1. What was the most sick that you've ever been? When I had pneumonia last year..I literally thought I was dying. I had a migraine so bad it felt like my head was being stabbed and was so out of breath taking a shower the edges of my vision started going black..never again, please. D: Also the various times I've had the stomach flu..throwing up all night, what fun :P
2. What disease are you afraid of getting? Cancer..it's so common now D:
3. Are you a big baby when it comes to taking medicine/shots for your illnesses? Not at all, give me all of it so I can feel better LOL
4. Is going to the doctor really THAT bad? If you have a bad doctor, or they diagnose you with cancer or something
5. Would you have the flu twice a month if you were paid $1,000 for having it? OMG NO thank you..you wouldn't have any time to recover before being sick again! No amount of money is worth that

My friend sent me these cool fancy bookends!

She said they were a wedding present 48 years ago..they're in great shape! She definitely knows me well :P

I guess the Department of Education froze a bunch of funds, so the Literacy Council only got half the grant money we usually get for the English Language Learners and GED programs, so Lucie said she'll probably have to lay people off and restructure the programs. She said the bookstore won't be effected much, but I still feel awful for whoever has to get laid off. :( Hopefully the bookstore will help keep the lights on and stuff..Amanda starts next week, so maybe she'll have some ideas on how to sell more books lol

Ingrid's in town so mom and I went to dinner with her on Wednesday, yay! She's so happy and fun lol

( july 5-11 )

A dystopian book with a happy ending: The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton (May 31-Jun 3). This was kind of a post-apocalyptic Where the Crawdads Sing haha. Good Morning, Midnight was better, but still an interesting read

A book that an AI chatbot recommends based on your favorite book: The Coldest March: Scott's Fatal Antarctic Expedition by Susan Solomon (Jun 4-9). I hadn't read a book about Scott's expedition in awhile haha. They just had terrible, super cold weather that year! (Amundsen's men got frostbite too, because they left too early.) I've now outlived Birdie Bowers (he was only 28!!), Edgar Evans (35) and Lawrence Oates (32)..wow. Such a tragic ending, even more so because Cherry was blamed for their deaths, which haunted him the rest of his life. So sad :(

A book about a run club: The End of the World Running Club by Adrian J. Walker (Jun 9-15). Running hundreds of miles across a meteorite-destroyed wasteland?? Crazy! This book freaked me out though, because a meteor strike like that could happen D:

A book that includes a nonverbal character: The Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf (Jun 15-19). The fourth book I've read by this author (I loved The Overnight Guest). I wasn't a fan of the main character's dad's abuse, which caused her silence. He said if she talked, her mom's baby would die..WTF?? People can be so awful :/

A book that features a married couple who don't live together: We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (Jun 20-24). His books are so funny and entertaining! The new Thursday Murder Club novel comes out in September, yay!

A book about a POC experiencing joy and not trauma: What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama (Jun 25-26). I love how so many Asian novels have cats in them lol. I put it on the shelf at work after I finished reading it and within an hour someone bought it haha

A book where music plays an integral part of the storyline: Lucky Stars by Lucy Frank (Jun 27-29). Yay, another book with a character that stutters! He could sing really well too!

( the topics )

Poor dad is going through a really bad anxiety/depression spell..a few weeks ago he drove me to/from work until I learned the bus schedule, then went out of state to Arizona and California, and hasn't been the same since he got back. He woke mom up at 6 something on Wednesday and asked her to take him to the ER..his chest was heavy, it was hard to breathe, he was in pain, etc. They did lots of tests, and after five hours, they said he had a bladder infection. He felt a little better after they gave him fluids and meds, but they next day he felt bad again and went back to the ER, and still only said he had a bladder infection. On Friday night when I was there, he felt absolutely AWFUL..neck pain, not able to concentrate, tense, nauseous, etc. His symptoms were pretty much everything I had when I was anxious/depressed. He said he was at his wit's end and couldn't live like that. I know I'm not supposed to, but I gave him a Clonazepam..I just can't watch people suffer! When I walked into the room, his face looked terrified, stressed, scared..I hope I never see that expression again! I told him I had symptoms he has when I was depressed and told him to take the pill, and he'd feel much better. He gave me a big hug. I went to bed and the next morning asked how the night went, and he hugged me and told me I had saved his life! He felt calm and was able to sleep, but he felt the symptoms creeping back the next day. His doctor won't give him anti-anxiety meds until his infection clears up, so he can't really do anything because of his brain fog and other symptoms. It's awful leaving someone to suffer like that! I somehow made it through a year of feeling that way, I wouldn't wish that on most people (unless they abuse animals or other horrendous things). I really hope he gets relief soon, it's so hard watching someone else go through it :(

It's weird..at the bookstore's new location, we get a LOT more tourists and first-time visitors than at the other building. I'm not sure why, it isn't in a "touristy" or exciting part of town, but it is cool! I love learning where people are from lol

Curti is so cute..when I come home, he'll stretch is front paws on my legs, asking me to pick him up, and purrs when I do. Awww, he misses me and is happy I'm home. <3 His super fluffy tail is so cool hehe

28. Your favorite board game: Betrayal at House on the Hill, Pictionary, Trivial Pursuit (though everyone I know hates trivia games, so I never get to play it :()

29. What memories do you associate with summer? Traveling and seeing glaciers, swimming, eating strawberry milkshakes outside, the Midnight Sun Festival, etc

30. When do you feel lonely? When I'm at a gathering and no one is talking to me, when I've spent too much time alone in my apartment, etc

July 1: What one thing would you change from your past? I wish I had been a better friend in the past, but if it hadn't happened I wouldn't have learned from it..still makes me feel guilty though :(

There are so many wildfires in Alaska right now..Fairbanks is basically surrounded by them. Yesterday it rained ash! It seemed somewhat smoky this morning, but not too bad. More smoke came through when I was at work..Bill and I were taking pics of the sun haha. After work mom and I went to the Midnight Sun Festival..omg so many people!! Mom and I like to go earlier, but I couldn't this time since I had to work. A couple people there had their CATS with them!! I always see dogs, but cats is a first for me haha. I melted and had to pet them hehe..I was really surprised by how calm they were! More people bring your cats to the festival, please :P (there was also a dog wearing sunglasses, and another wearing a hat..awesome haha). I got my favorite festival foods (a Navajo taco, lemonade, Dippin' Dots) and stopped by that coin store with cool polar books..I try to limit myself to once a year since I always spend too much money in there haha. We didn't stay for a long time since we were hot and sweaty and tired of being crowded..as we left, we saw this crazy huge smoke plume to the south..we figured that fire near the Parks Highway (Bear Creek Fire) had gotten way worse. I checked online, and someone had posted pictures of the fire next to the road, and they said the fire jumped the road after they passed it. Yikes!! It definitely looked apocalyptic. O_o That part of the highway is closed now. A lot of people are having to evacuate. Scary! It'll be so awesome when that cold front comes through on Monday..it'll be in the 70s and rainy for a few days, nice! I prefer cuddling under a blanket to being too hot lol. Hopefully no one will lose their house/pets, etc!

( a few pics )

21. Foods you hate: Peanut butter, olives, mushrooms, pickles, ham, asparagus, etc

Last year, I discovered a flightseeing company out of Delta Junction (about 1/2-2 hours south of Fairbanks) that did flights around the Alaska Range, including Black Rapids Glacier..I'd been wanting to fly over that glacier for years, and I said that on my birthday this year that's one thing I would do. My birthday week was cloudy, so I made a reservation for today, because the heat wave brought clearer weather. Unfortunately, the wind chose today to bring over smoke from fires burning in Canada..that's not nice!! Haha. Me and mom and her friend Sarah (they sew/craft a lot together) drove down anyway and met the pilot at the "airport" (literally a path of gravel through a field haha). He said the smoke might get better in the mountains, so we hopped on and took off. This was Sarah's first time in a small plane! The pilot was glad I had a specific location in mind, apparently other people are like "just take us anywhere" haha. It look a little time getting to the mountains (the smoke was somewhat better there), but once we did..wooow. There is SO much beauty and awesomeness you can't see from the road!! I loved how smooth the snow/ice looked on the mountains, like ice cream! It was VERY hard trying to take pictures though, so bright! Mom actually got a better view of Black Rapids from her side, but she thought she left her phone in the car, so she couldn't take any pictures! Ouch! (She saw it was in her purse when we landed!) That was kind of disappointing, but I still enjoyed the view of the tributary glaciers (I think the pilot said they're just considered the Black Rapids complex or something like that), the pretty meltponds, moraines, etc. We also saw the beginning of the Susitna Glacier. I wished we could have spent more time there, but that would have been insanely expensive, and those little planes only hold not a huge amount of fuel (it's never long enough for me when I'm around glaciers haha). When we were flying back, the pilot pointed to where he worked at his "real" job, and said he was on his lunch break..well that's pretty much the best lunch break ever haha. Unfortunately, not all of my pictures came out (especially with the wing strut thing in the way), but I still got some cool ones

After that we had buffalo burgers at a restaurant that I think is only open in the summer, went to a fabric store, and went to this grocery store that sells food from different countries, like Russia (their donuts looked good, but I was way too full from lunch to eat one lol). We have our road trip "musts": glaciers, food, fabric..works for me!! Haha. The smoke was a little better on the drive back, yay! Sarah thanked us for inviting her and said she had a good time..fun was had by all :D

( pics from the flight!! )

Today I turned 36, woohoo! I know I'm getting old because sometimes I forget what I'm talking about in the middle of a conversation LOL. Both Ryan/Jo and dad got me the same cat card from Barnes and Noble haha! I got two gift cards too, so I'll have fun buying lots of books there. :P Vicki and her boyfriend Sam came over in the afternoon, their first time going to my parents' house and meeting Ryan and Jo! Curti was a little overwhelmed by her loud voice, but still walked over to her. I'm glad he doesn't hide when he sees strangers. We went to Chena's Alaskan Grill for dinner, my traditional birthday restaurant spot, which was super fun! Vicki is so much fun to hang out with! After good food and conversation we went back to my parents' house and had cupcakes and ice cream, yum! Vicki got me a game called Exploding Cats, which I'd seen before but never played..we'll have to play it together sometime! I'll miss working with her, but I'm glad to be great friends with her too!

( some pics from the night! )

Mom's birthday is next week, so it'll be my turn taking her to dinner, yay! I can't believe she'll be 70 O_o

7. What adventure do you want to go on? I want to brave the Drake Passage and sail to Antarctica and see the sights!

8. If you owned a store, what would you sell? Books, obviously :P

A book about a road trip: Five Survive by Holly Jackson (Apr 30-May 5). A roadtrip gone very wrong. The narrator kept wondering what design the curtain in the RV reminded her of (which drove people on Goodreads crazy, but I was like "yay, curtains!" haha), but it was never revealed what it reminded her of! That's not nice, I wanted to know!! Haha

A book where the main character is a politician: Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert (May 5-9). OMG the second Dune book was SO boring. The movie better be more exciting, though it would be hard to top the awesomeness of Dune Part 2

A book about space tourism: Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis (May 9-13). Yay, another book with a character who stutters! I liked the different perspectives from the main characters..like one person was eating and the character who stuttered was his waitress, and the same scene was shown from her perspective too..cool!

A book centering LGBTQ+ characters that isn't about coming out: Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Törzs (May 14-19). I really enjoyed this one! Magic, books, a surprising reveal, and some of it took place in Antarctica..nice!

A book featuring an activity on your bucket list: Iceland Summer: Travels along the Ring Road (May 19-21). Iceland seems like such a cool place, I definitely need to go there someday!

A book about a nontraditional education: Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes (May 22-27). A school where you learn how to murder people?? Unique and intriguing, though a bit too complicated. The "thesis" was successfully killing someone..crazy haha

A book that features a character going through menopause: Sandwich by Catherine Newman (May 28-29). Ugh, this book was annoying..the narrator did and said the weirdest things ("If menopause were an actual substance, it would be spraying from my eyeballs." What?? O_o And ( period talk ) I really liked this quote though: "Our food is arriving now because we are the kind of people who like to eat one meal while planning at least two other meals that are occurring in the future." YES haha, it's a huge thing I look forward to throughout the day :P

A book you want to read based on the last sentence: The Story of a Seagull and the Cat Who Taught Her to Fly by Luis Sepúlveda (May 30-31). It was something about a noble cat..but the cat was more of a bully than noble. And the "humans destroying everything" theme got really annoying. Not the best book for kids :/

( the topics )

Yay, my birthday's in a week!

June 1: What are your thoughts on cooking? I love when people cook yummy things for me, but I'm terrible at it and don't really have the energy for it. Somehow it just tastes not the same if I cook something :P

1. When did you most recently (or most memorably) repair (or temporarily fix) an article of clothing? I let mom do that lol
2. When were you most recently somewhat annoyed by your own forgetfulness? Most days, I feel like haha..too many things stored in my brain :P
3. What are some of your favorite words to use in place of curse words? Heck, jeez, etc
4. How was your week? The beginning was stressful, but it got somewhat better at the end
5. Among items on your to-do list, which could you take care of right now, with minimal effort? I could do laundry, but I really don't want to get up right now LOL

Today at the bookstore started slow, then got really busy in the afternoon (it's Free Book Friday for kids, for one). The customers keep saying how great it looks and thank us for our hard work, so nice! Some people from the other programs came to help shelve books, so I sorted them and they shelved them..we should have done that from the beginning, way more effective! We hired someone new called Morgan (one of my favorite names!), and when I gave her a stack I told her what genre it was and she would say "you got it, boss!" haha. She's as cool as her name. :D I love how much the Fairbanks community supports us!

Yay, Drew Lynch finally posted a video from his Santa Fe show!

His interactions with the interpreters was one of the best parts of the show, especially when she signed his stutter! It added a unique element to the show, and I imagine Brad was having a great time too lol. It's ok, Drew, I'm short too! :P (I LOVE the blue lights on the curtains, it reminds me of the Northern Lights!

( 30. What concert do you really want to go to? )

1. What could use a good shining? My bathroom sink, probably..it gets dirty so fast!
2. When have you recently had to stand in a slow-moving line? Hmm..I've stood in lines recently while traveling and stuff, but they weren't super slow, so I'm not sure lol
3. What was your favorite childhood counting-out game to determine who was it? Probably something like Eeeny Meeny Mini Moe or Rock Paper Scissors
4. Is anything feeling thinner these days? The air in Santa Fe did haha
5. What do you know about Maine? The capital is Augusta, the fall colors are really pretty, lobster is popular there, etc

The aftermath of the move this week has been..hard. It felt like no one wanted to help us (we were told to build a shelf, which none of the three of us knew how to do), we couldn't shelve until today because the shelves had to be bolted down (I miss shelving books!), and Vicki announced she's stepping down as Bookstore Manager, for lots of reasons (she wants to not be so tired and sick so often, she wants a family, she feels depressed when she goes home, she's in too many meetings and managing too many people..she misses the books, etc). A job opened up at her church that she feels like she'd be better suited for. I have been..very sad since she said that. We get along SO well together and she's so caring, funny, and good with people. Of course I supported her decision, but it still made me cry. She said she still wants to volunteer or even have a small paying position, if Lucie thinks that's alright. We will always be great friends though..she said I mean the world to her, and I feel the same about her..it's hard to find a true friendship like that! I'm always nervous about working with a new person, but LCA somehow just finds the right people. Now Vicki will have time to come over to me or my parents' house, and vice versa..I still haven't met her cat, but I hope to soon. Thankfully we had more help in the bookstore today, so next week will probably be better..it definitely won't all get done when we open next Thursday, but with time it'll look great! A bunch of customers have driven up, only to see we're not open yet, which is a good sign people still want to shop there. Hopefully they'll like the new place!

Today was work's first staff meeting in the other programs' new building, which I hadn't been in yet..Vicki showed me around, and on seeing Lucie's office, exclaimed, "you have curtains!!!" Of course I got a picture with them!

Lucie was like "I should have told you!," but I didn't mind being surprised haha. Hopefully there will be a good spot somewhere in the bookstore for my cat curtain :P

Here is the picture we took to commemorate our old building:

Yay! Now it's weird driving by the building, knowing it belongs to someone else lol

( may 20-23 )

1. What was the nature of your most recent change in diet or eating habits? Hmm..being sick a couple months ago?
2. What do you consider (in order of importance) when finding a new hairstylist or barber? I usually just try to find somewhere, and if I like it go back to them
3. Which of your childhood friends would you like most to hear from this weekend? *shrugs* Amanda? I'm surprised she even accepted my friend request haha, we kinda parted ways in a weird way years ago lol
4. When have you most recently been asked to drive someone somewhere, and when have you most recently needed someone else to drive you somewhere? Never, because I don't drive and today, since mom and I don't have a car here
5. How’ve you been sleeping lately? Pretty well until it gets light again, then it's harder. I like that there's an AC in my room in the AirBnB we're staying in, since I sleep better when it's cooler

I've been far too exhausted to write a proper update, but I've been having fun! It was cool seeing Drew Lynch in person! More on that later, but here's a picture of the stage!

I love the blue lights on the curtains. *swoons* Hopefully I'll be less exhausted soon when I'm not walking around and socializing all day lol

( may 14-16 )

Happy Mother's Day to the best mom evar!

I wouldn't have gotten this far in life without her support, understanding, love, etc. <3 We went to Green's, a fancy restaurant (we went there last year too), and got a table next to the curtains! (That's why our faces are that far apart, to get the curtains in the pic haha!)


Don't look at the menu yet, we have to take a pic with the curtains first!!! Haha


I was having way too much fun LOL


Ryan, Jo, me, mom and dad, yay! After dinner we got ice cream. A very fun day! (Curti brought up his mouse on my bed and played with it, so that was his present haha. It's SO cute when he walks around with a toy in his mouth hehe)

( may 10-11 )