Sweet dreams and other things

This is what happens when you spend the evening (or should I say early morning) sending article queries to magazines, cover letters to travel guides and reading page after page in the forum at telemarktips.com... you enter a happy place where life feels at your finger tips, the world is a playground and anything is possible. The discouragement, the frustration, the petty annoyances of life melt like butter in a microwave or ice cream on my tongue... and it's just me and my computer and my writing and my happiness.

The signature of one of the guys on telemarktips.com is "at 32 degrees water turns to magic." I like it! It's true!

Last week I went out to Arctic Valley to go skiing with Jess, a girl I met on "The Alaska Ski Bunnies" google group. Even if I hadn't made a single turn the whole day, I'd of still had an incredible day... the views were that spectacular! It's was one of those "I can't believe I'm alive moments." As we drove up Arctic Valley Road we passed through a thick layer of clouds and then popped out onto the other side where the stars above were fading into the morning alpenglow. Below a sea of white clouds stretched as far as the eye could see.... beyond where Anchorage would be, beyond Cook Inlet, beyond... to where Denali and Foraker towered... snowy white masses against blue skies.

The moon set and we began laying in a skin track.

Later that day I went to work. The beautiful thing about living in Anchorage and working a 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. job is that I can literally go skiing before work... literally climb above the clouds and make turns back down... then earn some money in the afternoon.

While I'm on this telemark train... it's also worth sharing that I raced my very first ski race last Thurs. at Alyeska. A few friends and I formed a team for town league. We're the City Slickers. Basically this means we go telemarking every Thurs. night, run through the race course a few times on our way down and drink a beer or two in the bar afterwards while they announce results and give away door prizes. Good fun!!!!

Not telemark related, but snow related... the snow removal trucks came through our neighborhood last week. It's quite an operation. Having traveled the last couple of winters, I'd forgotten all about the snow piling, blowing and dumping that takes place. The photos tell it all....

Today when I was running I actually formed icicles on the peach fuzz on my cheeks! It was a crazy sight (I saw my reflection in my house window before stepping back inside and it just looked so cool... literally and figuratively). I've formed icicles on my eye lashing, braids and nose hairs before... but I think this is a first for cheek peach fuzz. Wowsers!

So with that, good night and good luck (as Mr. Murrow would say) from this frigid northern wonder land! Hopefully, I'll dream either about skiing or traveling tonight... that would be sweet dreams indeed.