Leavin' on a Jet Plane....

Just as I had finally felt somewhat settled in Amanda's apartment, it was time to leave again.

As usual I wasn't ready leave however. I was supposed to head to California to set-up for Rowan on the 12th of the month, however I panicked and extended my stay in Anchorage by a few days to finish getting things in some sort of order.

On the 15th I arrived in Orange County, California only minutes before Rowan did. It was time to show an Aussie around. The first stop on the second day of his stay here was Disneyland.

Rowan's Visit

Disneyland
Vegas
Hoover Dam
Grand Canyon
San Diego
Oceanside
Griffith Observatory
Mini-golf
Irvine Improv show

These were just a stops so far. He's currently in San Fransisco, but when he comes back down, we still have L.A. and Hollywood to do. I was thinking of taking him to Universal Studios.

Here are some pictures from the trip so far:

January?

Surely not another month has already passed. Funny how when you get older the days seem to go quicker.

I have a feeling that this may be a long blog, therefore I am going to try to break it up into two entries... or more.

Kari Visits

The first day of the year was spent with my good friend Kari. It was wonderful to see her! And although we didn't do anything uber-exciting, we did get in lots of chat time and a trip to Title Wave Bookstore. The best book store in town!

Later during her visit we met up one more time to have drinks. It was a very short visit for the both of us, and we had a lot to catch-up on, but like I said, it was wonderful to see her!



Alaska's 50th Anniversary

On January 3rd, 2009 Alaska celebrated statehood with fireworks and drinking. Although Brad and I did not go to see the fireworks, we did end-up drinking with our friends Marco and Becky at a little pub called McGinleys. It was perfect! They even had the Carhartt Brothers playing country/folk music! It was a bit difficult to find seating at first, but standing around waiting for people to leave paid off. Marco says I need to work on my "shyness" problem. Ha!



Weird Weather

Just as we thought it couldn't get any weirder Anchorage's weather went from around -20'F or less to about 40'F above in a matter of possibly a week. I thought it was noteworthy, because the weather seems to be getting stranger and more odd every year. It's unheard of that Alaska would have such dramatic weather changes in January. I blame the economy because it seems like it's what everyone is blaming these days.

Speaking of Jobs

The time had come to leave Grassroots and once again become jobless. I had been hoping for a number of weeks I would hear from the Bureau of Land Management about an Environmental Education Coordinator position, but still to this day I haven't heard a word... even though I gave them a heads up about what's going on in my life. Ugh... the job hunt can be so lame.

I have heard from Glacier Bay National Park about a seasonal position though. This is a good sign. At least I may have a job this summer. I will continue to job hunt when I get back to Alaska on the 18th of Febuary however. Anyone know of a job I'd like to do in Alaska that has a position open?

December... to Day One of 2009

The month of December is always exciting!

Christmas Season

Before Christmas, work at Grassroots really picked-up. Apparently people in this area of Anchorage are really into the concept of Fair Trade. On the week leading up to Christmas the store was making anywhere between a thousand to two thousand dollars a day. We were incredibly busy. At some points we even had three people working at the store, when we normally just have one.

And just as I thought I was going to be spending the days around Christmas working, my mom called to ask if I wanted to come home for Christmas. I couldn't pass up the chance. Free tickets to California, who would pass that up?! The only reason that someone might pass that up is if they weren't a seasoned traveler, and didn't want to fly on Christmas Eve and have a 7 hour layover on the way back a few days later. That didn't scare me though!

After receiving a few CDs from my wonderful friend Brad, a Christmas bonus from work, and diamond earrings from a random customer it was off to Cali for a sunny Christmas... or at least sunny is what I was dreaming of. Que the music.. "I'm dreaming of a warm, sunny Christmas... with no snow." Hehe...

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, and the day after

At 5am on Christmas Eve Brad drove me to the airport to catch my flight. With only a carry on and my laptop I was prepared for a pretty easy trip to Orange County. I made it through security fairly quickly and although the flight was packed the plane made it out on time. All was going as planned. When I arrived in SeaTac the airport was very busy and there was TONS of snow on the ground!

There had been so much snow dumped on Seattle the previous days that they had almost hit a record snow fall. I personally had never seen that much snow in Seattle. According to the things I was hearing around the airport, Seattle had no idea how to cope with the amount of snow. They had shut down roads that traveled steep hills and had run out of de-icing fluid for the planes for a short while. Thankfully by the time I had arrived they had enough de-icing fluid for all of the planes. The only problem with the de-icing of the planes had happened earlier in the day. One of the windows of a plane's cocpit had been open when the de-icing process had started and the whole plane was "de-iced out".

Thankfully there were no problems on my last flight from Seattle to Orange County, so I arrived just after dinner on Christmas Eve. Upon arriving at the house we (my mom, my step-dad, my sister, my brother, my brother's girlfriend, my grandmother, and I) proceeded to open presents. We don't wait to get gifts on Christmas anymore... way too much waiting. ;-)

The most heartfelt gift was from my mom to my brother's girlfriend, Brittany. Brittany had received a semester of community college all expenses paid. Being the first of her family to go to school it was a great to see her receive her first ever scholarship. She'll be going to school to study mammography.

Christmas day was spent with my dad's size of the family. Needless to say, it was pretty uneventful, per usual. We don't really have any members of the Navarro family that are good at planning family functions. Christmas evening was spent talking to my gram while my parent's ongoing holiday party hosted a variety of guests coming and going.

Boxing day was probably the most exciting day. The whole family went to the mall and took Christmas photos and then went go-carting. Although my mom had me get my make-up done, I thought I was the goofiest looking one in the photo because of it. After everyone reassured me that I was not, I was more than happy to mess-up the make-up by going go-carting.

Although I suck at go-carting, we all had a wonderful time. My mom even got my gram to go... she did 9 laps. I was pretty proud!

The next day I got back on a plane to Anchorage. I would see my family again in about 14 days when I met up with Rowan to show him around.

New Years Eve

Spent watching "Pinky and the Brain" and "The Twilight Zone" New Year's Eve and New Year's Day passed quietly. All seemed well in the moment.