The Daily School Bus: it turned before it got to me

Actually, I don't think I'm going to see a school bus today. I have walked all through and around the village of Nuiqsut and not one showed itself. I don't think one will. I've got a number of left-over school bus images from Barrow and maybe tomorrow I will have to fall back on one of those, but for now I will fall back only to yesterday, when, from a distance, I saw this one turning into the parking lot of the Kuukpik Hotel shortly after noon. Yes, it is the very same bus I snapped yesterday, after it had parked at the hotel.

Macy the cat takes a big leap; Happy birthday, Lisa!

Nasuk was visiting Gabe when I dropped in last night. Macy took a big leap for him. And now I leap to the next anniversary I commemmorate today:

On the evening of November 21, 1985, I was checked in to the Top of the World Hotel in Barrow and I was plenty nervous. I was about to start a new magazine on behalf of the North Slope Borough to give some coverage to the Iñupiat way of life. I wondered what the hell had ever gotten into me to think I could even do such a thing. Plus, Margie was very pregnant, but still had two or three weeks to her due date. The phone rang. It was her. She had gone into labor. A neighbor was going to drive her from Wasilla to the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage.

I had been there for the births of all four of our children so far and wanted to be there for the fifth. It seemed impossible. Margie had undergone 13.5 hours of labor for Jacob and then each consecutive labor had been shorter and shorter up to Melanie, who took just over four hours to be born. There was no way I could get there in four hours.

In those days, the now defunct Mark Air had a red-eye flight that left Barrow at something like 2:30 AM and landed in Anchorage about two hours later. I booked myself a ride - I was the only passenger - me and two stewardesses alonr on a 737 jet. I wonder why Mark Air went out of business?

I entered the delivery room close to seven hours after Margie went into labor. She was still in labor. My baby had waited for her daddy. And so it was I greeted Lisa at her first breath. I loved my new daughter but to her chagrin believed myself to be a despiser of cats. On a hot day in July when Lisa was five, I sat down on the back porch to eat a ham sandwich. A skinny, adolescent kitty stepped out the woods, walked up to me and asked if I might share my ham with it. Lisa appeared.

"I'm going to cook this kitten for dinner," I told her. "No you're not!" Lisa countered. The cat stayed. I fell in love with it. So did the whole family. Happy birthday, Lisa! Thank you for not letting me cook The Whole Kitten, Kaboodle. 

Macy - a cat of Barrow; a young woman of India who loved cats remembered on this day

Here is Macy again, peeking over the knee of Gabe Tegoseak.

In August of 2007, I made my first trip to India to attend the Hindu wedding of my niece, Khena Swallow, to Vivek Iyer of Bangalore. In their tradition, the reception takes place the night before the wedding. There, I met scores of Vivek's relatives, beginning right away with his cousin Ganesh, who immediately befriended me and shortly thereafter brought his sister, Soundarya, to my table. Upon seeing her, I felt a special connection, as though she were not a stranger but someone I had known forever. I dismissed this as nonsense. There was a third sibling there, Sujitha, of classic beauty.

I wanted to know all three, Soundarya especially, due to this feeling of connection. Yet I reasoned that the short minutes we would spend visiting this night and possibly a few more at the wedding the next day would be all we would ever spend together. I would return to Alaska and that would be that. The next day after the wedding feast, Soundarya invited me to take a walk, but called herself "Sandy." On that walk, we met a kitten and that was that.

We stayed in near constant contact after and became close confidants. She often sought my advice in her search for love. I lack such wisdom but did tell her a few relevant stories about courting Margie. I promised her that when she found her man, I would return and photograph her wedding. She found him. I kept my promise. And always, somewhere, there was a cat involved.

Three years ago yesterday, her husband Anil Kumar, lost his life in a car crash. Three years ago today Soundarya Anil Kumar, my beloved soulfriend and muse, chose to follow him. In March of 2012, I returned to India for Sujitha's wedding. Although nothing has come together yet, Ganesh, who I inspired to became a photographer, hopes to marry soon.

Somehow, I hope to return to photograph his wedding, too.

Macy, the movie-maker's cat; day of anniversaries

Cat. A subject familiar to this blog/Instagram thread, yet one not seen here for awhile. But here is a cat now. Macy, who hangs out with the young filmmaker Gabe Tegoseak. Gabe used to have another cat named Coco who I never met in real life but did see in a short movie Gabe had made in a filmmaking class taught by Dustinn Craig. Coco played the role of a very dangerous creature from Iñupiat stories whose name I cannot spell. I tried several different spellings to match the sound in online searches but did not find it.

Coco was a natural born actor and played the role well. Coco was terrifying. It was reported that half of those who attended the premiere showing peed their pants. I had long planned to photograph Coco on this trip to Barrow or that trip, but somehow never did. Coco has since gone the way of all flesh so now I never can. But I did photograph Macy.

In my last post I stated I would use this post subject to commemorate anniversaries important to me, ranging from the happiest of the happy to the saddest of the sad. Likely, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy came to many minds when I used the word, "tragic." This was indeed a most tragic and sad event for me personally and for the US and the entire world and I do commemorate it this day, but I can't tie cats into it. I am going to eat dinner now. Afterward, I will post two more pics of Macy, one to commemorate each anniversary, cats being of great importance to both. 

Logbook: Barrow to Nuiqsut, entry 3: The Daily School Bus - nap

We land in Nuiqsut where I find the The Daily School Bus parked at the Kuukpik Hotel. I am exhausted. I take a long nap. I was going to end the Logbook entry with some very cold looking pictures but to decided I would include The Daily School Bus instead. I do have some more pictures from Barrow to post yet, including a small series I shot last night that will be perfect to commemorate the personally important anniversaries of this day, ranging from as sad and tragic as sad and tragic can be to as happy and joyful as happy and joyful can be.