HERE.

What a ride. Really long. Really boring. REALLY exciting.
Ok, I left our place in Carolina at 4:30 am. Was up at 4 the whole place was quite. Eb took me to the airport. I left under the stars with tears in my eyes and 2 bags at my arms. Naturally, the car ride was an adventure with Eb. "Stay in your lane, slow down, speed up, turn off the country music!"
The airport was dead-which was bad luck for me. TSA people were happy to see me and rip my stuff apart. Not to mention I'm not a morning person, controling my distaste was a trial. Things worked out though.
Taking off from the airport was great. Watching the red dirt and subdivision filled state clear from view brought me closer to reality. We flew over the Appalachians toward the Ohio Kentucky airport. It was smaller and my connection was fast so didnt get much time to soak up anything.
Exit row seats are terrible. Cold and long trip to Salt Lake City.
But wow. Salt Lake City is neat. Didnt go out of the airport but flying in was neat. The rocky moutains are so-pointy. They're tall and spikey. Comparing them to the Winona bluffs and Appalachians I'm used to. Never been on the west coast, so everything seemed new. The airport is decorated with native art and western people. All the airport workers were smiling and happy. It made me queasy. Why is everyone so happy. Its great and all but whats going on did we win the war or something? On my flight to Anchorage, the attendant in my area (exit seat again) was this middle-aged lady from Utah. Super nice, and super smiley. She was always smiling. Why am I stressing this-I've never seen anyone like her. She made me feel like I never smile. Collecting garbage, passing out food, and walking passed the overused batheroom-smiling. Ok I need to work on that. It made me feel that she was confident, comfortable and capable. I want to appear that way. I'm going to work on that. And it was this nice smile like natural, not barbie doll like.
Anyway the plane ride was too long. Five or six hours or something. After watching two random movies on the plane and eating too many salted and biscoff cookies I was ready. Flying int he sites were spectacular. You never know how beautiful somehting is until you see it yourself. Really, people talk about how pretty Alaska is, but you'd never know really how it was till you saw it.
There is soo much diversity here too. I love to see all the natives. When I saw them I said I'm one of you. That was a great feeling, one I rarely get. Its we have something in common eventhough we have never met. The Anchorage airport is alot bigger than I expected. (Although I did expect it to look like a wooden shack with a gravel runway.) The people here are nice. Common thing I think for cold climate places-right. So much divesity, its great. I cant wait to go out. I need to go out today and hunt for food. ( not really there is a walmart down the road).

(bsm)almost there...

not quite sure how to begin.
I'm not sure what is in front of me. How do I prepare. Will I regret leaving? Will I wish it never happened? Will I be lonely? Will I get eaten by a wild animal?
All these questions and more are going through my head. Ok, things will be great I'm sure-yeah.
I remember when I applied to TWC for the DOT internship. I had to choose three choices for location. I loved DC so I picked it as first, then I thought about being placed close to my family so I chose Carolina, then I thought let me put down something outrageous for the adventure:Alaska. "Yeah, its not like I would ever be placed there," thats what I said to myself. A few weeks later I was contacted for an interview. The email subject had the word Alaska in all capital letters. I was shocked-then ecstatic. I thought God your giving me another adventure-thanks. I called my mom first-yelling in the phone "mom, mom, mom your not going to believe it, reallly mom your not guess what, guess who just emailed me....," she was blank. After my excitement I felt the same way, blank. What? Alaska? O...k...
The interview went great, I was interviewed over the phone by 3 or 4 people. They were all so nice, and at the getco I was told "you do know that we're in Alaska right?" Yeah I got it, I'm up for it.