my own space

This year did not start so great with the flu and now two weeks w/ a sprained wrist, but its shaping up. Work-wise, I am off to Anchorage for a grant writing workshop which i am very excited about as it's been many years since grad school. And ironically, I got a grant to attend a huge fundraising conference in San Antonio in late March. I hardly write grants so getting accepted was awesome and I am looking forward to this conference as well as checking out San Antonio.

In other big news for the first time in 3 years I have my own place. I left PDX in Feb 2011 not knowing where I would end up. I traveled for almost a year. Moved to VT briefly and then came back to Alaska while bouncing around for a while. I met an interesting, caring and talented  couple and we've been roommates for almost a year. HeidiJo is a singer and pianist whose been focusing on her music and they headed to New Orleans after she released her first album. The music scene here is bluegrass/folk and she is jazzy blues.

They are down there for 3 months for all the music festivals and then who knows what will happen but they do hope to come back to make Homer, a summer residence. We were sharing two small apartments, so I signed the lease for the south facing one. And, I will have a neighbor vs a roomie. It was weird b/c I was in their shoes 3 years ago and I went through letting go of all my apt stuff and now I've acquired their apt stuff. I also thought holy shit, I am never leaving AK, I got too much stuff now :)

And, yes my expenses are now up which is a bummer as Homer is an expensive town to live in, but I've also been wanting some more alone time. This town is super busy year-round and so is my job. I hope to focus on my fun creative projects. It will be strange coming home to no one to talk to though..Oh and my apt kicks ass so I am very fortunate and can;t see myself anywhere else here...

Well we had summer for a week here. I did not need gloves, no jacket and even one day wore sandals without socks outside. Totally nuts and we all want snow and we have great cross country ski trails here. Its gotten cooler but we had some beautiful sunny days which makes it super hard to stay indoors m-f ;)

Click here for some Jan snow, beach sun and apt pix.