Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes, they win. - Stephen King

Playing in the fireweed. Once all the flowers die on the stem summer is over

Okay since the last post a lot has happened! Lots of fun times, good friends, and adventures.  However nothing too terribly exciting has been happening in the ER. Lots of run of the mill heart attacks, possible strokes, phantom abdominal pain, etc.  We have been seeing some pretty cool hand lacerations from gold miners and contractors that are laying the fiber optic cable up the west coast of Alaska (OMG Perhaps one day soon we will have enough bandwidth for video chatting!).  So needless to say we have been doing lots of tetanus boosters! Ohhh and I learned that rabies vaccine/treatment is crazy! We don't do needles in the stomach anymore, but we are going to inject you with basically 11-15ml of serum... that's roughly 2-3ml in each major muscle group.  YOUCH!  I was punched in the face by an unruly 3 year old and told the mother she could wash her kids head wounds out (they weren't super bad, 3 stitches and it was done... only took 3 people to hold this kid down).  We had a kiddo with a finger that was gonna lose the tip. I don't know the full story on that one, but the tip of his finger was most certainly coal black.

I have also heard a vicious rumor that Verizon has put up a bunch of towers all across the state and that coming soon, hopefully October, they will flip the switch and perhaps Nome will stop owning my texts, calls and voicemails... maybe ;)

Stopped here for lunch on the way to our campsite

I noticed while I was away in Anchorage so much the past few weeks that I really do start to  miss certain aspects of this little town I call home.  I do rather enjoy almost always knowing someone wherever I go. The post office, the gym, grocery store, a local restaurant, walking down the street. I also really miss riding around on my 4-wheeler (who just turned 2000 miles old today!), when I get back I just don't feel home until I take my machine for a little ride (my god... what is happening to me?) My first trip to Anchorage was more of a grocery and errand run for some friends and myself and to hang out with T.  I flew back to Nome to work 3 days and left on the late flight out on 4th and T took me on a camping adventure.

Bottom of the mill looking up

The first night we stayed outside of a little town called Chitina, and the second and third night we stayed in a little town called McCarthy.  This state has some pretty incredible history to it.  We visited the Kennicott copper mine which is 5 miles outside of McCarthy.  To think that they built and started mining before they even got the train tracks built... in the early 1900's! We are a wussy group these days that's for sure (and yes I am most certainly in the wussy group!).  The pictures don't do it nearly any justice.  The mountains hid from me behind low clouds.  I will have to go back and hope for a clear sunny day to see the 16,000-18,000ft peaks that dapple the skyline.  Truly incredible.

Kennicott Copper Mill

Top of the mill

Our first night in McCarthy we took the mini bike (my first mini bike adventure!) into town (they don't allow tourists to drive their cars in, residents pay to use a car bridge into town, but ATVs and motorcycles/dirt bikes are allowed on the pedestrian bridge).  T and I went to a bar and had a drink and ran into some crazy Texans also enjoying an adult beverage.  We told them we took a little ride across the bridge into town on the mini bike together and they just said "You Alaskans are different".  Hahaha I was called an Alaskan... and you know what? we are pretty different.

Me and the mini bike!

Later the next day the mini bike and I got into a fight. I lost. My left lower leg took the impact of the crank case on top of a rock.  Then I must have hit the peg on the other leg during the fall because I looked like a domestic abuse victim.  For the record the really nasty bruise didn't hurt at all, and the one that looks like nothing was horribly painful. About a week out and the blood from the left leg is all pooling at my ankle and makes me look super tough. Silver linings.  I haven't had so much fun on a trip in a long time! I hope to come back sooner than later.

Root Glacier with a very hidden Mt Blackburn (16,391ft)

The night after the fall.

All the blood pooling at my ankle a week later

When a foot peg meets your calf

I got back a few days ago, worked a few days and today went out with 7 others from the ER on a long 4-wheeler trip to a fish camp that is about 15 miles down the west beach from Nome.  We took the long way in from the road and drove over the tundra and through tons of mud.  We had a pretty great time.

Creek crossing on the way to the beach from the tundra

Looking down on the tundra

The last few days have been weird for me. A lot of my past has caught me off guard and I hate when my weaknesses come rushing in with no brakes.  Letting the past interfere with the current is so ridiculous.  I know I am human, and I know that so many people have the same insecurities that I have.  I do have my head on pretty straight sometimes, and I am in a pretty good spot in life. Then a single event just brings me back to spots in my life that have tested me, and hurt me to my core, times that have clipped my wings and made me crawl.  I feel like I get so overwhelmed and I over commit to re-righting the boat that in my head has started to rock.  If you know me you know that I have an incredible ability to make mountains out of molehills sometimes and then I try to dig my way out.  Then I spin spin spin and oh goodness it just gets worse and worse.  Tonight after a lovely dinner at one of the doctors houses Emily and I took a very long walk down the beach and I was brought back to center when she told me that "...everyone thinks and feels a lot of the things that you do. You just come out with it, while most people just hold it in"  Perhaps that is why I have added this little section in this post.  Seems inner demons are always lurking and just wait until a little weakness shows and then they run rampant. I must rein these things in.  It's absurd.

Getting stuck in mud pits! Great day!

Cliffs on the side of trail

Sledge Island floating on the horizon

No matter how far you run you will always find yourself wherever you land.  You would think I would have learned this lesson by now.  Maybe this time...

The tame Bering Sea.

I am thankful for friends at the edge of the world, the new place I will be calling my home in September at some point, warm sunny days that I don't actually work on, friends that don't let my inner demons get in the way, matte finished nail polish.

Love to you all!