Saturday, May 06, 2006

life changes in the ordinary instant

Starting on the 15th this month, I'll be junior staffing an ethnoarchaeological dig for UAS. It's for an interpretive trail at Auke Lake. Needless to say, I am stoked about it. There are two minor downsides, being a) ridiculous $3.40/gallon gas prices and b) making up the 72 hours of work during evenings and weekends. It will be a fulfilling, albeit exhausting, two weeks.

I also submitted a proposal to present at the Alaska History Conference in October. I probably won't even be in Juneau then, but the professor says I could still do something in absentia.

And there is a grant from the City Museum whose deadline is rapidly approaching and which I haven't yet begun writing. It's for projects that contribute to the history of Juneau, and my ethnography definitely fits perfectly under their guidelines. I really need to work on the letters of support.

It's May, and my city is wet, and the tourist season officially began last Wednesday. A Norwegian cruise liner with 1,750 passengers and 600+ crewmembers docked. I'm guessing about 20 of them actually got off their packaged vacation boat with its indoor pools and free buffet to roam around the reality of fog-enshrouded downpour in downtown Juneau.

Nostalgia: "Know that you don't have to suffer to write well, letting the pain of your life drip onto paper to create some masterpiece. Know you can be happy and still make something beautiful... I wonder if Africa will calm me down. I wonder when I will stop running. I wonder about my cardiac arrythmia. I wonder as I wander." -Email to J, 9/5/01

"i feel like i must have started life over when i boarded that plane in october. what did i think of up there, suspended between ground and heaven, flying between old and new? of kate, of jacob, of regret, of my father and his wreckage, of my mother and her denial, of my sister and her complacency, perhaps? and then i was completely absconced in white. purity. cleanliness. i had to have stepped into a realm of rebirth, like when the phoenix starts anew from herself-combustion and ashes." -Email to D, 12/23/01

Don't hold on
Go get strong
or don't you know
there's no modern romance
~Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs

3 Comments:

At 7:29 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

well, congrats on the new position! i know what it's like to work your ass off, i was working 7 days a week for a few months, and i'll probably still be doing it for a few more....

 
At 5:34 PM, Blogger valorie said...

thx! i'm working out if i can get a stipend for it b/c actually, as a Vista, i'm not allowed to earn any additional income. it really sucks what with the gas prices and the dig being 30 min drive away, twice a day, for two weeks.

7 days a week though! ack. i couldn't handle it.

 
At 3:56 PM, Blogger Chipper said...

HOw long does tourist season last for? Also---$3.40 a gallon for gas?! That's horrible. It's ab. $2.85 herre in Ohio and I am complaining like crazy, but looking at your prices, I now know I don't have anything to complain ab.! Yeesh!

 

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