Toyota

So I bought a Toyota after most of my family has switched from a GM preference, to the Japanese auto maker. That preference was most likely forced upon us by my father, who still has not realized that in normal vehicles, the windsheild wipers DO work, and bug juice is more than just a minor convienience - when the roads are mucky, it is a serious safety issue to not have it!

When looking for a car to buy, my dad tried to convince me to get a little Chevy car. I looked once, and not only were they more expensive than the car of my dreams, I knew I would be looking for a new vehicle about three years later once it fell apart.

I had wanted a Toyota Matrix since I rode in my aunt Barb's the first eyar they came out. I loved that car. It was so cool. When shopping the salesman tried to sell me a white coloured Yaris. When I sat in it I felt old, not 21 and happy to be driving. 

When we did my credit check and I got approved for my Matrix though, and finally got to sit in it, I felt perfect. I remember scooting out of the Toyota lot for the first time with a huge smile on my face. I felt cooler than everyone.

When the Toyota recall was announced I was not concerned. I knew that if my accelerator got stuck, I would just throw it in neutral, coast into the nearest Toyota dealership and make them fix it. I'd maybe yell a bit just to get a free detailing or oil change. It is a standard afterall, neutral shifts the car out of gear, so the gas does not make you go faster, but revs the engine. But did you know automatics have that option too? Are people retarded?

If you do not know how to stop a vehicle, in the event that the brakes don't work or the accelerator gets stuck, should you really be behind the wheel? All of these people joining the lawsuit against Toyota need to get a freaking clue. It did not put you in danger, if you have half a brain. It may have breifly inconvienienced you when you had to take your car in to fix the pedal (mine goes in Friday), but Toyota has done everything in their power to make it easier. 

I drop my car off Friday at 8:45, and they drive me straight to work. If I wasn't so lazy, I'm sure they would even come pick me up if i set up a time with them, but I will most likely walk. They are awfully friendly, and you get a ride in one of their vehicles that you did not buy. Last time they looked at my car, it was a brand new Tacoma. Very nice! It made me jealous that I could not afford one. They even have a variety of appropriate times to do the repairs. I called Tuesday, and got an appointment Friday. Pretty good, considering half of Whitehorse owns a Toyota. 

So for the people joining the lawsuit in an attempt to get their hand in the money bag that will come out, unless Toyota's high-powered corporate lawyers have anything to say about it, find something better to do with your time. If I were asked to join I would laugh in the face of the person who did the asking. 

I am not an idiot. I may be a young woman with three accidents on my record (don't tell my insurance company that, *wink wink), but in the event that my accelerator gets stuck, I know how to handle it smoothly and effectively, so I will not be in danger for one second. And, since I bought a beautiful 2010 Toyota Matrix, I'm gonna look effing cool while doing it.

Love,

Annalee.

Kya

I swore I would do nothing this weekend, but after work Friday things changed. I had a lengthy nap. I was brutally hung over after staying up till 1:30 a.m. the previous evening talking to Josh over Skype, and consuming two bottle of wine in the process. See Ow.

Mel asked if I wanted to go for a drive after. She had been out earlier with her truck and found a dog lying on the side of the road curled up in a ball. She said she needed to go check if it was still there. We hopped in the truck and away we went with a dish of food and Milo trying to eat the pompom off my hat. 

When we got to the pullout off the Alaska Highway north of Whitehorse, about 20 minutes out, there was a small furry form curled on the road. It was the dog, and as we got closer I could see it shivering in the cold. We stopped and hopped out. 

Mel offered it a dish of food, and after glancving at both of us anxiously, the dog's hunger overcame it's fear and it dug in. It gobbled up half the tray of food before Mel realized we might need some to lure her into the truck. We had decided we had to do something, and take her in to try to find her home. Mel went to grab the tray back and the dog snapped at her. Mel had to use her foot to kick the tray away gently before being able to grab it. Then she grabbed the dog's collar and scooted her towards the truck. The dog didn't have the strength to jump into the lifted truck by herself, so Mel scooped her up and put her down in the front seat. I jumped in the back and had the task of containing Milo as he excitedly wiggled back and forth trying to get a sniff of a potential new friend. 

When we got home, the dog was timid. It sat in the middle of the floor and began to slowly get calmer. With its tail still tucked between it's legs, I decided to take it for a walk. Around Goody's, the dog started to get excited. Her tail popped up and curled over and it began jumping around with a husky-equivalent of a smile. 

After the walk, I took the dog up to my room. I began brushing the matts out of its fur, and finally found out that it was a she, when she let me rub her belly. 

I brushed while watching TV, and soon my garbage can was full to the brim of her undercoat. I decided to name her Kya. I had thought the other day that it would be a good name for a husky, and here was my chance to use it. 

This is Kya:

Since Friday, when she was a timid little dog that had gone to survival mode, Kya has become the sweetest and strangest dog in the world. 

She loves walks, and has learned that when I reach for my coat on the hanger, it's time for one. She begins to stretch, yawning and wagging her fluffy tail, while jumping up and down and waiting impatiently. She loves to cuddle, but only in the mornings when I won't get up to take her for a walk. She knows when it's bed time, and that's the only time she comes up to my room. When I turn off the lights, she sneaks up to the side of my bed and drinks water out of the glass I always have at the side of my bed. In the morning when I do take her for walks, she trots along happily, and unlike a normal Husky, she just wants to sniff things and explore. She likes it when I run a bit behind her, but isn't too upset if I don't. 

When we're not out walking, she lays on the mat by the door and waits for the next walk. When I go downstairs she looks at me with her beautiful brown eyes so I just have to pet her. 

I took her out with Milo and Stacie's tiny dog Cash, and let her on a 40 foot rope or so. She viciously attacked Milo twice. Bad dog. On the ride home, she snuggled in next to me, leaning her tiny weight against my side.

She loves coming for car rides, and prefers the back seat for the most part, and drivers seat when I get out to run an errand. On Saturday, I took her out to a bonfire with Mel and a friend of hers let her off the leash. I was worried, but Kya came back whenever you called her, and only wawnted to run up to the car. So I let her in. A while later I checked on her, and she refused to come out and watch the Northern Lights with me. 

I bought her a bag of food, and treats. She refuses to eat it. She's a princess after all. The treats she will have when she feels like it. This morning I soaked her food in hot water hoping it might entice her. She was not interested. So I ripped up her little jerky treats, and mixed them in with the kibble. She sorted through the mush carefully, and picked out the jerky. 

Then to humor me, she sorted through it again, picked out the red kibble, and dropped it on the floor infront of the bowl. Then I had to clean it up. After the red kibble, she picked out the little bone shaped ones, but didn't want those either. 

This morning I left her in my room with her bowl of food. I expect to find little kibbles all over the place when I get back. Hopefully she doesn't wreck anything. I'll have to take her for a good walk when I get home. 

She's a pain in the ass, but I love her terribly. I do hope her owner comes forward, but wouldn't be all that sad if they didn't. Someone must be missing this beautiful dog. She can sit, stay and walk on a leash. She shook a paw yesterday, and knows what a good belly rub is like. She is so beautiful and calm. She's the most atypical husky I've ever met. 

If she does stay with us though, she needs to learn to be nicer to Milo. He just wants to share his chicken!

Love,

Annalee.

Ow.

I am incredibly hung over, and blame Josh. We stayed up till like 1:30 a.m. last night on Skype. I drank two bottles of wine. Bad scene.

I have secured Sunday off. Or Saturday, whichever I choose. I have one photo to take all weekend. So exciting! I am going to sleep till 3 p.m.! I can't wait. Maybe I'll wash and clean out my car...bother Eric to change my oil - the possibilities are endless. Everything in the house is clean so that's off the list. Maybe I could sew? Mom sent me some patterns, and I have $20 left on my Walmart card. There's a really awesome skirt pattern in there. Eeeeeee. 

I also need a free adventure that Josh and I can take part in next weekend. I haven't been to too many places around Whitehorse. Perhaps the hot springs? I should go to the info centre and ask. 

Maybe we can go on the hunt for some northern lights. I wonder if it will be a good time to see them when he's here. 

Love,

Annalee.

An open letter to Lindsay Lohan

Now Lindsay, I try not to get into the whole celebrity body thing, about how people are too skinny or too fat whatever. I was teased in high school, and I know what it's like to have bullies after me quite well.

But honey, please, for the love of god, STOP POSING NAKED! I just really don't want to see another picture of your vagina flashed across the internet. I didn't want to see it the first time, but every where I look, Oh! Lindsay's naked again!

I know that you've had a shitty upbringing. Your parents are quite obviously trainwrecks that couldn't parent their way out of a wet paper bag, but people have overcome worse to become successful. It is true that even me at 21, I would like to just give you a big motherly hug and maybe make you a nutritious dinner. My parental instincts are buried DEEP DEEP down, and will be released years from now, but when I see the flatness in your eyes, they rear their head.

I remember when you used to be hot, and looked like this:

Now, you look like this:

Now, Lindsay. Seriously. Is this what you dreamed for yourself after getting out from under the veil if Disney? I swear, Mean Girls and Freaky Friday were kind of a guilty pleasure of mine.

Also, in this picture:

This does not make me want to have sex with you. And believe me, I can appreciate a hot girl, but man oh man, this turns me off in a way that I'm not sure I'll ever be able to be attracted to another human being, woman OR man.

That poor guy probably got up that morning and was like yes!! I get to pretend to have sex with Lindsay Lohan today! And then you showed up, lit your cigarette (don't even get me started on that, either) and laid on the bed. You look bored, and he looks emo and sad, like he's trying to revive you rather than hump you. Which he probably was.

I feel really malicious writing something like this, but I am so frustrated about the message that you are giving out to little girls everywhere. This is not what girls should strive to be, and when they remember you from Disney movies, they may think this is where the natural progression should be. I sincerily hope that the girls out there that once looked up to you have awesome Moms that steered them towards proper female heros.

On that note, Beyonce, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, feel free to get nakeder.

Love,
Annalee.

Scavenger Type

Josh is taking his sweet ass time with part four of his Yukon Quest series. I encourage him to hurry up, especially when you have faithful readers, such as me! I have also recruited my mom as a reader. 

So I suppose I could give you an update on life in general since returning from the Quest. Things have been rather fabulous. I've been home alone pretty much the entire time. Mel left for Vegas like the day after I got home or something. Maybe it was like a week after, but it was so freaking busy in Whitehorse with the Quest the week and a half or so following Hans Gatt's finish was all blurred into one crazy drunken ball. 

But good times were most definitely had by all. 

I am considerably poor this month, and have been scrounging for food and was prepared to begin pan handling for spare change, but Mom sent me a care package with a Walmart gift card and my GST cheque. Things are most certainly looking up. I have that money earmarked to buy dinner ingredients for Josh when he gets here, and a bottle of wine. Also my ticket to Real McKenzies. Last time I went to see them, it wasn't so much fun. I'm determined to do it right this year. 

I realized it is St. Patricks Day in twoish weeks. I hope I can find someone to go out with, cough cough, MEL! and celebrate. Like I said, Real McKenzies last year was not fun, so I need to make it up this year. 

I'm rocking a little bit of Neil Young at the moment. The Olympics made me appreciate him just that much more. Perhaps I will ask mom for some more songs of his to download after work. I need to revamp my iPod, there isn't much on it I like to listen to anymore. I need something new. Any suggestions? Maybe I should go back to my days of pre-teen angst when I would spend hours researching new bands to listen to. It's how I got into most of my music, primarily punk. 

My iPod is kind of on the fritz again. It did that thing it like to do where the buttons stop working and I had to charge it/restore it. It failed last night and finally decided to charge up enough this morning that I've had a lovely morning full of music. Mostly Paramore and Nofx. I also branched into some CCR and now Mighty Mighty Bosstones. 

I have a Pepsi and it is making my tummy hurt. But I was thirsty and there was no water around. I realize that drinking Pepsi defeats the purpose when you are thirsty but meh. It was tastey at the time. 

I made yummy sundried-tomato chicken fried rice last night for dinner and put it in a wrap for lunch today. I love doing that. It reminds me of Pita Wrapbit in Cranbrook.

Oh how I miss Pita Wrapbit. 

Josh was busy last night, and lifted his texting embargo. I felt bad wracking up his texting bill so only sent two. I wanted to say goodnight too, but opted for sending a Facebook message. It's free! He got back to me shortly after but I was already in bed. Waking up to lovely messages from him is just as good as going to sleep with them on my mind. 

Jen from the production posted some ridiculous pictures of me in the Rendezvous jail from the weekend. I am usually so tame, but once caged in prison I flipped the bird like it was going out of style. It was February afterall and I didn't have my sweater. I was also deep in conversation with Tom Patrick from the News when the whole fiasco went down. Jen is a really talented photographer though. I love her stuff, what I've seen so far. I have camera envy. 

I had to show my belly button to get out, and all I got was this lousy pin.

I finally got to buy some hairdye yesterday. I'm excited. I am so ridiculously overdue. I have about two inches of roots. The last time I fixed my hair was December before Christmas. I can't believe how fast it grows. I thought this whole growing out my hair thing would be much more painful, but I'm quite happy with the results. It has been a year and six months, and it's past my shoulders. Hooray!

I thought I had a ton of things to do next weekend, but it looks like I should be okay. I want to focus on Josh time not work time. I have at least secured myself the Saturday off. I would imagine he'll leave on Sunday morningish, so if I have to cover some stuff Sunday it won't be bad. I wish we didn't live so far away from each other, but I am enjoying the chatting time and getting to know each other better thing anyway. 

Keep having stupid nightmares about fighting and whatnot. I also had a dream that Eric killed some blonde chick and made me hide the body. Maybe I shouldn't be admitting that. Maybe it wasn't a dream - SHIT! Anyways, he made me hide the body and I did a really terrible job and put it in a dumpster. So just a word of advice, don't ask me to hide any bodies for you. I'll do a really shitty job. 

Eric was just in Calgary to visit Ally and refused to bring me cupcakes. He thought it was stupid, but when your last Crave cupcake was a year ago, shipping a box 2,500-kilometres of sweet, delicious cupcakes is far from stupid. The general concensus was that him and his friend would have killed those puppies before they even left Calgary. In fact, maybe they did bring me cupcakes but ate them already, and Ally just didn't wawnt to tell me. What terrible siblings I have. Sneaky!

Ah the Crave-licious. I crave-ify you at least thrice a day.

Love,

Annalee.

The Adventure Final 2

I thought I was done, but I'm pretty bored at the moment, so I will continue with the blogging. 

At Mile 101 was when Sam and I did our death hike. I have posted at length about how much that sucked in my Facebook notes so all I will say is that it SUCKED. TONS.

After that, we picked up Josh and headed on for Central. I feel like I spent thirty seconds there. Josh and I had planned to have a few drinks at the Roadhouse where all the mushers were watching the Super Bowl, but we realized Hans Gatt and Gerry willomitzer would be in Circle that night, so I hopped in Gerry's handler Didier Moggia's truck and off I went for Circle. 

Didier was quite funny. We got talking about B.C., where I'm from and he asked me if Blackberry was a man or a woman in his french accent. Very funny. He is a horse man, I guess. 

It was about 6 p.m., and I realized I should get some sleep now or I wouldn't get any. Didier promised he would wake me up when Gerry got in around 3 a.m. I woke up a few hours later to a face staring back to me from about four feet away and realized the gym had filled up. It was rather creepy. Sometime in the middle of the night Sam and Josh came in. I was happy to have some familiar faces amongst the German snoring when I woke up for the umpteenth time that night. I had strung together some carpets to sleep on and they had spread apart. The gym floor was cold, but for some reason I was so comfortable after the hike and just needed some sleep. I think I slept till about 6 a.m., but I wouldn't get all excited and say it was a full 12 hours. With 20 or so media people pounding in and out of the gym it was more like six. 

Circle was very small. The next day we hiked out to Cochrane's Cabin. Again, refer to Josh's blog! Very fun, especially the snow easy chairs while we waited for Sam to get his camera stuff he left at the cabin. 

After that we headed back to Circle again and spent our second night there, drinking wine slushies and discussing hilarious news stories we have covered till about midnight. I told Josh all about Trevor the Dog (not that I covered it, but the story is ridiculous) and he told me about the story he wrote about the disgruntled Taco Bell patron who threw a taco in the face of a manager and got charged for it.

The next day the flight was sketchy. I'd never been in a small "air craft" before (thanks Uncle Bob) and he was doing barrel-roll turns to "help" us get photos. And by help, I mean encourage my vomitting. Having survived a childhood of unexplained stomach flus that turned out to be migraine in my late teens, I am a champ at keeping myself from puking, but this was my hardest challenge yet. 

The flight was beautiful, from what I did get to see.

Coming into Eagle, Alaska.

Just to the left of that photo is where Josh and I sat drinking the next day above the overflow. 

Eagle was so beautiful. I wish I could describe it to you in a way that in any way gave it justice. It is a tiny community of maybe 200 people on the banks of the Yukon River. It is sleepy and quiet, with just a general store and a group of cabins for a hotel. It's where cement trucks go to die for some reason. With not a single piece of sidewalk or paved road that I could tell from above the snow, their presence there was unknown. There aren't even enough houses with cement foundations to justify the 20 or more trucks rusting in the waist deep snow. Surely one truck could have done all the work that Eagle requires cement-wise. 

Many of the houses are quaint little cabins. Some are colourful and stand out a bit, with yards full of snow machines. There are very few vehicles around. The ones that are there are mostly pick-ups and old rusted out vans. The vans are used to transport people and things to and from the tiny airstrip. The trucks do the same. 

At night there aren't any street lights. The checkpoint was lit up by musher's and volunteer's head lamps. The field where the dogs were bedded was covered in deep ruts. I stumbled around on the snow a bit, trying to find Josh a few times. 

The checkpoint was in a tiny one room school house, with an unheated back room with two outhouses and bunks for the mushers. The school's eight or so students milled around, ousted from the building for the duration of the Quest's stop. 

One kid had a bloody nose. Apparently he had been fooling around and smashed his face on something. The teacher was making an example of the poor little guy, to prove that fucking around misbehaving does nothing good for you. 

It was packed, but there were tons of mushers expected in so we set up our computers there. One official told us we were sitting at the mushers table, and we were forced to move. Then he told us we were at the vets table, and we moved again. When we settled, we were told we were at a public table and we might be fine there. Too many rules. 

We finally retired to our base camp at the library where the media, including crazy Peter Camper. he was rad. I snuck away once I finished to have a crazy hot shower in the shower house outside our cabins.

I have never had a shower that felt that incredibly good. It was buring hot. I stayed as long as I could in there to wash up the first three or four days of the Quest. So relaxing. 

After that I snuck back to the library, but with nothing really to do I was bothering everyone. I hater to be ignored, so I decided it was bed time. I asked Josh to wake me up at 9 a.m. the next morning.

He tried, but failed. Pounding on my door four times between the hours of 9 and 10 didn't do it. I finally woke up at 11 a.m., and headed out to see what was up. I met Josh and got an update of what was up at the checkpoint. The verdict was absolutely nothing. My bottle of wine left over from Circle was calling to us. Josh said he was going to see if he could grab a six pack, and then head down to the Yukon River. 

I'll continue this after Josh's blog tomorrow! I want to see what he writes about the Yukon River adventure. 

Love,

Annalee

The Adventure Final

I can't begin to describe how incredible the Yukon Quest was. I can say that it has quite seriously changed the situation i found myself in before, and put a permanent smile on my face.

I'd get into describing everything that happened, but Josh is already doing that for me on his blog. He has a much better memory than me and is bringing up things that I realize now were very significant moments.

I still dream of yipping dogs and endless snow. Hikes and retreating dog booties. There's a few things that Josh hasn't mentioned yet, so I'll get to those.

I spent four days in Fairbanks. It's such a beautiful city. The Chena River runs through it, and it doesn't hurt that it is where shoes go to heaven. My god the shoe shopping they had. I went crazy. I bought a pair of ankle boots and flats for $30 American. With our dollar kicking their ass right now it was at least at par. Woohoo!

Mom and Nicole had a great time laughing imagining me hauling my shopping bags through the heart of Alaska, and that's exactly what i did. I was scared Sam and Josh would think I was a little ridiculous, but my purchases were so awesome that the slight embarrassment I felt subsided. They were good sports, loading and unloading my show boxes and Hot Topic bags. I didn't tell them what was in there, but filled one clear one with food so maybe they thought I was just overloaded, whch I was technically. With a hot pink plaid dress, tawnk top fit for the bar and shoes that I won't be able to wear till August. I was a happy, happy girl.

I lived off of Pizza Hut for almost the entire duration of my stay in Fairbanks. I found that people at Wendys were frightening and I only broke down and got Denny's on the last day. Livingt off of burgers from Wendys is like a dream come true for me really. If anyone reading this has been unfortunate enough to drive me through Calgary, you will know that it is hard to drive past one of the four Wendys in the city without me forcing you to stop or whimpering if you don't. But it turns out eating there day after day gets old.

The start was insane. That's the only way to describe it. I was so overwhelmed but I tried not to let it show. Josh was calm, so I did my best to stay that way too. I had no idea what to ask the mushers. I had just spoken to most of them two days before and my brain was not functioning. I focused on the photography, knowing I could do a colour piece and score some intervioews at Two Rivers later that afternoon.

Once we got kicked out of the start area, Josh and i warmed up at the News-Miner. I couldn't believe how big it was. The reception area was literally bigger than our entire office. Even the press could fit in there I bet. Crazy! I was all antsy and wanted to get my spot in the chute, so we headed down after I snacked on cheese and crackers - and got crumbs everywhere I will add.

I battled asshole photographers in the start chute who felt the need to lean out as far as they could. There's tons of pctures floating around of me practically laying in the middle of the trail to get around other photographers. Here is one:

Notice me in the brown coat bitterly trying to get around Brian Webb....wh was taking photos on his iPhone. wtf?

After the start, I headed back to my hotel for awhile, then Josh and I went to the first checkpoint at Two Rivers. Rather uneventful. Josh and I began to get to know each other on the hour-ish drive each way. We did our first on trail interviews, then went back to Fairbanks for our last sleep in a real bed for awhile. 

While Josh says he was tired and swears it was warm coming into Mile 101, I would like to inform you that it was infact FREEZING COLD. I am a B.C. wuss when it comes to weather. My adversity to northern temperatures faded long ago when I moved to beautiful B.C. It also didn't help that I jumped into the truck ill-prepared with my back pack full to the gills, but the actual clothing on my back was not fit for the weather. Coupled with getting up at 4 a.m. or whatever ungodly hour Josh phoned me at, the cold got to me quick.

When we jumped out of the truck at Mile 101, I began shaking immediately. I rushed to the truck box and put my boots on in the dark trying to fit my snowpants over sweatpants, and fumbled to get the right pair of socks that wouldn't slip down into the toe of my boots. Once I was geared up better, I headed for the checkpoint and settled in on a bench.

I'll cut this off here, getting lengthy!

Love,

Annalee.