Don't Give Up on Me!

The weekend found our family to be incredibly busy. Four Parties. Three days.There was not a moment to spare for composing narratives of these events.
Let's just say, the food was delicious, conversation lively, and friendships warm.
Stayed tuned for tomorrows posting...The Varicella Roundup!

Seldovia

Text copied from notes I entered into my Moleskine Journal courtesy of Chronicle Books, San Francisco . Thank you Chronicle!

With re found courage I boarded our vessel and took my family out into the welcoming sea.

Marina in her violet long sleeved cotton dress and yellow mud boots is intrigued by the fish finder and it's ability to reveal mysteries of the dark cold water...

At the playground under the tree drinking peach Snapple while our kids play a complex tagging game and eat canned salmon on Pilot Bread

The wind has picked up now and the tall spruce trees are shimmy-ing. We finish the salmon and begin tearing off hunks from the loaf of my grandmothers zucchini bread I baked yesterday and decide to take the hike on the OtterBahn.Salmonberries hang dusty on the roadside ripening quickly in the August sun. We snack on them during our hike to Outside Beach.
A loon dives and bobs in the gently rolling tide at Outside Beach. Marina and Falcom have established 'Aquariums' in the rocks that outshine the "Pacific Northwest" exhibit at the Shedd in Chicago.

With newly developed grey sky overhead and calm seas the horizon seems limitless...The water, from the top of the jagged crags along the cliff side is deep and clear. Willie craves jumping in...but knows that this is not Saipan or the mystical turtle waters of Tinian or Rota...He knows Alaskan waters.Falcom and Marina, true to their nature, continue to test and experience the waters before they will fully believe what cold is, what it can do. I envy their fearlessness. I am addicted to comfort.

We walk back to town on the main road. Marina constructs a kick the bottle game with the Snapple bottle and her treasured rocks. All three kids run, kicking the bottle back to town and the hiking time passes quickly. Time to return to Homer, to our car, to lives...

No trip into the bay is complete without a swing around Gull Island. Marina requests, I oblige. She takes 20 pictures. A fantastic day!

Tuesday

After I missed the Whale Show on Sunday, I had a sit down with myself. I decided it was time to drive the boat again. This after 10 years...Holding a baby and driving a boat is impossible, and I just fell out of the habit. I also lost my 'Beginners Mind' and have a much more realistic view of Alaskan waters and the potential risks. Those whales got me thinking... in flat water, what could be so bad? On Tuesday, nothing!

We didn't have time to really hunt the whales, but we did see some birds, some otters, and beautiful mountainous views. Willie and I are going out again today. This is a picture of DeeJay at his work. You can barely see him if you look really hard.

Upon our return to town we found two boxes from Grandma Phyllis at the post office. One of them contained water balloons! Trampolines and water balloons are a good mix.

Kilcher Road Coffee Klatch

The Kilcher Road Coffee Klatch met last night, not for coffee, but for sushi and deserts. As you can see are a modern progressive coffee klatch. Members in attendance included Sharon, Gage, Charlotte and myself.

As part of the governance laid out in our bylaws, no gossip can be exchanged outside the group to anyone other than our husbands (who secretly love knowing the gossip from our neighborhood.) There are two things I can mention from the evening. t he notorious Jewel is coming to town, and with her being a Kilcher there there was plenty of gossip to share about that. My favorite was her inability 5 years to contribute her $500 share to the artist in the school scholarship program that she started. Sharon wants to shout that from the roof tops. "What pop star can't scrounge $500? And then for her Dad to tell the auditorium that times were tight for her? How tight could they be? Didn't she used to live in a van?"

The other thing that I can share is a surreal story from my day.

I was at Jolene's house, picking something up for her, when a rental car pulled up and a super good looking skinny girl with long straight blond hair popped out. "Can we camp in your yard?" She asked. Please click http://www.abercrombie.com/ for a pictorial to accompany this post.

Falcom was intrigued. "Um," I said flabbergasted, "This isn't my yard. So, I can not give any permission to do anything here."

Falcom piped up. "No, this is the Grady's house and they are moved so you could maybe stay here. They need money for rent right?" Oh Fal...

The girl said, "It's just me, my fiance and our good friend. We are staying at Land's End Condos tomorrow, and going to Halibut Cove tonight. We just don't want to stay out on the Spit tonight."

I started giving her a run down of camping areas not on the spit and was saying good luck when Falcom chimed back up. "Why don't you stay in our yard? We have a trampoline!"

Super good looking girl in high end rental car did not miss a beat, "Really, could we?"

I said, "Um. Yea, it would be OK, but I'm not sure that it is what you are looking for, I mean, by the time you get back from across the bay and then drive to our place... Why don't I give your fiancee directions."

The young man hops out of the car. Six feet tall, chiseled, preppy. The friend jumps out. Six feet tall, chiseled, preppy. "Where are you from exactly?" I ask since they are obviously not from Alaska. How could I tell? I have never seen young men in our state this well groomed.

"We attend school outside of Boston." I could see their mailboxes at home, filling during their absence with their trust fund statements. Land's End models perhaps? Or Abecrombie and Finch?

I gave them directions and told them that I would perhaps see them. I wished them well. I then texted Irene who was very excited to see the photos that I would secretly take of them. Then at my mothers that evening I realized that they could be burgles or serial killers with the help of her Californian insight. Sharon promised that she would remember the description clearly so that she could help the Troopers put out an APV.

Gage said, "Alana what if you wake up to find them jumping naked on your trampoline?"

"I will take pictures of course. I've got about 20 girlfriends who would love to see that!" Sadly for all girlfriends and a few boyfriends, no gorgeous rich people slept in my yard.

Whale Watching

We got a new camera and no one is satisfied with it. I bought it in Anchorage, somewhat impulsively because the sales clerk said it was a good camera and because it was on close out.

The dissatisfaction with the camera has got me thinking, is it the product that is the problem or is it the comfort with the old cameras ways that is the problem. This metaphor can be tracked through every change a person must face. I kind of like the new camera. I certainly liked the price. I liked the color (red). I like how captured this image of Falcom.

I was glad to have it when I caught DeeJay in an act of being terrific. He got off work early Saturday and volunteered his muscles to help Suzanne move from her shack back into her house after her big remodel. He did not have to be asked or paid. He makes me very proud. (He is planning on renting that shack when he graduates from high school. You can see it a tiny bit on the left side of this picture. )
No one liked the camera when they went out fishing and had the all time most fabulous Whale Show ever and could not see anything on the camera screen. Whales were jumping all around them and they could not figure out how to zoom. They could not figure out how to make a movie. I am the only one in the family who has tried to figure out how to use the camera and I wasn't there because I was too sick to join them that morning. If the pictures had turned out any better my heart would have been even more broken than it already is, so, in some ways I'm selfishly glad the new camera went on the boat.

Summer is ending. Old dear friends are moving away. Other friends are starting to deal with scary medical diagnosis. A new school year is about to start. DeeJay is starting his last year of school. He even got a call from Guam informing him that some of his family is planning to come here to witness his graduation and that he will be then traveling back to Guam with them where he will be greeting by his family as a man and how he needs to prepare. Vince and I are trying to plan how we should embark on the next few years of our lives. We are coming upon another threshold...

I just hope that we don't miss the super fantastic moments in life because we are so busy trying to figure out the techicalities.

Anchorage Pictures

Mel Mobile in McDonald's Parking LotInside the Mel Mobile

Yes, the Mel Mobile has an audio/visual system!

You can't beat that BAMFV for a good time on the road.

After my last blog posting, the kids and I got an unexpected offer to spend the night at our friend Jenna's house. This was a real treat for me not only because we were able to experience the delight of running water and refrigeration, but I was able to do some badly needed catching up with my friend Jenna.

Jenna was 11 when we were living on Saipan. She and Hannah and her parents came to Saipan to visit us. She remembers Willie and DeeJay from that time and remembers some of the delicious food we were able to eat while she was there. She used to babysit Falcom before she got to high school and became too busy. She also remembers when we came home from Saipan, she and I painted a room really bright blue and it was so horrible! But when we stood real close we felt that we were back at the reef in Saipan. Ah!

She is 21 now, just received her Occupational Health and Safety certification of UAA, in the middle of her underpaying internship, battling her way through the interpersonal lessons that young women must learn at this age. I am so blessed to still have her in my life! While Jenna worked, we decided it was time for haircuts. Marina wanted short haircut with bangs. Dad (and I) wants his little girl to have little girl hair. We compromised. Falcom on the other hand wanted his hair SHORT and waved me away at the salon and got this cut. This picture says it all. Especially the caption on the right. Too Perfect!

At the end of the day, everyone was very happy with their haircuts. Marina no longer screams at the sight of the brush. Falcom is not so happy with a buzz cut but we are glad he tried it out. After the haircut we had to race around Anchorage looking for a shower as he had hair in every nook and cranny. I love my adventurous kids!

Anchorage Roadtrip

The little kids and I are in Anchroage for a couple of days to school shop. Every now and then I feel compelled to support one of Alaska's largest employers. Especially when it is offering $.25 crayons.We are sleeping in the van, with windows covered with sarongs hung with a clothesline Mema provided. (Good thinking Mom) We ARE CAmping in McDonalds parking lot with other transients. The kids have already made a friend...a parking lot friend. At McDonalds this morning, after brushing teeth in the bathroom, I was thinking of my Yosemite days, sneaking showers and such. Suprisingly, I was feeling in my element again and overhead Stevie Nicks came on and sang, "...back to the gypsy that I was..."