What madness! The day after sending my resume to RIM Design, they invited me in for an interview. Since I also had a standing offer from ECI-Hyer, I figured I may as well head to town and meet with both firms to see what my options might be to work in Alaska in a professional capacity. Oh wait, I have nothing to wear! I scrounged around in my suitcase and found a black skirt, black patterned sleeveless top and black dress sandals, none of which I’ve worn since arriving here in July. It was a California corporate casual outfit, but it would have to do. Luckily for me, it was a nice sunny day and therefore I wouldn’t look too ridiculous walking around downtown Anchorage without a sweater, jacket or boots- I didn’t even have a purse to carry my car keys in. Taija, who came along with me for the ride thinking that we would hit the Alaska State Fair together up in Palmer on Friday, told me that I would actually look like a native, since the day warranted summer clothing even though temperature-wise I still found it a bit chilly. I had also called my cousin Connie in Wasilla to see about visiting her, but she already had company and a busy schedule which included attending a specialty dog show on Saturday morning. I planned to stay in Anchorage Thursday night since one interview was that afternoon and the next was Friday morning. We pulled into downtown about half an hour before the first interview and I needed to change and get something to eat in that time. There was a café near RIM’s office where I had grabbed a sandwich on another trip so I placed an order there and then went to the restroom to morph from my lodge waitress/explorer persona into my certified interior designer persona. The restroom didn’t lock although it was technically a single use room. There was no door separating the toilet area from the sink area, and- I’ve never seen this before anywhere- there were two toilets sitting about 6 feet apart from each other in the same room! I was confused and checked the door again to make sure that it didn’t lock, since anyone could easily walk in expecting multiple stalls beyond the foyer, but had to settle for using the facilities in expectation of unannounced company. I changed my clothes under these conditions, still trying to imagine how and why the bathroom ended up planned the way it was, and walked back into the café looking like a completely different person. I gobbled down my turkey berry sandwich and headed the two blocks back to 6^th and G. On the ground floor were a UPS Store and an Irish pub while RIM Architecture & Design occupied most parts of the 2^nd through 4^th floors. Their office looked about like I expected- open in the center with lots of glass and other translucent partitions forming cubicles around the perimeter, and sporting brightly colored accent walls. There were billboards up announcing the measures that had been taken to make the office more “green”, including a carpool chart and a plan to get LEED Silver certification by some future date. The two female partners looked through my portfolio, and gave me a quick tour. Before I left, they asked me if I could return the next day to chat again! I was thinking, “I’m still here, if you have more questions for me!” but I agreed to come back at noon on Friday to supposedly talk salary and logistics.

Still in my interview attire, I headed a few blocks further down to 6^th Avenue Outfitters, to see if they would compensate me for my sleeping bag zipper nightmare. Even though I admitted to having wrecked the seam myself, I made it clear that it was only under the duress of broken zipper rage, and to my delight, they actually replaced the whole bag for me, upgrading me to a 20 degree model from the 40 degree model I had purchased, since they were out of stock on that one. The only downside is that the 20 degree model is noticeably heavier and fits into a slightly larger stuff sack, so the mobility of it has decreased a bit. At any rate, I was hungry and felt a huge need to get out of my business skirt. I looked in my Lonely Planet guide to refresh my memory on some of the good eateries in town and settled on the Moose’s Tooth, a brewery/pizza joint owned by the Bear’s Tooth Theater/Bar & Grill company. I sat at the bar for over 3 hours, first talking to the other customers on my right, then the ones to the left, alternating over the course of the night with some who were simply waiting for a table and some who were grabbing a couple of beers after work- other loners, couples, and groups of young people. I met one older couple whose daughter had worked for RIM Design at two different times, and another recently married couple who lived in Kodiak and highly recommended taking the ferry over to visit their island. I had a great time just hanging out there, drinking wine and watching the activity behind the counter- the bartenders were constantly criss-crossing each other in their attempts to dispense the necessary drinks quickly.

A good night’s sleep later, I was ready for my first interview at the second firm followed by my second interview at the first firm…when I finished the latter, I had a message on my cell phone from the second firm asking me in for a second interview there later that same afternoon! But first, I decided that the time was prime for a visit to the much famed Snow City Café, a place I had thrice already tried to frequent- the first time they were packed and I hadn’t wanted to wait; the second time I was craving pie which they don’t server; the third time was right before my interview that day, when I realized that we wouldn’t have time to sit, order, eat, change and make it to the office in time. I called Bill, an ex-Army guy from Pennsylvania whom I had met at the lodge a few days before who was working in Anchorage on contract for a while and had offered to get together when I was in town. Taija had gone MIA overnight, and I didn’t feel like eating alone. As I sat waiting for Bill to show, I browsed the menu which had a dedicated section of Eggs Benedict dishes- one with ham, spinach and tomatoes called the “B-o-b” for Best of both worlds- haven’t you had a regular order before but wanted your veggies as well, but not wanted only a vegetarian one?? Well, there it was! There was also a version with salmon cakes, so we ordered one of each and tried them both!

Afterwards, we had agreed to go to the Alaska State Fair which was happening a bit farther north in Palmer, but it was such a beautiful day and I was desperate for some exercise (is this a theme with me or what?!) so I convinced us to do the nearby Flattop hike instead, a few miles up to a 360 degree lookout point just east of downtown, something akin to Cowles Mountain in Mission Trails Regional Park- a challenge, but not too long and with a great payoff. The weather held out although it turned cool and cloudy (typical of late afternoon/evening) by the time we made it to the top, and the last bit involved scrambling up a granite rock outcropping marked by bright orange paint spray circles. (The Jamaican janitor at the hotel Bill was staying at told me to be careful because every year people died from falling off the mountain at that point.) The top, instead of being the solid plane of granite that I had envisioned, was compiled of loose gravel and rocks from end to end, bringing to mind a landing on the moon. The views were spectacular, both east and west down a large river valley, over the city of Anchorage and to the north and south across endless hills. Instead of heading back the same way we’d come, we half slid and ran down the south side of the mountain towards a rural residential area, bracing ourselves against the fluid earth. At one point, Bill spotted “low bush” blueberries, growing on what looked like ground cover rather than the waist-high branches that I’ve seen before. We stopped to tried a few and spent the next half hour crawling around the hillside on all fours, mesmerized by the cloudy blue berries, and with me yelling out every now and then to let our presence be known to any wildlife that might think we were stealing their precious fruit! Then we noticed other people wandering around with plastic buckets and figured we had hit the mother load of berries, if the locals were coming to that spot to collect them too. When we reached the dirt road below, we realized that we were nowhere near the parking lot where we’d left the car. We started walking in that general direction and after a while of not recognizing any landmarks (there really wasn’t much to recognize), we stopped a woman driving up the road and asked her how far away it was and how to get back to it. She ended up offering us a ride (of course!) as well as a beer from the case in the back seat! In talking to her on the approximately 6-8 mile ride down and then back up the road, she for some reason mentioned her massage therapist and I jumped on the chance for a personal recommendation for one- double serendipity! I called the woman as soon as I had reception again and requested a last-minute appointment for the next morning, hoping beyond hope that she might be working and available. Then, the two of us pondered where to feast and Bill remembered eating at an excellent steakhouse downtown called Club Paris. We headed straight there in our dusty and blueberry-stained hiking clothes and had a pretty fantastic meal starting with French onion soup and steamed clams followed by a sirloin steak for me and a baseball cut for him. I must brag and say that I finished my entire steak while he barely put a dent in his! Then, to finish off the marathon day, we headed to the Fireweed Cinema and took in the Bourne Ultimatum, which I thought was way too raw and roughly filmed, the camera so close in to the action that you really couldn’t see what was happening, and in places it actually made me dizzy to watch! But I hadn’t seen a movie in a few months, so it was still fun.

Click here for more photos from the Flat Top Hike.

The next day, we went back to the Moose’s Tooth for some yummy pizza and then I headed south again for work. The van, which had been having problems stalling after every few days that I let it sit, was also having acceleration issues both on the way up to Anchorage and on the way back, hesitating and jerking instead of accelerating smoothly whenever I pushed the pedal. It would work itself out (pushing water through the gas line??) eventually but for 20-30 minutes of two-lane driving it was pretty unsettling not to be able to move when needed. I had driven with my hazard lights blinking for the first part of our trip up, since I couldn’t get it over 45-50 mph at first and cars would come up pretty quickly from behind. At any rate, after work that night everyone was game for going to the Sunrise, a bar in Cooper Landing that had live bands every Saturday night. I had been meaning to go for weeks but was always too tired by the end of my shift, so I was excited to take a bunch of people in the van and go out! Another carload of people took off just before my group and when we piled into the van, it stalled as usual. However, this time, it wouldn’t quit stalling! I had 5 people in the car with me and it would not run!! I must have turned it on about 20 different times, trying to just let it warm up at idle, and then giving it gas so that it wouldn’t turn off, but either way it just kept dying over and over and in the end we never got past the parking lot with it. I was SOO upset that this fieldtrip was not going to work, but in the end, Lucy got in touch with Charlotte, the manager, who had an empty car and came back for us. So about an hour later than planned, we got to the Sunrise and I was thrilled to see it packed with young people dancing to a rock band- Audrey’s uncle was playing the guitar and everyone from work was there having a good time.