Most of my friends are adventurous, with active lives, open minds, and generous hearts: they’re travelers, hikers, writers, photographers, dancers, activists, and more. Kim Kircher balances skiing, traveling, and writing - and gets paid for it. She’s on the ski patrol at Crystal Mountain in Washington, so at this time of year she skis, rides in helicopters, and sets off explosives for avalanche control. She’s an Emergency Medical Technician who has saved at least two people’s lives! Her memoir, The Next Fifteen Minutes has just been picked up by Behler Publications. It’s the story of how she applied the lessons learned in a life of adventure to help her husband through a bout with cancer. She’s fascinated with what adventure can teach all of us, and has asked me to offer my take on the subject. I hope you’ll head to her blog to read my guest post: What Adventure Has Taught Me. Then I hope you’ll check out the rest of Kim’s site. She’s amazing!

The thing that has excited me most about the controversy over the Transportation Security Administration’s new enhanced screening is that it has found people on both ends of the political spectrum agreeing on something. It turns out a lot of people, liberal or conservative, don’t want the TSA looking at or fondling their naughty bits.

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Many thanks to those of you who stopped by the recent Girls Trek Too post about my book launch, joined my mailing list, and/or left comments at the Facebook fan page for “They Only Eat Their Husbands.” Those of you who did so between November 15 and 22 were automatically entered in a contest to win a copy of “They Only Eat Their Husbands: A Memoir of Alaskan Love, World Travel, and the Power of Running Away.” And the winner is: Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer of Heiditown.com. Congratulations, Heidi! I hope the rest of you will consider ordering a copy, or two or three - a bunch of women have been buying extras as holiday gifts for their friends and loved ones. Thanks for supporting books and the road less traveled. May your lives be filled with joyous and safe adventure!

Congratulations to Heidi Kerr Schlaefer of Heiditown.com, winner of a free copy of “They Only Eat Their Husbands.”

FALSE SUMMIT

When I lived in Alaska, I interviewed the youngest girl to summit America’s highest peak, Denali. I interviewed then-12-year-old Merrick Johnston before her 1995 climb. She said she used to be afraid of crevasses, but after plenty of training she liked to stick her head in them just for fun. My news director interviewed her after the climb. He asked, “How did it feel when you reached the top?” Her answer: “I had to pee. Then I threw up.”

When I lived in Alaska, I interviewed the youngest girl to summit America’s highest peak, Denali. (Photo © Brian Longmore/Dreamstime.com)

Today is the official release date for my book, They Only Eat Their Husbands: A Memoir of Alaskan Love, World Travel, and the Power of Running Away, and while I’ve spent recent weeks in a flurry of excitement, now I feel kind of like Merrick did on the summit of Denali. I’ve been drinking chai today and I need to pee, and if I think about the book too much I might throw up.

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I’ve been eager for writer Cat Kurtz to return to Girls Trek Too, to tell us more about her adventure among Buddhist nuns fighting for equal rights in Thailand. Cat Kurtz is the author of My Heart the Sun, a non-fiction account of Theravada nuns and their battle to become bhikkunis, fully ordained monastics. You can read her previous guest post here: My Heart the Sun: A Book Excerpt. After visitors and I read it, we wanted to know what happened next. Cat was kind enough not to say, “You’ll have to wait for the book to find out,” but instead to generously provide one more excerpt! First, she has written a brief set-up, to let us know where we are in the story:

Lee was a nun who threatened the Thai power gender hierarchy, where only men were permitted to wear full ordination orange.

Cat Kurtz: Ajahn Yai Guong Saeng was a fully ordained Buddhist nun living in Bangkok, but unlike my new friend Lee, she did not practice Theravada Buddhism, the national religion of Thailand. Ajahn Yai was Chinese and ordained in Mahayana Buddhism. While Lee was a nun who threatened the Thai power gender hierarchy, where only men were permitted to wear full ordination orange, Ajahn Yai slipped beneath the country’s radar wearing Mahayana grey. This allowed her to build the only temple in Bangkok dedicated to a female deity and run entirely by women. Lee decided that visiting this temple was the best way I could spend my first day in Thailand…

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This Friday is my book launch party for They Only Eat Their Husbands: A Memoir of Alaskan Love World Travel, and the Power of Running Away. Someone at The Lighthouse Writers Top Secret Blog is already stalking me, and I couldn’t be more thrilled… except maybe if you joined her!