Ch- Ch- Changes

I have been terribly remiss in updating this blog, and for that I apologize.  But, in my defense: there's been too much going on!!  Well, really just two things, but they each took up a fair amount of time . . . I swear!

First, the Companion came to visit in late March, and we took a trip to Alyeska for some skiing and some swimming.  And guess what?  He proposed!  That's right: the Companion and I are engaged.  Fancy that.  We got up there on a Tuesday, he proposed that evening, and we didn't tell anyone else until Friday morning when we got back to Anchorage.

OK I lied.  I told our waitress at Seven Glaciers Restaurant that we were engaged.

A lovely view of the mountains.  What this picture doesn't show is that, earlier that week, a hapless young woman (aka "me") crashed into a ski rack (that happened to be located in front of a restaurant window), sent skis flying everywhere, and then was asked only, "Geez, lady, are you OK?"  On the upside, this meant that I could spend the rest of the day in the pool with impunity. 

We also had a meal at Jack Sprat which was, as everyone has said, delicious.  Those glasses above are our beer steins.

Back in Anchorage, we saw some moose in the neighborhood.  This was a load off, as I knew the Companion was running out of time to see these guys.  And I still love seeing them myself -- it never gets old!

News #2: I got a job!  I flew out to D.C. in early April for some interviews, and then checked out a firm in Denver later that month, and was lucky enough to get a few offers out of all that.  Making the decision was incredibly difficult, and took a fairly long time and much angst, but I finally selected one of the D.C. firms, and still feel really good about that choice.  I'm already looking forward to picking an apartment with the Companion, and making other plans for after I'm back in the lower 48.

So in looking at pictures to make this post, I realized  . . . I never blogged about snow machining!  Up here, they call "snow mobiles" "snow machines," so snow machining is snowmobiling.  In March, several clerks and I went down to Ninilchik to take a snow machining trip, and it was . . . intense.  The views were beautiful, and it's great to say I did it and have the story to tell, but I have no desire to snow machine again, and was honestly pretty glad to be back in the comfort of my car once the whole thing was said and done. 

And here's why: first, those machines do not have power steering, so you have to throw your whole body weight into it every time you want to turn.  And since you're often maneuvering over terrifying ledges, it becomes very important that you turn well.  So I spent about 40% of the outing living in abject terror of the impending end of my life.  Second, we stayed in a cabin the night before our trip.  Sounds nice, right?  Well OK it was nice.  BUT.  There were chickens outside, which was cool during the day, but at night turned into CAW-fest 2012, aka "I'm a rooster so I'm going to crow like 500 times tonight so that you can't get any sleep."  Also, as some of you may know, I'm more comfortable in urban environments, so whenever I'm staying some place rural (especially when, hypothetically, THERE ARE NO LOCKS ON THE DOOR), I always spend a fair amount of time imagining how many murderers are hiding in the wood pile waiting to hatchet me. But, as you might have guessed, I didn't steer myself off of a ledge, and I didn't get axed to death in my sleep, so it was a pretty cool trip and I'm really glad I went.

That's all for now, but stay tuned, because I've got another neat trip coming up in a few weeks!