The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton (Sept 30-Oct 5). I left before the last book club meeting, I'm excited to see what everyone thought of the ending!

A Ghost of Caribou by Alice Henderson (Oct 6-8)

Murder on the Titanic by Jim Walker (Oct 10-16). Will I ever get tired of reading about the Titanic? (A novel, but still lol)

Adrift: A True Story of Love, Loss, and Survival at Sea by Tami Oldham Ashcraft (Oct 17-18)

Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe (Oct 19-29). I would have enjoyed this even if it hadn't mentioned Caja de Muertos..I liked the humor in it lol. I happily bought the second in the series after I finished it! (Hopefully I'll get a pic of the island today!)

On Monday, we had Thanksgiving dinner with Jo's family, since we're going to be in Alaska then. I finally got to meet Jo's dad (Malbert)! (His parents are divorced, but are still good acquaintances.) He was nice! Most everyone arrived early and hung out and talked, which made me sad I couldn't talk to them too..kinda felt like an outsider. I especially wanted Camilla to like me, but whenever I tried talking to her she seemed shy or confused. Dinner was turkey with meat stuffing, rice, macaroni salad, and breadrolls (Ryan had to supply veggies, because I guess that's not common here). We also celebrated Malbert's birthday and had cake and milkshakes for dessert. Camilla and another kid named Tiomi were drawing and doing crafts, and all of a sudden both of them started talking to me, excitedly talking about their crafts. Camilla spoke just enough English, and me just enough Spanish to get by (Tiomi is from Boston and bilingual, so she helped too). If I messed up my Spanish, Camilla thought it was silly (but not in a mean way) and was super excited when I got it right. It was weird how suddenly she wasn't shy anymore! We had fun coloring (I called what I was using a marker, and Tiomi was like "no, it's a HIGHLIGHTER!" haha) and just being silly, and suddenly Tiomi said "I'm having so much fun with you!!" Awwww, that made me so happy! They must have read my mind, because that's exactly what I've been looking for. Tiomi also asked me why I wore glasses and why my eyes are so small haha..I'm not sure she understood me explaining ptosis, but I tried lol. It was a really fun night!

Yesterday Ryan had an appointment to get a tattoo in San Juan, so we drove there for the day. We hung out a mall until his appointment, dropped him off, then went to another mall to go to a bookstore there. That mall was HUGE, possibly the biggest mall I've been to (three stories! It's the biggest mall in the Caribbean). Malls in the US might be dying, but not in Puerto Rico..there were lots of people! The bookstore had a section for books in English, and bought a couple. After that we went to Old San Juan. It's a really cool historical place, and there were stray cats EVERYWHERE!! I've seen some in the various places we've gone to, but this place was teeming with them! The first cat I saw was very friendly (it blinked slowly at me, so I knew it was ok), and enjoyed being pet by me..when I stopped it meowed at me, like it was saying "don't stop!!" Not all the cats were friendly, but I still loved seeing them (mom was annoyed I kept trying to pet every cat I saw LOL). Later I read the cats are famous descendants from the cats the Spaniards brought with them 500 years ago. I'd visit just to pet the cats all day LOL. We walked past the original city wall and fountains and stuff..it was 91 degrees though, too hot for me! We ate a late lunch, looked in shops, and finally found a couple geocaches! (There aren't many in Ponce.) There's also a castle fort thing, but it was too hot to walk over to it..we'll just have to come back (and pet more kitties!! Hehe). We also went to a pigeon park, where on the weekends you can buy food and feed them. Some of those poor things were so fat they could barely walk. :( Eventually it got dark and we were tired, so we just drove back to the tattoo studio and waited for Ryan to be done. He got a raven with a graveyard in the background..it's super detailed and cool. He got done late, so we missed the pumpkin carving and food at Carmen's house. The house is now decorated for Christmas haha. It was really nice to go to bed after that long day!

Today we went up to this overlook where there's a castle (really a fancy house), Japanese gardens and where you can see Caja de Muertos, but it was hazy and everything was closed, so I think we're going back tomorrow. It's nice to just chill for awhile now :P

( more pics! )

30 – Haunted Refrigerator Night: Sometimes you forget about certain things that are in your fridge. And while you may have forgotten about them, they certainly haven't forgotten about you. Instead, they sit lurking in the back of the refrigerator waiting for you to delve into its darkest corners and unleash the disgusting rotten mess that lurks within those Tupperware sarcophagi. Is there anything lurking in the deepest recesses of your fridge that you're afraid to look at or deal with? LOL. No, my fridge got cleaned out before I left lol

31 – Magic Day: Have you ever seen magic performed live? Have you ever tried to learn a few tricks yourself? I think so. No

November 2023
1 – Extra Mile Day: When was the last time you went the extra mile for someone, or someone went the extra mile for you? Tell us about it. Maybe yesterday..I got a cold drink after our long day, but we had to to a mall to get it..Jo definitely goes out of his way to care for people!

Today we went kayaking at Three Sisters Springs, which is just off the road..they're so clear and beautiful! You'd never know all of that hidden beauty was there from the road! Before we left we had to watch a short video on not disturbing the manatees..I feel like that should be obvious. :/ We went early (8:30, bleh LOL) so we'd have a better chance of seeing the manatees, and we saw lots of them! They're so cute and docile hehe. There are places roped off where you can't go, called "manatee sanctuaries"..manatees can't survive in water lower than 68 degrees, so they come to the springs, which are always 72 degrees. Mom and I pulled up to the edge of the sanctuary to see the manatees better, and all of a sudden a lady on the boardwalk (which you'll read about in a little bit) was like "YOU IN THE KAYAKS, GET AWAY FROM THE SANCTUARY, YOU CAN'T BE IN THERE!!!!" OMG wow, calm down, we were on the EDGE of the sanctuary, sitting there and doing nothing harmful..jeez. You can swim there as well, and she wasn't yelling at THEM, even though they were at the edge too! We saw more manatees as we kayaked down the channel, and they even swam under our kayak! Awww (they're not aggressive at all, so it wasn't scary lol). There were lots of tour groups there, and as we went by a bunch of swimmers and their guide, he was like "has everyone had a chance to touch a manatee? Move over if you have!" OMG WHAT. Did you not just watch that video that says NOT to touch them??! Ugh, leave the wildlife alone! I'm sure they're used to humans (and will come up to you if you're still), but you still can't harass them! Ugh. I also loved identifying the various trees along the canal (yep, I'm a nerd LOL). I saw probably the biggest magnolia (it smelled amazinggg too) and golden rain tree I've ever seen! Funn :P

After we kayaked for a couple hours, we had lunch at McDonald's (they've gotten really high tech..you can order from a sign without even talking to anyone! I couldn't believe I got three things for $5.00!!! In Alaska it would be like $10), and then took the trolley to the boardwalk, which goes around the different springs. We got to the sanctuary part, where we saw the lady that yelled at us, and yelled at a lot of other people while we were up there too..wow, that must be a fun job. :/ The Manatee Police are watching you. :P The trail continued down the roped off part of the canal we couldn't go to in the kayak..there were LOTS of manatees there, awww! I love the pretty water in the springs too. That was a cool experience :)

After that we stopped at grandpa's house for a few minutes to check on Reese, and then went shopping downtown..my bank account hurts now LOL ( I wanted to go to the bookstore I went to last time, but it closed a couple months after I left :(). It was fun, but I'm glad to be relaxing now :P

( pics from today! )

November 23 - Did you shop for Black Friday? I did go shopping, but not because it was Black Friday lol

Yesterday mom and I had to shop for wedding clothes..ugh, clothes are SO weird and ugly nowadays. D: We went to Macy's, when we probably should have gone to JcPenny instead (much cheaper)..oh well, next time. It took awhile, but thankfully we found something. After that we were just completely done with malls and crowds and noise and just wanted to relax at the hotel for awhile. I so prefer the slower less crowded pace of Alaska (and freeways are completely scary and stressful D:). We did that and then went for a walk by these parks and the ocean before it ~got dark~ (omg). THAT was much nicer than the stress of the mall, and we got three geocaches! (We got one at the mall too.) After that we just went back to the hotel

This morning I was looking for bookstores in San Diego, and found one that had cats! (Adams Avenue Book Store) I was like "YEP, we are going there today!" haha. So we did, and yay kitties!! Hehe. One didn't mind getting pet (and mom said when she sat in a chair she and the cat had a conversation haha), but after a minute the other cat put its paw up like it was gonna scratch me, so I had to stop. :( I'm glad the other cat liked to be pet lol. I found some books too, so that was cool. After that we went to the USS Midway, a decommissioned aircraft carrier turned into a museum. It was pretty cool! I've been on military ships before, but I think this was the first time going to an aircraft carrier. It was huge, like a floating city! We saw everything from the engine room, sick bay, post office, air traffic control area (mom loved that, of course lol), kitchen, bridge, etc. Cool place. After that we went to Dana and Matt's rehearsal dinner. They wanted an evening to just relax with the people that are closest to them (aww, honored <3). It was cool seeing people she talks about a lot, and seeing people I've met before too (like her parents..when I visited Dana when she lived in New Jersey we crossed the Delaware River into Pennsylvania and they always think of me when they go over that bridge..aww!). It was definitely nice, though planes flew over us like every 5 minutes, which was rather annoying (we much have been right under the flight path)..oh well. :P After that mom and I went into the Jacuzzi when we got back to the hotel since the evening was actually kinda chilly and we were tired of being cold lol. It definitely felt nice, and we got to see the fireworks from Sea World too (they're like practically across the street from the hotel lol). Long day!

Yay, Dana and Matt's wedding is tomorrow!! So exciteddd!! :D

Today has been so nice and sunny..it's nice to geocache when it's not freezing haha. And now we can find ones that are only "summer friendly" since a lot of the snow has melted. We also went clothes shopping at Fred Meyer and got yummy Thai food on the way home..mmmmm

Ryan got a job at the university! (That's one reason we went shopping haha) He'll start out as a student assistant and then he may move up to a Grant Technician. Cool..I hope he likes it better than Safeway haha

( Day 15-What animal’s environment would you like to visit? )

Yesterday I met with Michelle and Nina and we talked about my depression and school and stuff. She said it takes awhile to get into the Behavioral Health Center, so she recommended a counselor that she knew was very good. We called her..her name is Cathy and she sounded SUPER nice! She's also very interactive which I think I need..my other counselor wasn't really..I felt like something was missing in her sessions. We made an appointment for the 11th..yayy. Michelle said DVR will pay for it since there's an immediate need and she knows Cathy is a good counselor. AWESOME haha. Hopefully counseling and Wellbutrin will make me feel better!

Ever since I went to Hawaii I've wanted the pillows the hotel used since they were amazingly comfortable (I wrote down the brand so I could find them). I finally got paid yesterday so I went to the site and bought two of them! For some reason the shipping or whatever was $40.00. O_o I figured it was worth it though since I can't get it out of my head haha

( 150. Percent )

Yesterday after breakfast we went shopping at this little outdoor mall type place. I bought sandals (so lacking in summer stuff since moving to Alaska :P) and souvenirs for me and Dana. After shopping I think we played Pictionary..so fun and just nice. I think we ate dinner after that..I've realized how bad Fairbanks' restaurant food is since eating here. Here the flavors are amazing..Alaska needs better chefs. :P After eating we went to another shopping place just down the place from the first..mom and I rented snorkel gear. Then we went back to the hotel and went swimming..it was WINDY and that actually made it feel cold! Pathetic haha. We met this guy that told us where a good snorkel place was. I was the first one in bed..mom was amazed at how fast I fell asleep haha..being on vacation is tiring :P

This morning mom and I got up earlyish and went snorkeling! Ryan said when he went with dad before that the water was pretty cold..well the water wasn't super warm but not freezing either. I was fine..Ryan must have no tolerance to cold. :P We saw that same guy from last night! Nicee haha. My snorkel wasn't working right so I just had to hold my breath..annoying..and salt water tastes nasty. :P It was cool though..there were lots of cool colorful fish, an eel and FOUR turtles!! Awww. They just looked at us like "O HAI!" hahaha. They got so close to me I could have touched them. Awww that's so awesome. By now my ears were hurting so we went back, got dressed and had breakfast. After breakfast we drove to Waimea, this cowboy ranch town haha in the hills. I went there last time I was here with dad..I LOVED the green hills cause it reminded me of Scotland. I also remember it was cloudy/rainy there and at the hotel it was sunny..it's still like that..so weird! It's not THAT far from us. Every night I've seen clouds all around this area but it stays clear here..weirdd. We drove to this lookout place where you cloud see cliffs and a historical valley. You could go hiking but it was SUPER windy and cold and I didn't have a light jacket so we just drove back to Waimea and went shopping..at least two of the stores had cats! Omg haha..and to think I would see any cats while I was here. :P So cutee. I got a light jacket while I was there (I think it says "Parker Ranch Hawaii" on it..the ranch is on the outskirts of town). Before dinner we went back to the hotel and as we were going inside there was ANOTHER cat! All three of us just started squeeing haha. It meowed at us..aww. We had dinner and I traded my snorkel for another that'll hopefully work. Then it was Pictionary time again. Right now Ryan and mom are swimming but I just wanted to relax online. They have these fires lit in these lava rock pits which makes it cozy. So tiredd..I bet I'll sleep well tonight too :P

Yesterday I went shopping at Barnes and Noble (not at 5 AM though..that's just ridiculous haha). I had a coupon and my membership card but it still cost over $100 haha. I got a 5353462 page historical novel on London, two historical Templar books (one had a guy named Luca..I kinda had to get it then :P) and a bunch of survival stories (LOVE them). Yaaay

It's gonna be funnn walking to work next week..the high on Monday is supposed to be -10 to -15. Eesh

( Day 27 - If a book contains ______, you will always read it (and a book or books that contain it)! )

Yesterday we got In-N-Out for lunch and drove to Long Beach where the boat was (like 1 1/2 hours away). We got our tickets and waited outside in the nice sun till it was time to board. I think it takes an hour or so to get to Catalina too. We got off at Avalon..I think there were some new buildings. Though I hadn't been there since 2003 (whoa 6 years ago..) so there probably would have been new things. This was my 4th trip to Catalina. We walked around and looked in shops. I got a shirt, two magnets and a keychain thingy. We decided to have dinner early since a lot of things were closing early and the only restaurant we could find that was open was a Mexican restaurant haha (I've had a lot of Mexican food this week :P). The food really wasn't very good. When we left it was basically dark..and it was FREEZING. I bought a hoodie at a shop and put my fleece jacket over it and that did help. Then the Christmas lights turned on..they were cool! Palm trees with Christmas lights..nice. :P We looked in more shops and then just sat by the ocean till it was time to leave. We had to wait awhile to board in the FREEZING COLD..eesh. After we got back to the mainland we drove back to the apartment and had popcorn and did more surveys together. I have pics but I'll post them when I get back to Alaska

Aw..I have to leave today. That went rather fast. It was a good trip though hehe. Hopefully I can get a seat on the side with the glaciers even though it'll be dark and possibly cloudy. Hopefully I'll see *something* though

So yesterday I left Fairbanks for Anchorage at 9 something. I had a row all to myself! The sunrise was lighting the sky and I was able to take pictures. I saw the Chena and Tanana Rivers!! I could see a little of the mountains of the Alaska Range but then it got too cloudy to see any others except for one lone mountain poking above the clouds (probably Mt. McKinley). After we passed the mountains it became less cloudy. I saw some very twisty rivers haha. We flew over Cook Inlet as we descended into Anchorage. I had to wait about an hour in Anchorage. It was somewhat clear but as time went on the clouds came over the mountains and it was snowing after I boarded for Seattle. We waited like..20 minutes or so before we finally took off. Jeez haha

After it snowed it started clearing off again. I saw some of the Chugach Mountains through the clouds and the Turnagain Arm road I took to get to the Kenai Peninsula (Whittier and Seward). The brown of Cook Inlet turned into blue. I saw mountains in the distance and thought they looked like the Wrangell Mountains. The guy sitting next to me confirmed it. I probably saw some glaciers on those mountains. Through the clouds I thought I saw a little of Malaspina Glacier..it has REALLY distinct moraines and what I saw looked like its moraines. Then I looked in the water and saw little white dots that I thought could be icebergs. Then I looked up..and about died of happiness. It was cloudy and rather hard to tell but it looked like there was a huge glacier with a medial moraine. I looked at a picture and it showed Malaspina and Hubbard glaciers relatively close together. So maybe it was Hubbard Glacier..and the white dots were possibly icebergs from it..I can't be sure though since it was so cloudy (I should have taken binoculars :P). Then it became so cloudy I couldn't see anything so I read and still looked out to see if there was a break in the clouds. Then I looked up and suddenly I could see again! I think we were flying over the Inside Passage or Canada..it looked like a bunch of fjords so I dubbed it Fjordland haha. It looked like a pretty easy place to get lost in. :P I definitely saw some glaciers around there (small though). There could have been glaciers covering the tops of the mountains too. We flew over a bunch of islands with little towns on them. We also flew over Vancouver (you were right judeaslinksta! Hehe) and into the Seattle area. It was SUNNY and totally clear! In SEATTLE. It was amazingggg. We flew over Puget Sound, downtown, etc. Then I saw a huge mountain looming before me..it was Mt. Rainier!! Wooo! There was another mountain near it but I forgot what it was called. The sunset was GORGEOUS..deep orange. Wowww

( seattle to san diego, today and pics under here! )

I am in Anchorage now in the hotel! We left this morning..we drove through mountains, saw a bunch of rivers and creeks..and at once place you could drive up and walk up to a viewpoint and see the terminal moraine of Ruth Glacier!! It was too cloudy to see McKinley though. After we got our hotel room in Anchorage we ate dinner at Lone Star (Dana loves that place so I like had to go there haha). OMG that place is totally Texan haha..it so brought out the Texan in me. :P Dana loves the cheese fries so I got some to try. I also got this barbecue chicken thing, rice and chili. The chili was yummmy. Anchorage has a lot of restaurants and stores Fairbanks doesn't have..and way more people. And if I thought Fairbanks had a lot of custom license plates..they are EVERYWHERE in Anchorage. I still write down the ones outside of Fairbanks but I just put a star next to those. After we ate we went to the mall (one we went to last year!). In this one shop I found a Mount Redoubt shirt haha..it says "it kicks ash" and other stuff. Then at Hot Topic I found a Charlie the Unicorn shirt! I was like OMGG haha. After the mall we drove to the Earthquake Park thing..the earthquake in the 60s devastated Anchorage and maybe the place was supposed to show something but we couldn't stay cause we were ATTACKED by mosquitoes. I was BOMBARDED. Jeez haha. Tomorrow we're going on the cruise!! I'll post my pics when I get back home

( pic of the day )

Tlingit: The dominant Indian tribe of southeast Alaska, the Tlingit took advantage of their rich environment to create a complex social structure and rich culture. They also were fierce warriors who maintained a trade monopoly over inland Indians. They were overpowered by the Russians, although not without a fight. Today, there are about eleven thousand Tlingit, most of whom still live in Southeast