On Top of The World

Howdy Family and Friends,

So much has happened this spring and it's not even May yet...
Before I launch into my summary of all the changes going on in my life I first want to say that everyday I miss my Jamie. I wake up and it hits me how much she meant to me, and to everyone she knew. I still feel like I'll see her Mazda drive up and hear that bubbly laugh everytime I think about Bothell and being home again. She was as much a sister to me as a best friend, and I miss her so much everyday. My dad made it possible for me to say a final goodbye and I cannot express how thankful I am to him for allowing me to see her slip away that day in the hospital. I love my family and friedns so much, I know Jamie would want us all to step up and be the best sisters, mothers, fathers, brothers, cousins, and people on this earth that we possibly can while we're here. I'm finally able to write this all down, and it feels really good. I just spent a week with a good group of friends from all over Alaska and the lower 48 for the AK Folk Festival here in town. I played my heart out, everytime I had a bass in my hands; be it in front of an audience at Centennial Hall, or just with friends in someone's living room, I played with every ounce I had and thought of Jamie with every beat. Music has been extremely theraputic in coping with losing her, and this folk fest was vital in helping me through a tough weekend knowing her service was going on in Portland.
I got to see music from Layfayette, possibly the best players around right now. Warm, talented artists who love Alaska with palpable ferocity...I'm always amazed at the strong connections I make every year during the festival...this year was no exception.
Playing music while the sun rose on the docks, laughing until every muscle in my face ached, playing until my forearms felt numb...there's nothing like it in the world.

I've also had really great luck in finding a wonderful place to live. Early April, when I got home from Seattle, I moved to a small studio apartment in the ground level of a friend's home. The house is perched at the top of a hill, Starr Hill, which is the oldest neighborhood in town. The direct access to my apartment is up 183 stairs, and the view is totally worth it. It's a small space but it feels so homey and comfortable. I'm also surrounded by the best neighbors in town...It's a great place to be.

I will be still settling in, learning more guitar, and enjoying the best season in Juneau. I have been overwhelmed with how lucky I am, and how much I have to be thankful for. Love to all, I will post again soon.

-Amanda

Lovely Winter Fun Time

Hi all,

It's the bitter (hopefully) end of winter here in Juneau. March is always a really uplifting month...waking up with more and more light...walking home from work and there's more light. We just experienced a winter storm and got a couple feet of new snow to play in, so everyone seems a little more happy.

I went snowboarding yesterday and had maybe the best time ever riding. I was skiing with my good friend Allison who grew up in Anchorage...she's a really great skiier so the challenge of keeping up made me go a little harder and fsater!

There was SO MUCH POWDER and we hit up a bright bluebird day! I even have a few new freckles! We did a little hiking to the West Ridge of Eaglecrest and met up with a good friend...shared a beer, watched the water, basked in the sunshine, and flew down the mountain in the fluffy fluffy powder!

A great day!

I leave for Seattle this weekend to see the fam, and attend a rowdy Bluegrass festival at the Hyatt in Bellevue, WA.
I'm bringing my new guitar with me! YAY! Looking forward to having a ball with lots of musicians and friends and family!!!
Cheers, love you all!
XO,
Amanda

Winter Updates

Greetings!

I decided this blog will transition to a quarterly update, sorry for being so lame about keeping up with it.
I do have a new little project going with my friend Sarah who lives nearby and with whom I share passions for cooking, sewing, crafts, and fart jokes.
Check it out! Warning: there are some cuss words and quasi offensive material in here...so read at your own risk!
www.ginraisins@blogspot.com

Well, I made it through the first half of winter. Solstice is always a speaical time for Alaskans where we can breathe a sigh of releif that the days will get longer and within a few months the light will return to our afternoons again!

I had a pretty busy but wonderful December. I bought my first guitar. It's a gorgeously made Martin 00-15 all mahogany small body. It's a very nice instrument which I got for a huge discount. I know that it might not have been worth eating lentils and rice for that month, but it's something I can learn on, write songs on, and cherish forever! I play it everyday for at least 1-2 hours before work, after work...and sometimes I run home on my lunch break to work on a song that's been stuck in my head.
I never thought I could love something as much as my autoharp, but I'm REALLY enjoying learning this new intrument.

The holidays rounded out nicely too. Thanksiving was nice and low key spent with friends in town. I was lucky enough to go home for Christmas to see the family...a VERY long overdue trip. I wished I could have stayed for another week or more, but alas I had to get back to work.
New Years Eve this year was the best ever. I was asked to play bass with an old time band "Elbow Grease" for a square dance held at a local church hall. It was great to get more bass practice and learn some catchy old time tunes with very talented musicians. Playing music for people is something I really love, and something I want to do ALOT more of it in the future.

I'm looking forward to 2011, and sending my strongest hopes and wishes of good health and recovery to loved ones who are struggling. Everyday I wish I could be there with Jamie, who is so strong and inspriring right now through her struggle with Leukemia. I'm so glad I got to spend Christmas with her, even though it was brief. But knowing my parents and how amazing they are, I know she's in good hands. Another person that has been in my thoughts is the "father of Alaska Bluegrass" Carl Hoffman from Fairbanks who suffered a head injury this fall and who still is recovering from his fall. Hearing other freinds and peers dealing with health issues it makes me so thankful that I am healthy and doing ok up here on my own.

Let's hope 2011 is a year of rapid recovery and astounding comebacks. Miss you all, love you dearly, and I hope to see you soon.

Best,

Amanda

Fall Time in Juneau Town

Hellllo Friends and Family,

Still loving my new job at the Juneau Douglas City Museum :) It's a lot to learn, but I'm taking in as much as I can about the Museum and working for the City and Bourough of Juneau.
It's hilarious the amount of details that go into buying cases of copy paper, but I've been doing the best I can getting used to the process! One of the administrators for Parks and Rec told me it took him 2 years to really know everything...and our curator of public programs (who's been here for 6 years) says she's still learning!
But I have a pile of random tasks within a single day, so I keep busy and never get bored. The Museum is in an old library, and our staff consists of me, the director, 2 curators (one for collection and the other for programing) and an intern from Virginia. It's awesome to work in such an adorable little place, with a small staff.
The director told me 76 people applied to this job, so i feel pretty lucky to be working here!

Fall is rolling in and the leaves are beginning to fall steadily. I forget how quickly fall comes and goes in SE AK. I'm looking forward to winter and skiing, but for now with all the cruise ships gone I'm just enjoying the quiet contemplative season.

I've been still playing music, and writing more songs too! I'm attempting to bang out some chords on the guitar to practice singing, but really it just makes me miss my autoharp. Someday I will get another one...but I really really miss my sparrowharp. My good friend Alicia had her fiddle and guitar stolen out of her car in Portland on a road trip to West Virginia...I felt her dissapointment and that horrible feeling of violation when someone steals from you...Well someday I will pick up a harp again. I still have my bass and I'm loving it more than ever with new strings on it thanks to Scott and Brooke!

I'm planning on developing another blog with my buddy Sarah Ritter who lives nearby. We both love cooking and we have similar taste in basically everything, so watch out for that if we make it happen. Last week, for example, we watched a Werner Herzog documentary and made red velvet cupcakes with garbanzo beans instead of flour. They actually turned out! Crazy!

Halloween is approaching, and Thanksgiving too...just looking forward to everything!
I'll be in Seattle in Decemeber for Christmas! YAY! and then again in February for a bluegrass festival in Bellevue. I'm hoping for a tropical escape sometime soon, but we'll see how much cash I can sock away to make that happen.

Hope everyone is healthy and happy down in the states!

More soon!

Love,
Amanda

I got a New Job!!!

Hi Family!

I was recently hired on as the new administrative employee at the Juneau-Douglas City Museum!!! It's an adorable little museum in downtown Juneau (next to the capital building 3 minutes from my apartment)!!!

I start next week. I still get all the good benefits of the state job I had before, but this is a little better as far as healthcare, and hourly wages!

And the best part is I get my foot back into the arts and humanities! It will be kinda nice to get out of renvenue and PFD.

Hope everyone is doing ok. Love y'all...

-Amanda

"Summer's Almost Gone, and the Winter is Coming On"

Update on the Summer in Southeast Alaska

I’m walking away from the Jeep parked on Basin road around the corner from my apartment, hauling my upright bass back inside and I notice that the majority of cars parked along the side of Mount Juneau are covered…in LEAVES!

That’s right, our Alaskan summer culminated in a blast of 85 degree weather this last weekend, and now I find myself thinking about investing in leather boots and sewing new buttons on my weathered wool peacoat. Summer is always crazy, the band family is spilt up burying ourselves in work, spending time down in the lower 48 with family and, in Scott and Brooke’s case building a glorious cabin in Montana. They just returned and it was jarring to realize that a mere two months ago I was driving them to the airport.

With a tan that I know will fade in a few weeks, brown hair that must have turned a few shades lighter growing out to rest on my shoulders and no-see-um scars dotting my arms and legs…I can look back and say I had a superb summer in Juneau.

I’m still working for the PFD (Permanent Fund Dividend), and getting used to being a State employee. It’s not the most creatively stimulating thing in the world, but music and art in the community are keeping me pretty busy in that department.

The beginning of August I traveled to Anchorage for two days with another good musician friend from Juneau and I drove to the Anderson Bluegrass and Country Music Festival in Clear, Alaska. It’s located about an hour south of Fairbanks and has a pretty fair turnout of people camped out near the river and the trees surrounding the Festival site. The musicians had our own spot in a cozy alcove near the river and the trees, and for the first weekend in August the weather was amazing. The interior sun hit highs of what felt like 90 degrees and I stayed up until 7, 8, and 9am playing music and having way too much fun with people I get to see maybe once or twice a year.

I was lucky enough to get to play Bluegrass with the musicians who inspired me to pick up the bass in the first place. I remember my first folk festival in Juneau 2008, watching all the pickers and hoping that one day I could stand with them and play.
After the festival I spent an amazing couple of days in Fairbanks with some of the crew who attended the festival. I got to see more fine interior folks and spend some time at Ivory Jack’s bar in Goldstream Valley, and the Golden Eagle in Ester, a trip to the Chatanika river, and late night hot tub soaks. The people up there are amazing, kind, generous, and fun…and I didn’t want to leave!

With sad faces we departed for the big city and after spending a great night with Kate Sangster at her gorgeous home in Anchorage, I headed home for Juneau.

I don’t really know where I will be or what I will be doing with my life, but what I do know is that I love Alaska, and it get’s deeper and deeper into me the more time I spend here. I was so excited to return to my friend community in Juneau, and I love having pockets of fantastic friends tucked into different parts of the state.

As summer winds down, I have things on the back burner, plans yet to be hatched, and the best thing to look forward to, SEATTLE AND PORTLAND for Christmas! Everyday I wake up excited to see everyone down south in the Northwest!

I will update again soon!
Love you all, Take care!
-ajc

JUNE!

So i'm about to turn 25, and it's a little scary to say the least.

It's summer in Juneau and that means lots of sunshine and LONG days. I have to remind myself that 4 hours of sleep on a weekday is not enough, and to make sure to get more rest. It's so difficult as it can stay light out until 11pm...and there's lots to do!

So far June has been great, the folks came to visit which gave me the refresh of love and family I needed for the season, and we had a great memorial day weekend! The band played bluegrass at the Alaskan bar, we took a whale watching musical private cruise down the Lynn canal with the Chisholms and the band family and watched baby humpaback whales breaching with Coronas in our hands and smiles on our faces. My mom and dad helped me put some nice touches on my apartment, which looks better than ever!

This week has been extremely busy! There was a visiting cermaics artist from Colorado, so plenty of reason to celebrate out at Jr and Alli's home on Auke Bay. Kate Hamre and Aoife O'Donovan, two musicians were in town teaching the Bluegrass Camp for Kids. I hadn't seen Kate since October, and it was great to play music with her and catch up on life! Aoife is a musician from Brooklyn in the band Crooked Still, and I have never met such a warm, down to earth, talented gal! She even did a solo show at the Alaskan for us!

This weekend should be more fun, musicians from Elfin Cove, Anchorage, and here in Juneau are playing, and I plan on dancing through to my birthday on Sunday!

Hope everyone's doing well! I will post some pictures soon ;)

love,
Amanda