Happy Valentine's Day!

I guess it's been two months since I've updated...poor. Life has been pretty crazy busy. A quick update:

I finished Giving Tree as much as I possibly could before boarding a plane home...while I was at home, I called, and heard that all the boxes had gotten off ok, and everyone had a gift up in shelter on Christmas, and it all worked out. Thank goodness.

Home was good - a little different, as we were snowed/iced in to my house for the first three days that we were home, and then it was Christmas, then we took a few day family vacation to the beach, so I tried to see all my friends in 4 days before coming back. It was a little crazy, but definitely amazing to see everyone.

I came back to Bethel and back into a whirlwind of things going on. I had Wizard of Oz rehearsals everyday for 2-4 hours, and my job changed a little bit as soon as I got back. Honey Barbara had three gigs booked, and so were practicing a few times a week, and I barely had time for anything else....

The K300 benefit concert went really well, we played for about 30 minutes in our suspenders, and everyone had a really great time. Then we had the race weekend, which I got really into, kind of surprisingly. I was there for the start, and then Anthony and I kept tabs on all the mushers all weekend, and stayed up, and walked down to the river to see the first 5 guys come in. I was really rooting for Martin Buser, but he came in 2nd. Just 8 minutes behind Mitch Seavey, but it was really fun (though extremely cold) to be out on the river watching them all come in at 2:30 in the morning.

We were double booked for Jan. 20th, as we were going to play the Inaugural Ball and the K300 banquet, so we packed all our instruments in the car, and went from cultural center to Long House, managing to rock both places. Naomi Hooley from Juneau was there at the I Ball, and we played a few songs with her that she plays with her band One Aisle Over. That was pretty amazing.

Anthony left us at the end of January, after an Irish Wake party that I hope fufilled all his hopes and dreams of everything that it would be. At one point, he laid on the kitchen table, and people came up and told a memory that they had of him. There were a few appropriate ones, but most were great roasting stories. It was really fun, and we all wish him well back in California, but I miss him lots.

Then, the next weekend (no rest for the weary) I was off to see the Wizard. The show turned out great (honestly, tons better than I thought it would) and definately Toto stole every show we did. I had some bites and scratches at the end of the run, but nothing a little girl from Kansas couldn't handle. Thanks to Leah for making my hair look great every night, and to Jen, Dez, Alicia, and Colleen for keeping me sane.

...And then I had all this free time...so, I got myself reaquainted with my kitchen, and I haven't been able to pull myself out of it since. I've been making everything, from tamale pie to cakes, to bean dip to Valentine's cookies dipped in chocolate. (I've also gained like 10 pounds...an unfortunate side effect to cooking and eating it.)

Sometime in this mess that was the last two months, I managed to fill out an application for Jesuit Volunteers International, (https://www.jesuitvolunteers.org/default.cfm?PID=1.36.2) and they selected my application to have a phone interview with me. So, that takes place tomorrow at 11am my time, and maybe after that phone call, I'll have a little bit of a better idea what I want to do with my life...probably not, but a girl can wish, yeah?

It's been insane, and hopefully everything will calm down a little bit now that so many of those things are over. But, I know that I'll find other things to fill up my days with...
...so, until next time, I'm (trying to be) keepin' it real...

Love, B