A little shopping and Seasonal Affective Disorder...

I feel the urge to shop for semi-needless things. Well, I can't spend too much money since I did the major once-every-few-months grocery/supply shopping on Monday. And we did spend a good amount of money on our trip home to Louisiana last month (though the money we spent there on all sorts of needless stuff was still less than the cost of living out here).

I've been saving money and snow-balling bills since we've moved to Alaska, and it feels good, so every bit of extra money that I do spend, sends me down a guilty path. But, right now, I'm thinking that I "need" to go onto Amazon.com (Sarah needs a new pair of Keds). FYI, there are not many places to shop out here for the things that we were used to in the Lower 48, so Amazon.com becomes another best friend to a lot of people who end up living out here.

I'm in a funky mood this week. If you refer to the post below this one, you'll know a major reason why. Phillip is out of town for a few days, and I'm having deployment flashbacks (I hate it when he's not home). I'm also starting to look forward to the Spring/Summer.

My close friend, CW, calls this the "frozen hell I live in". To me, it's not so bad. I almost prefer the winter here, because the snowy scenery is absolutely beautiful, and you have genuine darkness to sleep in (getting up to use the bathroom at 2 am to see sunny bright sky can freak a person out). As for the cold, you just have to dress warmly, and give yourself time to adapt (to the cold in general, but I don't suggest standing out in subzero weather to try to get used to it!).

But then, if you talk to a lot of people here, they will gladly admit that they are more than ready to get out of here. After 3 years here, I'll be ready to leave too, but for now I can live with it. Still, even though we just came back from a wonderful trip back home, I hear of people going off on vacation to all these interesting places, and I get a wee bit jealous. Hey, I LOVE to travel!

One downer is that because there is not much sunlight at this time of year, we are all pale like vampires, and all we want to do is sleep. I'm always tired (for numerous reasons). Gabe and Sarah are always tired. How much Vitamin D can you pump into a system without overdosing?

This won't last too much longer though (4-5 months, but I'm trying to be optimistic), and then we'll have so much sunlight that our body clocks won't want to shut us down until about midnight.

C'est la vie. It is what it is. I'm still glad to be able to say I've "been there and got the t-shirt".