Jackson Hole and The Hold Steady

In case you haven't checked your calendar lately, it's January. And in case you're new here, I live in Anchorage. January in Anchorage looks like this.

And sometimes like this.

I'm feeling nostalgic for warmer, brighter days.Let's reminisce together, shall we? Some of my favorite warmer, brighter days were spent here:

Grand Teton National Park

I spent summer 2009 teaching environmental ed in Jackson, WY and it took about 35 seconds for the general Jackson Hole region (Jackson is the town, Jackson Hole is the whole area) to become my favorite place in the whole world. I could write pages of reasons I love Jackson Hole, fraught with flowery language and extended metaphors. But I still wouldn't do it justice.

A lot of times this was my job:

Sometimes, it was this:

Other times, I wasn't working, so I floated the Snake River

Or made rock art at the Gros Ventre slide

 I got in bison jams

And played kickball:

Long story short, I made no money, but spent everyday in the sun. Worth it. I've been a lot of beautiful places, especially here in Alaska, but nothing compares to staring up at the Tetons from String Lake or the alpenglow on Sleeping Indian.

This week's hot jam is Magazines by The Hold Steady. I love the honesty (and I'm not sure honesty is quite the right word) of The Hold Steady songs. I love that they don't try to glamorize anything. The songs all tell a story, and usually not a  very pretty one, but it's covered up with catching choruses. Genius.