Alaska? KICKS YOUR ASS

So, hey? How y'all been?

Long time no see!

I've been busy living life recently. SO much has happened since I last got on here.

In the last two years...let's see. My boyfriend broke up with me after almost a year via email. So that was totally cool. I fell into the deepest depression and then went into intensive therapy. So that was also SUPER cool.

My two dogs died.  Within 10 days of each other. My husband moved out. I adopted a dog that got increasingly aggressive so that he actually drew blood from three people. So I relinquished him to a animal behavior expert after only having him for 9 months.

Then, I had to sell my house. Oh, and I had rented my upstairs out to a psychotic crazy lady that keyed my car and didn't pay rent and left the house unlocked several times.

And then I had to sell my beloved house because I couldn't afford the $3000 per month mortgage. And then my Grandmother died. And I got into a car accident in a rental car the night of her funeral. And then my sweet, sweet friend, M, died only 12 weeks after being diagnosed with aggressive liver cancer.

So I moved in with my good friend, N, for a little over a year while I tried to recuperate from all of the losses.

And I finally found the strength to go to therapy and face my many demons. And to learn that grieving is okay and that it doesn't make you a bad person. And also that facing pain is painful! But it doesn't kill you. It actually makes you stronger and better.

ANYHOO, here I am. Alive and kicking! I'm remarried, have a lovely little schmoo of a puppy dog snickerdoodle pie that is just a joy! Her name is Phoebe, but I call her Phoobles or Loops! Phooble-loops is where "Loops" come from and it fits her perfectly:

What a schmoo!!!

In any case. Here I am living in Anchorage Alaska! I drove across country in my little VW Passat with my betrothed and had the trip of a lifetime! 

The beauty of the Rocky Mountains is unsurpassed except by Alaska. HOLY CRAP! Have you ever been here? You must come. Alaska is DA BOMB to use a stupid saying. There are mountains everywhere. And the critters? Talk about dynamic mammals? So, in the two weeks we drove from MA to AK, we saw 20 black bears, 1 grizzly bear, caribou, porcupine, beavers, countless eagles and trumpeter swans, osprey, perigrine falcons, other falcons, a jillion hawks of various species, billions of song birds, fox and FOUR mooses!! FOUR! Including two little boy mooses who were so adorable I wanted to make a sandwich out of them:

 Yeah. So there's that.

And since living here in Alaska, I've also seen belugas, two sea otters, a baby harbor seal, Dall sheep, Dall's porpoise (who the fuck was Dall?), endless bald eagles, endless cool birds like magpies and neato warblers, arctic terns, auklets, murrelets and a million other seabirds, more mooses and probably a thousand other things I can't even remember because Alaska is so brilliant.

The mountains, the ocean, the lakes, rivers and streams. A few weekends ago we camped on a beach at the mouth of the Kasilov river where 40,000 salmon PER DAY head upstream to spawn and then die. So, this was the view from our tent:

The day before that spectacularness, we camped on the beach in Seward. Here's Resurrection Bay in Seward that morning.

The things I've seen. Man. How great is this fucking planet? Really...it's just amazing.

More to come!

xoxoxo