June 27, 1995
Okay, let’s be honest. Cord is a dork! We came up to Kenai today. He’s like a lost puppy checking everything with me. Flattering, I suppose, but irritating. I think I’m going to ditch him – not here to take care of him.
June 24, 1995
I’ve been in Homer for 2 days now. We found job pitching fish. It’s actually hilarious. I think we were very lucky to find work right away. There have been people here for a couple of weeks and still haven’t found a thing. I’m still amazed at myself. I’m camping out on a beach, working for the summer. It’s really difficult to get jobs. I know what it feels like to be completely destitute. Although it does have a certain freedom.
I think I finally got into the mindset of just getting by until you find something. Cord seems pretty cool – latched on pretty quick but that’s ok. Homer is a little odd. It might just be that I’m in a village of tents and living with tent people. I hope this [halibut] charter job works out.
June 23, 1995
Well, I finally got to Anchorage. I power drive the whole way. The Alaska highway is beautiful, but the roads are just crappy. Half dirt, half pavement. I drove through B.C. [British Columbia] and the Yukon.
Anchorage is still a little too city-like for me. It kills me that it’s 3:00 in the morning and there’s still sunlight outside.
When I got to Anchorage, right off I met a guy from LA (originally from Germany) we seemed to hit it off right away. He and I are headed toward Homer together. Very odd, I’m expecting it to be a transitory friendship. He’s sort of a theater guy/ production and assistant directing. I can tell he’s got the artistic fling about him. We basically just drove around and got lost in Anchorage.
June 21, 1995
It was the first time I’ve stayed in a hostel. Whitehorse, Yukon. I met a guy from Germany that was canoeing his way around. He was headed toward the Bering Sea to finish his trip. I’m amazed that there is such a variety of people.
Above Pike Place - texting location for NTIA
I’ve been flying around the country the last couple of weeks running the SMS center for a campaign with the NTIA to raise awareness for the DTV transition in demographics who may not yet be aware of the switch in June.
The way it works is you project an image onto the side of the building and encourage people to text. The SMS messages scroll through. I ran the projector and SMS center. This was the same system used in the Obama campaign in battleground states during the general election.
The most popular creative used was “If My Life Were a TV Show It Would Be Called…”
June 11, 1995
I don’t really know what to write in this journal, but I guess graduation would be a logical place to start my story and adventure. I really didn’t think graduation would be that fun- I mean, I went to Glenn’s [brother's graduation] and was bored most of the time. I think I went through just to finish off college. A nice ending, I suppose. But I don’t think I could have asked for a more hilarious and memorable one.
It all started out the Thursday before.
I’d been telling everyone for months that I was leaving [to travel to Alaska]. Kim O’Leary (Carlisle) decided to throw me a graduation/ goodbye party at the Salt City Café – small bladder night. The party was fun, I’m glad – especially that Beau and Beau showed up. Random people were buying me shots and I was buying everyone else jello shots.
I got dropped off at Greg’s[college classmate] house. He was outside stripping a flower’s leaves off for a girl he’s dating at the time. I pass out on his couch and wake up to him saying “Graduation Day!” at 8:00 in the morning.
We woke up and he gave me some health-food drink, took showers and got ready. His dad came and picked us up. We had a huge bottle of champagne, he looked at me and said “So how are we going to sneak this in?” I told him to put it under the sleeve of his gown. Well, we got up to the Huntsman Center and jump out of the car. We sat down and Greg was like “Do you really thing anyone is going to notice us drinking this?”
We got a glass and were sitting there. The music was playing and right as it stopped he popped the cork. Well, it was pretty loud. We looked around and everyone was giving us funny looks. Some of the people next to us asked what we were drinking. I answered “Champagne, want some?” We sat there celebrating wondering why everyone was being so boring.
Jeff was sitting a couple sections away and was taking pictures. I turned to Greg and said “We have to get a picture of us with this bottle.” Jeff got a couple of pictures, shaking his head the whole time.
We left after the speaker and walked around campus. I did my last walk-through of the business buildings. Passing the bottle between us.
Walking back toward the Huntsman Center our gown and tassels flying, we saw everyone else get out of commencement. As they walked past us, their eyes widened in horror at the bottle we were still carrying.
Getting into the convocation, we were the last ones. I noticed everyone got their diploma very sedately as they walked off the stage. As I stepped off the stands and onto the floor, my heart was pounding. Both of us couldn’t keep smiles of pure elation off our faces. I got my diploma, turned to Dad and did a quick bow. Greg, being the last, got his diploma and threw his hands I the air. Everyone cheered. What a perfect ending to my college career.