In any weather....

In case you didn't know, Abby and I are certified beach bums. This visit did start out chilly, but as we worked are way around the beach, it actually warmed up to be quite nice.

Rewards

The favorite part of my job is meeting people. "I meet more people here on a remote island in Alaska than I would if I worked at the Smithsonian," is what I always say. We get a slew of researchers and visitors every year, but this year I have particularly worked a lot with researchers. We had several last week, with a few who had never been to Kodiak before. When visitors ask what they should do in Kodiak, I always respond go see Fort Abercrombie. It is so beautiful , and there's the extra bang for the (free) buck with all the WWII remains scattered about. I kept telling them to go, but of course they have no car, so this time I gave a personal tour. It was fun! I was surprised about how much I knew! I even sounded authoritative. Funny. Anyway, it was a great time. It's one of the reasons I love my job and work so hard to be the best Registrar!

If you don’t advocate, who will?

Here is a cheesy article I wrote (except for the intro! I can not write creatively at all apparently) about a session at the Museums Alaska conference, just in case you wanted to know about non-profits and lobbying:

Winter is coming. Freezing winds are once again ruffling the papers on the desk of the archivist at the Historical Society. The seals around the windows are decaying and they need to be replaced. If the staff can feel the change in the weather, the artifacts will most definitely be affected. Funds are tight, as usual, but the Board agrees that the City’s designated funding for non-profits would be ideal for solving this problem. So now what?

Mike Walsh, VP of Operations at the Foraker Group, addressed this issue in the Museums Alaska session Lobbying and Advocacy, helping audience members learn more about the laws governing lobbying and how to develop an advocacy plan.

While many of us advocate – talk about an idea to bring about change – lobbying is specifically used to influence legislation. According to Internal Revenue Service (IRS), lobbying is direct communication with a legislator or a legislative staff member requesting action on a specific bill. Non-profit organizations are not allowed to endorse or oppose a political candidate, but they are allowed to encourage a legislator to approve a bill, even one that includes appropriations for their organization. Additionally, organizations may conduct grassroots lobbying to influence the public - encouraging people to vote for a proposition or to contact their legislator.

It is important to note that the IRS wants to know what your organization spends on lobbying. Non-profit organizations may spend no more than 5% on of their annual budget on lobbying, so it is imperative you track your expenses. In contrast, the State of Alaska wants to know how much time an organization lobbies. As an individual representing your organization, you may spend 40 hours in direct communication with a legislator or legislative staff over a thirty-day period. That’s a lot of communication! If you intend on spending more money or time, your organization may hire a registered lobbyist.

To make the most of your advocacy work, organizations should develop an Advocacy Plan. Organizations should refine a 60 second spiel about the issue, identify who to talk to, and when and how to talk to them (email, in person, on the phone).

The underlying point of Mr. Walsh’s presentation was that advocacy is important and it’s not work that we should expect others to do for us. If you won’t advocate for your own organization, who will?

http://www.kodiakdailymirror.com/?pid=19&id=9250

My grant project made our local paper (Koniag Receives Grant for Archaeological Collection). Nice. Not every fact right, but not complaining!

Feels Like Home

Thanks to a co-worker, I have a new rug! It replaces the cream-colored Wal-Mart rug that was no longer cream, but more like a hint of cream with lots of splashes of grey encrusted toddler mess. I love the new rug. First, it is totally like a rug my parents would have had in their house, so it reminds me of them and the house I grew up in, which makes me happy. Second, it brings color into the room (and matches my borrowed furniture)!! Last year I painted a dark greenish blue accent wall as one enters, and although that was a start, this really adds a lot of umfp, especially for the upcoming dark months. The combined added color and the reminiscence of home makes my meager dwelling actually feel like home for the first time. Thank you!!!

Not better yet. Too soon to declare as I thought. Feeling anxious...

Obsessed

I have been trying to photograph her eyes for so long. They are such a beautiful caramel color.

Abby's first movie!!! She sort of sat through the whole movie. It took MORE candy to finish the last 20 minutes. She was a little sugar strung out after that. Looking forward to another movie date in the future.

Little angel.

Hey, if you had a daughter this cute, you wouldn't bother posting much else either.

I mean, I try to keep it simple. There is only so much I can write about - my work, pottery, Abby, Kodiak, yoga, books, movies - KISS (keep it simple stupid) life.

Too soon to declare recovery? I am still wary of saying I am all better. I was ill for six weeks! Not the Kodiak crud either. Some strange illness where I felt mostly fine, felt like I was on my death bed, felt mostly ok, felt like I was dying, felt fine…repeat. Weird! I have no idea what was wrong with me. It cost me enough to try to find out. Most of my tests came back normal, but not all. Individually or combined, they add up to….nothing diagnosable. I am still a little concerned, but at least I feel better. I am slowly reclaiming my life! I am sooo happy to be well again – happy to go to work, happy to play and run around with Abby at the beach, happy to go grocery shopping!

Last Letters from Attu

Last Letters from Attu: the True Story of Etta Jones, Alaska Pioneer and Japanese POW by Mary Breu, Etta's great niece

"Etta Jones, single, 42 years old and an accomplished teacher and nurse, arrived in Alaska in August, 1922. One year later, she married gold prospector Foster Jones. For the next 19 years, they lived, worked and taught in remote Athabascan, Alutiiq, Yup’ik and Aleut villages. Their last assignment was Attu.

After the invasion, Etta spent 39 months in Japanese POW sites located in Yokohama and Totsuka. She was the first female Caucasian taken prisoner by a foreign enemy on the North American Continent since the War of 1812, and she was the first American female released by the Japanese at the end of World War II."

Most of the book is Etta's letters. Since Etta did not like speaking about her time as a prisoner in Japan, Breu compiled most of that section.

Etta's 19 years in Alaska is remarkable and worth a book by itself, but reading about her years of imprisonment, starvation, and brutal conditions in Japan, when she was in her sixties(!), left me dumbfounded. She and Foster lived in Old Harbor for a few years, but Etta also taught in extremely remote villages, where no one spoke English, none of the villagers has seen a white woman before, and they received mail service just three times a year. Funny to think that some teachers have tough times in villages today. For Etta and Foster, Old Harbor in the 1930s was quite posh in comparison to the other villages they served. In one part Etta wrote how at Russian Christmas she received a bear gut bag (with eagle feather if I recall). Seal gut is common, but I did not realize bear gut was also used.

Oh, someone is cute!

Oh my lips are puckering, SMOOCH!

She is totally posing.

Peekaboo

PEEKABOO!

I SEE YOU!

Not such a bad thing sometimes, this Alaska.

Mask making at the museum.

I love Abby's mask! She likes drawing circles, and she chose the bright feathers on her own.

One sunny playground visit when I must have felt well.

Church

I hope I feel well enough to make it to church tomorrow. I learn something every time. It's not all clowns and giggles, but so worth attending. Yes, that IS church above, and yes those are the Captains dressed as a clown and ringleader. As you can see, it's a small congregation. About 15 people show up a week. I don' t know why. Everyone is so nice and unassuming. There's no "pressure", a kid's room, and it's quite informal - stark contrast to the Catholicism I am used to.

Stress test - pass, blood pressure - fail. What does it all mean? I hope I find out soon! I am tired of being, well, deathly. Funny, find inner happiness, then feel like death. I assure you my inner happy button is fixed. Now if my body would cooperate...

Prior to all of this illness, I was going to write about yoga, and how well my body, at least the outside, seems to be doing! I am (was) getting better at yoga and a lot stronger, but apparently that wellness it's confined to muscle (and mental) tone.

I love you Abby, btw. You are my sunshine, 365, babes.

Graphically sick

Been sick for too long. I can't tell you what's wrong with me, altough after some some nurse mom consulting and google reading I have a clue. I am not sure when it started (months ago in a lesser degree???), see I am nursing two problems at once - sinus infection and the "other one". Symptoms are: start to feel funny (hard to explain), start to feel dizzy, limbs feel cold and numbish, feel weak, heart races, feel REAL faint (one description I read with similar symptoms said"feel impending death" and "feels like poisoned"), must lay down, have a movement of the ol' bowels (4/5 times, ok tmi), and then feel real empty, need to eat, and super super weak, must rest for hours. I have been to the ER once, dr. three times, and missed two days of work so far. May not sound like much, much it means I feel baaad. I also sometimes feel dizzy before or after I eat, and it has nothing to do with blood sugar. I know I was suffering from dehydration in Fairbanks, and have high levels of protein in my blood. Although, I feel normal right now. Nice eh? I like this feeling normal. I can't imagine why people have problems if they're heathly. Life simple when healthy. Must remember this if I ever recover, once and for all!

Autumn?

Kodiak's version of autumn is not bright colors of dying leaves, but blistery windy storms that kick up the ocean and cause some waves!

Mill Bay beach at a "normal" high tide. Just happens a lot of sea crap was deposited on the beach. The big rock center is the rock house Abby and I play in at low tide.

Going, going.....

Gone.

Scale may be difficult to tell, but the rock house is about 15 feet or so high.

One sunny beach visit....

I know what this is! It is a breadcrumb sponge. We got a book about Alaska's seashore creatures. It has kind of depleted the mystery and intrigue of this once foreign environment, but "congratulations to meet you" breadcrumb sea sponge.

Fairbanks

Gorgeous weather. I was inside most of the day, but it was still amazing. We were there the nicest week of the year I think with all the autumn colors!

Notice the mirror under the car so you can see the underside. More about the auto museum below in the text.

They had clothing at the auto museum too, I think on loan from a other local organization, but as a permanent display. To have age appropriate clothing accompany the cars was neat-o.

Love this dress! Seriously, love it.

The details on these cars are amazing. Complete with wicker baskets on the side and lovely woodwork.

Just taking a spin! Actually, this would have been a hard vehicle to drive. The steering wheel and gears where awkwardly positioned. The museum does drive the cars periodically so they remain in working condition. Not this one, it's a junker.

There's something wrong with this pic - can you guess what?

Which part - a white girl, with no mushers, in the grass?

A piece of the Alaska pipeline. Yes, I saw it, and I saw a moose for three seconds, and a musk ox too.

Okay, so the pictures are not of the conference, which is why I went. I assure you it consumed, in a good way, 99.99999% of my time. It just happened that my co-worker was somehow keen on taking my picture when we went places. Most of this is at the hotel where we stayed.

The Fountainhead Auto Museum was located on premises, and it was a lovely museum, which was started by a rich man who apparently has done a lot for Fairbanks. I also visited the Museum of the North, of course, which was smaller than I imagined. They expanded a few years ago, I think adding a bit of workspace etc., and they redid some exhibits. The difference between the new and old exhibits is astounding - from blank grey flat barely interpreted exhibits to exhibits with depth and general visual interest, as well as better interpretation. One odd aspect in the main gallery is the combination of displays. There is a case of a remarkably preserved baby mammoth face, followed by Athabaskan clothing, next natural history specimens, next to something about outer space, followed by historic gold rush - all from the same area geographically, but very dissimilar collection types.

The conference went quite well. I did learn a lot, even though I had originally thought the topics were not super interesting. I think I learned most about myself. I am on a serious marathon of self-exploration, trying to better grasp the universe and whatnot. On Friday, right before I went to bed, I reflected on the day, astounded that all that had happened could have been in one day. It's hard to summarize, but I gave my presentation, which went very well, I felt good, and then later felt misunderstood and shunned. No one asked me to dance :(

Ok, back to business. At the conference I learned about lobbying, working with communities to create exhibits (we Skyped with staff from Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand), and I learned about Etta Jones, who lived in Old Harbor for some years, and then her and her husband took one last job in Attu before retirement, only to be captured by the Japanese. He was shot, and she was shipped to Japan for YEARS. It sounded like hell. The author, her niece, was presenting and she read a rather pleasing poem about the horrible torture of whistle blowing. The guards would blow the whistle for every movement - waking up, dressing, eating, cleaning up, walking, sitting, standing, undressing - everything!

On Saturday, I was supposed to go to Anchorage, followed by Oklahoma City. I had been feeling not great. It was a REALLY busy few days and I have been fighting several viruses apparently. Before I left the hotel I decided to walk around this lovely lake one last time. I got halfway around and suddenly was faint and sick. That was it, I could go no further. Luckily, someone from Kodiak came upon me, a nurse at that! The hotel brought a golf cart out to get me, and waiting was an ambulance. I was not going to go to the hospital, but I felt terrible, and was not really "with it" enough to make decisions. My heart rate was fast, so they took me in. They gave me 3000cc's of IV fluid, about 3.5. pints. It was apparently needed. I didn't pee it out. I missed the flight out, but the Kodiak colleague was staying with her friend, who let me stay in the guest house. I cancelled the trip to Oklahoma. The doctor thought it would have been crazy for me to fly there, stay one day, and fly back. I agreed.

I felt like an ass for cancelling, but I was sick. Abby also was sick, and it was a good thing I came home for her. Those first two days back were rough though, and let me tell I wished I would have went to OK, but it all worked out, very weirdly. I am very thankful my Kodiak friend helped me, and her friend in turn. I am glad I did not get really really sick, but was helped to get better in the right time frame. Being sick can be scary (when you feel like you're going to pass out and you're alone.) Things seemed to work themselves out, in a confusing way. I'll take confusing over not working out though.

Alaskan Rock

Life on "the rock" today was particularly fabulous. Despite this morning, of which I will say no more, Abby and I went to the beach. The clouds did not in any way depress the beauty of the baby blue sky in the distant, the search for sea creatures, or the castle construction.

After an arduous visit to the beach, Abby napped and I did pottery. After nap we ate and went to the playgound. After that we were going to go to our secret sunny spot, but went to the Ram site where we colored with chalk and watched the sun set - awesome in the true sense of the word.

The next day fog sacked Kodiak in and I couldn't have been happier. We needed a rest. Plus, I have to pack for 50 degree Fairbanks, where I am presenting at Museums Alaska, and 90 degree Oklahoma City, where I am presenting at a IMLS grant awardee meeting, just prior to the AALSH conference. I also just found out our Karluk One project has been funded. Go me, go museum!

I have spiritually concluded a chapter in my life and I have turned a new page. I found faith, through the difficulty of accepting the consequences of my actions and those of others, as well as the "fate" part of it which is just out of my hands. I now know peace, which will lead to bliss. I am on a path. I don't know all the twists and turns, but I know the destination.

I am thankful I have my ever so lovely daughter and my family. Although small, they make up for it.

I am satisfied with life on this rock, especially when I get to go to someplace warm once in awhile to get some vitamin D.

This is an email from my mom to me about all the party supplies she got for Abby's 3rd Birthday. I think Abby is set! I am so looking forward to her birthday. I know she is too.

I write this blog as Abby will not remember these early years, but I want her to know how much grandmum and grandad love her, so here it is (the aside in the middle about Sully and Caesar is funny):

Planned two parties of 8:

two packages of 8 each invitations- Dora

Dora super star ribbon badge for Birthday girl

8 butterfly party hats (matches the colors of the other stuff)

8 foil tiaras (Happy birthday) 2 hot pink and 4 gold (matches colors)

one package with a musical candle + a "3" candle.

One sealed package with a "3" sparkler candle. (whooo-hoo- do you want a sparkler candle for your birthday? (34?) NOOOO! -- hey it least your birthday number doesn't begin with a 5 and end with a 9!!!)

two packages of 8, Dora , 9x9" plates with three compartments (cake and small snacks or ice cream- bit larger than cake only plates only 25cent difference)

two packages of 8 each Dora matching cups

two packages Dora napkins- use leftover for everyday.

Dora sandwich bags- I found these for $1 and you can put cookies or candy in them or use them every day. You can write the kids name and the name on the package says Abbey- ha!

bag of large balloons- "girl assortment" dark pink, purple, white, light shell pink (the Dora balloons were more expensive and I didn't think you could find helium.)

One package each- dark pink streamers and purple streamers

Gift bags- I knew this stuff would be even more expensive there IF you could find it. You may need more to fill them out. here is what I have so far:

two packages of 8 each Dora party gift bags

two packages of 8 each Dora blow-out birthday horns with a circle photo of Dora wearing the bracelets that I got.

four packages of 4 each nice Dora bracelets- yellow beads with Blue flower that has lip gloss.

Three packages of Krazy straws- 6 that are curvy and 2 pkgs. of eight straight that are striped in colors of party

two packages of eight each sticker strips. Someone has gotten smart as the stickers now come only 1-2 pages for $1 which is highway robbery. They used to be cheaper.

I got one package of pink princess and one of tropical hello kitty- they matched, were cute, shiny and less expensive choice and will fit into goodie gift bag.

four packages of five each "glow" bracelets.

I am walking back and forth from the back bedroom to the computer to write stuff down and I have apparently tired out Caesar and Sullivan. I looked down and Caesar was having a cat dream with his whiskers, eyelids, paws and tail moving as he dreamt. I walked in to check Sully and he was sound asleep by Morgan's side of the bed and he was having a dream- his eyelids were twitching, he was making little noises and his paws were moving. Wonder if they were dreaming in parallel universes??? They both just yawned and stretched and Sully got up for a drink of water.

to continue:

two packages of 12 fake "gem" rings

one package of 12 tracing strips

eight tiny Dora puzzles that were only 49 cents each- that's all they had. would have bought more if they had them.

.......

Happy mama.

Sushi cake. I would have liked to have a slice. It was cake you know!

Lollipop. lollipop, oh lolly lolly pop.

It was so funny to sit and watch these three teenage boys judge chocolate chip coffee cake. They were taking the responsibility seriously. "Do you think the chocolate flavor overwhelms the light cake texture?"

Enjoying the music at the fair.

Abby really wanted to have a bite.

Here, bunny bunny.

Older cute pics, back when she had hair. More about that later....