Wow, this has been an exciting morning in Anchorage, Alaska! First thing this morning everybody was talking about the announcement that John McCain was going to announce Sarah Palin has his running mate.

Over the last few months we have heard the rumor flying around that McCain was considering Palin, but I chalked it up to local pride and didn’t actually expect her to receive the invitation! The Republican party is playing this one strategically. They waited to see who Obama would announce as his running mate and then announced Palin as McCain’s running mate the day after Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention. Pure genius. Our office came to a stop as we all crowded into Grant’s office to watch the address in Ohio. Now the news is reporting on nothing else but this political new comer who is essentially replacing Hillary Clinton as the token female candidate. It helps that, outside of the state of Alaska, nobody knows much about Palin. There is a mysterious allure about her and I’m sure it helps that she is young and gorgeous.

We were all hooting and hollering during the speech as she accepted the nomination and then introduced her family. She told the world all about how her husband, Todd, is a commercial fisherman, an oil producer on the North Slope and a world champion snowmachine rider.  She also brought out all her kids except for her son who is in the army and set to deploy to Iraq next month.

It has been really interesting listening to the news after the announcement as political correspondents try to wrap their minds around this one. We all had a good laugh when one news correspondent reported that Palin ”enjoys hunting and fishing and her favorite food is moose stew. I’m sure most people don’t even know what moose stew is.

I even received a phone call from a conservative broker in another office who wanted to know the scoop about Palin. When I confirmed that she is pro-life and refused to abort her most recent baby when learning that he was down syndrom the broker exclaimed, “Oh, it’s over. They are so getting elected.”

The news is already picking up on the fact that she has limited political experience, but so does Obama. Unfortunately for Palin, Obama’s running mate doesn’t appear to have a high chance of keeling over during the next term whereas that is definitely a possibility for McCain.

Either way I am excited to see Palin running with McCain and look forward to the media frenzy that is sure to come. Will the hottest governor be able to salvage the political career of one of the oldest?

So the first step to my travel extravaganza has been to move back in with my parents. Don’t worry, it’s only for two weeks and it’s going to be great. I am going to save a ton of money by not having to pay rent or food until Germany and I get to spend quality time with my family before I take off galavanting around the world.

The first word that comes to mind is relief. Ahhh, the weight is off my shoulders to pack up all my crap and move it out of my house in Anchorage. Once again I get to count my blessings at what amazing friends I have. Matt and Marcus helped me move all my heavy furniture into our friend’s trailer and Matt drove it all the way to The Valley with me and helped me unload it all at my parents’ house. I’ve lost count of how many heavy mattresses we have wrangled together. As usual, I couldn’t have done it without Matt!

 I am a little sad to be moving out because the house is great and I really enjoyed living at Westchester. It’s the perfect location close to downtown, but such a safe area. I’m embarrassed to admit that the only time we locked our doors in the five months that we lived there was when Peter woke up to find our street saturated by cops looking for an escaped felon. And then we never locked them again after that.

So now that I am out in The Valley for the next couple weeks I get to focus on saving money, packing for Germany and figuring out what I am taking to the lower 48 with me. My skis are the only things I am sure that I am bringing. Some clothes too. But I think that’s all I need. What a relief not to have to worry about hauling furniture around the country!

I am seriously evaluating my financial situation and it looks grim, to say the least. I am so lucky that I will get the dividend this year, which is going to be around $3000! Woo hoo! Proud to be an Alaskan! On top of that I’ve saved $1,000 to take to Germany, which will probably be gone in the blink of an eye! Although I did hear a rumor that the dollar is strengthening against the Euro. I hope it keeps it up!

And now it is bedtime since I have the pleasure of waking up at 4:30am to get to work in Anchorage on time. We’ll see how long this chipper attitude lasts!

Welcome to the first official blog entry of AlaskaCasey.com!  The website is still a work in progress, but the ultimate goal is to have a blog and photo gallery in working order to chronicle the world as I (Casey) see it!

Special thanks to Jim Stone who is amazing and has single handedly made this all possible. I’m not sure what I ever did to deserve such great friends, but everyday I am grateful to have them!

As most of you know, life is moving at warp speed. I officially put in my two weeks notice at Wachovia Securities, September 12^th is my last day, and finalized my plans for leaving Alaska, well, kind of.

The plan right now is to go to Germany with Matt and Jon from September 13^th to the 27^th where we will be couchsurfing through Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Austria. Matt and I are both excited about actually surfing since we have been hosting for so long. Hopefully the trip will result in some entertaining blog entries from yours truly. We will also be attending Oktoberfest in Munich which is going to be a riot. I can already tell.

Our flight lands in Anchorage an hour before we leave Germany (don’t you love time zones) the evening of the 27^th. I then get to jump in my car Sunday morning and begin driving like a banshee down to Oregon to attend Courtney’s wedding. This part of the plan isn’t much of a plan at all. Hopefully I will convince somebody cool to come do the drive with me. The wedding is going to be great! It’s the first weekend in October and it’s going to be the equivalent of a college reunion. I can’t wait to see what all of our old friends are up to.

After the wedding festivities the plan is drive to San Francisco and stay in that area through Halloween. As far as money? Well, hopefully I’ll figure something out. I like to think of myself as the antithesis to Murphy’s Law, in fact, let’s call it Casey’s Law: if something can go right, it will!

After California it’s on to Denver, Colorado to hang with my best friend Janae for the winter. I have a feeling that we are going to be spending a lot of time drinking Coors and hitting the slopes and that sounds like a perfect winter to me!

So please keep checking back often. There will be lots of updates and the site will definitely keep evolving!

Hey there, my new visitor!  Thanks for stopping by and checking in on me.  I can really use the company.  My name is Blog, or at least that’s what it is right now.  Hopefully that will change when my owner gives me more personality.  Right now I’m a wee lil’ thing that’s very, very new and anxiously awaiting some attention from Casey, the one who’s adventures I’ll be relaying to you as she decides to use me to write them.  If you’re reading this (and you obviously are), welcome!  Please write to my owner and tell her to get on the ball.  I won’t exactly update myself, you know (well, other than this time…)

Also, there’s a chance that I might not report anything again until Sept 1 or so because the ‘tech support guy’ who set me up will be off dancing in the desert until then, but hopefully he left Casey good enough directions to take care of me on her own

Back with more soon, I promise!

-Blog