I'm apparently on a mission to find the Worst Disaster Movie Ever, and yesterday I might have found it:

I knew I HAD to watch this when I saw the title "Airplane vs. Volcano" lol..it was SOOO bad and so much fun to watch haha. I was hoping there would be some terrible air traffic control stuff for mom to make fun of, and sure enough, she rolled her eyes when the pilots radioed "Control"..yeahh you have to say the name of the place you're talking to, like "Fairbanks Tower, this is [flight number]." I've also seen better graphics in movies way older than this one..they were absolutely AWFUL lol. The airplane was even named Erebus, after the volcano in Antarctica..that is AWESOME haha. This movie's terribleness will be hard to beat :P

Today was the Fairbanks Geocachers' Christmas event..it was disappointing because we just played trivia games..I do like trivia games, but we should have done a gift exchange too! At least there was yummy food :P

( December 15-16 )

Today was a geocaching event called the Park and Grab Expressway, put on by the same couple that hosts the Christmas party and other events here and there. We had to find four puzzle caches, where usually what you do is solve a puzzle to get the right coordinates, but for the event they just gave us the coordinates. Over the summer I heard another cacher (Hal) was really ill with prostate cancer and didn't know if he'd make it, so I was very pleased when I saw him at the event. It was hard for him to walk, but he seemed happy and in good spirits, which was awesome. We got paired with partners for the event, and Hal was my partner. It was really nice just driving the backroads of the hills with him and talking and having fun geocaching..the weather has been absolutely AMAZING this weekend, in the 50s and 60s with blue skies. We had some great views of the Alaska Range, which I hadn't seen in forever since it had been raining for like two months straight..they looked so white and perfect and glorious in the sun. <3 For the caches, you were supposed to notice what was on them or around them, like numbers on the box or smiley faces on the lid and stuff like that. We'd get quizzed at the end about what we'd notice and have to enter a code to open an ammo can and win the elusive ~Golden Nano~ haha. Before we started out the guy said we'd be going to someone's house, which the owner knew about already. So Hal and I pulled into a house's driveway and were like "well this is weird O_o" haha. We were poking around and looking under the stairs and stuff, and Hal was like "are you sure we're at the right house??" so I looked and NO, the correct house was ANOTHER MILE DOWN THE STREET!! AHHH OMG haha! I'm really glad the owners weren't around, that would have been even more embarrassing haha. I hope they don't have cameras. :P At the correct house was a lady dressed up as a man, and we had to solve a riddle to get a clue..ours was something like "if you buy a dozen 3 cent stamps, how many do you have?" Hal was like "..uhhh, 3??" and I thought about it for another second and I was like "12!!" Yay me haha. I grabbed a candy bar from her bag, even though I don't like peanut butter, and stuck it in my pocket. After finding all the caches we met back up at the place where we started. We got quizzed on what we saw in and around the caches (the first people to get back to the building got a prize as well)..a lot of the things we noticed were red herrings lol. There was a tie between a bunch of people (we knew the first three numbers, but had to guess the fourth), so the host (sorry, forgot his name lol) asked if anyone grabbed a certain item out of a cache..one guy did, but his guess was wrong, so the host asked if anyone had taken candy from the riddle cache..lots of people did, but we had to have the wrapper to prove it. I pulled mine out of my pocket, and I was the only one to have it on me! So I got to guess, and when I turned to three the lock popped open!! I guess not liking peanut butter can help after all. :P There were two Golden Nanos, so I gave one to Hal, since he was my partner lol. The event was so fun..I'm pretty sure that's the most fun Hal's had in a long time. He hugged me and his wife said she was glad I was his partner..aww lol. Hopefully he'll be well enough to go to the Christmas party too! Very fun, satisfying day :D

Look how gorgeous it was!

I wish I could have gotten a better pic, but I seriously couldn't see the screen at all haha..the Alaska Range looked grand though <3

On Friday I saw the Northern Lights for the first time this season! Yay, I love watching them dance. :D And amazingly, there is NO RAIN in the forecast for the next week!!! A little is ok, but two months of it is depressing D:

( September 29-30 )

Yesterday was a fun geocaching event, held by the same couple who do the Christmas party..they put out 10 geocaches for the event, and at each cache you had to find and remember something unusual about the cache (like in one there were 21 pencils). The people with the most correct answers got to choose a cool prize. Including the event, mom and I got 8 caches, which is pretty good! Caching with a group is fun too, you feed off of their energy lol. They put on great events, they should do more!

The new lenses in my glasses haven't really helped at all..I thought it was weird my right eye was -7.50, since before that it was -7.75. I went back today and they did more thorough tests (featuring the most steampunk glasses I've ever seen LOL), and finally found the strength where I was like "OMG YES" haha. The new prescription is 7.75 again! I should have said something before, I thought it weird it was higher than last time. That combined with stronger power for astigmatism should be much better..I hope so, I'm reallly tired of not being able to see properly lol

( June 16-18 )

Today's trivia: Rudyard Kipling was named after Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire, where his parents met and courted each other

Yesterday mom and I went with grandma and Jack to a retirement home..Jack's granddaughter and her husband, great granddaughter and great-great granddaughter met us there. This was started because grandma got sick on Christmas and went to the hospital, and neither of them are doing well in the house they're in (it's really upsetting to see Jack struggle to do everything) and just need more care. On Christmas his granddaughter Liz sent mom and her sisters really nasty letters saying we never do anything and she and her husband have to do everything and stuff like that, which made everyone super angry..we have been to visit her and help her more than once!! They think we should visit way more..they have absolutely NO idea how much effort and time it takes to get here from Alaska..you lose an entire day and most of the night traveling. We soooo couldn't wait to meet Liz. *cough* There was one awkward moment when her husband was like "there are 4 of you [sisters] and grandchildren, you need to visit more often, we do everything!," which made me want to melt into the floor, but mom handled it very well and we were ok. For a really dumb and long reason, no one else in Jack's family has anything to do with him, which is really sad, because he's such a great guy! The nursing home did seem nice, and the people very caring..grandma kept asking if she could bring her craft stuff and keyboard and stuff like that, and every time the matron (that's what they called her lol) said "of course, no problem!" Jack was all for moving in, but grandma was very hesitant (we thought it would be the other way around, since Jack's lived in his current house for decades). She was extremely upset when she got home..we totally understand it would be hard for her to move and get rid of stuff (it was very hard for me to move from Texas to Alaska, but now I love it), but she didn't seem to see it would be good for both of them, especially Jack. It was very emotional for everybody..she felt a bit better later and seemed resigned to her fate, but she still wasn't happy about it. It's definitely going to be a big change, but they both need it. I think they're going to live there for a trial period or something first..we'll see what happens..

( london and pics under here! )

On Saturday, it rained most of the day..it was alright though, since I wasn't on a glacier cruise. :P Mom and I went into "town" (Gustavus, 9 miles from our hotel) for something to do. We didn't have a lot of time (maybe an hour and a half..the hotels have great van schedules for people to get around). We looked in a couple stores, and then walked to a geocache 1.3 miles away (good thing we found it after all that lol). We had to hurry on the way back so we didn't miss the van..mom called it a "forced march" haha. Mom can walk a lot faster than me so she went ahead to catch the van, so I just started muttering "stick it, you've got it in the neck, stick it" the rest of the way back..not sure how Cherry thought of that, but it works LOL. We just hung out at the hotel the rest of the day..

Yesterday we went whale watching before our flight left (everything's very coordinated with the flights, that's why the glacier tour boat had to come back so early). We went near Point Adolphus (a famous whale watching area, unfortunately not named for Adolphus Greely LOL) and saw lots of whales! All around us were rain showers, but above us was some blue sky and the sun sometimes came out! What!! Mom and I have crazy weather powers, I can't get over it haha. We also saw some sea otters, lots of jumping fish, a sea lion eating a fish and birds practically flying in its mouth to try to steal the fish haha, and a bald eagle. After that it was time to leave. *sniff* Andd the good weather followed us back again..the van drivers said it was the nicest day in they didn't know how long..wow (mom also woke up with a cold this day..I was thinking "I hope I don't ge--NOOOO I DRANK OUT OF MOM'S WATER BOTTLE YESTERDAY [Saturday]." I even said "you don't have germs!" How's that for irony. :P I hope I don't get sick too!!)

We were able to grab the geocache at the airport before we left. I didn't think we were going to stop at Juneau this time since our tickets said Gustavus to Anchorage, but we did..that's the normal thing I think, and the people going to Anchorage just stay on board (if I lived in Juneau, I would go to Glacier Bay at least once a year! It's such an easy and short journey from there). And weirdly enough, it was cloudy in Juneau, but after we landed the sun came out!! I guess if you want sunny weather, travel with me. :P I was on the wrong side for Mendenhall Glacier again, but I did get a pic of it from the runway. The pilot said the Fairweathers were on that side too, which made me briefly disappointed. But THEN..OMG. I saw some glaciers and mountains through the clouds, then all of a sudden I looked down and see the epicness that is Malaspina Glacier!!! It's HUGE, the biggest piedmont glacier in the world. I saw some of it on the ferry a few years ago, and maybe night flights, but I was definitely not prepared for how AWESOME it was! It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen! Mt. St. Elias and Mt. Logan (the second highest mountain in North America, after Denali) were also out and there were icefields and glaciers everywhere!! OMG I was squeeing so much haha. I was definitely glad my seat was on the right side then! Definitely one of the best flights ever!! I love Alaska so much. <3 I didn't like seeing the citiness of Anchorage after the Perfect Glacier Paradise haha. I didn't see Denali on the flight to Fairbanks, but the sunset was nice. I'll definitely have to go back to Glacier Bay, that place is amazing!!

( more pics! )

Today mom and I went kayaking and geocaching on Piledriver Slough (outside of Fairbanks) with other local geocachers. I knew most of them, but there were a couple new faces as well. It's funny the reactions I get when I tell them my geocaching name (GlacierKitty)..they're like "a-ha, GlacierKitty!!" Guess I chose a good name. :P The couple that organized the event put a bunch of caches along the slough and the road where you leave, which was nice..I get uncomfortable sitting in the kayak too long lol. Mom and I at least found 12 caches..awesome! I now have over 800 finds, yay! (The event was my 800th..good one for a milestone!) It was a fun group to kayak with. We all got super muddy and got our legs scratched up (evil thorny plants!!), but that's part of the adventure and totally worth it lol. We saw a moose, a beaver or a muskrat, and heard lots of calls from Swainson's Thrushes..I LOVE their songs, they're so calming and peaceful! I'm glad it wasn't as warm as yesterday, but it still got in the 80s (tomorrow it's supposed to be 53..wow, what a difference!)

( here are some pics )

Like a lot of other people, I made a Dreamwidth account (same name). I don't think anything will happen to LJ (I would die!!), but a backup is always a good idea. I've been here since 2004 and would be devastated if I lost everything. I'll definitely keep using LJ though, it's the best! I'm sure the Russians would love my endless posts about Cherry LOL, so not too worried about security stuff either :P

Yesterday and today the weather was finally decent enough to go hiking! Yesterday we went to a place with giant boulders (I like that boulder. That is a nice boulder. Haha) and explored and found a couple geocaches (before that, we'd only found one on this trip! It's pretty hard to geocache when others in your group don't care about it lol)

Today we went to a place about an hour south of Payson. Mom decided to go down there because it's warmer and Ryan's super cold blooded (even today, in the 60 degree weather, his hands were still cold!). Except Ryan was like "I don't wanna drive and go out to eat and geocache etc etc." Ugh, he's one of the least fun people I've ever met..it's really frustrating! He just wants to stay home and watch TV. Meh. He did go anyway though. The weather was sunny and the perfect temperature for hiking. We were in the desert, and all the holes made by burrowing animals (snakes?) were creepy. O_o I kept feeling like something was going to bite me at any moment haha. It was a nice hike though (I think we did 3 or 4 miles maybe) and we found 13 geocaches!! (Sorry Ryan, we can't pass them up when they're right by the trail lol.) The mountains were so beautiful on the drive back to Payson. <3 So nice to see the sun again!!

( some pics )

I apologize in advance for the craziness of this post, but OMGOMG I just came across some pics of Cherry I've never seen before (they were taken by a different photographer, not Ponting..somehow I missed them even though the photo collections are on the same website)

BUT AHHH LOOK WHAT I FOUND

A PICTURE OF EXISTS WITH HIM WEARING GLASSES OMG. I am completely freaking out right now OMG lol. You don't know how badly I've been wanting to find a pic of him wearing glasses!! And check out that smile! *swoons* I haven't looked through all the pictures from this other guy's pics, but here are a few more of Cherry I found so far (so happy they were on the very first page!)

( yay new pics of cherry! )

Well that made my day/week/year LOL. Mom and I also found a few geocaches today, so that was cool too. Now I need to calm down so I can sleep LOL (at least I'll think happy thoughts before bed :P)

Mom and I visited Aunt Susan and Uncle Carl and their kitties today (twice in a year, woohoo!) and after we left we went to Redondo Beach. WOW it has changed! I don't even remember the last time I was there, but still. THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE OMG. California has gotten so crowded. :( We managed to get one geocache, so yay lol

Mom and I actually fly home tomorrow, not Tuesday. I'll be glad to get back to calm Alaska, though it was super awesome seeing Dana again <3 (best wedding ever!!). I'll post more in depth about the last couple days and more pics after I get home. I'm so glad I wasn't there this past week, it was in the high 80s and maybe ever 90s in some places!! Yikes. At least in San Diego there's air conditioning lol. I hope I see cool scenery on the flights home..

Yesterday mom and I arrived in San Diego. Our flight to Seattle was supposed to depart at 1:30 AM, but the flight with the crew were delayed in Anchorage because of a mechanical problem. A flight from Seattle was coming with crew that could go on our airplane though..by the time we left it was around 2:30 AM and the sun was just coming up haha! The agents at the counter rebooked everyone with connecting flights before 7 AM (we were one of them). Alaska Airlines is AWESOME, seriously..they handled the situation well and we didn't have to wait ages for them to rebook us (and they weren't like "oh well, you'll just have to figure it out when you get to Seattle"). I was afraid they'd lose our luggage, but it got through just fine. The weather was mostly cloudy, but I did see the top of Mt. Hayes, Hess and Deborah. I kept falling asleep at the window haha, but I doubt I missed much. I did see a little glacier though (it was hard to tell between clouds and glaciers, but this was definitely a glacier cause I could see crevasses). Unfortunately on the rebooked flight mom and I both had middle seats..I was a little worried since last time I had a middle seat I had a huge panic attack and cried and yelled at my brother. D: I was determined not to freak out this time (and I had Xanax with me, just in case), and it worked! Sure sitting by two strangers was uncomfortable, but I got through it fine. I kept falling asleep and kept worrying that my head would fall on one of their shoulders LOL. When I woke up enough I watched some of The Finest Hours..I'll have to finish it on the flight home (I have the book too, though I haven't read it yet)

After we got our rental car and stuff, we drove to the hotel..it was too early for a room to be ready, so we had lunch and found a couple geocaches, yay! (There's one like 400 some feet from the hotel lol.) The first one we looked for was HARD..we were looking for something tiny (a nano, in caching speak lol). This family saw us poking around and were like "wtf are you doing?? You look silly crawling around down there" haha. We told them we were caching and one of the kids was like "oh yeah, I found one once!" They actually helped us look for it, and one of the kids actually found it! Awesome, considering how tiny that thing was lol. And uh..I kinda downloaded Pokemon Go LOL..I've never been into Pokemon, but that game sounded like too much fun to pass up (it reminded me of geocaching haha). It is definitely addictive lol. We were so happy when our room was available..it was so nice to take a nap and just hang out

Today we had breakfast and decided to pamper ourselves at the hotel's spa..mom got a pedicure and a manicure and I just got a manicure (my first one! I feel like my feet are weird and don't really like showing them to people lol). The nail technician (yep, that was her actual title lol) was born and raised in California and loved seeing pics from Alaska and hearing moose stories and stuff (and weirdly enough, the waiting room had a picture of a glacier hanging up! Weird how glaciers follow me, even to places like Hawaii lol). After that we went to the store to get snacks and stuff and then met up with Dana for dinner, yay! We met at her house..I saw her cat Remy and started petting him but he was like "wtf who are you" and walked away (I forget that not all cats aren't like Abby and need time to get used to strangers lol). After a few minutes he came around and purred and was loving our attention..he even let me pick him up, which Dana said he doesn't usually do..he knows cat lovers when he sees them. ;) Her other cat Indra doesn't like strangers at all, so we just had to admire her from a distance haha. We had a lovely dinner at a Mexican restaurant..Dana's been busy with wedding stuff, so she was very happy to have down time. We're gonna see her on Friday for her rehearsal dinner too, so that'll be cool. After that we drove back to the hotel (weird driving in the dark!) and now we're relaxing. Tomorrow we have to shop for clothes and shoes for the wedding..ugh. D: I hope I find something I like, it's hard to shop for clothes nowadays..

I know I keep mentioning this, but I keep realizing how much I was struggling to function before I started taking Prozac. Before when I would see Dana I couldn't look her in the face for whatever reason, but this time I was able to without feeling super anxious. I feel like I can talk and joke around with ease and not sit there and just like..retreat into myself? It's hard to explain..like I just felt dead inside or something. I'm pretty sure last year was the worst year of my life. Prozac has literally given me my life back, and it's AMAZING. To everyone struggling with depression, don't give up! You WILL find something that helps you <3