oh such a perfect day

When I woke up to an unsuspecting Sunday morning, I thought, "Damn, I missed yoga. Maybe I'll go get drunk at the Alaskan." Because I was slightly depressed all weekend thinking of my ex who was drinking himself to a coma, playing guitar, and texting me sad phoenix poems. But first, I answered my cell phone, because its ringing was the whole reason I even opened my eyes even though it was like 11a.m. already. Turns out it was Canders, the girl who had my position before me and is now in Texas, telling me she'd given this guy, Nolan, my number. Which makes that 2 guys in 3 days who have asked her and received my #. Not to mention I got this Prague postcard Friday afternoon from an anonymous person who knows my nickname and attempted to say, "I am loving you" in Tagalog. So Canders wakes me up with these news and I thought, is this a sign to stop moping??

Long story short: Nolan invited me to hike Heintzelman Ridge. That’s the SAME ridge Lisa hiked a few weeks ago with her friend, Colin, and got lost on and state troopers were looking for them. But Nolan was like, oh it’s not that bad, and it’s such a beautiful day. Which it was. Just absolutely gorgeous, completely clear skies and no rain and a pleasant 67 degrees. So I said yes and then panicked how out of shape and awfully slow I’d be, if I even managed to finish the hike.

Well, while I didn't exactly go ridge running, I did (eventually) make it to the top of Thunder Mountain, and we went to the 3rd peak on Heintzelman. We even mooned the helicopters that were flying tourists out to the ice field. We took a really brief nap, and it felt so beautiful up there with the breeze and the grass and all of Juneau below. I could see all of the Valley and Lemon Creek and part of Auke Bay and from Sandy Beach to Outer Point on Douglas Island. There was the Chilkat Mountains and beyond them, Mount Fairweather, which is a very rare sight even from our vantage, because of clouds or forest fire smoke or rain. Mendenhall Glacier was right below us, and behind it, the Seven Sisters and McGinnis and Nugget Spires. We could see Lemon Creek Glacier and two other smaller glaciers too and Split Thumb in the distance. It was such a gorgeous day, and I was proud of my smoking ass making it up 3615 feet when I couldn't go 100 feet up the Y Mountain in Provo without my nose spurting blood everywhere, and Nolan was so fun and nice the whole time, and I laid on the grass higher than the helicopters, than all the world below me and felt so peaceful. I thought of Noble Goble camping out on Mt. Juneau and was happy for him because he must feel the way I felt, and he could forget about girls rejecting him or not finding a niche in Juneau because such things seem so trivial when you’re looking down at life from that high up.

After the hike, we went to his house to eat dinner, and he busted out this huge fresh king crab, cracked them for me, and handed me the most ginormous chunks of seafood. They were so good that eating them almost beat the view. My mom is the #1 crab fan, and I wanted to take a picture of me holding crab meat in both hands, crab stuffed in my mouth, and crab spilling out from the top of my shirt. Then I thought well that would be pretty smelly so I didn't :P Then we went in his hot tub, drank red wine, and looked at Auke Lake and the Mendenhall Towers and the hemlocks and Sitka spruces all around us. Hopefully, this is just one of many perfect Alaskan days, but so far, it's been the best.

***

When I got home, I went to the Vista House and watched Da Ali G movie with Seamus, Rich, and Cris. After it ended, I went to Brad’s room and talked with him a little bit. I am constantly surprised by him; I found a calculus book in his shelf, and he said he'd borrowed it from the library to learn calculus, for like, fun. Calculus. He also had a Thailand guidebook and said he got it from a friend who owns the Thai restaurant in Auke Bay so I said we should go sometime, and I also mentioned Sweet Dreams at Nugget Mall, and he said yeah we should. When I left, of course the Vista girls were giving each other looks because they’re all busybodies and can’t shut up about other people. I should just start making out with Seamus or Brad in front of everyone one of these days and really give them all something to gossip about.