In The Emerald City

Here I am in Anchorage, ready for my longest stay since last June. Not so emerald-like outside really-it has been snowing steadily since I got here this afternoon. When I drive in traffic in this stuff, I realize that I only mind winter when I have to drive in it. My rental car has front wheel drive, which makes it kind of prone to snowplowing and sliding. Yuk. Out in the sticks, we run around on sno-gos, which are at least meant to operate in this stuff. Weird how one's point of view changes.

It was a lovely run up to Bethel this afternoon. The sun was out, and the weather was relatively mild. I am recognizing my landmarks and orienting better on the river-I suppose that I will have to give up and actually take turns driving when I get back, or I will never hear the end of it from the kids at school. Of course, it is kind of nice to get chauffered around, and I still get a little confused with some of the back ways and shortcuts around Bethel.

I got to town in fine fashion, cashed my expense checks at Swanson's without a hitch, and got myself out to the airport. Only sticky point was when they made me take off my bibs in the TSA line. I had pants on underneath, but it was one more item of discarded clothing that had to be retrieved on the other side of the magic x-ray machine. The flight was short and sweet (57 minutes), and I found myself in Anchorage. I have just been moping around the hotel since-I managed to see the second half of the Super Bowl, got some dinner, and did some teaching kind of work-and here I am at 9:37 AKST, looking at the room around me.

Five days of reading training await me, starting in the morning. I wonder what I will learn. I hope that it will be interesting and helpful. I would like some more ideas about how to do my job better. I want to get good at this stuff. I realize that it takes time, but I feel like time is not something that I have in huge quantities at this point in my life. Perhaps I get frustrated and impatient too easily, but I feel pressure to be perfect. Maybe it is self-generated.

I am going to take the optimistic approach. It has not been my favored choice in the past, but it does seem to serve me better as I have tried to go that way more often now. After all, I am teaching in Bush Alaska-who would have guessed that would happen a couple of years ago!