Comments

• 

  Russ Townsend April 4, 2008 at 1:39am

  Hi Debra, Yes still keeping it light. Nice picture of the corps ladies, bring back alot of great memories. Checked out your business site, being in the NPO business I can apprecitate the great concept. Great hearing from you and believing with you.
  
  Love and Bless Russ
• 

  Robert Vorbach April 1, 2008 at 2:57pm

  Dear Debra,
  I must admit that I am not the best at the e-mail venue. I sit at a computer all day at work and when I get home I've had enough. I think that the motivation to reconnect with many folks that I still think/care about might just overcome this. We have been in Nashua for 17 years now. We fled Massachusetts. The kids ( daughter Shea - 14, and son David - 8) are growing up fast here. You look great and I sincerly hope that this relatively young year is fantastic for you and yours. This starts an honest effort to stay in touch.
  
  He Still is Coming Back!
  Love
  Robert
• 

  Jeffery Schuyler March 23, 2008 at 3:13pm

  Hey there kiddo! So sweet of you to comment on my new page! I have so many terrific memories of our adventures in that first Way Home. I'm very glad for your life, you certainly are an energetic and dynamic woman. We have all so grown, haven't we? Your picture could have been from 1982...you look so young!
  God Bless you,
  Jeff
• 

  Dean Boonstra March 18, 2008 at 5:15pm

  There are a couple of visual clips I have from that house:
  
  1. It was the most beautiful autumn view I remember. The sky was deep blue, and the opposite side of the lake was full of blazing orange sugar maple trees. All of that was reflected on the water and made a scene too good for postcards.
  
  2. The people that lived next door were the Bloembergs who owned almost everything. Our junky cars were a blight on the neighborhood and there was nothing they could do to manage that. We brought banana cake as a peacemaking gift and they appeared afraid to touch it. Perhaps they suspected it was laced with dope.
• 

  Dean Boonstra March 18, 2008 at 1:38pm

  Debra, I remember taking you to the zoo. That was when we shared the 11-bedroom home on the lake.
  
  I read the profile on your page, and I visited your website. I think you have a good life.
• 

  Paul Marmora March 3, 2008 at 6:03am

  Hi Deb, I never throw the good coffee. We jsut use the brewed stuff for amusing and astounding tourists. The espresso we keep where it belongs - in our cups or mouths (some of us can't wait too long). Actually, we are all coffee nuts up here. In a town of 270,000, we have more than 150 drive-through coffee shops, and countless cafes. We are not really into Starbucks, although they are around. We have a local brewer called Kaladi Brothers that is extremely popular, as well as three or four more. Coffee is a very serious thing up here.
  On another note, it was actually getting light out this morning at 0645 when I was going to work. It is always exciting when the light greets you as you get up. Unfortunately, we will be changing that next weekend with Daylight savings time (if ever there was a state in which daylight savings time was entirely worthless, I would say it is this one). It is always quite disappointing to have light and then lose it. But right now, we are gaining 5 1/2 minutes of daylight every 24 hours, so we will recover from DST in a few weeks.
  Then comes summer when it will not get truly dark for many weeks. That is when the parties start! Actually, that is when the summer parties start--we party in the winter too, to keep our spirits up. WooHoo!
• 

  Paul Marmora February 29, 2008 at 6:19am

  Deb, Summer is June - mid-August. The temps, which we consider hot, are 75F with a few bursts in either direction, but I have never seen it above 88F in Anchorage. It does hit the mid-90s in Fairbanks. In fact, they have one of the largest temp swings anywhere. -65 to +95. We are all dying of heat at 80, I might add. When my father was dying, I went back to NY 8 times that summer (thank God I work for an airline...). It was averaging 105 adily. I thought I had died and arrived at the door of Hades. I really can not think how people live in temps of that nature. Of course, they wonder the same thing about us. Lucky for us this is such a big and diverse country.
  P
• 

  Paul Marmora February 26, 2008 at 8:21pm

  I see you are not to be disuaded or distracted from temperature! -40 is cold, but not the coldest. I was there in January at -47. We pull the couriers at FedEX off the road at -55, because the trucks will not warm up to more than -15, and that gets uncomfortable after a few hours. I know this shounds absurd, but it does not really feel all that cold up there. It is so blasted dry that you will get dandruff and your face start to flake after only a few days, and the air can kind of hurt when you breathe (or rather your throat and lungs will start to ache a little if you don't have some sort of cover over your mouth if you are not used to the icy air), but it is not nearly as cold feeling as it is in NY at +20. One thing they do in Fairbanks for people that are there and freaked out by the cold is to get a hot cup of coffee and toss it into the air (at around -65). It shatters when it hits the ground. NO ONE pees outdoors in the winter either (at least not twice), because pee is not the only thing that might shatter as a result of the cold (really, the risk would be frostbite...).
  But this state is still the most spectacularly beautiful place I have ever seen. You deal with the cold and revel in the endless summer days. Makes it all worthwhile. To quote Mae West, come up and see me sometime!
  Paul
• 

  Paul Marmora February 26, 2008 at 11:16am

  I'm glad it is woking out. Healing may come slowly, but it is life's natural course - mentally as well as physically. Pretty soon, you will remember odd things and difficult times/situations and they will bring fond memories to you and make you laugh--about things that would have probably horrified you six months ago. A good indication that the healing is progressing well. I imagine you have probably progressed past the stage where you are angry at your friend for leaving/quitting/abandoning you, but that resurfaces for a while anyway. After that, it will be pleasant memories and a little bit of wistfulness. Thankfulness helps bring it on.
  Keep on trucking--one day, you'll realize you've been dancing!
  P
• 

  Paul Marmora February 25, 2008 at 6:42am

  Hi Deb! How's it going? I've been thinking about you recently and the stuff we were writing back and forth a few months ago. Hope life is balancing.
  We are coming up to spring now (meaning it is above zero), but the light coming back makes all the difference. I will be heading to Fairbanks in two weeks (where they had an 80 degree change in temperature the other day--to +40. I think everyone there is in shock...). Then I will be heading to the Portland OR area for about a week in April. Other than that, it has been quiet, really. We did up Chinese New Year with our Taiwanese exchange daughter, then it was Valentine's Day where I helped out working at a flower shop, my natural daughter's 16th birthday and then our 21st anniversary. I could use a rest really, now that I think about it.
  If we didn't have so much to do, we would stagnate, I think. Winters here need to be full, anyway.
  Much love, Paul