Crazy Traveling Souls on Top of the World

Life has been lived. We meet bards, musicians, pilots, seamstresses, wildlife, Iditarod mushers, flew around mountain fortresses, hiked enchanted forests, and the most important - looked into our inner selves. My hands are numb with emotion while I write this beautifully moving piece of life lived. There are so many enlightening and enthralling moments of discovery with such a taste of color and feeling, that it is making my heartache whilest I write a passage of life.
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Now playing: KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
via FoxyTunes

These were going to be the last six days of Becci being in Alaska for at least three years and I needed time off and enjoy my graduation. We decided to roll together and embarked upon a truly exciting unique soul filling Alaskan Adventure. Thus I asked her what she wanted to see on the trip. She hadn't been to the Large Animal Research Animal Station or the Reindeer Research Program Fairbanks Farm http://reindeer.salrm.uaf.edu/ The calves were just being born and they are to adorable and tender and being able to capture the beautiful peaceful photos of their first days in this intriguing world was wonderful and full filling.

After visiting the fawns and muskox, we had to hit the famous Hot Licks. The beginning of all trips starts with ICECREAM!! I got the chocolate all over my face, what a hilarious mess. I am glad there were no photos, an alaskan women who can't handle her icecream go figure.








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Now playing: KT Tunstall - Through The Dark
via FoxyTunes

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Now playing: Beth Gibbons - Mysteries
via FoxyTunes

Bonfire of Farewell

It was a bonfire of farewell of friends whom new Becci from the first day she arrived in Fairbanks during the UAF Forestry Contest. We meet her during a beautiful first snow fall of winter in Fairbanks and she leaving during the last cold spell of winter, with a heart felt fire of friendly souls.

We made the fairwell into an improvised birthday party with cake, candles to blow out, even had cute cone party hats.
We had a night full of laughter and fun with an electronic circular contraption game of charades with people from multiple nationalities. The darn thing had a timer that got faster and faster as the game progressed, and we were hard pressed to figure out how to depict what we wanted people to say.

That is one thing that is truly Alaskan is our love of life and spending it with our friends. There is nothing like listening and being with fellow human beings that are positive and full of life.
We also had a little bit of fireworks next to the bonfire. For a neuroscientist to say she only has a few fireworks, than you do not know your neurochemists. We or maybe just me in the beginning, started off with a few fireworks and didn't think it was too much of a problem of sending a few bottle rockets to the out house, while it was occupied. Well, little did I know, that the outhouse,until I used it later in the evening, had no darn front door and the bottle rockets could have ricocheted into the outhouse. Opps!, does this not reiterate the importance of communication.

Some of use just felt the good vibes flowing around and just had to post this great photo of "This is feeling good of being yourself and letting it flow".

The bonfire was full of warmth and a little bit of friendly wrestling going on. It took two people to pull one poor guy down.

Roomates got a little turned around and upside down, with everyone laughing and having a great time.

Being out by the bonfire we looked up and there was a beautiful aurora substorm beginning to build. We ran inside got the cameras and went to the road to watch the aurora have its own playful wrestling match. She danced and tumbled about in a beautiful rhythmic pattern of shapes and forms.

The colors of pale greens even had a bottom hint of light red flowing in congruent exotic shapes. One form that Becci caught for a brief moment in time was an angle.

Becci is off now on an adventure of a life time on the research vessel US Coast Guard Cutter Healy 430 ft ship in the dangerous and icy Bering Sea. Since it is on of the shallowest seas in the world, the swells can get up to 30 ft in only a few hours. She will be missed and we wish her good luck and a safe trip. If you want to see where the ship is in the Bering Sea you can go to the enclosed link for photos or page down to the google map I have embedded to update once a day, which is pretty cool. This is an experimental or
beta version of this function. Once you click on map and then click on Photos from Picasaweb you can see the photos, and click on weather to see temperature. If there are any problems please e-mail.

Link

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Eclipse in Life

Tonight, what more I could have planed that could go wrong I didn't care and flowed with it. I went to learn how and play handball to be with someone, but it was the wrong type of handball and they didn't show up again. My hand is so swollen and bruised, oh well the dumb things we do for love. I do not understand why they do not use a perfectly good racquet to hit the darn thing is a mystery to me, like dating. Why people do the things they do is a complete mystery and just going with the flow and communicate has been the best recourse. To much time and assumptions can be made if you just don't ask what is going on. So, that was complete bust and went to sledding on the hill. Man that would have been alot of fun, if some people I left my sled with hadn't busted it. They were sledding on cardboard and I let them borrow my sled, oh well hope they had fun. It will not stop me from being kind again, since kindness is just a moment in time.

So, I just went with the flow and refused to let this crazy set of events get me down and I went to the Museum. I was infront of the UAF museum waiting for a talk on "13 ways to look at a glacier" and the moon was in the middle of the eclipse. I had brought along my binoculars and the shadows of the craters on the moon were a cool orange. The moon was a beautiful redish orange with a white sliver on the bottom, real cool. It was a trifecta of having Saturn and Regulus together. Finally the weather was nice and warm to be able to enjoy it.
People were walking up to the museum and I asked them if they wanted to borrow my binoculars. No one said no and it was neat meeting new people. The dean of my school said I should charge money or beer for the use of the binoculars. We were all laughing and enjoying the moment. I remembered someone giving me advise of not trying to catagorize a memory and just let it be, so I didn't even get out my camera and just enjoyed myself.
After the show, I went to the Marlin to finally get up on stage with Danelle playing guitar and sang Come Away with Me by Norah Jones. I finally got over my stage fright of playing by myself, instead of with a whole Choir like at Carnegie Hall. This was just as tough and lets just say we were apologizing to the crowd after we were done. We should have practiced more, but Danelle had practiced the lyrics and not the guitar piece, opps communication again rearing its ugly head. She is an excellent singer and her boyfriend even offered to help out to get us to practice some more. I really would like to do well and sing again with a little more practice. The feeling of accomplishment is wonderful and resounding in me to have enough courage to do this and to jump the huge hurtle is fantastic. Wow, the sense of self is astounding, since I really have never known fear until recently and have been trying to conquer this damn pain in the petunia feeling. I have one more hurtle and the fear has become a lot less and I am feeling more confident each day.

Alaskan Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is unique up here in Alaska, since we have such ingenious people and the beautiful scintillating Aurora. Someone had this ingenious idea to paint blue hearts along the walk from the dorms to lower campus, with an intermittent I Love You in the middle. Then in the big square in the middle of the campus a huge Heart around ten feet wide was filled in with initials MF. What a cool Alaskan gesture of love.

That is such a cool neat gesture of love and caring, you just smile and feel warm inside. Just like some of the people up here in Alaska, who help you when you need it and give advise if you ask for it. A friend told me to stay strong and true to myself and someone will come along who believes the way you do. Don't change your big and caring heart and bend to the crowds expectations or lost desires. It has not been easy when you have excellent hearing and overhear people's ridiculus conversations of not having the facts and just speculation. You wish they could spend that time asking questions and finding out about that person. I should practice what I preach, because I get nervous and start talking about myself instead of asking questions. This I have been trying to change and the first step is feeling comfortable with myself and stop trying to prove my worth. True people will accept you as you are and not try and change or manipulate you to what they want in life.

After watching Across the Universe at the Pub and listening to the song Hey Jude with the lyrics telling Jude the need for being too cool is gone and to let someone into your heart, was really poignant in my life right now. I was riding my bike home and rode right by someone that I had meet back when I had become Belle of the Woods. Hey Jude was singing in my head and I stopped and said Hi. We talked for a while and the Aurora started its beautiful flowing dance across the sky. It was flowing undulating right above us and it was nice to let my guard down for a while, enjoying the moment.

The spaceweather forcast for the night was pretty promising with the earth being in a coronal mass ejection and the interplanetary magnetic field pointing south, it looked like the aurora would be undulating in the sky for hours. So we loaded up the car with another friend and lovable dog, and off on a road trip up to Ester dome. That is part of why I love Alaska is the spontaneity of the people and nature herself. You never know what will happen next in the land of extremes. With my telescope out we got to see the shadows in the craters of the moon, while the aurora was undulating and shifting shape and form above. The dog named "buddy" keep running back and forth like a horse having a great time being able to get out and have some fun, like us humans.

The sky was not yet done revealing its beauty and there was this really neat shape forming. Taking a chance and leaving the shutter open for over 1 min 1/2, the shot was finally there, capturing a beautiful moment in time. The form is shaped like a women looking over her shoulder at you. I have seen forms of eagles, busts of a women's head, and even music note shapes, but never one like this being seductive and scintillating. Nature, she was revealing her own valentine gift.

Wondering thru Arctic Life

Wondering thru life in the arctic can be beautiful and harsh at the same time. The cold at -10F with wind chill at -50F is tough, but if you dress up enough to look like the pilsbury doe boy you can stay warm. The colds beauty is every where from the deep crystallized prism snow with rainbows glinting and twinkling at you enticingly, to hoary frost clinging to every exposed surface. The ability to get the shoot of the prism effect I have been trying for years and I finally was able to do it by changing my angle of incidence or simply lying down in the snow. The wonders of life's accidents are always wonderful if you open your mind to them.

Along the trail, I'm singing Come Away with Me by Nora Jones, since I have been practicing it to sing at open mic night, and a raven flew by to investigate what was going on. I am laying there in the snow just finish shooting and the raven lands on a branch only a few feet away. She starts cawing at me and twisting here head back and forth keeping an eye always on me. Well, from the time I spent with a Shaman from Wisemen and learned how to repeat their sounds, I called back to her and she repeated the sound. The moment was really cool and intriguing, she really liked my singing. It was so beautiful and lovingly tender, something I need very much right now.

She followed me along the trail even to the road and it was cool having us talking and singing to each other. I haven't been able to do that for a long time since last spring an it felt wonderful in the arctic cold. Since, ravens are one of the most intelligent song birds and even repeat car alarm sounds, if you all hear "Come away with Me" some where out of the blue you will know why, a crazy strawberry blond taught her. I had a feeling the days mysteries were not done yet and something else was going to happen. Once I reached back to the road and was on Farmers Loop I started shooting again the frozen and snow covered Ballaine Lake. The smooth snow with small prisms of beautiful rainbow crystalized light was mesmerizing. Then a thought surfaced of why not become part of the beauty by using my own body as an art tool. I went out and wrote my saying in life "LIFE LIVE IT" and let other people see it and help out their day in life. The letters are huge and you can see them from the road or air. Through all of the things happening within this last year I have become more relaxed and patient with life, and participating in its beauty.

Yukon Quest at -30F Slightly Cold

Alaskan Women Exposed & Empowered

Nack of things just happening in life that come out of the blue, literally are just a part of my life. I was getting a cab home from having fun on FAT TUESDAY Mardi Gras and saw the temperature sign where Fahrenheit and celsius are the same temperature at -40. I asked the cab driver to drive me home to get my camera and come back and take a picture. When we got back there was a great surprise awaiting. Six crazy Alaskan Women were standing there in bathing suits and underwear getting their photo taken. They saw me and asked me to get in the middle, who am I to say no to being an Alaskan Women. I jumped right on in and it felt awesome, wild, and crazy. They then started chanting to Strip, Strip, Strip. Oh heck why not, we only live once and off the clothes came. The feeling of being Alaskan Strong Women and empowerment was exhilarating. Life is to short and living it is wonderful. I am so glad I listen to my mom about wearing good underwear, you will never know when you are exposed. We were getting pretty cold and jumped back into our vehicles. Warmed up a bit and drove off into the cold arctic night. I wonder if it will get down to -50 below tonight, might have another Exposed Party with some other friends, will just have to get dressed faster. Life Live It is a moto I write on many things and it is a wonderful feeling.

Arctic Women vs Artic Blast -40F

Women's Artic Shadow -40F - Women standing against the arctic wind with arms behind her and bearing her soul to a harpoon hovering a foot away, awaiting for something.

White Dragon & Hot Springs

I woke up to the sun rising at 10:00 am and -44 F and actual temp of -55 below including wind chill & dew point. The thought of getting out and take some photos of the ice fog and pink sunrise, went by-by when I saw the thermostat. If something happened to the car and I got stranded it would be slightly cold and I am not that blond, so I jumped back into my heated waterbed. Finally, around noon it warmed up to -30F, thus as we say up here "Road Trip" destination Chena Hot Springs. The ice fog was thick and you could still see the bullet ridden road signs, even the dog team crossing sign.

The only one with out bullets was the HIPAS observatory sign. The snow on the top right of the sign look like a bust of a women, go figure. When I reached Two Rivers, there was two dog teams mushing along side the road and I kept pace with them. Those dogs are phenomenal athletes and were really enjoying the run, just like I was doing.
The sun just was not bright enough and there was a slight overcast, so the next stop was the Chena River at Angel Rocks Campground. The river was open a little and the flowing water with the ice coverage had made a neat rhythmic pattern, like scales on a dragon tail. The rippling sound of the open water was melodic and strange to hear, since H20 has been frozen since October.

I couldn't wait to hear more and jumped back into the car, after many shots to get the right composition and angle, and made it to Chena Hot Springs. I was hoping I could take in my camera and get a few neat shots, but the steam off of the outdoor pool would have played havoc with the camera and the slight problem of water damage. Thus, I went around the outside and was buffeted by the steam, like some ethereal medieval scene.

The trees, bridges, anything exposed for long was covered in an off white hoary frost. You could feel the frost developing on you and I could only pull out the camera for a few seconds. The cold had changed from a dry to a damp cold and just seeped into you. The temperature starting even affecting me being able to take a shot and I ran back to the car, got my bathing suit, and ran inside the pool area. Finally, to get in the warm spring water was so soothing and relaxing. To be able to swim again in the indoor pool was exhilarating. I love to be underwater swimming in a warm dense liquid medium, like being in another world of sound and touch. You feel yourself enveloped and embraced.

After enjoying the indoor pool, I braved the trip from inside to the outside pool. The feeling of shock and then harshness hits you immediately and the distance to the pool seems infinite, because of the thick steam rising . You can't run, because of the ice, and you have to concentrate on placing each step. The destination is worth it, just like everything else in life. The feeling of warmth enveloping you again once you reach the pool is so soothing, that you forget everything else. The slow breast stroke through the pool with ripples washing ahead of you and the steam flowing over you makes you feel like you are in another reality and the trouble of the world float away. Floating on my back and immersing my ears, I almost feel like I am at home in my dragon lair soaking up the heat and melting my heart, allowing me to breath and relax.

What Would You Give for Your Soul

Yesterday, our lab received a cell culture workstation that was 585lbs per June Sun and it need to go from the hall way into a small room in the lab. Everyone was saying they needed to get a few guys in here to move it and I looked at it and figured all we needed was a strong cart. So, got everyone together and loaded the bulky thing onto the cart and wheeled it in to the lab. With a little ingenuity and leverage we got it into the lab, with out any extra help. You just have to look at a tough job and roll up your sleeves and just get her done. We had a little fun afterwards running down the hall with people on the cart, you have to have fun while you work. The feeling of being appreciated by your fellow colleges and being able to help, was wonderful. It has been difficult to go away from the actual lab and working with computers. People do not see me working and I feel like I have not been getting the respect for the massive amount of work I have been doing. The lift it gave my soul was wonderful, but not what I have been missing and yearning for and I still had another tough challenge that day of meeting with my professor on my INDS course.

I had just finished working with Bill Brody on my Independent Study Course and he wanted more revisions, what else would you expect from an excellent artist. Being exhausted and sick from a chest cold, I went back to my office for a breather and walked in on a classical piece from a composer called Palestrina "Assumpta est Maria in Caelum" Mass (Inner Peace). I didn't even turn on the lights and put my feet up on the desk and leaned back, closed my eyes, and let my soul be taken away. The feeling of contentment and inner peace was permeating my soul and I drifted on the wave of music for a long time. Contentment and inner peace has been a distant fellow for a long time now with all of the changes I have been through. I feel like I have finally have that inner peace of what I have become and how I have arrived to this point. The journey has been difficult and full of trajedy and pain, but I knew with help from friends, family, and all around strength of soul; I could survive and finally flourish into a new women.

With this rejuvenation and feeling of contentment finally, I had to get to the gym.
Even though I am sick as a dog, I had set up an appointment to be certified to climb on the rock wall, so I dragged my tired petunia to the gym. I'm sitting there as usual, with my blinders on when you are changing in the locker room, and I realized I had forgoten to bring my other sneakers, so I had to climb the rock wall with my basketball sneakers. Of course to make matters more funny and ironic an old roommate Tim Ciosek, who is an accomplished rock climber was there, and I had to say what do you think of my basketball shoes, he said "at least you will stick to the wall". The whole class laughed and I didn't feel bad, since I am finally content and just take what life gives me with a new spirit. Make the best out of a bad situation and now there is a light at the end of the tunnel if you keep working at it and don't give up.

Life's ironies just keep rolling when I went home I was restless even though sick and ate some red salmon and felt refreshed. The restlessness didn't go away and I went to the Marlin and then listened to an excellent melancoly song called "What would you give for your soul". The look and emotion on the blue grass players You could feel and from your own soul know what you would give up your soul for "Love". That beautiful and sweet tender love with another human being is worth your soul.
Not the freedom of chasing rainbows to their end and never being able to touch them, or the artistry of life, but the loving touch of another human being is worth your soul.