Hello,
I hope this finds everyone in good spirits, warm and toasty for the holidays which are creeping up a little too fast. I should probably get the technical update out of the way- With each new update, I will be incorporating an old update. If you're signed up to receive an email update, you may get the new with the old. I apologize if you get too many in your inbox. It's most certainly not my intention to bombard you with all things Alaska. Okay, on with the update for real now.
Thanksgiving has come and gone, Hanukkah and Christmas are looming just ahead as well. For my own personal preferences, New Year's Eve is and has always been my favorite of all the holidays. Though I'm not quite sure why, I feel compelled to sport a dress, high heels and even make up. Though my version of make up consists only of clear nail polish and lipstick, it is in fact a true rarity for me. Weddings and funerals aside, New Year's and our anniversary are generally the only two days per year I opt to play dress-up.
This year, we obtained two highly coveted tickets to go see Dave Grisman & Sam Bush at the Bear Tooth Theater/Pub. It's a very small venue with good wine and a relaxed atmosphere, which most certainly does not require any formal dress. But, in my true New Year's compulsion, I will still opt for the "little black dress" and demand that we take a taxi to the show. New Year's is my one night off from having to be the responsible adult and while I offered the driving privileges to Chris and friend Mike, both declined, so Taxi it is. All things being equal, I will cross my fingers that the weather holds. Standing in line outside to get into any winter event can be a formidable challenge and recent temps have been in the single digits. We shall see.
I am delighted that the solstice brought the promise of longer days and warmer temperatures. The day following the solstice brought a wee bit more light even if hardly discernible (11 pathetic seconds more to be exact). This morning, the sun broke the horizon a little after 10:30 AM in a dense shroud of fog. By noon, the orb that had been hidden below the horizon since the first week of December appeared out of the fog as a dimly lit crescent shape. Still tired from the winter slumber, the little orb tucked itself back to bed before 3:30, too tired or weak to warm the outside air above 12 degrees . Oddly, this winter has been mild with only a few days dipping below zero. I have a sinking feeling that this is just a temporary lull in our Alaskan winter, but I can still hope.
Chris and I are doing well, biking, skiing, and otherwise enjoying winter as best as we can. Chris is still enjoying his work and the environment, still bike commuting despite frigid temperatures and still adjusting to life in real office clothing. While I have yet to teach him the finer art of ironing his shirts and slacks, I have to admit, he cleans up pretty nicely.
For the second holiday meal this year, I will be cooking dinner on Christmas day for Chris and a few of our friends. No, there's no tree with twinkly lights, no neatly wrapped gifts to be opened and I'm pretty sure Santa will avoid our house unless he's up for a stiff drink to warm up, but we'll have some good food and a few holiday cocktails. I've even accepted our friend Pam's offer to bring Chris a spiral cut ham, a dish that doesn't generally find it's way into our kitchen. I think I'll be forgiven for letting my partially kosher kitchen become defiled with the ham. After all, it is the holiday season.
In other silliness, my bones are still in a state of shock due to my many skiing "oopses" and will just have to forgive me with time. Not so proudly, my most recent accident had nothing to do with skiing directly. In truth, I was carrying (yes, 'safely' carrying) my skis while walking under the Seward Highway overpass following the frozen Campbell Creek on my way to meet Liz on the other side for skiing after work on Monday night. I noticed the glare of the very smooth, almost polished ice and thought to myself how slick it looked.
My mental checklist said "Hmmm, that looks really slick, Vered- watch your step..." but no sooner than the thought about the ice entered my head, I was staring straight up at the underside of the overpass wondering what the hell had just happened. Still breathless from the fall which completely knocked the wind out of me, I was strangely comforted by the fact that there were no onlookers to see my spectacular cartoon like slippage. It was a true Yard Sale with my gear strewn all over the ice, skis in one direction, poles in another and headlamp perched somewhere other than atop my head. When I came to and gathered myself, I eeked the rest of the way under the highway in a bit of a daze and with somewhat wobbly knees, nervous at the thought of slipping again. I finally met up with Liz on the other side and we skied for about 2 hours, read: no serious harm from the fall. We had a good time despite my throbbing bones. She was kind enough to not force me to walk back under the bridge to get home and gave me a ride instead. Although she really didn't need to show such great solidarity with me, Liz managed to take a spill on the ice (post skiing) in a nearly identical scenario. With me as her only witness, we winced and laughed it off as par for the course of living in the frozen and dark North.
Today, nearly 3 days after the fact, my bones have still not fully recovered. I can't speak for Liz, but she seemed to be moving around in good order at work yesterday and today. For me, well, I've had a splitting headache that won't go away and the bruises on my knee, rear and arm are starting to come to the surface. In light of the new colorings on the left side of my body, I will opt for opaque black hosiery for new years to hide any lasting color on my legs. Once again, I proved to myself that the ice gives far less than anything that falls upon it. In fact, I think it hit back-- Ouch!
Chris is doing a last minute cleaning for our guests tomorrow quite literally as I write. I will of course end this now in order to help with the effort- dogs need brushing, carpeting needs to be vacuumed and there's a never ending pile of laundry that needs to be folded and removed from our couch.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Quanza, Id, New Year's, or whatever other holidays you may or may not be celebrating!
Vered
(...and Zev too)
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