Currently: May

Currently living/working: Justin and I are up to 4 jobs each!! Many are shared roles, like cleaning our yurt, cleaning another Airbnb and guiding for New Wave Adventures. It turns out, New Wave has an evening hike booked for the next 100+ days, so we will never see each other all summer from 5pm-9pm because one of us will always be hiking!! There are additional New Wave hikes booked during the days, but those irregularly sprinkled through the summer. As for the individual jobs, I mentioned last month Justin is the manager of Discover Denali, which is part-time-ish and flexible. At the very last minute, I decided to take a “support staff” role at Alaska Geographic, a nonprofit partner of Denali National Park & Preserve, which is also part-time-ish and flexible ( and I love it so far!!!). The central theme of our summer: spending an excessive amount of time squinting cross-eyed at our various work calendars ensuring they seamlessly align so we don’t miss a beat.

Current mood: I’ve adjusted to putting my mom on the periphery of my life and compartmentalizing my sadness as my Alaska life charges on. I don’t catastrophize (it’s the one thing my anxiety doesn’t do), but I still feel like I’m living in this suspended reality wherein my mom is going on month 6 of hospice and the universe continues to school my family in patience, uncertainty and acceptance. You know when someone asks how are you in passing & you give an empty answer? That’s where I’m at with talking about my mom. She’s doing as well as she can be. 

Current confession: You might have noticed I didn’t post a blog all month. Yes I was busy. Regardless, I’m so upset over my website woes that avoidance has been the best option. It seems that we are at a stalemate, and there will always be a smattering of folks whose Internet providers block my site …

Currently excited for: My high school best friend from NJ (Sara) is coming to visit!! It cracks me up that she is most excited about making her children shower at the “truck stop” while they are staying at our yurt. I keep telling her, it’s just gas station showers, which is a very common thing in AK, but the concept is so foreign to urban dwellers.

Currently proud of: The most important lesson any freelance writer can learn is that nothing is personal and never give up. My pitches have been ghosted more in 2024 than ever, and I like to believe that’s the product of getting lost in overworked and overburdened editors’ hellscape of an inbox. But it’s equally about hitting the right time, angle & budget. My persistence paid off—Territory Supply wanted my aurora pitch, while my wildlife crossings idea landed in Adventure.com (and somehow also ended up in the Apple News feed?!).

Current guilty pleasure: I’m not normally a “get the new shiny thing” kind of person, but I personally think technology is a ticking time bomb when you live remotely. Since my phone & laptop represent my livelihood, I don’t like to mess around. Justin, on the other hand, detests change, new technology & spending money more than I do. Anyway, I told him I was planning this spring to buy a new iPhone—upgrading from my SE (between the 7 and 8) to the iPhone 15. I thought about it all winter, and was hoping there’d be a sale, Right when I succumbed to the idea of spending like $800 on a phone, Verizon launched a new sale. Welp, good things do come to those who wait, and I actually got the $800+ price tag for $180. Further, I convinced my bargain-hunter husband to simultaneously upgrade his iPhone and iPad because essentially it’d be 3 devices for less than the price of 1. (My only gripe about the iPhone 15–I seem to take a million accidental screen shots with the side buttons)

Currently amazed by: Justin has been pining after owning a camper basically since the minute we sold our last one in 2021. I’ve been meh about the idea, but then he put the spin on it as an investment. Here’s the thing: we own the yurt & operate it as an airbnb, which benefits our community because our tax base relies solely on “tourist taxes” (overnight accommodations, alcohol, marijuana & severance). Undeniably, short-term rentals squeeze the housing supply, so there’s that balance to healthy tourism while meeting the needs of residents. We always wonder if we are part of the problem, or the solution? Anyway, when a nice RV became available IN our community, I agreed on the seemingly impulse decision as an investment. We hope to have it up & running as a rental for seasonal workers by summer 2025!

Currently regretting: Anyone who knows Justin knows he loves going to concerts probably more than anything? He started early in life—saving enough money from his minimum wage job at Dunkin’ Donuts to pour his free time & cash into concerts. The last few years, he built a “concert getaway to Colorado” into our incredibly busy summer. This year, he didn’t pinpoint any that struck his fancy enough to sacrifice making money, so no concerts lined up for poor Justin … yet. 

Currently worried about: We typically have a seasonal pond in our backyard that attract moose and their newborn babies in May/June. Sadly, not this year. #1: the pond has already dried up!! Low snow year, no rain in spring. #2: we have two new sets of neighbors who live on the pond, and they have a dog & kids, so I think the moose have migrated to new territory. 

Currently thankful for: We really weren’t sure what our summer employment would look like as of 4 months ago, but we knew we had no reason to worry because jobs are bountiful here in Denali! We feel lucky that play becomes work, and work becomes play.

Currently not excited for: I’ve tried to put some new-to-us Alaskan adventure on our calendar every year, but this year seems like a wash. Not only did I spend half the year in NJ, but we’re working full tilt this summer!

Currently reading:

Yeah for 4 books! Still keeping up my momentum through my busy season! 

Tom Walker is a Denali local, having lived in AK for 50 years. Even though he’s written 5+ books about this area, Denali Journal was only my second read of his. As the name “journal” would suggest, it’s takes you through the seasons of Denali National Park & Preserve. So for example, he chronicles the first snowfall in 1978 versus 1989, and so on. I loved the historical and seasonal flow of the book, and will read it over and over again. 

I’ve been trying to read more fiction, even though I always gravitate to true stories. I’ve read good reviews about This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub, and though the base is time travel, it still had an element of “truth” to it. It’s about watching a parent die and trying to go back in time to change their habits (clear throat … smoking) to save them. The author based the story loosely off her experience losing her dad and returning to the high school in the 1990s, and obviously that all resonated with me. 

I’m back to figuring out WTF is going on with my body, so I picked up The Menopause Reset by Dr. Mindy Pell on a friend’s recommendation. I can’t say I walked away with any enlightenment, other than women’s hormones are complicated and everything—from your environment to the food you eat—will impact them. 

I had this paperback (Alaska on Foot: Wilderness Techniques for the Far North by Erik Molvar) on my bookshelf (not sure where it came from), and I figured since I was guiding this summer again, it’s never a bad thing to brush up on my skills. This was published in 1996, but is still very relevant! 

Currently watching on Netflix/Peacock: So even though we lost access to my mom’s cable, buying new iPhones gave us 6 months of Disney & Hulu. Any recommendations?? We are still on our Below Deck binges when time allows.