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White's 10-inch, lace-to-toe Smokejumpers, men's size 5. Welcome to the new Susan. From hippie world traveler to burly, smoke-breathing firefighter. Instead of hugging trees, now I’m wishing they’d catch on fire so I could save them and start getting some of that legendary overtime and hazard pay. It’s not a natural transition; it’s taken […] Happy Susan. My new God’s name is Ullr. Floating. Floating all day. On 24 inches of freshies, on good vibes between friends, on rays of sun sparkling on snow crystals in the air. Floating in the afterglow of a fantastic day. The Wasatch got dumped with snow all day yesterday, and I called in […] Salt Lake City is organized on a numbered grid system, with the Mormon Temple at the center (0,0) and the rest of the streets fanning out north, south, east, and west in straight, orderly lines. The valley is flat; mountains form protective stockades on the eastern and western edges. It’s the eastern peaks that draw […] This is what I tell my co-workers at the Brighton Resort Ski School when they roll their eyes about “icy conditions”. To which they respond, “You must be from the east coast.” The last week has been warm, the snow soft and thin in patches (this is, after all, pre-Thanksgiving skiing), but it has […] We left the jungle before sunrise, standing up in the back of a quarter-ton pickup with seven people and their luggage, plus a bed frame, six bags of aguaje fruit, a stack of unfinished lumber, and a live chicken in a plastic bag tied to the side of the truck that clucked mournfully with every […] The United States is quiet. No car horns. No shouting vendors. No roaring, muffler-less combis or downshifting buses. It’s clean. I took a walk around Syreena’s suburban neighborhood and found a single piece of trash: a cardboard McDonald’s box. Everyone has American accents, and I no longer have to do a double take when […] Jesus and I left Iquitos on the Eduardo VI, a posh(er) version of the Jeisawell, more crowded, less quaint. We weren’t the only tourists this time, though we were the only two sleeping in hammocks in the economy class. The two Dutch had mattresses on the upper deck, and the Belgians slept in a private […] The sidewalk under my feet bears a skin of slippery green moss from the night before. Sweat slides between my shoulder blades. It’s early, but it’s already thirty-six degrees (96F). The sun is low in the sky across the Rio Napo. At the waterfront, three men are carving a wooden canoe. Two use machetes to […] It’s been nearly another month without an entry. Where, oh where, have I been? What on earth have I been doing? As usual: too much. And all of it far too delicious to spoil by rushing. Oh no. This dish has to stay in the pot til it’s good and done. But perhaps this will […] The fun of the weekly market at Saquisilí began for me at around 4:30 AM when a baby sheep fell off the roof of the bus. It dangled, hooves desperately seeking purchase on the smooth glass of my window. I’d watched it (and eleven others) being hauled up, baaaaaing all the way, an hour before, […] |
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