Good morning. Hello. How are you? #423
Greetings from Fairbanks, Alaska on the longest day of the year.
Good morning. Hello. How are you? I mean, its probably not morning where you are. It is 8AM here in Fairbanks, which means it’s noon on the east coast. I guess it might still be morning in the west coast when I send this out in an hour or so. So, good morning Californians, Oregonians and Washingtonians.
I woke up Sunday at 4:30 AM to discover my flight to Seattle had been delayed twelve hours, which was obviously going to cause me to miss my flight to Fairbanks. I got up, hauled myself downstairs in front of the computer, and found a new flight. Got into Fairbanks about 7 hours later than originally scheduled. Not bad, but caused the family to postpone their Father’s Day dinner 24 hours. I did, however, get one more breakfast with Jane, that was nice.
I wonder what age it was when I started backing slippers in my suitcase for trips longer than a day or two.
So, here I am. I read a lot about Joan Robinson on the plane – finished up The Provocative Joan Robinson and then immediately started and finished Making Sense of Joan Robinson on China by Pervez Tahir, which was very helpful. I’ll probably write all about that tomorrow when I’m not jetlagged and overwhelmed. I sat next to a baby named Lucas on the fight to Minneapolis, which was auspicious since one of the reasons I’m here in Fairbanks is to meet my new baby nephew Lucas. I sat next to a very nice 1 year-old girl, in First, on the flight to Fairbanks. The parents were mortified about her crying. I didn’t even hear it. I’m a parent now. Used to bug me so much.
Delta extended everyones Sky Club memberships by six months, so I still had a membership, that was nice.
Flying into Fairbanks, we flew over Eielson AFB, which I have never done in my life. It was so cool. I was not quick enough to get a picture of it, though. I did get this great photo of the midnight sun (well, it was only like 10 PM) as we were making our final approach into Fairbanks, though:
I just love that blue and gold.
Anyway, my uncle Jack and aunt Fred picked me up at the airport. My sister was going to, but the whole being-seven-hours-late thing messed with her baby schedule, so Jack and Fred did the deed. It was very nice. We dropped my stuff off at Sophie’s Station and headed to Pike’s for a nightcap. Pike’s is so weird because it keeps expanding, but the core bar, the original part of it, is still there at the heart of it all:
But then they added a posh dining room in the 80’s — it is under renovation right now — and then a hyooogue deck, which is great in the summer. And then they added an entire hotel, where I used to stay but it is overpriced. Has a nice, ornate lobby, but it’s still just a glorified motel, the rooms are just basic motel rooms, and it costs as much as my hotel in SoHo. No worth it. So I’ve been back to Sophie’s these last few years. It was wear I worked in High School with punk rock Julie, and it has a kitchenette, unlike Pikes, so I can pretend I am going to eat healthy. Pike’s deck is sure nice, though:
That is about 11 PM in that photo.
They dropped me off at the hotel, I spent an absurd amount of time trying to get this computer to work. I threw it in my bag at the last minute. I was going to attempt to do this whole trip on an iPad and my phone, but then I remembered that iPads are terrible, the OS is a joke, and even though Apple keeps telling me it’s “pro,” it is still basically impossible to create anything on it, and I want to try and keep doing these dumb emails while I’m here. So I have mostly gotten this thing up and running. It had been wiped, it’s an old computer that I never use because I hate laptops and they are terrible. But they’re better than iPads. But god, honestly, I don’t know how people live like this. One monitor, at a horrible angle, bad for your neck, not enough nits, no keypad. What am I a farmer?
I had to get through all my 2FA on three mail accounts, Facebook, Dropbox, 1Password, etc to get it up and running. I think I have the bare minimum now. Took me like an hour to figure out how to log into Substack. But here I am.
This morning I drove by my first childhood home. I only lived there till I was two. I tell myself I remember it, but of course all I really remember are the photos. Apparently I almost died there because of a gas leak, that knocked me out and was in the process of knocking my mother out when my aunt Bonnie came by, figured out what was going on, got us all out of there and to the hospital. I may have that story slightly wrong but that’s the gist of it. Anyway this isn’t the house, but this is the street:
How Fairbanks is that?
Also I forgot how everyone’s car here is super dirty. It barely rains in the summer, but all their cars are dirty. I love it. And how one in ten cars has no bumper.
I went to Fred Meyer to buy groceries this morning, and while I am very impressed with the grocery selection, the place is looking a little run-down. Hasn’t had a remodel in a good… fifteen years now? It could really use a bit of sprucing up.
So, here I am. I am going to go see my mom and my sister in about thirty minutes. There is no way in god’s green earth I can manage to put together a Spotify playlist before then. I haven’t even gotten Spotify downloaded on this computer. I am trying. It’s not the worst hotel wifi, but.
I made it for Solstice, which is nice. My emotions haven’t caught up. I am tired. I woke up too early. I’m going to need a nap today. I forgot about how much my travel CPAP machine sucks. I forgot to get the extra blanket and pillow out of the hotel room closet. My neck is killing me from the flight. I read on planes, which means I spend too much time with my neck bent forward, which then causes me three days of neck pain. I need to get a selfie stick for the flight home, so I can hold my phone up in front of my face even when my head is leaning back. I TRY to to do this, but then I have to hold my arm up, with no bracing, for hours at a time. So in the flight here it occurred to me: selfie stick. Small, collapsible one. Bob’s your uncle. Whatever. I have no shame.
I need to text friends and make plans but I am sooo jetlagged.
Baby steps.
I chose coming to Fairbanks this week because it worked out with the out-of-towners. Jack and Fred, Jamie, Carrie. But it is really nice that it’s worked out that it’s solstice. Always has special meaning up here, people that appreciate the sun in the summer because they get so little of it in the winter. That being said, I still bought binder clips to clip together the blackout curtains in the hotel room. I’ve gone soft.
Okay I lied I got a playlist made, but it’s basically impossible to do my normal screenshots on this little teeny computer — the whole Spotify list doesn’t fit on the screen at once, so I can’t screenshot it right. Drat. It *almost* works (long discursive essay in the subtle emotional differences between actual italics and putting something between asterisks, aka textile italics).
Ugh I still gotta figure out how to copy this entry into my master Scrivener file. And paste it into Facebook. Leaving home is hell. But I am making progress. Love you all. Will have something profound to say tomorrow! Please be impressed I managed to pull this off at all under this extreme jetlag. Mwah!
I have this Fairbanks postcard in my ebay store. It's about 100 years old, but I feel like it pretty much still looked like that when I was there. https://www.ebay.com/itm/254401968867 (I guess I can't just put a picture in a thingie substack comment...)
I love seeing midnight sun photos, they're obviously gorgeous, but that photo on the bar deck at 11pm is positively disorienting, because it just looks so... normal. You could tell me that's 2 in the afternoon and I'd believe you. Crazy. I don't know how anyone goes to sleep!