Lots and lots of thoughts lately. Thoughts about love, about life, about all the nothings of importance. I guess I have work to blame first hand; seems like all these thoughts come rushing to me while rolling silverware. Something about the mindlessly methodic process allows me to focus on everything I should, and over think everything I shouldn’t. Overall, life should just be simple; less dramatic, more serendipitous (yes, I have a true obsession with serendipity); filled with things that make us happy; avoidance of negative energy; indulging when necessary… in good food, wine, local beer, in love, in nature, in passion, in simplest of pleasures. Relationships should never be forced, but you should fall in love every day; maybe not with someone, but at least some thing… and when I say thing, I don’t really mean a tangible object… I mean joy, places, books, music, knowledge. Always say what you think, and more importantly, mean what you say. Forget what you think you need. In its own time, life will always provide what will make you happiest. Let the universe inside and around you guide you to where you belong, your true north…your happiness…you.
(fresh salmon, scalped potatoes, eggplant parm. yum.)
These past few weeks, I’ve seen the most beautiful things, and came to some realizations I’ve been ignoring for some time. It’s really come to light who I can rely on in my life. I have some of the most amazing people to call friends and family, and some less than amazing. My problem is not naivety, it’s that I see the absolute best in people until proven wrong…and even then I still stretch to love them until about the 20th second chance. Just have to realize sometimes that I am really the only person I can count on 100% of the time… which is something no one likes to recognize. But anyways, that’s the one downer subject, onto the amazing things!
I went on an 8.5 hour boat tour on a perfect day, it was EPIC! Saw multiple whales breaching (jumping out of water), orcas, sea otters, sea lions, puffins, massive glaciers crumbling into the ocean. And found out that I don’t get sea sick, bonus! We ended the trip with a subpar salmon, prime rib, and crab leg buffet; it might have been tasty had it not been sitting out for hours! But for a total of $13.50 for the whole trip…it was pretty worth it. Of course, I took about 800 pictures, so I still have yet to sift through them all to get to the best ones... so these are just a preview.
Glacial ice...delicious!
I went out a couple weeks ago with a group of people to a bar I’ve never been to. While sitting at my table, I see a guy out of the corner of my eye looking at me a little strange. Then I hear “Jonelle?” I look over to see Eric Dickerman, a high school friend. We spent the next hour catching up and reveling in how insane the encounter was. I was so crazy…. I mean what are really the odds of that? Two people from a town in Wyoming of 9,000 people, meeting up in a town in Alaska of 2,000 people. This is why I am obsessed with serendipity… stuff like that doesn’t just happen every day.
I celebrated the summer solstice at a music festival in Moose Pass with a few of my friends. We sat in a meadow by a gorgeous lake, grilled veggies and hot dogs, drank beer, and blew bubbles. Sometime I just have to pinch myself… this is my life…this is real. The weather was so beautiful for a few days, it was so great to get some sun. We found the perfect spot to hang out on property, a little patch of grass with a picnic table and horseshoe pits…we call it the meadow. So after a few days of hanging out there, someone (a local) finally asks why we are always up there…it’s a septic tank after all. Hahaha so there we are, favorite hang out spot…on top of a septic tank. Here’s the part of the story where I say I stop hanging out there…right? Wrong. It’s far too perfect… until the day it starts smelling. Ohh my life.
I joined a second softball team, so I now play every Sunday and Tuesday night, with practice on Thursday. Chico’s Bail Bonds and Alehouse Deuce, doesn’t get much better. We have won about half our games, but our teams are pretty good and it’s a lot of fun. I slid into second base last week (yes, only to get out) and ended up with a giant raspberry covering my right thigh. It’s been so painful, pants rubbing off my scabs gradually. I will now be a bit more mindful in my base running, that’s for certain! We had another double header last night, so I am a little exhausted today.
I am really trying not to plan too far in advance for after the summer, as the now is where I like to stay, but it’s kind of impossible not to think about. So… as of now, I think I want to visit New Zealand for a couple months in the fall, work a seasonal job for the winter/spring, then spend about 5 months in the summer hiking the Continental Divide. The only problem I’ve encountered with my hiking plan is finding someone to for sure commit to doing it with me. I would love to be able to go alone, but I do not have a death wish so that’s just not realistic. I just have this inexplicable, undying urge, compelling me to do this. There is so much to see and take pictures of and I just think it’s something I have to do as soon as I can. So that’s my tentative plan for the next year… despite how much I don’t believe in major plan-making, I still love it. It’s exciting and as long as I can find the right balance of planning and being here, I think it will be okay. After all, trips like those tend to take a fair amount of planning… time to get cracking.
(perspective of how HUGE this glacier is!)
“All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dream with open eyes to make it possible.”
