The existence of 401(k)s serves as an admission that salaries/wages are too depressed to extend into retirement the coverage of costs associated with the standard of living a former employee enjoyed while employed. We are goaded, then, to play the game, to be complicit participants, lest we one day lose the comforts to which we’ve…
Last year, while loitering in an apartment to which I’d just been granted admittance, I noticed affixed to a closet door a thin, glossy sheet of paper–a page from a magazine, removed neatly and elevated in status to an artifact more deserving of one’s attention than the other pages left behind. On the page was…
My employer’s logo is a castle. It’s not as glorious as having my own castle ruins to live in would be, but it suggests that things are moving in the right direction on that front. I relish the 25 minute walk between the building where I work and where the bus drops me off/picks me…
Apartment hunting took little more than two days. Before I left Fairbanks I thought I’d get a place in the Government Hill neighborhood since it would just be a walk from work, but three things converged to result in my never even visiting the complex: I never heard from them after faxing in my application,…
The process of moving can be likened to an archaeological dig. I’ve uncovered many forgotten artifacts of times long past. Some of these point to interests I had that waxed and waned: basketball cards, skateboarder clothes, drawings of weapons inspired by a sci-fi radio drama, books with addresses and contact numbers for places to send…
One of the most lasting ways to rekindle enthusiasm for your work is to look round and take notice of all the jobs you would hate to have. How empowering to shift the tiresome paradigm of waking up dreading another day’s contribution to livelihood into the consideration of one’s work as collateral. Watch someone working…
The Federal government has made me an offer I can’t refuse, and that should only facetiously be interpreted as an allusion to The Godfather. It’s a step backward in the sense that I’ll be returning to Alaska. It’s a step forward in the sense that I’ll be in Anchorage, living in a place of my…
Some of the things I’ve come to realize as a consequence of being here could have been, or were, explained to me by friends and family before I left Alaska, but no matter how convincing and articulate their promises of what I would find here may have been, there is no substitute for firsthand experience….
The idea of working as an ambulance EMT is becoming more and more attractive. So much so that it’s beginning to motivate me to get a Driver’s License. Two things: 1. While even most emergency cases might not be life threatening in the time spanning the ambulance ride, some certainly are, and EMT is one…
My poor financial management skills have been given more funds to play with; I’ve received another scholarship. My perplexing success in this domain makes me wish I’d started applying for free money much earlier in my college career. In April I meet with my private scholarship sponsors for breakfast at a pomp and circumstance recognition…
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