Spring Has Sprung

I'm now 2 weeks post-Hawai'i and still feeling much better about the state of my life, Anchorage, and the like. I'm much more tolerant of daily annoyances, my job, and people who frustrate me. For example, this morning I got to work to a voicemail from the secretary. She had to take her son to the airport late last night (2am departures are common in Alaska), so she's too tired to come to work on time this morning. A few weeks ago this would have royally pissed me off. Today I'm happy to have a quiet morning alone in the office. But, if I'm being honest, I'd feel very differently if the phones were ringing nonstop like they sometimes do when she leaves me stranded...

Anyway, we have a few things going on in our lives right now. First: the weather. Oh my gosh it's been so nice! We still have a good foot of snow covering our back yard and the bike trails are still a pretty slippery, but the sun shines daily and refuses to set before 10 PM. It's as if the city is slowly waking up after a long hibernation. Soon enough the ground will be clear (if not muddy from all the melt off) and biking/hiking weather will be in full swing. It's pretty great.

Second, is job stuff. After almost 2 years of networking and months of submitting applications there's finally some movement in this area. I have an interview set up for next Monday and another interview tentatively set for the end of May. Both are very much preliminary, as in the positions I might be asked to fill don't really exist yet. I get the sense that both employers want to get to know me a little better in the event that they can fund a new associate position. I'm very excited to have the opportunity to speak with these employers at this point in the year. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and I'll have some interesting options this summer.

Third, other job stuff. I still have an interest in joining the Foreign Service. But of course this is not the time to do that. It takes 18 months or so to get started as an FSO, and that's assuming that a candidate makes it through every step of the evaluation process on the first try. I'm not going to assume that I will be so successful. So instead I"m just going to take the written exam in June to see what it's like. Then I'll plan to take the exam and go as far as I can in this process each year until I'm picked up from the final register and asked to A-100 school. It's all about patience and perseverance. In the mean time I'll enjoy practicing law and gaining skills that can help me get into the FS and succeed once I'm there.

Fourth, house stuff. We placed an order to have the carpet replaced upstairs (the only carpeted areas are the two bedrooms) and then have a long list of projects in those rooms including installing a home office in a closet, furnishing the second bedroom, organizing the boxes of books still packed from our move last year, and finishing decorating our bedroom. At this point it's mostly just frustrating because we have to wait for the carpet to do anything else, but the end result should be really nice. Photos to come...

Hawai'i Recap

Last Saturday afternoon I boarded a direct flight from Anchorage to Honolulu. The trip takes about 6 hours, and lands around 6:30 pm. First off, I'd like to note that being 6 hours and one direct flight away from Hawai'i is easily one of the Top 5 Reasons to Live in Anchorage.

I landed, took a shuttle to the car rental office and picked up my Dodge Caliber. This car was way bigger than I'd expected, but it was kind of nice to have plenty of space for my giant suitcases. One of the Top 10 Reasons to Live in Anchorage is that Alaska residents get 2 FREE checked suitcases on Alaska Airlines flights. This was awesome for me because I camped all week. My two checked bags provided me more than enough space to pack my family sized tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, full sized pillow, collapsible cooler, and a beach chair, plus all of my clothes and sundries.

I camped at the same campground Leigh and I visited last year: Friends of Maleakahana. It's in Laie (lah-ee-ay), on Oahu, about an hour's drive from the airport on a slow 2-lane highway. The campground is peaceful and mostly very clean. It has tent camping, various cabin type structures, and full-fledged eco-cabins. My only complaint is that the campground had to close its flush toilets for ecological reasons and installed porto-potties instead. It would have been nice to get an email warning me of this, but ultimately it didn't make a huge difference to me. I still had a nice camping area and access to showers. Most importantly, I could walk from my bed to the beach in under 30 seconds.

The campground comes equipped with animal friends including lots of chickens, some cats, and two dogs who I believe belong to the security guard. All the animals are friendly and get along fairly well. The dogs seemed to enjoy chasing the chickens, but never seemed intent on hurting them.

Some of the chickens are bolder than others. This guy literally stalked me the entire week. Every time I prepared food he lurked around my picnic table. Every time I went into my tent he peaked through the screen. It was kind of irritating, but he wasn't aggressive and I guess I was technically on his turf.

The town has a few little restaurants, a Foodland grocery store, and is about 30 minutes from bigger towns in the North Shore. My first day in town I stopped at Turtle Bay Beach to call Leigh and tell her I was doing OK and having a nice time. At one point I stopped mid-sentence and said, "OH MY GOSH IT'S a SEA TURTLE!" This cool little guy kept popping his head up for air, then diving down under the water and sticking his little tail into the air. So cool!

I didn't do much last week, which was kind of the point. I read a few books, drove around, ate way too much, and spend lots of time on the beach. Toward the end of the week I decided I could use some exercise, so I drove 5 miles from my campsite to a trailhead I'd read about. The map said it was a 2.5 mile loop with great views. The hike itself was really beautiful and challenging with steep hills. Beautiful trees offered shade from the hot sun, and about halfway through the hike I found myself at the top of a ridge with a view of the Wailea hills peaking through to the ocean.

It was a great hike and despite being reported at only 2.5 miles, it felt much longer and really woke up my muscles. It reminded me of the seemingly endless hike I took with Leigh last year where we would up scaling a rock wall at one point. I'm starting to think that either I'm really out of shape or hikes in Hawai'i are just more challenging because of the heat. Maybe both.
Ultimately the most important and most relaxing aspect of my trip was the beach at my campground. The weather was a perfect 70-80 degrees every day. The beach was clean, the water was blue, and every afternoon 20 kids took to the waves to surf. Watching those kids play in the water was a lot of fun and listening to music or reading while the sun revitalized me with Vitamin D left me feeling renewed after a long winter.

Now I'm back at work and feeling much more calm and tolerant of daily irritations. The best news is that Anchorage is finally experiencing some spring weather. It's sunny and bright, the snow is melting, and average temperatures are in the mid 40s now! Evening dog walks are more pleasant and the sun doesn't set until after 8pm. Leigh and I even drove my formerly abandoned car, Betsy, to work this morning. After months of sitting unused in the snow, she started like a champ and got us to work safely. I have hope that this good weather will see us through to summer and we can look forward to evening hikes, grilling out, bike rides, and trip to the park with our dogger. Until summer is in full swing, this week away will keep me going!