Laverne and Shirley, Sonny and Cher, bread and butter, night and day, and peanut butter and chocolate.

Therefore, it gives me great pleasure to announce that today is simultaneously National Peanut Day and International Chocolate Day! The beginning of the Reese’s peanut butter cup (the only respectable candy ‘bar’) owes its birth to a start on September 13th…of some year. I’m overjoyed to have a day off so I can go grab a Reese’s!

Other tidbits and interesting history on this September 13th to note (courtesy of foodreference.com):

1592 Michel de Montaigne died. French essayist. There are a few of his quotes about food and dining listed on the Food Reference website. (“A man should not so much respect what he eats, as with whom he eats.”)

1857 Milton Snaveley Hershey of chocolate fame was born.

1876 American author, Sherwood Anderson was born. In 1941 Anderson supposedly swallowed a toothpick or a swizzle stick while at a cocktail party in the Panama Canal Zone, and died of peritonitis.

1909 ‘The Chocolate Soldier,’ an operetta by Oscar Straus and Stanislaus Strange, opened in New York.

1916 Roald Dahl was born. British author, one of his most popular books was ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,’ the film version was titled ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.’ Some of his other books are ‘A Piece of Cake,’ ‘Pig,’ ‘Royal Jelly,’ ‘Smell’ and ‘Lamb to the Slaughter.’ The highest temperature ever recorded in the shade, 136.4 degrees F was recorded in a village 25 miles south of Tripoli, Libya.

1922

1955 Little Richard recorded ‘Tutti Frutti’

1977 Fiona Apple, singer, songwriter was born.

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A few photos from the previous few weeks:

 Ziplining with Janet and Tabitha

 A humpback fluke from about 50 yards

 Mendenhall Glacier and falls

 An eerie river

 Fish Fest at my house (friends Dylan and Amber)

 Beer-battered halibut, lemon cod and crab cakes!

  “Usually, though, a truly memorable encounter involves someone else. There has to be an exchange of some kind, an insight, an awareness that lingers in the mind, impervious to time.  Afterward you know that you have learned something valuable – something that can’t always be described exactly, or measured, or fully explained. But something. When one of these luminous encounters takes place, most people feel an impulse to preserve it, somehow. Some try to keep a tangible reminder: a flower, a photograph, a handkerchief, perhaps. A writer tries to preserve it in words.”                 

Arthur Gordon, “A Touch of Wonder”

 Tomorrow is the first day (since May 3) we will have NO SHIPS in port! The season is winding down for sure, and we are all going to celebrate our day off by doing nothing touristy! An actual Saturday? For sleeping in, and seeing friends, and not working? Can it be??

This weekend, spend too much time doing the things you never have time to do. I know I will.

Here’s lookin’ at you, kid[s].

Meet me at the airport around 9:30 pm on Wed., October 1st!

May the last 3 weeks of my AlaskAngie journey be just as fabulous as the previous 21 have been!

Actually, it’s just been ‘one of those days’…for about a month now! There has, of course, been a lot happening (housemates leaving and going back to school, our tour winning Shore Excursion of the Year by Princess Cruises, me running from a black bear, having my friend Janet visit from home, and my parents deciding to sell their home in Kansas to move to OKC to name a few scenarios).

Tonight I’m getting ready to go have dinner with some of the Shore Excursions managers at Pizzeria Roma (oh my word: Delicious) because we’ve all become friends over the season and next week is their ‘last call’ for the Juneau port. I can’t believe it! My job is already coming to an end! — As in, “It’s already been 5 months?!” Also, I didn’t win Tour Coordinator of the year, but I do feel more than satisfied that I was mentioned by enough passengers/staff to earn a spot in the running. And several of my fellow dock staff from other companies mentioned to me they wish I would have ‘taken the gold’. That means enough to me. (Winning Tour Coordinator of the Month of July was pretty cool though!)

This week I’m buying my plane ticket home and I’m very excited. I’m proud that I’ve come here, that I’ve achieved so much, that I learned a great new job, and that I’ve made thousands of ‘acquaintances’ off the cruise ships. But just like anything else, with an ending comes another beginning: my return to Oklahoma City. I’ll be happy for being with old friends and my fabulous family, having a car again, Mexican food, not standing outside in the rain all day, and to not be answering questions like “Why do they call it a bald eagle? I can see its feathers from here.”

Life’s been good to me, but I’m happy to be beginning new experiences at home. Blog posts may be a bit sparse for the next 3 1/2 weeks while I finish out strong and remain ‘in the moment’ here instead of concentrating on leaving, but breathe easy and know I’m happy, healthy and well.

I wish all the same for you all too, of course.

Besos!

**Photos Below**

To prove to myself (and Janet) that Juneau is completely landlocked, we drove “out the road” the other day to the very end:

BUT, my thoughts tonight are echoed beautifully in the simply-penned words of Kierkegaard:

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he is capable of doing and becoming.

Isn’t it terrifyig knowing you may not be living up to your full potential??

I’m going to bed so I can start over tomorrow. Again.

I started my “Things to do before I’m too old to enjoy them” list in the 9th grade, which was shortly after I saw a documentary about an older woman who went skydiving to prove she wasn’t afraid of dying. I want to skydive. I want to bungee jump. I want to do everything. Several items were/are on my list: ride a gondola in Venice (check); walk on a glacier (check); take a dance class (check).

In November of 2006 I started taking salsa lessons from I Dance Studio in Oklahoma City (http://www.idancestudio.com/). At first I admit to being a bit timid to this new skill, but it soon began to grow on me and now I confess to practicing my salsa dancing with the lines on the carpet in my office in Juneau when no one else is there. So much about it makes me happy, including the tempo, passion behind the words I cannot always understand, and the feeling of gratification it gives me to know I can ‘communicate’ — even if only with an ‘open break’ or ‘side basic’ step — with a completely new culture.

The folks I began learning with are now some of my most cherished friends, and we’ve formed great bonds of friendship within these past two years. My girls there especially have encouraged me every step of the way, have gone camping with me, celebrate holidays and inside jokes with me, and have proven to be pillars of fresh perspective, honesty, and support in my life. Never would I have imagined that I’d find such qualities in others who were also seeking a new adventure (or check mark for their respective lists), but I found them nonetheless.

Wednesday’s featured friends: My fabulous friends from IDance Studio — especially my Mad Hatters! Thanks to each of you, the end of my twenties have been twice as grand as the first half was. You’ve been lovers of individuality, and you encourage me to find my way via the passions and talents I possess. Thank you for motivating me to use my own strengths and weaknesses for a greater good.

Her name was Kathy and we soon found lots in common, including having to be separated from each other during class because of our incessant giggling and note-passing. Sixteen years have passed and I’m confident that, if left beside each other in any kind of meeting/class environment, the threat of separation would be looming overhead still.

From kindergarten I had friends like Cristi, Mandy and Heather. We’d been on little league together, and through every science fair, pep rally, and school carnival together. In high school, we all joined forces with Trisha, Janet, Amanda and Amber. Soon all of us were inseparable and spent innumerable nights at each others’ homes, painting our faces at football games, having fun at school dances, talking about boys, and memorizing AC/DC song lyrics.

After high schoolsome of us, admittedly, lost touch. But anytime I came home from college for holidays, I would see my girls and all was right again. Sure, we’d changed. But that common thread binding all of us is always enough to warrant a tight hug and several hours of conversation even still. Sadly I don’t have photos of all of them at my disposal, but I have their smiles forever etched where it matters. A few photos I DO have are below and are really just the tip of the iceberg. High schoolwas a great time in my life, thanks to the great friends I surrounded myself with…even from kindergarten.

and a bit later…

Tuesday’s featured friends: All my friends from ‘back in the day’! And also, I’ll be gathering with all of my Class of ’98ers in late November for our 10 year high school reunion! Looks like I’ll be reconnecting with several others soon too! To all of you friends, thanks for being part of my quintessential high school memories. You all permeate my photos and memories – both past and present – and I couldn’t be happier about that.

(“Settlement” consists of us gathering all of our many tickets from the day, counting them, and figuring up the totals from the day’s allotments. We give all the tickets to each ship’s Shore Excursions manager, they give us an invoice for the services, and we all go home [or back on board the ship] happy.)

My new friend Erin and I had hamburgers and discussed our backgrounds since we only are really able to make small talk while we wait for passengers to disembark off the ships. But today we had an hour to kill after the last departure and before settlement. It was refreshing, and awkward enough to compare to ‘first date’ conversation. None of it was bad, but it was similar to the ‘getting to know you’ talk you inevitably have with a new acquaintance. Erin’s great. She’s 20 and is beginning her junior of college in Minnesota, though she was born and raised here in Juneau. Despite her youth, this is her 6th season in the tourism industry, which isn’t all that uncommon for the twenty-somethings raised in this environment. Erin’s been saving up for her semester-long study abroad program this fall to Turkey, Egypt and Morrocco. Majoring in sociology and anthropology, she’s interested in doing a dig back in Alaska one day. She said she doesn’t know exactly what she wants to do after graduation, but is pretty confident she’ll have something decent to fall back on by then.

I told her what I know: Be sure to take time to find what you love to do. Don’t rush into a career if you’re not sure what you want to do. — Right or wrong, I’m taking my own advice. Though I know I want to write, photograph, travel and meet new people all the time, I’m unsure of which road will lead me there.

Erin and I enjoyed our dinner, went to settlement, and then parted ways after we finished. On my way home I thought about all the millions of incidences — big and small — that have led me to this very place, in this time, doing this ODD job, with this cornucopia of like-minded and free-spirited individuals. We’re a whole generation of “I’m not really sure, so I’ll try this in the meantime.” — And I’m good with that for the time being.

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This week I’ve decided to dedicated each day to a different group of people who have drastically influenced my life in big, beautiful ways. Hear me out and keep reading…

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Continuing my thought about how I ended up here, I thought about one of the other major growing times in my life: my 2 years in England. So many people and experiences shaped my time there, and I miss them — the people and the experiences — tremendously.

Because I miss them so much…

…Monday’s featured friends: Everyone I love in England! (even if I couldn’t find all the photos of all the people I especially wanted to display…)

To all of my English friends, thank you for being patient with this naive girl as she attempted to find her way in a new culture. Your footprints in my life are treasured and precious.

I, of course, had to document the glorious days sans rain:

…and then today it was again 58 and rainy.

Silly Alaska rain can’t ruin my parade.