February fun

                It’s still winter in Alaska.  Some of us fall into that state of mental and emotional hibernation.  You know, where your eyes take on a hypnotic, zombie-like stare, and your lumbering, dreamlike, from place to place, bundled against the -20 degree wind-chill, snarling grumpily at anyone who disturbs your one delicate emotional princess of a nerve who is waiting for her prince… the sun.

                Like cocaine addicts, we chew down bottles of vitamin D tablets, looking for that happy high.  We lay in tanning beds and pretend for ten minutes that we are somewhere in Mexico.  We also take a supreme interest in beverages, specialty roasted coffee beans and home-brewed ales can inspire an hour or more of fireside chat.

                However, Alaskans have learned to stick out the long dark winters.  We can be quite creative and festive: Music concerts, winter sports, lively restaurants and holidays abound from November to March.  Because it’s so dark and cold, we do not hold back on fireworks, bonfires and merry-making.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are just the beginning.

 In February, we celebrate Fur Rendezvous with races, exhibitions and big big minor/trapper themed parties.   The trapper ball is a tradition evolved from the Alaskan pioneer days, when courting habits were reminiscent of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.  Furry wild men came down from the mountains and forcibly collected their blushing brides to take back to the wilderness.  No bicycle built for two, no June wedding, just dapper handsome primal beasts, dragging womenfolk to their dens.  These days, we have evolved to ball gowns, hors de ’oeuvres and Champaign, but the rugged spirit is still there.

Fur Rondy also includes downtown festivities like ice sculpture contests and running with the reindeer – not as big or wrathful as bulls, but they have bigger horns and swifter legs.  The humans dress up in their clowniest costumes -some don't, as illustrated by the one picture we were able to find-, and then they invite the obliging reindeer to join them on the jaunt down 5^th avenue.  No danger, no foul, no animal rights activists.

We also enjoy snowshoe softball, a frostbite footrace, sledding, skiing, snow giants and beer-guzzling contests.  Some will take a polar bear plunge into Goose Lake, and some will have a toastier time inside the Performance Arts center with Mr. Whitekeys and his history of Alaska Show.

Then, like civilized city-folk, we get up on Sunday morning, warm up the Subaru, and we head on over to Marty’s for bagels and coffee.  We open up our laptops and begin the blog of the week…

Walter the Cat

This is Peach’s cat Walter. This is his story.

Walter is a rescue cat. When he was one, his owner abandoned him in an empty apartment in the middle of winter (winter in Alaska sucks) with no food or heat.  He was trapped, alone, cold and hungry.  A Good Samaritan heard this kitty desperately meowing, and instead of ignoring the cries, he had the fire department get into the empty building and rescue the little creature. Walter was pretty bad off when they found him; the plan was to put him down immediately. Luckily, a local non-profit called Friends of Pets took him in and nourished him back to health.

They eventually put him up for adoption and placed him on display in a little cage at the entryway of a vet’s office. He spent about 4 weeks there until a co-worker of Peach took her cats to that vet and got to meet Walter.  She came back to work and said that this cat must be adopted.

 Peach just couldn’t resist; she at least had to go take a look. Peach and Walter met and were immediate friends.  Walter was adopted the very next day and is now living quite comfortably as the head Cat of the Condo. He is a loyal guardian, boisterous entertainer and professional heart warmer.

Walter encourages everyone who is in the market for little animal friends to not just look at fancy breeds and cute little baby kittens (they don’t stay kittens forever).  Take some time, and go to the rescue shelter, and humane society.  You might be surprised at the little treasures you will find. The abandoned and lost causes would be grateful for a second chance…Walter knows.

Who the heck ARE you guys, anyway?

Happy Sunday, everyone.  Thank you for coming back for seconds.  You are brave.  We are again satiated with bacon and perked with Kaladi Brothers Coffee.

We are eager to share with you the magical entity that is Peach and CoCo.  Colorful, hilarious, tough, practical, whimsical, artistic and adventurous only scratches the surface.  CoCo was  born on the rocky shores of Alaska, and Peach was born in the Rocky mountains of Colorado.  But somehow we found each other in the multidimensional cave-world one might call “library.”  The library is where we work, read, play, hone our shushing skills, and discuss the latest episode of Saturday Night Live.  This is where we became the best of friends.

Although our names, put together, sound like a horrible food combination, like pepperoni and frosting, they are, in fact, our true nicknames.  CoCo named herself at age one, unable to pronounce her given name.  Peach was raised in a peach growing and processing community.  Plus, she really is just a peachy girl.

As females, we have the stereotypical love of eye-liner, unicorns, chocolate, kittens and the color magenta.  As worldly, open-minded, sarcastic and steel-lined women, however, much of that love is tongue-in-cheek or ironic.  Except for the kittens.  We really do love kittens.

CoCo, against her feminine nature, and to the chagrin of her mother perhaps, loves super macho movies.  Action, adventure, robots, explosions, cowboys, blood and guts, outer space… peek her interest way WAY more than anything adapted from a Jane Austen novel.

Peach is an avid fan of cage fighting and hockey, and she never misses a Dungeons and Dragons game if she can help it.  If you even mention UFC, she will explode into an enthusiastic encyclopedia of who’s who and fighting techniques.  It’s the same with her RPG character, a dragon-born warrior.

Music! Music can say a lot about a person as well.  Here are CoCo and Peach’s top ten for the week.

Peach: Day After Day, Badfinger Unwed Fathers, John Prine Starlight, Muse Dog Days Are Over, Florence + The Machine Are you Gonna Be My Girl?, JET The Time (Dirty Bit), Black Eyed Peas Spanish Pipedream, John Prine It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, Kitty Wells Wagon Wheel, Old Crow Medicine Show Baby's Got Her Bluejeans On, Mel McDaniel

CoCo: uSSummertime, Gershwin In In the Summertime, Mungo Jerry <!  Sellotape, Flight of the Conchords       New Slang, The Shins <!  When Your Mind’s Made Up, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova <! Where I Stood, Missy Higgins <!  The Last DJ, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers <!  What’s Up, Four Non-Blondes <!  Perfect Day, Lou Reed <!  SexyBack, Justin Timberlake

So there you have it. A taste of Peach and CoCo.  As we add more posts, we’d like to take on a more narrative voice, and begin storytelling the amazing adventures we have.  Like the time we renovated CoCo’s birthday cake… or the time we drove a van of elderly ladies to the Iditarod start.

Until next time, stay warm Cheechakos!

January 2011, Mass begins

1/9/11

Greetings family and friends.  It’s dark outside, and freezing cold in the city of Anchorage.  Inside the holy sanctuary of Marty’s Bagel Deli, however, Peach and CoCo are warm and filled with the bacony delights of the delicatessen. It is Sunday. The time is 9:20, and the fireside and coffee aroma are swiftly raising the morning spirits which we readily praise with most tender love in our hearts… and our bellies.

GLORIA Mamalia Suidae, et far farris, et Spiritui Columbia. Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper, et in saecula saeculorum. Amen.

We cannot say we are very religious, but we ARE highly devoted to our bacon and coffee. Marty’s is a place of bread-breaking, confession, and the occasional Sunday crossword.  We discuss the events of the week, and this is how we came to the radical decision to begin a blog about ourselves.

We are far away and isolated from the rest of the world – we say this ironically; we are in a bagel deli in a city of 300,000.  BUT, this city is about a million bazillion miles from anywhere else.  No way to get out, except by plane and $2,000.  Our families miss us.  We miss them.  We want to let them know how we are and what we’re up to in this popsicle stand. And even though CoCo’s family has never even met any of Peach’s family, CoCo and Peach are family, and spend lots and lots and lots of time together.

So get ready for bagels, bacon, fashion, mountain hikes, Alaskan factoids, and the wild side of libraries!  You know you’re squirming in your seats, waiting for our book reviews and opinions on the Carr’s salad bar.

We hope to keep you entertained and up to date.  At this time, however, our coffee cups are drained, and we have errands to run.

Until next week, stay warm Cheechakos!