so im in a place only accessible by boat or plane, everywhere outside of our lodgings all I see is wilderness, and there is wireless here. weird. I am at a cannery on Kodiak island. It isnt in operation aymore-it used to have hundreds of people living and working here in the summers processing salmon. Now it is owned by a couple, Robert and Anita, theyve had it for like 6 years and live here alone...its pretty cool. they are awesome. We're hangin out here working on our fishing nets until the salmon season opens. 

man, you guys would love it here. the wildlife is insane, ive always taken it for granted but its so fucking amazing. There are sea otters everywhere, river otters, whales, there are two gray foxes who hang out around the cabin a lot, bald eagles all over the place, seals, rabbits, puffins...I absolutely love being this close to nature, constantly reminded that humans aren't the only animals around.

Weve been eating fresh halibut and cod, and native ferns, and the water comes from a spring right here, its really cool. 

its cold though. I wear 2 pairs of socks, leggings and jeans/sweats, underarmor and a sweatshirt and heavy fleece. im sadly watching my meager tan fade. my fingers are really fucking cold right now so ima go. 

ill let you know when i see grizzlies!

Canvassing

I start work tomorrow in Portland. Because I decided to take public transit everyday instead of wasting money on the costliness of upkeeping my Volvo, I will be relying on the one family car and my mom (the only other driver in the family) to help get me to the train station in a way that fits with her job as a kindergarten teacher... which means that my life will be one big, confusing loop. My gnarly schedule the foreseeable future:
6:00am, wake up
6:45, leave with Mom for work
11:00, walk from Mom's work to train station
11:45, train arrives at correct stop. Cross street and board bus
12:10, arrive at work
12:30 work starts
10:00pm work ends (take bus/train back to home)
11:30pm, get picked up by Mom at train station
12:00am, sleep?
REPEAT..... ugh

I can has Tejas?

Wow, roaming back in the south. I feel like there have been debates about Texas being the south. I think I always thought it was the west, and I have been told NO. You know, westerns, cowboys, longhorns? I think I'm justified.

Texas is hot. Texas is big. Texas has giant webs of high rises and interstates and people don't use their blinkers when they change lanes.

Seeing my family is great. I've got a nonnie, a grandfather, two aunts, and a cousin here. Not to mention a mom, a dad, and a bro. It's great to be here. But man I never want to live in a city that is this big. But spanish is everywhere and it's good practice. Can't believe I fly back to OR again tomorrow- quick trip.

Anyone seen American Beauty? I started watching it on tv yesterday and it was super weird but I really wanted to finish it.

My father is retiring. I guess that sounds pretty straightforward, but it's not really. I think all of my memories of him are somehow related to the church. And not once has he ever worn one of those stupid high collared black shirts with the little white squares from all the charactures. Never has he asked me whether I'm a Christian, and not once have we had a discussion about heaven.

But he would go on for hours about the most insignificant story of somebody's funeral he was doing, or the couple he was marrying who met on the internet, or the elderly people who would tell him jokes on their deathbed.

I'm probably going to have to say something at the service. This is going to be difficult, because when he wasn't writing his sermons, he would fix things in the house to keep his hands busy. He likes fixing things.

squatch etc.

Well this morning Stina left and I took Brou to the airport. Jus' me 'n Dan now. Brou (my high school bestie) came to visit the PNW for the first time and to go to Sasquatch. She basically loved it and we had such a good time. She got to hang out with Stina and Dan and we watched the entire Will Ferrel SNL dvd.

Brou, Dan and I left friday morning to go to PDX to pick up our rented tent from REI. We discovered a small park by REI and had a picnic and watched the hundreds of babies play in the water spouts. We then drove all the way to Yakima WA where we camped at the Yakmia Sportsmans Park. It was not nearly as sketchy as I expected; in fact it was really nice with lots of families. We cooked spaghetti and went to bed.

Saturday we woke up early and drove the rest of the way to SASQUATCH woot! The weather was b-e-a-utiful, but so freaking hot. The festival grounds is on the edge of the gorge and has the most breathtaking view. We saw a lot of bands such as: mos def, passion pit, DENT MAY, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, the decemberists, yeah x3, AA Bondy, bon iver (who was surprisingly good), etc.

The weather has been amazing for about a week now. I'm talking blue sky mid 70s... aka NOT salem. Again, I am surprised. Perhaps this is just Salem's summer, hidden from us students during the year.

Anywho, I miss Stina but it was such an awesome weekend. It was basically a vacation.

Dan's makin trouble in the music dept.
Madeline

yo yo its nat again. im in kodiak alaska..its 50 degrees and sideways raining. WOOOT

On to NY

So tomorrow I leave for my brother's graduation from West Point NY. My parents left a few days ago because WP makes a huge deal out of graduation and there's a week's worth of activities. How have I been taking advantage of their absence? Not all that well really. No raging parties etc. Although the other day I took my dog Chester for a beautiful hike. Only problem was that the trail was really snowy still. Like really snowy. Definitely should have had snow shoes since I was sinking up to my crotch with every step in places. Needless to say, that got tiring, so I decided to climb this snow free mountain of the side of trail. Turned out to be a much bigger mountain than it looked like from the bottom. It was really steep and treacherous, so coming down I decided to go down this avalanche chute right next to it. Usually it works pretty well to run down those, but this turned out to be way to steep for that. So I followed Chester's lead and sat on my ass and slid down the whole thing. It was rather exciting and terrifying at times. At one point the snow bank ended and I kept going down the grassy/rocky hillside --not so fun. The good old elbow arrest trick worked well and definitely kept me from killing myself. By the end of the day my poor dog was so tired I had to coax him down the trail. Anyway, so that was fun, it was great to get into the beautiful Colorado mountains.