There is no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear.

The above mantra may be credited to Paula, one of our JVC Support People living here in Juneau. We are learning very quickly that it is not just a saying, but it is a perspective that you absolutely have to have if you're going to appreciate and enjoy Juneau. On the Saturday we flew into Juneau, it looked like this:


(Click here to see the rest of the album - pictures from the plane & a glacier!!)
Like, I took those pictures. they're not edited or google imaged or anything. That's JUNEAU. Truly incredible. However, it has rained every single day since we got here a week and a half ago, and this is quite typical. For those of us used to sunshine, it's been an adjustment. But the people of Juneau have a healthy attitude about it that is truly remarkable. For example, I live across the street from a beach. It is a real beach, with real sand, and real ocean water beyond it (well, channel water, which is like an extension of the ocean. I'll take it on a technicality. This is how you make lemonade.) Now at home, a beach day would be entirely dependent on weather. Not here. I've been to the beach most of the days I've been here, to picnics and parties and cookouts on the beach held, yes, in overcastness and drizzle and occasionally pouring rain. Yesterday at work, we took the kids to the beach for the entire day. We played on the beach, hiked, even played in the sand. Here, you just literally cannot put things off if it's a rainy day. Because then you'd never do anything!

So, in this Juneau spirit of embracing the outdoors all the time, regardless of weather, my roommate Megan and I both had a day off of work today and decided to go on an adventure. After running a few errands downtown that we'd had to put off since getting here, we set out on the REAL mission of the day: we went to get our xtratuffs!!! Xtra Tuffs are boots. but they are SO much more than boots. They are real, Alaskan fishing boots, they are on the feet of every local in town, they are hideous, and they are. the real. deal.

We've been looking all over town for them, but have been limited by the constraints of the bus system and our schedules. FINALLY Megan and I went to get our boots, and we were so pumped after finally finding them that we took them to the beach to break them in ASAP! And even though it was raining, we could not be stopped from trying to make it as much of a true beach day as possible:




Sunscreen, sunglasses, and a beach towel. We were not going to let the lack of sun stop us from finding some sunshine. And it was a great time!

In other news of challenges and endeavors and great adventures, I started working last Wednesday! I am a Case Manager and a Behavioral Health Associate for a city agency which works primarily with emotionally disturbed children and their families. Right now, it's a lot. I haven't yet been able to get a concrete definition of what either of these positions mean, how I should divide my time between the two positions, what i need to learn about each job, etc. But I am getting a feel for each job having begun to go through new employee orientation, and right now, the case manager part of my job is more intimidating than the BHA part. Yesterday, I acted as a BHA and spent all day with the kids, and the other BHAs at the beach, and I really enjoyed that part. Since my training so far hasn't been directly pertaining to my job(s), I'm still trying to grasp what each job even is. But, the people at my agency are GREAT. They are so kind and helpful, and even though I feel that this position has many sink or swim moments where I will hopefully swim but might sink, I feel supported by them, and that's important to me. I think the overwhelming part comes from trying to start learning my jobs before I actually understand what they are. I'm grasping that there's a lot of responsibility with the case management aspect, and that intimidates me a bit as well. But I do feel that this is a tremendous opportunity, to work with great people, and I am trying to take it one day at a time. The goal I've set for myself is to feel like I feel comfortable in my job by December, when I will hopefully not have quite so many "I don't know what I'm doing!" moments as I do now!

Hope this was informative and enjoyable. Hope it was legible - my dad made me change the font color because it hurt his eyes or something. Is this better, dad?

Love and miss!