Weather

It has never been easy to move from a place like California to the tundra of Alaska, but this place really does grow on you after a while. As winter has already fallen upon the Interior, it is sometimes hard to remember what it is like in other spots of the world. A normal day lately in Fairbanks has been between about zero and ten degrees above. Last week, as we all woke up for our dreaded Monday morning, Fairbanks residents got a cold surprise of about twenty degrees below zero. Although twenty below is cold, I find it funny how people here react to the situation. For myself, all it was was a switch from my normal down jacket to my Carharrt. For others, it was just one more layer on top and maybe a warmer pair of socks. That same Monday I was watching Monday night football and in Buffalo it was just above twenty degrees and people within the stadium looked as though they were going to die if it got any colder. I looked at my roommate and we both laughed about how big of wimps these people were and that twenty above would be nice at this time. Then it hit me, 'Did I really say that?', Did I really just say that twenty above would be nice weather. Yes, and if you haven't endured the cold here you would never understand. The last two days it has been just above zero, and after the cold snap we felt, that weather has felt so warm. I found myself driving the other day with my window down thinking that the cold air feels great. I come home in three weeks and I really wonder what its going to be like to be thrown into fifty something degree weather. Shorts and t-shirts, here I come!!!!

(I rambled quite a bit in this one. Pardon my grammar mistakes.)

Thankful

At many times throughout the year we are reminded why we are thankful for certain people, blessings in our life, and the many things we get to enjoy that many others do not. But, as I began to think the other day about what I was most thankful for, I could not come up with any specific thing. It boggled my mind that I was not able to think of one single thing that I was truly thankful for, but that all changed when I entered the Fairbanks Rescue Mission this afternoon for a Thanksgiving preview story, as well as the hundreds of individuals lined up at the church just down the road looking for boxes of supplies for a sufficient Thanksgiving dinner.
Yes, I'm thankful for many different things within my life but I think the one thing I am most thankful for is the love and care that so many people have shown this thanksgiving. It will be exactly one year from tomorrow that I made my journey to the last frontier to chase a job that I had worked so hard for. I am thankful for those so many people that have taken me under their wing while being in such an unfamiliar place and made it feel like home. I am thankful for the memories that I have been able to share with those around me and the many memories that still hold strong in my mind from the past. I am thankful to have a family that cares to know what I am doing everyday and that I am financially stable and able to enjoy the many things that consume my everyday life. I am just plain thankful that I am cared for by so many people and that I am able to care for them in the same way.
It will be my first thanksgiving away from my family, but also the first thanksgiving that I get to enjoy with many of the new friends that have come into my life. My family will always be the first to come to mind when I think of Thanksgiving and things that I am thankful for, but as I sit down and enjoy a delicious home cooked meal, I can't be anymore thankful for the past year and all the experiences that I have endured and the many blessings that I have received. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Never would have thought

A lot of my time here in Fairbanks consists of me driving around town for different stories or interviews, which gives me a lot of time to spend people watching and observing from afar. One thing I noticed the other day was a job that I really would not like in Fairbanks during the winter, Parking Enforcement. Even though this town sees temperatures of fifty below zero during the winter, the parking enforcement officers are always out and ready to give tickets. As many of us dread the walk from our heated cars to the heated buildings we work in, parking enforcement officers are walking all around town throughout the day monitoring parking spots and giving tickets. If you catch them at the end of their route, you can usually notice the amount of moisture icicles that have formed on the hood of their jackets and the cold ice that has accumulated on their face cover as they breathe in and out while they walk. Yes, they walk, they do not have little "meter maid" cars like many of us are used to seeing, they make their trips walking throughout the downtown area. It definitely makes me appreciate a warm car every time I see them.
Another thing that I never thought about before I got here was the use of a cemetery. In many parts of the world, cemetery's can be used year round, not here in Fairbanks. Because of the freezing cold temperatures and the amount of snow that falls so early in the year, cemetery's are shut down at a certain point and then re-open once the ground is considered reasonable to dig. No, people here don't send the fallen out to sea on large pieces of broken ice ( the same notion of no, we don't all live in igloos). I find it quite interesting that they can just close cemetery's for more than half a year and then just re-open for other parts of the year. Strange, at least to me.
And one last observance, except this one is more of a question of logic. Many residents of the Fairbanks area are called Natives. These are the people who have rooted pasts within the Alaskan Interior for hundreds of years and still call Fairbanks home. Unfortunately, many of them live off of the states money and their ancestral savings from their tribe. Okay, back to my point- Ravens within the Interior are some of the biggest you will ever see in your life, these things are just plain massive. Natives believe that all of their ancestors are the Ravens that roam the town and the state for that matter. But I wonder, why believe your ancestors are Ravens? These are the same birds that spend entire winters freezing to death in the sub zero temperatures and picking through peoples trash. When I think about my deceased relatives, I really don't want to subject them to being trash pickers that have to survive these temperatures and being one of the most hated animals within an entire town. I find it odd that one large group would selectively choose this animal to represent their relatives who have passed.
Well, that's all for now from the Last Frontier. Hope everyone is staying warm!

Election Season

I know many of my critics have been waiting for another blog, aka mom and grandma, but I am now finally able to post again. For the past months election season in Alaska has been quite the up and down roller coaster. With Gov. Sarah Palin being announced as McCain's running mate, Stevens going to trial and being convicted, and Don Young, "Poor Don Young", also being investigated... this has been quite the political scene so far in Alaska. As it came closer and closer for voters to make their decision for 2008... it has only made my job and daily duties even more stressful. I have been at sign wavings at 7:30 in the morning just to catch candidates with their volunteers, I have been to more political rallies than I ever thought I would attend in my life, I have talked to a convicted felon that the people still continue to support for Senate (Ted Stevens, as if you didn't know), and I was at Election Central all night last night until one in the morning. As election season has almost come to a close, I can finally take a big sigh of relief. Although I enjoy hearing the different sides of issues all day long and the political jargon that many candidates try and use to mix up your thoughts, and Joe Paskvans mother endorsing all his commercials("I'm Joe's mother, and I approve this message")... I can finally say that I am quite glad Election 2008 is over with. It's been real... It's been fun... But it hasn't been real fun.