Yesterday I went to dinner with mom, Ingrid, Ryan and Jo, and Ingrid mentioned she was going to the World Eskimo-Indian Olympics, where Natives (mostly) from Alaska get together and participate in traditional sports, dancing, etc, and asked if mom and I wanted to go with her. In the 17/18 years in Alaska we'd somehow never been, so we said sure (Ingrid's son was working at the event too). When we got there I heard people beating drums and singing, which I really liked..it's soothing but powerful at the same time. We looked at the vendors' tables and spent too much money haha, and went over to where they were going to do the blanket toss ("Nalukataq" in Inupiaq). It was first used as a way to spot whales before they discovered binoculars. It takes many people to be the "pullers," so they were asking for volunteers. Mom asked if I wanted to try and said no at first, but then I was like "sure, why not?" When the person getting "tossed" in the air first gets on the blanket (made of walrus hide or bearded seal skin) everyone starts out bouncing them lightly, and when we got a good rhythm, the person in charge was what I assume was counting to three in Inupiaq, and on "three" we tossed the participant in the air..we tossed them pretty high sometimes! It was pretty cool! When we were done, mom said I was crookedly walking back to her haha! I thought my arm would be sore, but my back was instead lol. There was also a fish cutting challenge, one-hand reach (the person has to balance with one hand only and touch a ball above them. It looked SUPER hard), and more dancing..it's so cool because their dances tell a story! We all left after that because it was late and we were tired, but it was very cool! It's nice of the Natives to share their culture with us, and I liked seeing the younger generations carrying on the traditions of the Elders!

( pics from the night )

Amanda started at work this week, and she's very nice! (Somehow that always surprises me..they're not going to hire someone mean! Haha.) She has lots of ideas for organizing the back area and things like that. She used to live in southeast Alaska, so of course we had to talk about glaciers haha. She said she's enjoying the job so far..nice!

12. How would you describe life currently: Pretty good, especially since the move is over haha

13. Your first car: I've never had a car

14. A letter to someone who has always believed in you: I'm too lazy for prompts like this LOL
15. What's the most embarrassing thing you've ever worn? OMG I completely forgot about this after I read this question, but when I was in 9th grade I took fencing, and at one event I got a white shirt that had a fencer on the back. One week the high schoolers (this was a charter school, so the classes were pretty small..there were only like two people in the 12th grade class!) visited colleges around Texas, and on one trip we stayed overnight in a hotel (it was pretty fun, that's when I tried SoBe for the first time! I miss it :(), and for pajamas I brought that fencing shirt. The next morning we had breakfast, and some of us hadn't changed out of PJs yet..I was looking at my crush Nick and hoping he would notice me haha. The next time I wore the shirt, I noticed you could see right through it! OMG NOOOO I wanted to die. D: Maybe Nick wasn't looking at me for a reason haha, oh my! I also wore orange pants in middle school, probably not my best color to wear, but I liked them anyway :P

16. Who do you talk to when you have a problem? Mom, Amanda, my doctor..just depends on the problem lol

17. How do you make important decisions? I overthink haha, maybe ask someone's opinion, then finally decide on something :P