Fire Goddess Confession

On the evening of January 4th our dear friend Emily came up to me at Aimie's birthday party. Putting her arm around my shoulders, she said, "You know I hate to say this but it's a bit too cold for skiing. Do you think you could warm things up a bit?"

Now everyone knows I am the Fire Goddess, Bane to Skiiers and their precious snow. Thankfully in past years we have come to an agreement. They give me cheesecake and they can keep their cold snow. I had never had a Skiier ask me to make things warmers but I assumed it would require the same payment.

"You have cheesecake?"

Emily shook her head. "No, but we are eating pretty good ice cream cake. That should be enough."

"Ok, I'll see what I can do."

What Emily and I failed to take note of was that we were eating sacred ice cream cake of the mint chip variety. Two days after I got back from Nome the temperature started to rise and as most of you know the rest of the story is history. Ski races, school, and a lot of other things were canceled because of too much warmth. 

The moral of this story: Don't ask the Fire Goddess to make it warm until spring and don't underestimate the power of the sacred ice cream.

  

The First Snow!!!

Way too much fun dancing in the snow. The flakes were so big they almost didn't fit in my mouth and I could snatch them out of the air with my hand.

Wait! Not yet!

"It's snowing outside!"

Many people rush to see

Wait, it's only dust.

Ahh the joys of Jr high girls....but there is now snow on the mountains so our yearly dose must be just around the corner.

Why I Teach

Little child, big eyes

Calling my name again

I am so well loved

Ninja Footsteps

I feel like the odd ball our reading all these blogs. In fact, I felt led to ask the god/goddess if I was even allowed to be an author here because I am a) still in Alaska and b) not going to college. She said yes so here is a taste of my "gap" in the storm of life.

Fortunately this alienation is of my own choosing and I am thoroughly enjoying myself. I get to dictate my own little world, like when I get up, when I eat and how I spend my daylight (it's fading fast!) without worrying about homework or professors. I no longer have to be subjected to the cruel schedule of waking up at 6:30am (unless I want the car before 3 and even then I can take a nape after I get home). I'm finding I like 9:00am just fine. I then have six hours or so (if I get up at 9) to eat, bike, pray, read, write, draw or anything else that suits my fancy. The I'm off to the dojang to spend two and a half to four hours teaching and practicing Tae Kwon Do. After all that I sometimes chase the sunset, go to youth group or take younger friends out for ice cream.

So although this life may seem boring and "slackerish" compared to those abroad (I have no interesting room mates or guy stalker stories) I do still have some stories. For instance there is a deaf girl at my dojang who was once my student and is now student teaching with me. Because of some miscommunications between her and her parents the other day I got to spend an hour with her, a pad of paper and a pencil. It's the first time I've really been able to communicate with her since I first met her two years ago. I already knew she was funny, spunky and tough but I didn't know she was only in eight grade and that she will go to East next year because Diamond does not have a deaf program. Even when the language barrier is up she is still one of my favorite people to playfully poke (even though she can hit really hard) and to harass certain boys with. What a joy it is to be able to make eye contact with someone, smile evilly and know that is all the communication you need. Perhaps the best part is that we will be testing together on the 20th to get our second-degree black belts.

On that note of violence...most of you know that my brother bought me a katana for my eighteenth birthday. It is arguably the prettiest sword I own and it's without a doubt the sharpest. Well I was practicing with it a few days ago (yes I actually have to know how to use it for my black belt testing) and for a brief moment in time forgot how long it was. Thankfully no one was in the house to hear my blade slash a new line in the painting of my map hanging in the living room. It's not noticeable unless you look, really! I'm just glad there was no glass in the picture frame or my misguided handiwork might have been recorded beside the time my brother broke the laundry room light cover with his bow staff...