'Snow Biggie

"How's the weather up there?" my dad asked Saturday. I had just waken and told him it was cloudy, cold and bound to snow soon. Then I pulled back my curtain.

Everything was white.

I flung on some pants and shoes and darted outside, almost slipping on my icy doorstep. The snow was beautiful, the kind you can let a flake land in your hand and to inspect its patterns.

I had to enjoy the snow judiciously, though. It was quite possibly the craziest day in college football since Pete Carroll chucked a fake Reggie Bush off a building. Still, I managed to sneak in a 30-minute sightseeing trip of the town covered in snow. It looks like a completely different place.

The sight seeing trip did have one drawback: I had to drive, which scared the living hell outta me. Flashbacks of the Kia nearly swinging its back end off mountain cliffs kept my speed at a good 10 mph under the limit.

When I got to the office, Bob hummed to me, "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas."

"Not really," I replied with a chuckle. "Christmas at home is about 65 degrees and sunny."

"Hope you don't want to see the ground for another eight months," Julie said. She was wrong, too. Fairbanks warmed into the 40s on my birthday, and I got to see the grass one final time.

Speakin'a'which, despite being 5,000 miles away, my friends did a good job of making my birthday awesome. Last year, I kept it quiet that I was turning 22, but there was no keeping my 23rd a secret. I got more mail and packages on Oct. 9 than the rest of my stay in Alaska combined.

And my newfound friends were just as giving. On Sunday, a newswriter, Christi, and a sportswritier, Adam, took me to the Silver Gulch Brewery for a lunch (they have a really good pale ale and a spicy-as-Hell pizza, my kind of place). The eve of my birthday, Rich, Adam and Bob grabbed me a few rounds at The Big I. On my actual birthday, I spent the day enjoying the snow and scenery. I helped my 54-year-old Korean neighbor move out of her apartment, which took a little over an hour with her son helping, and I got $50 in return.

Hmmm, expendable cash, celebratory event ... I hit a few different bars and ended up at The Marlin, where some of the regulars bought me a beer/shot.

All in all, a success.

(By the way, both photos are from the day after my birthday, so the snow coverage is pretty thin because a lot of it melted and there's been no flurries since.)