it's the weekend!!!

We finally have some days off. D has had one day off and K has been working straight through since we started.

How did we celebrate our "Friday" you ask? Well after we got off work at 7:00pm we went to the bar two doors down and had our standard drinks - K with the well Gin & Tonic and D with the Jameson on the rocks - and watched the "lumberjacks" drink, yell and faux fight. "Lumberjacks" is in quotes because they are in fact from the local lumberjack show and do not actually work to haul lumber - and much to K's dismay there was no flannel.

Post drinking (a la 8:15pm) we wandered in the direction of Chico's Mexican Restaurant - Best Pizza in Town. Yup. Alaska truly enjoys the blending of Mexican and Italian cuisines, there are in fact two Mexican/Italian restaurants in town. The food was as expected and then we walked home.

There are lots of stars and you can still see the salmon swimming upriver at night - it's nuts! D got a video of some swimming up a waterfall, we will attempt to post shortly.

On the list for the weekend: walmart, totem poles, salmon hatchery and more groceries....so far.

PIctures!!!

Ok, we got some photos online - finally!

The travels from Oakland to Ketchikan are in this album, including the ferry etc.

The ones from our adventures here in the great state of Alaska are in this album. Go there for pics of the nunnery and USSR!

no longer transients!

We have found an apartment!!

We live in an attic apartment across the street from the middle school. In fact as we speak I'm watching a high school football game from our bedroom, while they play in pouring rain (by the way it has rained everyday since we arrived) on gravel. Apparently not enough drainage for grass - kids really are tougher here in AK

It is a one bedroom teeny tiny apartment - nothing like the glamorous days of the big house - with two twin beds in our one bedroom. Yay sleep overs for life!

We are officially working stiffs. D works the seafood bar aptly named the Crab Cracker and K is workin' at the fish market and studiously learning the nuances of King Salmon vs. Sockeye Salmon. The realization I (K) have come to is that only a spoiled white girl like myself would choose to leave a cushy job with benefits and time off (and a desk) to work exhausting hourly jobs for "fun". My excuse is being a member of the caucasian bourgeoisie - who knows why D followed me? Either way we now come home with aching feet and lie in front of the tv and moan. We will work our way up to socializing with the locals some more...probably.

Addendum to previous post

A new girl moved into our room. She has yet to materialize, however the tramp has a pillow already.

We have been sleeping on balled up hats, scarves, and shirts. They are suprisingly hard.
...And hostel mom McScarerton put her boot - the very same that one that trampled to and fro across this town with a shocking volume of avian roadkill, salmon blood, and hosteler germs (prob the worst) - ON TOP OF MY BED.

She sat in cowgirl/lady luck pose kinda rubbing the bottom of her small booted filthy shoe in small circles while sitting (in street clothes) at the foot of my bed.

Almost had a corinary.

...And maybe she's going to be our landlord (if the USSR has any say in the matter)

Exhibit A: USSR

we boozin!

Ode to shibbly joe:

I haven't been this drunk in the middle of the day since senior week.

We've been too depressed to write earlier. We've spent the last 72 hours calling every lead gained from the paper (aptly named "The Local Paper), the 3 listed craigslist ads, poorly handwritten for rent signs, and anything that the kennedy status vacation rental baronness "Mary" has to offer. All on foot in the rain on the bus (aptly named, "The Bus").

Our days of homeless toil are not softened by our early arrival to the church hostel were living in, as it is run by Scary McSkeletor (a would be 60-something vagabond house mother who tells 5 indecipherable stories at once whilst assigning us mild housekeeping duties in the sunday school room where we sleep). (I would add that she has walked in twice on D in the bathroom and woke the both of us yesterday to bring a gibberish speaking japanese american senior in (who she is having do manual labor) to just show her our room.)

Needless to say we have tried to spend little time there and have been too depressed to share our despair via blog.

But a few beers and promises of october rentals have put moderate pep in our step. Now if only we can get K to live on the wrong side of the tracks in a building that would have been the pride of the USSR...

pray for us

For real. We can't find an apt. Pray.

Fresh Off the Boat!

We got off the boat this morning at 7:00am, shared a cab into town with a couple just sightseeing and checked into the hostel....I mean the church.

Yup we will be living, apparently, as nuns until we find an apartment. We can not go drinking at night because we are living in Mortville and must be in by 10pm. This morning when we got in they had us wait in the children's Sunday school room but told us to make sure that we didn't play with the toys...we're not allowed!

Today we are looking for apartments and going to go see a movie to relax - since most things are closed on Sunday and we may not be able to get into the church again until 6pm!

So it appears, at least at first, that instead of being slutty here in AK we will actually be living a nun's life....really hope we find an apartment soon!

Lord guide and keep us safe in canadian waters - we've shipped out

Were running low on provisions and we've been at sea approx. 1.5 minutes. Oy

santa's little helper...

Today while waiting for the bus to take us to the ferry (woohoo) we saw santa's little helper I guess they deserve vacation too but you'd think they would want to go somewhere warm for vacay.

Ginger count for Seattle leg of the trip: 16

Here's D on the bus from Seattle to Bellingham to the ferry!

we not on a boat [yet]

Sitting with 150 lbs of luggage (we could've brought a skinnier friend for that poundage) watching the cruise shippers stream by.

The just back from alaska cruise ship women: all in impratical shoes (but a refreshing change from the hip seattle 20something REI chic)

The men: portly

The children: blond

The 10am bus driving us north to our 'budget cruise': absent

The ride from K's uncle: priceless

difference between bay area and seattle

The difference between seattle and the bay area is that in the bay area white people are ashamed of their whiteness, not the case here. Also all the cleaning people are white...new job market mexico!

we on a boat man!

We on a boat man. We wit the fam man. We caint pay for nuttin but eggs that hit the scram man.

But for real: in seattle.

Bags: all safe and accounted for (see photo next post)

Seattle: plesant city. Prospective site for the great indie douche migration as A. There's few colored people. B.few poor people. C. Nobody to call their oft replicated individuality into question as everyone here is concerned with danskos, gardening, coffee, and being bugrois. D. They can rep so poor they have to take public transportation without the financial committment (free busses here).

Boat trips: 3
Seals spotted:3

Rain: none

It Begins...

I am.


not talking with a burning bush (nor, thankfully, do i have a burning bush) but i am...

up at 5:30 am for the third or fourth time in a week. gracias anxiety. but i suppose it's time to do something that scares me so much my subconscious wakes me from slumber (and you know how much i like slumber) to rouse me to action.

sin wit, the plan:
0: Packing/Freaking Out

1: August 18 Leave Oakland, to Seattle

2: August 21 - 23 Seattle on Ferry to Small Town, Alaska

3: August 23 Stay in Small Town Hostel until finding a home or talking the hostel woman into letting us stay... apparently the real estate market in Small Town Alaska is "oooh... really tight" (not in the early 90's sense) according to every realtor in Small Town. How are convict vagabonds/us supposed to create hovels if remax won't hook em up?