La Alaskeña

But not Alaska. No matter though. Yesterday I decided that despite the lack of daffodils and spring weather, I was going out for a walk. In the summer I’m a great walker, but in the winter I mostly stay inside and sleep. This is silly though, as walking in the winter in Alaska has one great advantage: the bears are sleeping. In the summer I have to worry about all manner of dangerous animals including bears (and yes, they come into the city), but in the winter I only have to worry about moose. Those jerks don’t hibernate.

10 degrees is about my limit for outdoor activity. And considering that most of December and January was -20, 12 degrees seems downright balmy. Don’t you feel sorry for me? I sure feel sorry for myself.

These cute little birds didn’t seem to mind the cold. I have a very serious question: what are they eating? No really, there’s no bugs right now, no berries… what are they eating? If someone could solve this mystery for me, I’d really appreciate it.

Rocking the Carhartts like any Alaskan worth their salt. I’d like to think that in addition to keeping me warm, the hat and scarf prevent me from looking like a man in my Carhartt coat. If they don’t, oh well. I’ll worry about looking feminine in June.

Yesterday was a big day for me not only because I braved the outdoors, but because I made coffee for the first time. I mean, it’s one thing to stir a spoonful of Nescafe into a cup of hot water, but it’s another thing entirely to find where your boyfriend has hidden the coffee beans, grind them, figure out where they go in the machine that makes scary noises when you push the wrong buttons, add water and turn the thing on. Another thing entirely, and I did it. All by myself. It’s like I’m a real grown-up or something.

AND I went to the store and found the holy grail of sugary sweets: chocolate licorice. CHOCOLATE. LICORICE.

If that isn’t proof of some sort of higher power, I don’t know what is. I’d never been able to find chocolate licorice in Alaska, so when I did, it took an enormous amount of self-control to keep from doing a little happy jig in the middle of aisle 5. So much self-control in fact, that I didn’t have any left over to prevent myself from eating 3/4 of the package in one day. Shut up. We all do things we’re not proud of.