. Which means I get to visit and catch up with Melissa in person! I'm super excited, even though this means I'm gonna suffer from some lack of sleep.

Ketchikan Day 2: First day of training

I got a good nights sleep and woke up at 7 bells. I made a cup of the worst coffee that I've drank in a long while and then went in search of some actual coffee. Which was not to be found. It was a tragedy. The coffee place in the lobby was closed. There wasn't a coffee place open on the way to the building. I was about to start crying when I came across coffee in the building where the training was being held. Saved.

Daaaang, sleepy eyes.

The training instructor is amazing. Everyone has spoke up and participated. (To me this is the sign of a great instructor.) He's interesting and speaks clearly and well, is prepared, and is passionate about what he's teaching us. It's truly a wonderful thing to behold. I'm getting a lot out of it. I'm just hoping that I get to let my General Manager position go and put the knowledge into action. This is where I want to make a difference. Well, not indoor air quality specifically but the environmental scene.

Slightly more open

This. This was strange. I'm not going to elaborate too much on why. I don't think I can. I'd like to though. I just wouldn't know where to start. Or where to go. Definitely no clue where to end. Maybe there is no ending.

Surreal

My ride to work. I think it's creepy. All trams are creepy.

Ketchikan, AK

I love my job because it brings me to places like this:

This is the view from my hotel room

This is where the tram comes down

There was one little flower, a sign of spring.

I'm here until Friday. Training starts at 8 am tomorrow so I better get some good sleep. Oh! And a huge bonus, I have friends here and they've already had me over to dinner.

Anchorage moments

Home. Unalakleet, Alaska. Back to wind and snow and the freedom to go and hunt for my dinner. It's good to be home. Here are a few moments from Anchorage.

My rental this go was rather high tech for this village girl. Eventually I figured most things out. The most amazing thing? These little lights that told me someone was in my blind spot. The vehicle was huge (and kind of looked like a hearse) so I was always paranoid about my blind spots until I figured this out. The next best thing? Being able to call and talk through the car. Amazing.

These boys and their iPads. Attached to their hands and faces permanently. I see little zombies. Once they get cell phones it'll probably be even worse. I shudder to think where we're going as a human race with technology sometimes. And I'm sucked right into it to. My cell crapped out on me during this trip. It crippled me for a half a day until I could get a spare phone sent in to me (hand carried on a flight out of Unalakleet.) Yep, I was that desperate.

Had a blast two nights in a row with these two! Yes there was bull riding. Yes there is a video. No, I probably won't post it. But know that it happened.

Sweet boy brought me a present from his travels. It smells delicious and makes my lips nice and soft.

AK Forum on the Environment

This week I've been attending the Alaska Forum on the Environment. It's the environmental specialist portion of my job. That being said I've had a meeting with the accountant, personal banker, and finally was able to migrate a legacy account and update a registration on the general manager portion of my job. I feel like I've just been bouncing from one meeting to the next. I'm using that as my excuse for not posting Friday (travel day) and Monday (lunch meeting and dinner meeting). Tonight is another dinner meeting but it's more and less casual. Wining and dining. I love it especially when I'm the one getting wined and dined. Beacon is taking some of it's clients out to Crush for dinner. Since I'm such a fantastic client, I was invited. Love it. Plus it means more time with my friend Shauntel.

So far my favorite thing about the conference has been these sculptures. They were created with marine waste that floated ashore. The jelly was created by an artist, who then inspired students in Kodiak to create Ophelia, the octopus. It really is incredible how beautiful the sculptures are considering it's all stuff that's been thrown away and was a hazard to the environment.

Giant, gorgeous jelly

My favorite keynote speaker so far is Annie Leonard. She created the story of stuff. The way she spoke just captivated my interest, there was such passion and conviction in her voice as she talked about her life's passion. She made us all chuckle when she said that it was humbling for twenty years of her life to be summed up in twenty minutes. However, that twenty minutes speaks volumes and has started some amazing dialogue about how much of the earth's resources we're using and just throwing away.

Meet Ophelia. Soon she'll be moving to the Sea Life Center in Seward.

Meeting outfit

This is how I roll when I'm in Washington, D.C. for meetings. Under armour, jeans, and a cardigan. I loved my hotel room. It was spacious, clean, the bed was super duper comfy and fluffy, and I had a pretty decent view. The area was great. Restaurants and bars were a short walk away and so was the transit system.

I landed on a Sunday and ventured out to a pizza place for dinner. The staff was super friendly and I was having a grand old time when I received some pretty devastating news. They went above and beyond and embraced me as a stranger in a strange city across an entire continent from my home. To this day it still warms my heart when I think of that restaurant. (The Arlington location)

Flying sideways

Eshagee (means scary in Inupiaq). I was on this plane yesterday. We flew in sideways pretty much just until we touched down. The flight circled two or three times and then pilots must have decided to go for it. We came in from the ocean heading towards across the river and then they turned the engines up on full and started turning. It was a toe curling, breath holding experience. We flew in sideways until we were over the Era building and then straightened out in time to touch down. I'm really happy to be home but I really don't want to experience that landing again. Ever.

Landing video 
taken by Scott Dickens

Run away! run away!

I'm running away to Anchorage for the weekend! Goodbye Unalakleet, see you on Sunday.

Photo taken by Bobby Evans

Monumental.

Such a Capitol idea.  Wakka wakka.

There's a big crack in this right now.  So you can't go all up in it.  Damn earthquakes.

Proof.  I was there.

I didn't even know this existed.

Alaska even has it's own column-y thingy.  A guy gave me a funny look for taking this picture.  Really, dude?

This blew me away.  It was the busiest monument.  :(  But it was so incredible.

Chilling with my homie, Lincoln.  He's the man.

Reflection, yo.  I totally wanted to be Jenny and run through the reflection pool.  Ha.

Outside of the Lincoln Memorial.  There were a lot of steps.   Not enough to deter me though.

Thanks for the shades Jason.  :)  I love it when you leave stuff at my house.

Another monument I didn't know existed.

What up Obama, I ate dinner across the street from your casa.

National Zoo!

This was the first critter I saw when I got to the zoo.

A young man came up and started talking to me as soon as I stopped to look.  Eventually the conversation led to Yukon Men on Discovery.  Damn reality television.

Reality television needs to get prey upon by vultures.  As in be dead.

I don't remember what animal this was.  But I bet it's delicious.

This is a wolf.  It's description is a red fox on stilts.

What?!?!

A red fox on stilts.  You heard me.  I think it's incredibly accurate.

Sleepy little darling red panda.  A precursor to....

THE PANDA!!!

I sat and stared at this fellow for an inordinately long amount of time.  He was so cute.  Waddling around.  Sitting down and munching out.  Staring at the sky.

Seeing a panda was better than I imagined.

This was the male panda.  The female was inside looking very sad.  She'd recently lost her cub.  :(

This otter be good.  Bwah!  These guys were super cute and active.

This guy was not.

I walk the path of the elephant.

I was to sew with him.

I want to cuddle him.  He had such a cute nose.

The amazon building was crazy.  There were monkeys loose!  I'm happy they didn't fling poo at me.

I love fish.  They had a huuuuuge arapaima.  I didn't take a picture.  :(

Biiiiig cats.  The males were lazy.  The females were rough and tumbly and fun.

Here kitty kitty.

Chillin.  You know.  On the steps like a cool cat.

Just lion around.  Bwah!  Oh, I'm hilarious.

So pretty!  The didn't seem like unhappy animals.  And that made me happy.