Winter is upon us.

Tomorrow is my 28th birthday. There's no denying that that is late twenties. Oddly enough though, I find myself contented going in to this birthday and winter. In past years I wallowed in a strange darkness going in to another year of my life-- overwhelmed by a sense of emptiness and a lack of accomplishment in the proceeding year, and years. This is not to imply that I have achieved the things I was worried about before, I'm just in a mood to spend less time worrying about them. I'll get there, or maybe I won't, and that will have to be enough.

So what have I been up to lately? Work, training, cyclocross races and enjoying friends and family.







Let's hope this is a sign of maturity, as opposed to resignation.

Fall is Here.

I didn't post pictures from my Washington trip, or from two weeks of sailing. Although pictures of both are on facebook. Those events past, and I didn't post. Oh well. Moving right along to now, to today, where my computer has crashed and it's September. On a whim, I dropped my only class, and I have a feeling like I have this freedom that I am not going to utilize. I need to utilize it. I want to travel somewhere, somewhere cool and exotic. However, being a woman can be prohibitive to free travel. I need a partner to go with me, and it is frustrating to need another person. This can only lead to trouble.

This weekend brings a couple of days on the boat, and then a couple of days off next week. I have not planned anything, but I feel that I need to go somewhere, even if it is just to camp for a night. Life has settled down, but I am not sure that I like the rhythm of it all. I find myself thinking about those three things you need to be happy: I have something to do, but I need something to look forward to, and my someone to love, well, that's just going to have to be Nellie for the time being.

Washington Trip

Somehow or another it is June. I am not quite sure where the time disappeared to, but it is gone, and now it is summer. My days are currently monopolized by the World Cup, which started less than a week ago, but I feel a strong addiction to the matches already.

I spent the past two and a half weeks in Washington state. It was a vacation that did not involve too much adventure, but was a much needed break from my day to day in Anchorage. The first weekend found Andrew and I zipping down to the beach house in Ocean Park, arriving at 3:30am after a fun middle of the night drive down from Seattle. It is a good way to avoid the traffic!

The weather did not exactly cooperate and we spent most of the weekend playing games and watching movies. Saturday was the one decent day, allowing us time to go on a beachwalk, where we saw a resting baby seal. Supposedly the mother was hunting and returning to pickup the nearly newborn pup. I also took a trip out to Leadbetter State Park, where I saw the first bear of the season, a small blackie, strange to see one away from Alaska.

After the beach weekend, I spent the week in Seattle-- enjoying sleeping in, morning runs, afternoon naps and evening movies. On Saturday, my parents arrived in Seattle. We saw the Mariners lose on Sunday to the Angels, went sailing in Elliott Bay on Monday, a trip to Paradise at Mt. Rainier on Tuesday, a Sounders game with Kelly on Thursday, and graduation on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday I zipped back to Alaska, back to work for a few weeks before the sailing trip. Pictures to follow...

March

The last few weeks have been a blur. The first week of March was the Tour of Anchorage. I finally bit the bullet and raced the 50km. I was incredibly intimidated by the thought of the Spencer Loop; the horror stories I had heard about blowing up by skiing too fast up the monster hills and slow snow of the Spencer kept me awake at nights in anticipation of the race. The day finally rolled around and I was feeling quite good-- race start was early, and we were off and skiing at 8:34am. This was the only race all season where I can honestly say I pretty much skied exactly the way I wanted to ski. Despite relatively slow snow, I hit my goal time of 2:45. The new snow Anchorage we received prior to the race made for absolutely perfect trails and the grooming was excellent. And the real icing on the cake: I won my age group for the first time in a long time, and seventh woman overall.

After the tour I worked the first four days of spring break before heading down to Washington state for my grandfather's memorial service. He passed away on March 4th of cancer. While he had been quite ill, no one expected him to slip away so quickly. While it sounds cliche, I suppose his quick passing was a blessing. The service went smoothly-- and I jetted back to Anchorage after driving to Seattle, and flying home through Salt Lake City. I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I returned to Anchorage on Monday night.

The next adventure found me cutting class this past thursday to head up to Turnagain with some crazy guys: Charlie, Jeff and his Aussie friend Chris (aka Darlo). We toured up the Bertha Creek Valley under sunny skies and in warm weather. Once we reached nearly the headwall, I set up shop and waited for the boys to ski the big shoot above me called Granddaddy. Darlo ended up skiing back down the headwall and waiting at the bottom with me, our cameras ready to shoot Charlie and Jeff on their descent. Charlie dropped in first and did a ski cut, letting loose a two foot crown of slabby blocks into the shoot. This set off a small avalanche clearing the whole shoot of loose snow. At this juncture I was so glad I was down below, and that Charlie and Jeff were safely above the accelerating snow. The two skied the cleared shoot without incident and we headed back down to the car after a glorious day in the mountains.

The Olympics

We went to Vancouver, and to Whistler, and it was awesome. That one word cannot express the incredible experience that I had over the course of a few short days.

Part of the fan club: Tanner, me, Rachel & Colby with Kikkan.
I started out my trip by heading down to Seattle for a long weekend before my quick jaunt up to the Olympics. It was a wonderful and relaxing to see my brother, Maggie, Bryce and even Eric. Everybody came over on Saturday night for a delicious homemade macaroni and cheese dinner (made by Andrew) and to watch the first night of the Olympics. Sunday was spent working on Andrew and Maggie's new house, which is lovely by the way. Bryce happily contributed to the effort and showed us the ropes at the local Home Depot, one of his favorite spots in town I think.

We spent a large part of the long President's Day weekend moving things to the house and cleaning up the copious quantities of junk left behind by the previous owners, and finding a few gems along the way (and some grow lights). We also had the opportunity to watch quite a bit of the Olympic coverage. I cannot say I was particularly impressed by NBC, but it seems to be about what I have come to expect. I was just sad they have massively limited the availability of live coverage on their website.

On Tuesday afternoon I drove up to Vancouver with Rachel Samuelson and her parents. The trip proved uneventful and before we knew it we were in downtown Vancouver in a sea of red hockey jerseys and people walking all about the city center (centre?). We picked up our tickets and made our way to the Hudson's Bay Trading Company. Here we found the most crowded store I think I have ever been in. There was literally a line to get in to the shop. This was grand central station for tourists wanting to purchase Olympic merchandise. After our shopping extravaganza we headed to the plaza where we could get a glimpse of the Olympic Torch. We were really at the Olympics!


We drove east of the city to a suburb where our hotel was located. On the way, we stopped to eat dinner at a Greek restaurant, which turned out to be a delicious. After dinner we checked in to the hotel and turned in for the night. Falling asleep proved difficult, as the big day was finally upon us!

We awoke early and drove to the bussing center where we hopped on the bus at 6:20, with our coffee and muffins in hand, and headed towards Whistler. As the sun came up we could see that it was going to be a bluebird day, and the drive up to Whistler did not disappoint. I need to go back to the area to climb and ski!

We arrived at the venue and donned our black skirts with pink K's, our Alaska flags, American flags, rubber boots and pink Kikkanimal hats. We were ready! The march up to the venue was around a half mile. I suppose this separates the nordic fans from the curling fans-- but for us it was a walk full of anticipation and Rachel playing the Olympic fanfare on her iphone. Yes, we were ready to be ridiculous all day long. When we finally arrived at the stadium, the venue was alive with spectators and all the world's best skiers zipping around preparing for the prologue. I cannot describe how exciting it was to see all of the skiers that I only get to follow through articles or online videos right before my very eyes-- the fastest skiers in the world!

When the prologue finally got underway, I was incredibly nervous about Kikkan's race, the line between success and failure in the seeding race is so fine, a slight mistake can end your day after only three minutes of racing. It was an odd prologue with the sprint World Cup leader, Petra Majdic, falling into a ravine on the edge of the course and racing as the last bib, qualifying 19th. Kikkan skied a perfect prologue, qualifying for the heats as the 10th fastest finisher.

Kikkan in qualifying.

Alaskan fans are the best!
The heats began with Kikkan's quarterfinal first-- featuring, my Norwegian hero, Marit Bjørgen, among other speedsters. Kikkan finished third, putting her qualification in jeopardy. Rachel and I sat nervously through the next four quarterfinals, watching the times and feeling nervously nauseated as each heat finished and Kikkan was still in position to qualify. Finally, or agony was ended, and Kikki slipped in to the semifinals! Guaranteed to be her best classic finish ever.

Kikkan's semifinal was packed with talent, and she was unable to find her way in to the finals, but she ended the day 8th overall, an amazing result. The women's final had Bjørgen powering to victory, looking stronger than the field in all of her heats. Kowalcyzk was second, and the crazy Majdic third-- who was later to reveal that she had three or four broken ribs and a collapsed lung. I still cannot believe her doctors allowed her to race! The men's race was dominated by the Russians, two young men (that I had never even heard of!) won gold and silver. The illustrious, and notorious, Petter Northug claimed the bronze.

The bus ride back was also pretty, however, I think we all dozed off a bit, it had been a long day after all. We returned to Seattle that evening, where Maggie had a delightful dinner waiting for me. One last night in Seattle and then off to the airport first thing-- I had to be to class by 11:30am, quite the morning commute. It was a beautiful flight-- until we hit southcentral, as Anchorage greeted us with rain and nasty weather conditions. What an adventure, the Olympics for only one day? It was totally worth it. See you in Sochi!

Still goofy after all these years!

Tired.

Life has been exhausting lately. In the last month, I started college full time again, I moved, I was sick for two weeks and I have been working almost full time through all of this-- oh and I did two ski races too. All this has left me completely drained for energy, but still feeling better than I have been, as we have turned the corner towards the light season again.

I have one more week before I head south for a little much needed respite, including a visit to the Olympics in Vancouver. I do not think it has really hit me that I am going to be at the Olympics. Getting to see the Olympics in person is something I never really thought I would have a chance to do. Now I just need to get through another week before I get there.


At the start of the Hickok Pursuit


Almost finished, thank goodness

January

Hmm. Does anyone still read this? Did anyone read it in the first place? Who knows. On some level I enjoy the writing, but clearly that level has remained buried as of late, as I have not been writing anything! I suppose I have been quiet as I feel that I am following that old adage of: if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all. Frankly, life has been beating me down these last fews months, so I have been keeping quiet. But I have been out and about doing a few things:

I raced yesterday at the Hickok Pursuit, despite being sick all week. I think this was a bad idea. Somehow, or another, I survived and my place and time were not too terrible. But I sure felt like hell for most of the race. I started school this past week, and I should be doing homework right now, but instead I am rambling on my blog. Previously my blog was reserved for recounts of exciting adventures, but I really have not had many as of late.

No pictures, no stories, no nothing. Life is boring. Bring on February, more light and the Olympics.