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| My beloved Boulder |
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| Top of Mt. Evans |
This past week I surprised one my most bestest of friends on her birthday by showing up on her doorstep in Denver. It was absolutely OUTSTANDING! I had a 13 hour layover in Anchorage so I could spend a little time with T, and then headed on the red-eye to Denver. Danielle's fiance was in on the whole thing and picked me up bright and early and after I got to their house Danielle and I had some serious adventure time! We hit up Boulder, where I purchased my mandatory CU t-shirt (GO BUFFS! The goal this season is: win at least 1 game!), and Denver Broncos attire. It's also where D realized, after our waitress pointed out to us after ordering birthday drinks, that her ID expired that day and that she needed a new ID that day... perfect. Drunk and go to the DMV? What could possibly go wrong? Well we didn't make it to the DMV, but we did get it renewed online, in time, so the rest of our celebration weekend could commence without incident. Way to go Colorado. Making it hard for a 31 year old to get a drink the day after they turn 31.... Anyways. D and I were going to go drive up Pikes Peak and play tourist in Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods. We were so pumped to go! The next morning we wake up to the news that Manitou Springs (you have to drive through this to get to Pikes Peak) had basically washed away in a flash flood.... change of plans! Let's go to Mt. Evans! So we did. And we got to hike the last little bit in fresh
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| Fresh snow dusted on the top! |
slushy snow... winter is coming :) I know. I am a completely sick individual. A lot of my favorite Denver people all came to a bottomless mimosa brunch in Denver. I felt like I had never left.
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| 14,258ft |
We had lovely afternoons by the pool, and went for a hike in the foothills a few minutes from D's house. It was so nice to fall asleep to rolling thunder one night, and the sounds of crickets the other nights. I miss those nights. In Nome I just hear dirt bikes and kids playing basketball until like 4am....(another rant for another day). Plus this is the view from my bedroom window... and they start work at exactly 650am. UGH.
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| My beautiful view! Earth mover! |
After 3 days with D we had a custody handoff and I stayed with my friend Lindy who lives pretty much at the Denver airport, and she dropped me off on her way to work. I then landed in sunny and warm Seattle and got to see Bentley and some nursing school friends as I had a 20 hour layover there. I was again reminded of how at home I feel in the city of Seattle. Bittersweet for sure. I was accosted by a homeless person and it was like I had never left. Seattle you sure are different. And I like that. But at the end of this tour of the places I have lived in the last 10 years I was ready to go Nome. Like really ready to go Nome. Back to where life is slow and steady. Back to where shaving my legs is completely optional.... because why would I ever wear shorts or skirts here? It's not like it's necessarily... warm.
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| Red Rocks |
I came back to 4 days straight of work (Thurs-Sun), and I leave for Anchorage for a month on Wednesday. I will be going to nights (630p-7a). Perhaps this will work better with my insomnia. It's been a rough couple of nights sleeping, which leads to really rough 12 hour shifts. Plus I think I do my best sleeping between the hours of 7am and noon.
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| Old stomping grounds as seen from the big ferris wheel |
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| One ironically placed photo |
So I have now completed my 4 days in a row... rounded out the last day as more of a 14 hour shift. The storm clouds descended upon Nome and EVERYONE came to the hospital... at around 5pm... pleasant. Overdoses, falling off of ladders, chronic shortness of breath, drinking so much, so often that you throw up blood because your body has run out of ways to tell you.... stop drinking already, random abdominal pains, pink eye, and other such random crises that the people of this town have. Silver lining? No sexual assaults!
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| Bentley loves this |
I have really started thinking about home. Where it is? What makes it a home? I feel very transient in my life. I have half my life sitting in a storage unit in Denver, my cat lives in Seattle, and my skis and clothes live in Nome. I have amazing friends in all these places, wonderful memories. But none of them feels like home anymore. What an interesting and unfamiliar feeling this is. To be so scattered yet still feel somewhat grounded. Maybe this bird just isn't ready to nest yet. I wonder when that will happen? I think I'm like one of a handful of my friends that doesn't own a home, isn't engaged, married, having babies, has babies. I just work at the edge of nowhere, save for retirement, and travel where I wish, when I wish. The grass is always greener right? Probably been fertilized with bullshit though.
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| Someone is enjoying his time on the deck in the sunshine |
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| Kisses for mama! |
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| Don't feel too bad for Bentley. This is his view over Lake Washington |
Time to enjoy my last three days in Nome before my month at the Native health center in Anchorage. I will continue to update!!!
Love to all my lovelies!
Also this is what happens when you have a few cocktails and decide that trimming your tree with a chainsaw on top of a 10' ladder and the branch you cut down first hit you and knocks you off the ladder and you land on a chair. Guess he was lucky enough to get away without anything but a broken femur.
