Currently: July

Currently living/working: How many times and ways can I explain that Alaskans operate on full throttle through the summer? Some kind of mosquito-powered adrenaline compels us to pursue a no-sleep summer, which mostly equals a no-work winter. While the summer days fly by at a breakneck pace, we are still doing well finding balance between the grind! 

Current mood: Squeezing every drop of adventure out of the sun is equally invigorating and exhausting. 

Current guilty pleasure: It’s been atypically toasty summer, so we are thoroughly enjoying the outdoors before our landscape freezes over. This month’s non-work activities included finally going kayaking under the midnight sun, sanding & staining the front of our cabin, hosting visitors passing through, and Justin flexing his golf game at the local tourney fundraiser.

Currently excited for: My friend of 20+ years (Shayna) is visiting next week! Girlfriends are the foundation of survival, and I don’t live near any of my besties. I’m stoked to get some girl time in and introduce my Alaskan world to another friend!

Currently proud of: I got “audited” by the National Park Service at 2 of my jobs this month—one for guiding & one for presenting. 

The written trail guiding assessment said “Patrice, your wildlife safety, group management and subtle LNT talk was great! You’re clearly an experienced and talented guide; it was a joy to see you in action. Your group of 6 was curious and engaged throughout the hike, which I would attribute to your relationship-building skills, engaging style and strong thematic program. You made great use of teachable moments and used an array of techniques—questioning, framing, engaging the senses—to meet a variety of learning styles.” 

I sometimes still have imposter syndrome for my role as an interpreter/naturalist in the National Park setting, so getting this type of feedback was so empowering. And I am in the growth mindset to continue to learn and grow!

Not to leave Justin out, but he got a huge compliment on one of his presentations from someone who was retired from 30 years in the education system. That person said they have seen 100s of presentations, and Justin was one of the best public speakers they’ve ever seen!

Currently thankful for: Justin filled our freezer with salmon once again!! His group of 6 spent 7 hours dipnetting on the Copper River and ended up catching 143 total salmon—which means each person took home 24 salmon. Justin paid someone to filet & vacuum seal them, so we ended up with 96 filet portions or 60 pounds of salmon! Justin said the river was much higher this year than last year, so it was a ton of work. I thoroughly appreciate his sacrifice and dedication to subsistence fishing. 

Currently amazed by: My mom turned 80! For those who are wondering how she is doing, she is still holding the unofficial record for the longest stint on home hospice—now at 1 year 8 months. She continues to rely on massive doses of morphine and nonstop oxygen, thus her hospice nurses remain baffled how her tenacious heart keeps pumping while her lungs checked out long ago. Through it all, cheerfulness remains her default setting! Huge kudos to my sister, who has graciously been housing this medical anomaly for the past 1 years and 4 months. 

Current confession: We “borrowed” Ted the female cat from our friend Sandy again. Sandy was going fishing, and asked if we could watch her for 4 days, which will likely end up being 3 weeks. This “shared custody” thing where Sandy pays all the bills and we reap the benefits works out very well lol. She is now 13 years old!!! She might be a very grumpy old lady, but Ted brings us so much joy & cracks us up! 

Currently worried about: Ted wears a GPS collar when she goes out and she lost it this week! We can pinpoint where it is, but cannot seem to locate it yet … Justin is SO incredibly nervous every time we let her out … 

Currently regretting: Justin is my Uncle Fred’s protege in many ways. One is his affinity for collecting things from the dump. I appreciate when he brings things like fishing waders that are still in pristine condition and a working fan, but he likes to collect “decor” for our outhouse path. I have to draw the line when it looks like a children’s abandoned play yard. 

Currently not excited for: Emptying the yurt outhouse! We won’t get away with waiting until the end of the season, which is a bummer.

Currently reading: I’m still on my fiction kick! 

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel was our library’s book club pick (not that I can actually go to the book club meetings in the summer). Anyway, I’ve never read a post-apocalyptic book, and it took me a bit to breakthrough “WTF am I reading.” But once I got past all the different characters & timeline, it was interesting to think about what post-apocalyptic life could be like. I mean, I do believe something like this could happen, so why not read about the eerie scenarios? For the record, I do NOT want to be one of the folks left behind to build a whole new world … 

I also read Six Years by Harlan Coben. When I am subbing at the library, the fiction section is right in front of my desk and I often and we have a collection of this author’s books, so I decided to give one a try. They are usually suspense novels with a twist. It was okay, but not my style, so I won’t be checking out any of his other books. 

Currently watching on Netflix/Peacock: We not only finished The Waterfront on Netflix, but also Department Q. Both were worthwhile, but we did not realize The Waterfront was not a limited series so now we have to wait for the next season to come out!