The past few days, this is what it's looked like outside:

Ice fog is "a suspension of numerous minute ice particles in the air," like exhaust..it can definitely smell bad (when I walked to work, the smell would get in my hair D:). It was -42 when I woke up yesterday morning! Today it's MUCH warmer, -13! It felt downright tropical LOL, and the ice fog went somewhere else. The National Weather Service said "Dec 2025 in Fairbanks was the 8th coldest and 12th snowiest Dec on record. Fairbanks has also seen 29 days+ of temps at or below −15°F." Crazy!

Ryan recently quit his job (probably the happiest I've ever seen him!), so he and Jo have been working hard turning his office into a lava tube/cave. How cool is it?

SUPER cool!!! That's amazing (they're going to fill the gaps at some point, I think). I'm really impressed that they did most of it without my parents' help. Here's another view:

So cool! Maybe he'll let me spend time in there too LOL

Tomorrow I go back to work! (2026 is already going by fast!) It feels like I had been at my parents' house a long time haha. Earlier Shelby texted Bill and I and asked us to come over to their building first for a quick meeting. I'm sure they just want to see us after the break and to meet the new manager, but I'm still panicking haha. I've never been good with the "I need to talk to later" thing. :P Bill said he's been sick the last couple of days, and isn't sure he'll make it in tomorrow. I felt like I was getting sick yesterday, OF COURSE because I was like "but I don't want to go back to work and real life!" I should know better by now lol. Luckily, after saying "wait, just kidding, I DO want to go back to work tomorrow!" some of the day yesterday, I feel better today. Phew! Hopefully he gets well soon. Hopefully it'll be busy since we've been closed since December and people miss us and are tired of being cooped inside lol (I definitely needed that break though, I was SO tired and worn out!)

( dec 3-5 )

1. When are you a shark? When I'm super hungry
2. When are you a kitten? When I'm easily amused and joking around
3. When are you a chameleon? When I accidentally sneak up on someone at work haha
4. When are you a parrot? When I repeat phrases back to people
5. When are you an amoeba? Uhh..I don't know lol

Someone donated plates with ships to the bookstore, and I had to grab this one:

SO cool!! My other coworkers got some of them as well lol..it's like Christmas every day there :P

Vicki matched her curtains the other day, so we had to document it LOL (I said "document" when I asked Aunt Cindy to take a picture once, so now she always says "did you document it??" haha)

So much fun! Curtains make life better LOL

( march 12-15 )

A book set in the future: The Ice Ghost by Kathleen O'Neal Gear (Feb 1-4)

A book set in a travel destination on your bucket list (Iceland): Outside by Ragnar
Jónasson (Feb 5-6)

A book from a genre you typically avoid: How to Survive in the North by Luke Healy (Feb 7-8). A comic book about the Karluk expedition, where Steffanson abandoned his men and a bunch of people died..crazy

A book set in the snow: Dead of Winter by Darcy Coates (Feb 10-13). This book literally gave me nightmares..everyone was getting their heads chopped off. O_o I usually like locked-in mysteries, but this one freaked me out lol

A book with a neurodivergent main character: I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder by Sarah Kurchak (Feb 13-15). Parts of this book were relatable, like her saying jeans felt like being in an iron maiden, but unfortunately is was pretty boring too

A bildungsroman (coming of age novel): The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene (Feb 15-17). Yeah I read this way after it was popular, but books are immortal, so it doesn't matter lol. I enjoyed it (I had already been spoiled years ago what happens at the end), and the movie was really good too!

A book recommended by a bookseller: Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus (Jan 20-Feb 18). This was the next book club book at work, but it matched a prompt anyway. I probably wouldn't have picked up the book on my own, but it was pretty good. It's fun to talk to the book club regulars about books!

A book by a blind or visually impaired author: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (Feb 18-21). A group of 80-year-olds in a retirement home help the police solve murders haha, it was so funny! The police officer would be talking and one character would be like "did you have some cake, dear?" I hope the rest of the series is just as good!

A horror book by a BIPOC author: The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown (Feb 21-22). This was supposed to be horror? Dead of Winter freaked me out way more lol

A book with the word "leap" in the title: The Cat, the Cash, the Leap, and the List by Sue Campbell (Feb 23-24)

A book about pirates: Cutthroat Island by John Gregory Betancourt (Feb 24-25). When I typed in "Cutthroat Island book" on Amazon, I didn't expect to ACTUALLY find one! It's one of my all-time favorite movies and always will be, so I was very pleased to find a novelization! "Bad Dawg!!!" :D

A book about women's sports and/or by a woman athlete: South with the Sun: Roald Amundsen, His Polar Explorations, and the Quest for Discovery by Lynne Cox (Feb 25-28). She talked about Amundsen along with her swims in 28 degree water (WHY??). Amundsen is kinda overrated to me, though he was a pretty good explorer. Scott is just way more interesting to me (Feb 26 was my 6th anniversary of going to Cherry's grave! One of the best days of my life and still makes me emotional to think about <3)

( the prompts )

TWELVE BOOKS IN ONE MONTH heck yeah!!! Most of them were short, but still..so cool! When I told mom how many I read she was like "you're crazy!...but in a good way" LOL. I've read 22 books so far this year :D

A lot of people see my opal necklace and say "it's so pretty! It's bad luck to wear it if it's not your birthstone though." Uh..thanks?? Also, that's ridiculous, and after the 40th time of someone saying that it has gotten really annoying. Just say it's nice and move on lol

28. Do You Believe in Ghosts? Sure, since I've seen one lol

29. Are Digital Photographs Too Plentiful to Be Meaningful? No way! I have plenty of pics of the same glaciers from different years, but they're all meaningful and have fond memories of whatever trip I was on when I look at them. Film cameras were always stressful because I was always afraid I'd run out of film before the trip ended haha

March 1. Can You Separate Art From the Artist? They seem to be..intertwined? They have other traits too, but of course I'll think "Van Gogh!" when I see the Starry Night

Before we left on Sunday, we took one last selfie with Cindy and Dean:

Yay! The flight out of Albuquerque left late, so they were boarding our next flight to Fairbanks when we landed!! When we finally got to the gate, they had already closed the door, but they let us on, phew!! There were actually a lot of people missing, so they nicely waited for them too. It was still too dark along the coast to see any glaciers though, darn. Abby was SO happy to sleep with me again haha, she kept pawing at my face for attention :P

When we were in Kansas, Cindy and mom and I went through boxes of grandma's things that had been stored in Julie's garage a long time..it was cool seeing cards I sent her when I was a kid! There were also baby pics of me, and mom and I about died when we saw this one:

I had a four-poster CRIB?! That's amazing!! It must have planted the seed, I always wondered if the regular four-posters would be cozy and "protective" :P (they are!)

( pokemon update )

15 – Bring Flowers to Someone Day: When was the last time someone gave you flowers? When was the last time you brought flowers to someone else? Not sure. Maybe last year for Mother's Day?

16 – Biographers' Day: Do you like reading biographies? What have been some of your favourites? If you're not a fan, why not? If you were going to write a biography of someone, who would that be? Sure, they can be interesting. Cherry's, George Vi's, etc. Not sure..

How busy was I at work earlier? Well we made $400 in the first hour we were open!! It was awesome, but exhausting haha. We're open less hours, but we're still (mostly) making the same amount we did when we were open longer hours..that's pretty cool! Customers keep thanking us for being open..I'm as happy as they are LOL, that was a long two months we were closed :P

Today the air looks smoky, and I was really confused, because it's rained too much this summer to have forest fires, till someone told me the smoke is from Siberia..thanks for sharing LOL :P

And a little meme thing!

Been to an NFL game? No
Been to Canada? Just through the Inside Passage
Visited Florida? Yeah, my grandpa lives there
Visited Mexico? No
Visited Vegas? No
Eaten alone at a restaurant? Yeah..makes me feel lonely lol
Ability to read music? No
Rode a motorcycle? On the back of one with dad when I was a kid
Ridden a horse? Yeah
Stayed in a hospital? Just after birth and a couple eye surgeries
Donated blood? Yeah
Been snow skiing? Yeah
Been to Disney World or Disney Land? Land, yeah..I got autographs from the different characters hehe
Slept outside? No
Driven a stick shift? No
Ridden in an 18-wheeler? No
Driven a boat? Sure, with dad's help
Eaten Escargot? Once, it wasn't too bad actually
Been on a cruise? Glacier cruises lol
Run out of gas? No
Been on TV? Yeah
Eaten Sushi? No

( july 25-30 )

Today's trivia: The world record for the most world record titles is held by Ashrita Furman, who's held more than 600 Guinness World Records in his lifetime, ranging from heaviest shoes walked in (323 pounds) to most baseballs held in a baseball glove (26)

This is so cool! I know David Klumb very well, he comes into the bookstore all the time, and he's the guy that got me a bag from the Fram Museum. He came in today and everyone was like "your video was awesome!" haha. I knew he made dog sleds, but I had no idea it was *that* many! He's such a cool guy :D

Anyone else for the movie quote meme? I'll post the answers next time lol

Last week was probably the bookstore's best..our "worst" day was $400 something, and Saturday was $679! I thought I had made a mistake when I saw that, but nope. That's the best closing day I personally have done! So awesome so many people have found out about us :D

( Day 228-230 )

Today's trivia: Ancient Greeks came up with the idea of cyclops after they found a fossil of a mammoth, and had no idea what it was. The skulls of elephants and extinct mammoths have features that perfectly match the description of the cyclops

I have a new favorite band:

Gregorian, a band that covers popular songs in Gregorian chant!! OMG I'm in love. These might even be better than the originals!


My Heart Will Go On in Gregorian chant?? How awesome is that?? I completely melted at 1:47 when everyone started singing at once *swoooons*


Ohh yeah!! So COOL lol

I swear I have the weirdest obsessions LOL

(  Day 64: Your favorite song featured in a musical )

Today's trivia: The Cookie Monster's real name is Sid

1. Do you enjoy receiving books as holiday or birthday gifts? LOL are you kidding?? I love getting books any time of the year :P
2. What book are you reading (or, what is the last book you read)? I just started Lost in Shangri-La, about a plane crash in the jungle during WW2
3. Are you enjoying (or, did you enjoy) that book? Why or why not? I'm not far enough yet, but the last one I finished (A Wretched and Precarious Situation, about arctic exploration) was pretty good
4. About how many books do you read in an average year? It's gone up..usually now in the 50s and 60s, but this year I'm on my 72nd!!! Some of the books I read were pretty short, but I guess it still counts :P
5. What are some of the books on your to-read pile (or list)? LOL that would be an entire bookshelf haha! There are ones like White Eskimo, Manitou Canyon, Polar Wives, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, etc

Yesterday's grand total at work? Around $850!! That's so awesome. Today was slower, but I imagine tomorrow will be busy with last-minute Christmas shopping lol

It was COLD this morning, -18! I can tell when it's below 0 when my nose hairs freeze as soon as I step outside LOL. We were spoiled by the warm start of the winter :P (tomorrow we start gaining light again, yay!)

( December 21 → your favorite websites this year )

Today was the bookstore's annual 50% sale (our "Autumn Extravaganza" lol), where we let customers shop in the back area as well (customers ask us all year when that sale is, even the week after the sale! They have no idea how much work it takes to get ready for it lol..to say the shelves were dusty would be a huge understatement :P). It was funny..as soon as we unlocked the door, everyone came pouring in haha. We were very busy the first three hours or so, and tapered off a little throughout the day..the last hour was rather quiet..nice to have a break at least. :P I always work the cash register during those sales, which is fun lol. One guy bought like 71 books at $2.75!! Wow. We made over $2200!! An excellent day! After Denise closed she took a few of us to dinner, yay! We'll definitely have to straighten up and restock the store on Monday haha. Here are a couple pics!

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The top row is Penny and me, and the bottom is Louise, Lupe and Denise


My first ever Snapchat picture haha. Fun :)

( October 13 - Who was your favorite teacher growing up? )

Last night I was working on my family tree (it's addictive lol), and decided to research Jerusha Hopkins, who married Benjamin Hopkins (both are my direct ancestors frpm 7 generations ago)..so I'm finding her parents and their parents, and about died when I saw this: Love Brewster, Mayflower Passenger. OHMYGOODNESS I knew it!! They're not sure the Stephen Hopkins I'm related to is from the Mayflower, but Love Brewster (his other brothers were called Fear and Wrestling O_o) and his father William Brewster for sure are. That makes me so happy..I've always felt in my blood that my family came over on the Mayflower, and am glad it's true!! I get butterflies when I see "Elder Love Brewster, 'Mayflower' Passenger" right in my tree. :D So cool!

I loved the clouds today:

This pic turned out well, considering I was taking it blind haha (probably what I hate most about transition lenses lol, I can't see the screen on my phone!). Love the puffy storm clouds!

( May 22 - Do you play any instruments? )

Today's trivia: The longest word in English is 189,819 letters long