Well, I finally made it back to Alaska for Christmas! I made the mistake of flying US Airways. In a time of economic crisis they want to make people hate them more by charging for bags! It’s $15 for the first, $25 for the second and $100 for the 3rd-9th. I don’t know how many people need to check nine bags, Madonna perhaps? but US Airways is going to capitalize on it! Can you imagine spending almost $1000 just to check your bags on an airline?

It gets worse. US Airways doesn’t even serve water for free anymore! They offer Coca-Cola products, juice and some alcoholic beverages that are going to cost you. $2 just for a can of soda! On our flight from Phoenix to Anchorage the flight attendants were anxious to let us know that they did not have any food on board so if we wanted anything to eat during the six hour flight we had better buy it at the airport.

People at the Anchorage airport just don't get why there is a dotted line around the baggage claim.

All this was only mildly annoying until I got on my Phoenix to Anchorage flight, which was a red eye, and realized that my seat, 8A, was in the row in front of the emergency exit row. Imagine my distress when I realized that I couldn’t put my seat back! Six hours of flying during the middle of the night and I could not find a comfortable way to sleep. The poor older gentleman next to me looked like a contortionist as he changed from one uncomfortable position to another. 

Luckily I made it to Anchorage in one piece. There is quite a bit of snow on the ground which is good to see. In past years it has been too warm and actually rained on Christmas! It feels good to be back at my parents house. When I walked in the door I was greeted by the smell on my mom’s homemade pumpkin spice bread, delicious! I’m also excited to see my two favorite wiener dogs. Sophie is pregnant with puppies and is supposed to give birth a couple days before I leave. I hope that I am here when it happens!

I don’t have too many plans for while I’m home. Hopefully there will be a lot of skiing. Once Jim and Chris get here we are going to rally the troops and head north to try to get a glimpse of the Northern Lights. Whatever happens, I’m sure it will be an adventure.

Well, the majority of the polls are closed and Barack Obama has been named the President Elect. Wow! I am so excited to be apart of such an amazing chapter in our history! The United States of America has elected its first black president.

To say that Obama was elected just because of his race would be unfair and racist. I don’t care what people say, if you vote for a person just because of his or her gender/ race that is descrimination and it goes against every civil liberty that this country has fought for!

The truth is that Obama is an amazing orator. His ability to excite large crowds of people is a large contributor to his winning campaign. When his victory was announced on the news, our neighborhood went insane. Our house in Berkeley is located on a row of fraternity and sorority houses from UC Berkeley. There were students crowding into the streets cheering. We even had the good fortune of watching a group of female students running down the streets topless. I think the guys in our house were especially appreciative of that kind of celebrating.

Alaskans stuck to their guns Tuesday night and the state came out republican, as always. Surprisingly it looks like they have re-elected Senator Ted Stevens who, according to the Anchorage Daily News, was convicted on seven felony charges a week ago. As of this morning the ADN reported that there are still 40,000 absentee ballots out, but it looks as if Stevens is going to be the first senator re-elected after being found guilty of criminal charges.

Historically Ted Stevens has been a driving force in the development of Alaska. He has been able to use his position in the senate to ear mark millions of dollars for Alaskan projects, which most Alaskans are in favor for. Stevens’ re-election is a testament to the localism that is abundant in Alaska. Alaskans have a large distrust of the “Outside” and especially of national politicians who don’t understand the idiosyncrasies of Alaskan life. As a people who play hard in the summer during the 24 hour days and struggle to survive the winters during the 24 hour nights, we don’t appreciate being told what to do and would rather reinvent the wheel than use an idea from any of those “lower 48ers”. So I guess it’s not such a big surprise that Uncle Ted is back! It would have made a much larger impact on the election if he had been convicted in Alaska rather than by a jury in Washington DC. We just don’t trust those folks!

I am deeply saddened that Proposition 8 passed in California. It feels like a step backward in civil liberties everywhere. As the largest state in the union, California has the ability to influence the way the entire country defines equal rights.

Proposition 8 was the measure to change the California State Constitution to state that only a marriage between a man and a woman would be recognized by the state of California. First of all, I don’t understand that in a time of economic and education crisis politicians were so concerned about putting this on the ballot. Millions of dollars were spent on both sides and Prop 8 passed 52% to 48%.

Second of all, I don’t understand how a state that overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama with 61% of the vote could so openly disregard the constitutional right of an entire population! I would further argue that defining marriage in the state’s consitution is an obvious lack of seperation between church and state. Either marriage is a religious organization in which it would be up to each church to decide who it will marry. Or marriage is a government organization in which every citizen should have equal rights to participate and receive whatever benefits from that union. You can’t have it both ways!

I know that gay citizens will eventual have equal rights, it’s just a matter of fighting the good fight and breaking down these ridiculous barriers.

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!