This morning, Ryan made everyone scrambled eggs and cinnamon rolls, and after we ate he made a drink called sahlab, a Middle Eastern "pudding," made with milk, sugar, vanilla, etc, topped with cinnamon and I think pistachios. It tasted like cinnamon-y warm milk. It made definitely made me full for awhile haha. After that we opened presents..there were a lot more under the tree this year, it seemed like. Of course Curti had to come check everything out lol. Jo got me a bowl he MADE with Curti's name on it and pawprints on the bottom, with glacial blue colors! It's SO cool, it looks professionally made! I also got cat themed PJs and socks, a Doordash gift card, a Barnes and Noble gift card (which I got early, because it was going to snow the next day and then get super cold again), a booklight (yay, I can read on the bus if it's too dark now!), a bookstore jigsaw puzzle, some plush dragons from How to Train Your Dragon (I guess mom knows how much I love that movie haha), and an Amazon gift card from Dana (there might be more, but I can't remember at the moment :P). A great haul for everyone this year! Later we had a pot roast dinner..Ryan made SUPER fancy carrots, with cream fraiche and other stuff on them..I am definitely full now lol (mom got a popcorn maker, and thought about using it tonight, but we are WAY too full..maybe we'll try again tomorrow :P). Last year mom and I had the stomach flu during Christmas, and had to delay opening presents..this Christmas was definitely way more fun LOL

( pics from the day! )

22. Some things you want to start doing: Probably do housework more often..I'm just so tired a lot of the time though :P

23. The most valuable lesson you've learned this year: I am stubborn and can definitely get through a lot..it was definitely a hard year, especially with Abby dying and the move at work. I hope 2026 will be better!

24. Your favorite holiday traditions: Opening presents, yummy food, listening to Trans-Siberian Orchestra, (not a Christmas song, but one of my favorite songs right now is "Night Castle"..I love the guitars and of course the lyric "stairways hidden behind curtains" haha), etc

25. Your feelings and beliefs about the holidays: They're exhausting, but fun too. The stores start putting out Christmas things earlier every year, it seems like O_o

1. What brought you the most joy in 2025? If your answer this year is the same as it would have been last year, what brought you the second-most joy in 2025? Curti, going to Santa Fe in May, etc
2. What’s the best discovery you made in 2025? The song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," Curti, the game Neko Atsume 2, etc
3. What’s the best feel-good story of 2025? The cat that was rescued after the Palisades Fire (since the fire, I keep seeing the word "Palisade"..weird lol). I definitely donated to the "get well" fund! Everything else has just been so negative :(
4. What was your best small win in 2025? If it’s the same as your answer to # 5 last week, what’s next on the list? Being able to say "have a good day!" to customers at work..out of nowhere I was able to say it. It gives good feelings to both me and the customers!
5. What was the kindest thing a stranger did for you in 2025? Hmm..maybe holding a door open for me? I'm too tired to think too deeply haha

This week was work's Christmas party..for some reason it was in the morning, so we wore pajamas and had breakfast (pancakes, eggs, etc). Like last year we did stocking stuffers, which was cool. They also brought cookies to decorate, but me and Juella had to leave to open the bookstore..still fun though! I have one more day of work and then I'm off until January 2. I definitely need a break, I'm so tired haha. The store has been busy though, yay! Lucie said she hired a new manager, who will start January 7th! I hope she's nice lol

( dec 13-19 )

There's a guy on Patreon who has been filming Cherry, Birdie and Wilson's Cape Crozier expedition (he's also writing a book!), and he just released a teaser trailer for part of the film:

OMG YESSS it looks SO good!!! (Poor Cherry and his frozen glasses haha.) I can't wait to watch the finished product! Thanks for keeping their memories alive! :D

Mom and I saw Wicked: For Good yesterday, and the first movie was definitely better. There were scenes where the characters were just..staring (either at something in the scene or at other characters) for like, 30 seconds, and the songs were so tedious! At least I was able to get my popcorn craving satisfied. :P I'm excited to see Project Hail Mary, I really liked the book!

( dec 6-8 )

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau has officially receded from Mendenhall Lake

So sad!! Poor glacier. :( I know it's part of the earth's natural cycle (we're coming out of an ice age still), but it's still sad. I'm glad I was able to see it before it receded. Here's a picture from 2019:

That was fun! I'm glad there are still some advancing glaciers like Meares..I'll probably cry if I hear that one starts retreating!

Speaking of crying..for the apartment complex I live in, I have to do a "recertification," where I have to tell them my income and stuff like that (it's online now, yay!). I noticed it still had Abby as my pet, so with a heavy heart I pressed delete, and a box came up that said something like "do you want to delete your pet Abby from the form?" OMG. 😿😿 They definitely need to reword that, ouch!! I felt like I had been punched, my grief reawakened, and cried after I went to bed. So painful! I will always miss her, she was amazing <3

The snow is here, but by Friday it's supposed to get to -19. D: Alaska's weather seems to enjoy being extreme LOL

( 2. Did you ever have an imaginary friend? )

Mom put the Christmas tree up a couple days ago, and of course Curti had to check it out!

So Christmasy! I can't believe how big he is now, he's very heavy haha. He was naughty and somehow pushed the giant turkey plate off the table, which shattered on the floor! He's not allowed on the table, but does it anyway to get attention :P

It may start getting dark at 2 or 3 PM now, but the sunrises/sunsets are great!

So pretty!

For the past three or so weeks my pleasant, regular bus driver was replaced with a VERY unpleasant lady, who hated everyone and everything and barely even looked at you when you got on the bus. She kicked off my friend who asked if she could be let on the bus because it was cold..she LOST it and was like "I HAD TO TO THE BATHROOM!!! I DON'T WANT TO BE IN A BAD MOOD BECAUSE OF YOU!! Don't tell me how to do my job! Get off my bus!" Awful. D: I could just feel the bad vibes coming off of her (there have been lots of complaints about her, but apparently won't fire her because they're short on drivers). Finally this week the regular driver came back and when I got on I said "nice to see you!" and he said "thank you!" The atmosphere on the bus was totally changed and everyone was super happy lol. He is definitely appreciated!

Work was pretty busy yesterday, yay! Velma Wallace (author of Two Old Women, Bird Girl, etc) came in and did some Christmas shopping lol

( nov 29-30 )

1. What's your favourite TV network? Does Netflix/Amazon Prime count?
2. If you could create your own channel, what would it be? I'd go to glaciers, and find four-poster beds and curtains throughout the world LOL
3. What TV show did you watch as a child, that you wish they would bring back? I really liked Impact: Stories of Survival..I've always been fascinated with survival stories..
4. What show have you always hated, and wonder why they ever made such a dumb show? Arrested Development
5. What TV show's seasons would you buy on DVD? I'm still waiting to find Here Come the Brides haha..Bobby Sherman was so cool, I was sad to hear he died in June :(

I'm not sure why it took so long, but we finally got a picture of the bookstore's grand opening from last summer!

There's me, Amanda (the manager for like a month), Ron (a summer volunteer), Lucie, Adam (without a mask OR hat, an incredibly rare occurrence!), Shelby (huge scissors!), Bill, some guy from the Chamber of Commerce maybe, Jim (he finds vinyl records to sell in the store. They're super popular!), and Chris (a volunteer who usually shelves books). Yay! We did get a bunch of donations on Saturday, but most of them have been shelved already. It was really nice seeing new (to us) books again!

Yesterday at the bus stop a guy walked up, and then a lady walked over, who looked super drugged out (her teeth were definitely rotten D:), and the guy started yelling at her and calling her bad names (apparently it's her fault his hands were cold??). The lady came up to me and said "would you like to help me bury a dead body?" Ummm no thank you. O__o I was so happy when the bus finally drove up, I was so uncomfortable! I have made a couple friends though, two ladies who work next door at the Salvation Army. It's fun talking to them for the short ride and walk to work!

( nov 15-21 )

Bold what you've read, italicize what you intend to read, and underline what you loved.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (they were a part of my childhood, it's too hard to decide to dislike them :/)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (it was good, but I don't think I LOVED it..)
6. The Bible (it scared me)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8. 1984 - George Orwell (I read ahead of the class with this one haha)
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (they were interesting, but not a fan of God getting killed at the end D:)
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
12. Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (when I was obsessed with trees in middle school, someone told me to read this because there were talking trees in it haha)
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (this book looks intimidating O_o)
25. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
( the rest )

9. Have you ever broken a bone? Not that I know of

1. Under what circumstances might you deliberately fail at a task you were perfectly capable of completing? Tiredness
2. Under what circumstances might you choose to completely cut off contact with a family member you currently love and respect? If they hurt me or Curti
3. Under what circumstances might you willingly give up every piece of modern technology you own and move to an off-grid location? Maybe if some apocalyptic thing happened, and it wasn't safe anywhere else (I'd definitely need someone else with me though lol)
4. Under what circumstances might you leave your job to take work paying half as much? If I was backstabbed or hurt in some other way
5. Under what circumstances might you agree to live the rest of your life without ever using spoken language again? Not sure..

Today at the bookstore we're trying a First Friday event, where most everything in the store is 50% off, and we're going to be open until EIGHT instead of 5:30! I get the 4-8 shift, because Bill definitely doesn't need to be riding his bike in the dark lol. The store has been dead all week, so I hope it's busy today!

( nov 2-7 )

1. When did someone make you an offer you couldn’t refuse? We have an interim Bookstore Manager at work, who has volunteered the past two or three years, and she's very good with processes and organizing, so she'd helped out a LOT this week (someone said she was rude and bossy at another job, but she's been great at the bookstore, thanking us for all our hard work). One thing I was like "YES" to was having my own cart (I shelve the fiction and DVDs/CDs) that no one else shelves from. Couldn't say no to that, I hate when other people shelve and mess the sections up lol
2. How do you feel about Italian food? SO good haha
3. When did you last attend a wedding? 2020, my cousin Jordan's
4. What do you know about organized crime in your city? Nothing, but I see what I assume are gang signs graffitied in various places
5. If you’ve been to Las Vegas, how did you like it? If you haven’t, how do you imagine you’d like it? I feel like it would be loud and flashy and lively lol

Here are Curti's pawprints in the snow!

He was not a fan :P (he's way too smart, he somehow knew today was the day we go to my parents' house, and stayed under the bed instead of greeting me when I came home. I had to lure him out with a laser pointer, which he LOVES..I can hide it from him and press the button on it, and he'll immediately be like "I know that sound!! Where is it??" haha)

Because I love lists, here are the songs I've picked up on Shazam so far! (I'm loving this app!)
"Immigrant Song"-Led Zeppelin (I was testing out the app and just picked a song that came to mind lol)
"Holiday"-Green Day
"When You Were Young"-The Killers
"Nutshell"-Alice in Chains
"Helena"-My Chemical Romance
"But Not Tonight"-Depeche Mode
"Lovesong"-The Cure
"The Killing Moon"-Echo & the Bunnymen
"Party Train"-The Gap Band
"Only You"-Yaz
"Mountains"-Prince & the Revolution
"It's Goin' Down," from The Descendants 2
"(Don't Fear) the Reaper"-Blue Oyster Cult (I thought the guitar solo in the middle was a different song for some reason lol)
"Zeitgeist"-Black Sabbath
"Caruso"-Josh Groban
"Sway"-Dean Martin
La traviata, Act I: "Libiamo ne' lieti calici"-Verdi (I was at an Italian restaurant for these last three lol)
"California Sun"-The Rivieras
"Get a Job"-The Silhouettes. "Yip yip yip yip yip ma ma ma ma"?! Haha what?? O_o

( oct 25-31 )

Last night I didn't feel super great..super anxious, migrainey, felt like I might be coming down with something, and I just could NOT get to sleep. You'd think I'd know by now to take Excedrin right away instead of laying awake for hours in pain haha. When I finally did take some, the migraine was gone in about 10-15 minutes..that stuff is amazing! I still didn't sleep super great, but at least the migraine was gone. :P This morning, when I went out to wait for the bus, little snowflakes were starting to fall. By the time I got to work, which only takes a couple minutes, the flakes were bigger and starting to stick. Soon the flakes were HUGE, which looked cool! I really don't appreciate being a human barometer LOL, the first big snowstorm is always the worst. At least I felt a lot better, even though I didn't sleep well. Here's a picture I found on Facebook:

Instant winter!! I wish I had taken a picture, but I was busy working lol. The giant flakes were very cool!

Yesterday, out of nowhere, I had part of a song come into my head, something about the moon/moonlight..I knew that would be pretty much impossible to search online, since so many songs have moon/moonlight in the lyrics, and the only other thing I remembered was that it was old..I tried searching, but it was as hard looking as I thought it was going to be. It was driving me crazy haha, and I tried thinking about a tiny bit more of the song, but it kept escaping my grasp! It was only after I went to bed (yeah that didn't help my sleep either lol) that the tiny bit more of the song came into my head, and then I thought "huh..there's stuttering in that song, isn't there?" and that's when I FINALLY remembered what song it was, and jumped out of bed to see if I was correct (I was lol). The song is called "K-K-K-Katy" ("when the m-m-m-moon shines, over the cow shed, I'll be waiting at the k-k-k-kitchen door"), which was first released in 1918! I have no idea why it popped into my head though, I hadn't listened to it since probably last year! (I was probably looking for songs with stuttering in them lol.) I'm glad I was able to think of it though, those kind of things drive me crazy :P

( oct 18-22 )