Født med ski på biena

The day finally has arrived. After missing two ski seasons I strapped on by boards and cruised around Birch Hill. Now Birch Hill isn't the best cross country ski area in the world, but for Fairbanks it is the top. The key to surviving in Fairbanks is all about lowering your expectations and laughing at the situation. The trails here are very windy, so much so that most turns are step turns. They even have a few padded light poles. That is a scary sight when you come around a corner and realize that enough people have run into a particular object that the groomers have taken the time to put padding on it. They are also very hilly, which is good for the legs and lungs. Not so good for the beginning skier. My favorite aspect about all the trails in Fairbanks is they have a very gentle up and down feel that has been created by years of snowmachine grooming. The trails in Anchorage are just flat as a pancake with their professional snowcat grooming machines. The crazy thing about skiing is that after the first two glides it all came back. The gliding, the frozen fingers, the cold air, and of course all those bad habits my ski coaches tried to break me of. I guess skiing is my version of riding a bike. It's something that I was born to do or as the Norwegians say, "Born with a ski on the foot."

Trollops, Strumpets and Floosies! Oh My!

When faced with this...I decided to make my own.

This weekend when a girlfriend proudly proclaimed that she was going to dress up for Halloween as a sexy zoo animal (no joke), I could only laugh inwardly.  Friends, it seems that yours truly has crossed another one of those check points on the way to being a grown up.  I no longer feel the need to bare skin on Halloween.

I respect a woman's choice to attract attention with plunging neck lines and shorter hem lines.  However, I have realized that is not what it is about for me.  This year I am going out to the bars dressed up as a Spelling Bee.  Yes, I, Elena Herron, will run around Fairbanks dressed in a home-made bee costume that will be appropriate for the 20 - 15 degree weather we will no doubt be experiencing here in Fairbanks.  I will hang an ABC sign from my neck and voila, a cute slightly punny little costume will be born!

I don't need people to appreciate my body on Halloween; I would rather them appreciate my sense of humor and fun.  I still look forward to dusting my cheeks with glitter and taking lots of adorable photos with Kari (who is going to be one fearsome pirate).  Most of all, I am excited to hang out with a group of friends who have been using their creative powers to piece together costumes that will make me laugh and appreciate them for their quirky individuality.

While cruising the internet this weekend, I found a lovely article about Halloween in the post-feminist age.  Read the article and the commentary for some interesting and varied opinions on the female psyche and the need to bare it all on All Hallows Eve.

Domesticity

This week I bought my first bedroom set (pictured above).  Now, I am completely freaking out.  Feels like I am coming down with some ridiculous nesting syndrome.  Before you know it, I'll be registering for some fine china.

I never thought I would actually want matching dishes or tasteful decorative pillows.  Please someone suggest an awesome life-changing adventure that will cure this temporary insanity...

AFN

This is a big weekend in the Golden Heart City. We are hosting the Alaska Federation of Natives. This is basically a huge conference held annually for all the Native Alaskan Corporations. I think the Alaska Natives (aka. white people born in AK like me) should start our own corporations. That way we could spend millions paying people to push paper, invest our money, and fly to the ends of the earth. Unfortunately, I don't think we would get too many government grants. Honestly, why to the freckled people not get many free hand outs? Oh well. This conference is all going to a good cause. Leaders get together, pour money in to the Fairbanks economy, and the people from the bush get a long weekend of fun in Fairbanks. The only trouble is sometimes people go a little crazy in the "big city." At least it is something different going on this weekend. Check out their fancy website www.nativefederation.org/.

I Want You

This story is brought to you by my distaste for a military recruiter in my office loudly jawing about how awkward it will be to have openly homosexual members of the US armed forces.  To the brave men and women who have served in silence, I thank you.  Follow the link below to a CNN story you may find enlightening.

Military recruiters told they can accept openly gay applicants

An Unopened Letter From Frida

M’ija, you stink of privilege.  Your Spanish words are clumsy now, like hail stones bouncing off your sweet abuelita’s tin roof.  You live in the polished districts of sedate happiness and complacency.

You ascended, went to a fancy school and shed your west side accent.  Was it hard to put all that distance between your roots and your future? You, ruca, who drives the lesbo Subaru and stuffs onion bagels into her mouth, you are a mystery now. 

And your poor sweet mother, the way her proud strong hands stunk of onions, dirt and labor, struggled so that you might have better.  What have you given back to them, those sloe-eyed ancestors who dared to dream?  Do you still talk to them in your sleep?

How easily you forget.  When do you come home to remember the hours over the comal?  Do you see your old friends, tus primas, with children hanging off their hips and the sweat of commonness on their brows?  Do you think you made a fortunate escape?

La Virgen help you, querida. We don’t know you anymore.

Dear Doubters-

All I can say is check this out to find out the obvious outcome of the hockey game last night.

http://alaskananooks.com/news/2010/10/17/MHOCKEY_1017101553.aspx?path=mhockey