spring break

Though I'm not really a teacher yet, most of my income is from the xchool, which means that I gave myself spring break too. And how did I celebrate this amazing week? I swam with porpoise. Kinda. One might also call it falling in the water while kayaking. Well, the porpoise weren't really even that close. Maybe I swam near porpoise rather than with them. Though, I didn't really go swimming. I just stood I. The water up to my waist and laughed. A lot. And maybe it wasn't really porpoise at all. Because I was on a different side of the island from where they were. So maybe I just fell in. But it was still pretty hilarious if you ask me. Or if you ask my roommate, Karen. It was good times.
and I went to Juneau with my peeps. But that wasn't as cool as kayaking with somewhere around 200 porpoise.

I just think this is cool

Because it's never to late to follow your dreams. check it out

border patrol

So I went to Whitehorse with Ashley this weekend. It was pretty fun, but I think the highlight of our trip for both of us is when we stopped at the US border on our way home. The officer noticed the brace on my hand and asked what I did. I told him that I did something to the ligament in my thumb because I was trying to do a flip on a trampoline. I didn't talk about the fact that I was trying to do a flip off the wall, but whatever... his response? "What a loser! I'm over 200 pounds and even I can do a flip on a trampoline!" Great. Thanks. Can I go home now? He didn't even really care what we brought back with us. He was laughing too hard.

maxwells

Within the span of just over 24 hours, I saw my whole family. Well, at least my brothers and their families. That pretty much never happens outside of Christmas, so it was pretty fun. Highlights from this weekend include:
-Owen thinking he can scare anyone by saying "BOO" at any point in time (and me pretending to be scared every time)
-Getting to hang out with baby Josh (despite some spit-up)
-Owen telling me that I have big toes (and me telling him that at least they aren't as big as his daddy's)
-Making Calla giggle by putting her on my shoulders and running or jumping (even though she tries to eat my hair)
-14 hours in the car with Ethel laughing at random stuff (like people who are really, really bad at parallel parking)
-Getting to have conversations with my big brothers and their wives (a total of four people... no one in my family is polygamous)

Oh, and btw, a Sky High update... it turns out that I stretch or strained or in some other way injured the ligament in my thumb, so I now have a brace on it to prevent it from moving for the next 6 weeks.... on the bright side, it is stationed in such a way that I can still hold a ski pole and a kayak paddle (not at the same time, of course).

And in case anyone was wondering, I'm ready to be back in Haines any time now...

fleece pants update

I know that you're all dying to know how my life has been since my fleece pants got eaten by a rabid animal. Well, I purchased a new pair of black fleece pants online, but they just weren't the same. I mean, I like them, but nothing was like my pants. But then, just when I had lost all hope, my mom picked me up at the airport with some purple husky pants. They're not quite the same, but they're good. Sometimes change is a good thing.

Legen... wait for it... almost there... dary.

How I Met Your Mother Season 4 came in yesterday. Awesome. My friends came over last night to watch the whole first disc. We should have it done by the end of this weekend. YES!

Sorry moms...

Sorry Ethel, Bonnie, Frankie, and anyone else that has that motherly worry about me from time to time... but here's the story of my weekend.
I decided that I needed some Kate time, so I decided that I was going to kayak out to an island not too far from shore and go camping for a night. It's close, I've done it a bunch before, it's in cell phone range, and worst case scenario, I would never be more than a quarter mile from shore, which I can swim even without a life jacket, so it's all good. It was a little rainy when I got there, so I set up camp right away... it was a little rocky, but I sleep in odd positions anyway, so I wasn't too worried. I forgot to check the tides before I headed out (mistake #1), so I called Jenty when I got to the island to see what was going on. So I got the times for the tides, but forgot to ask how high and low they were (mistake #2). I had a great evening and night, reading my bible and journaling and just sitting out staring at God's glory all around me. Then I went to bed. I happened to wake up at 1:30 (high tide was at 1:54) and heard waves pretty loud close to my tent. I knew that I was above the tide line, but I wasn't so sure about my kayak (mistake #3), so I went to go check it out. It was half in the water. If I hadn't happened to wake up in the middle of the night, I could have easily been without a kayak in the morning. But I still had a kayak, so I went back to sleep. Then, when I got up in the morning, I could tell that there was a lot of wind without even looking. It was pretty obvious by the random bending of my tent. So, I wasn't really gonna be able to make it back across the channel. Shouldn't have been that big of a deal, but I didn't have any extra food with me (mistake #4). I had planned on doing a little fasting/prayer retreat, so I didn't have any food with me at all. Luckily, I did have a scavenging book about the natural plants, but the only thing I could find was seaweed... and the tide was high, so I was gonna have to wait. I happened to text Lindsey, who was at a coffee shop, and she heard that there was a small craft advisory out, so that pretty much meant that I shouldn't really go anywhere. So I sat on a rock and tried to start a fire with my flint, Bear Grylls style. I don't know how that dude does it. I was getting pretty hungry too, so I was about ready to pull a full on Woman vs. Wild and take my kayak paddle apart and rope my pocket knife to the end of it and stab a seal. Probably not totally legal, but hey, I was hungry. Anyway, I waited until it was high tide so it was heading back out which meant the wind and the water were going the same direction and then I couldn't handle it anymore, so I packed up and headed for shore. I texted Lindsey to say that if she didn't hear from me in an hour and a half something had gone wrong and headed out. The wind was strong and the waves were about 3-5 feet. Not exactly optimum in my 17' long 34" wide boat. I got tossed around and ended up not exactly where I wanted to be, but I couldn't get the skeg down and I was exhausted from no food and sleeping on random rocks, so I went with it. It took me almost an hour to do something that would have normally taken about 20-25 minutes, but I made it. I pretty much just sat in my boat the whole time saying, "me and you, God. Me and you." and "i'm so tired. God, give me some strength." and "holy shit, that was a big wave." On the bright side, Lindsey and some friends came out in a skiff so if things had gone wrong I had some support. Anyway, it was a good trip overall, but not a situation I will get myself into again.
Long story, but entertaining. Kinda... Or something...

Long time no post

For once, it's because I've been busy, not because there's nothing to say...
here's the quick rundown, with details to be filled in later...
-spent 4 days in Seattle
-helped run a fundraising concert of youth group kids
-had a friend visit Haines
-worked on school a ton
-worked a ton

But here's something that is just too random to not share... you know how sometimes you say things that have double meanings without necessarily realizing the second meaning while you say it? This morning I was eating cereal that I hadn't had in forever, and I thought to myself, "I forgot how much I love Life." And then I realized it wasn't just the cereal that made that statement true.

I do what I do

Last sunday I was a puppet for the children's sermon at church... I tried to put up a video of it, but the internet is too slow to upload something like that here. So I'll try next time I'm in Seattle. Life here is good. Pretty much the same old stuff. I'm waiting for textbooks to show up so I can really get cracking on school work. Other than that nothing much has changed.

ABC 123

Just cuz I'm bored... the ABCs and 123s of Kate Maxwell... harder than you'd think...
A- Awesome
B- Bored
C- Cool
D- Dork
E- Energetic sometimes
F- Frozen
G- Good
H- Happy
I- Intelligent
J- Joyful
K- Kate
L- Lazy
M- Maxwell
N- Near perfect (hahahaha)
O- Opinionated (but not negatively... I just have a lot of opinions)
P- Personable
Q- Quirky
R- Random
S - Seriously Rad
T- Talkative (sometimes)
U- Unemployed
V- Virtuous
W- Weird
X- eXcitable
Y- Young
Z- Zealous

0- states I have not been in
1- college I applied to
2- kayaks I own
3- dogs I live with
4- times I've been to the Dominican Republic
5- people in my family growing up (2 bros, ma, pa)
6- years of varsity sports in high school
7- times I've been rushed to the doctor/hospital (finger, appendix, eye, finger, head, mouth, head)
8- the uniform I wore during softball
9- years since I was a freshman in high school

winter adventures

Haines doesn't seem to know what season it is. Last week was pretty clear. Then Thursday it snowed a couple feet. Friday it rained and melted a lot, but not all of the snow. Then a couple random bits of freezing and thawing later, everything is just one big sheet of ice. But, as Alissa (the sister-in-law) put it, I have almost survived my first Alaskan winter. And there is something to be said for that.

Killing time

It seems that's what I've been doing a lot of lately. I sit here, at what I guess has become my computer for the time being at Federal Mortgage waiting for the Salvation Army truck to come.
Check that. They came. And rejected my donation because they don't have enough space. What??? Don't have enough space for a sweet looking table that is heavier than hell? Oh well.
I've also been killing time until I can go back to Alaska. But even up there I was killing time until I could find a job.
At least I kill time well.

Christmas Recap 08

This Christmas was pretty good. Although I was not able to eat normally and thus had to pass up the traditional Maxwell breakfast casserole and prime rib dinner, it was a good day. I got to hang out with my whole family in one place, which hasn't happened since April, I think. My niece and nephew are getting so cute. I like them a lot. We played a lot of Wii and made a lot of wii jokes. I was called wii-tarded a lot. One of my brothers got a wii-eat down. My sister-in-law told us about hitting her wii-mote against the wall. And Winnie, my brothers Wii-ton terrier was a fun target as well.

Connie's, how can I help you?

So I got into Haines on Monday around noon and went over to the Summer Inn to see Lori and Ashley. After chilling for a little while there, Lori decided that we wanted something to eat. So we went to the Mountain Market, but she decided against that. So we went to Connie's (formerly Video 144). Connie greeted us upon arrival, but taking a closer look, realized that she knew me, as I had worked for her for about a week and half the last time I was in Haines. She asked me what I was doing back, and after hearing that I was in town for a while asked, "do you need a job?" Um, ok. So I had a job within two hours of my arrival in Haines. Pretty rad, huh?

no better title than random thoughts

1. i have a strange desire to quote air supply... but don't know why
2. i have spent 12 of the past 15 hours on my bed. no joke
3. i had cake batter ice cream yesterday. much better when consumed as just one scoop instead of 4 of 20
4. i have resorted to selling some of my instruments to make some money... it makes me cry a little
5. my back has been sore for some reason lately. possibly related to weeding at my uncles or #2
6. i leave for Haines, AK a week from today SO STOKED!!
7. i'm hungry. and my mommy loves me so she made me pumpkin bread that is all the way down stairs... to get off the bed or to not get off the bed? that is the question
8. it's my birthday tomorrow, so don't forget to say something nice to me
9. i'm tired of taking anti-biotics that have caused my existence over the past week to look something like this:

what happens in vermont ...

... doesn't stay in vermont

stationary

I will spend two nights in a row in the same place for the first time since I was in Boston. With any luck I might hit even six or seven in one place. Crazy. I'm back in Seattle now. It's good to be home-ish. I'm not sure where home is, but I sure do love my family and my puppy. So it's good to be here.

Here's some estimates from my trip for you...
Miles on the train ~ 3256
Miles on a bus ~ 381
Miles driven/ridden ~ 5334
Miles flown ~ 3204
Total traveled ~12175 (almost 350 per day)
States gone though ~ 38

my last night in seattle for a while...

there's a hope in the day... nothing exciting much going on... just connecting with friends between my two adventures... but there's a hope in the day. maybe it's because i'm headed somewhere unknown, or maybe it's because i think i'm headed back somewhere known after i get back from somewhere unknown. but even the known is unknown, because who knows who may have changed.
by the time i hopefully get back to alaska (in time to vote november 4) it will have been a year since i moved away from there. is that enough time, or am i pushing things? i believe the answer to that is that enough time has passed, but only God can know that for sure. but there's a hope in the day.

My last night in a familiar place

Tonight was pretty fun. I got to have some crazy good food with my family and just relax for a bit. Then I got to hang out with my bible study from last year. Ellie, Anna, and I went on an adventure to find pencils for Dominicans. It didn't go very well, and Ellie had to be home relatively soon after we departed, so Anna and I plugged on... First we went to the bank so I could get some money, but I didn't have my ATM card with me. I figured that's why I have a credit card, so we continued anyway. So we went to 7-11 so I could get a last minute corn dog. I ordered my three hour old corn dog, and upon deliberating, decided that I didn't in fact want to put 82 cents on my credit card, so I handed the checker my dog and said, "hang on, I bet I can find a dollar in my car." (since it was my mom's car, this was no problem) So Anna and I continued. We made it into Top Food, and I found one of the things that I had been looking for: chalk. Although, still no cheap pencils, which bummed me out a little. And we also got some Go Diego Go yogurt drink, which was amazing. So we continued on. I let Anna decide which way to go at each light, and we ended up down in U Village. Since there is a 24 hour Starbucks down there, and I had a little bit left on a s-bucks card, I decided that we were going to go in. I got a scone, and upon giving my card to the barista-type, was informed that I still owed her 85 cents. Now, as we have already established, I didn't want to put a charge for that amount on my card, so I found myself asking the barista, "can I borrow a dollar from your tip jar? I have some money in my car, I'll leave my scone here, and I'll be right back..." Cheesy, yes, but I sure did enjoy my scone, and had a good laugh about the fact that I borrowed a dollar from a tip jar.