where have I been?

(here is a pic of me in Chugach Mountains right out side of Anchorage.Cleanest air, huge mountains, most beautiful sunshine....impossible not to smile the whole time we hiked around.)
(pic of me by the bush plane we took to the summit of Denali, which is the highest peak in North America. My jacket color coordinated with the plane so i looked extra cute that day!)


I am sure most of you have been asking yourselves where I have been....after getting a daily dose of me for about a month through my blog, I'm sure you all have been missing me.....it's hard being so loved. Just kidding, but seriously, I can't believe how many people read my blog. I love the comments and emails I received from everyone so thank you. I left Barrow and went to Anchorage to meet my mom. After spending about 10 days with my mom in Alaska, I am now back in Houston. My mom and I had such a great time. Here are some of the high points......
co-piloting a bush plane to the summit of Denali on the first clear day they have had in a very long time, drinking beers while watching kayakers paddle through some of the toughest rivers I have ever seen, hiking on a glacier and seeing black bears (i have never seen my mom move so fast!!), eating some of the freshest salmon three meals a day, cruising in the ocean looking at whales and bald eagles, hiking on trails I read about in National Geographic Explorer magazine (yeah, I am that cool), and, of course, purchasing illegal artifacts to display in my Houston apartment. Since I have been home, my living room has transformed into a sort of "den of animals." Nothing says "welcome to my home" like a caribou skin hanging above my couch and an Eskimo mask made out of polar bear hair.
I am happy to be home in the lower 48 and that first night of darkness here in Houston was great. I was gone for 33 very LONG days of sunshine. Unbelievable. A lot of my friends have asked if there really is light 24 hours of day. Let's just day my eyeballs have finally stopped burning. After my time in Alaska, I am more convinced than ever that I want to move up to Alaska for a couple of years after I graduate. Besides providing dental service to patients who really need it and appreciate it, blah, blah, blah..... it really is just too damn fun not to go back! I left too many trails un-hiked, too many salmon uneaten, and too many illegal presents to mail home not to go back.
I am now in clinic in Houston for the rest of the summer. I am back to my over scheduled, hectic life but I am so happy I was able to escape that for awhile up in Alaska. Looking back, I realize that going to Alaska was my attempt to make sense of this past year and everything that happened to me.... it has taken time and a roller coaster of emotions for me to cut loose any fixed idea that I had about death, about illness, about probability and luck, about good fortune and bad, about the ideas of marriage and children and memory, about grief, about the ways in which people do and do not deal with the fact that life does in fact end, about the shallowness of sanity, about life itself.
I'm pretty sure my blog should end here. No one wants to read about my daily adventures involving Houston dental patients or the number of times Biggie pees in my apartment. But, the next goal is the Houston Marathon January 2008.. Perhaps I could set up a profitable little online betting pool about whether I will finish the marathon or not.....stay tuned.