reason #723410498 homeland security blows

apparently even homeland security employees are frustrated with the process because during my fingerprinting appointment, all the guy did was complain to me about his job, the inane procedures they have and the fancy but fickle fingerprinting machine. also, i found out i COULD HAVE DONE THIS IN JUNEAU TODAY after all. they travel to other cities around the state on certain times, and it's up to some person in DC to schedule alaskans for local/near local appointments and then another person in nebraska to notify us, so any one in that process could have dropped the ball. the fingerprint clerk said a mistake happens every period, be it mass notification of the wrong date, location, time, or combo of above.

now i'm at a downtown coffee place called kaladi brothers. no matter how many times i've left juneau these past 2 years, i still forget how different the atmosphere is there until i leave. there are ups and downs to juneau. instead of a smart alternative paper, we get club hooligan. (i recently filled out an online survey, in which the empire asked opinions about this relatively new supplement, and i pretty much said it was banal at best, terribly written and pointless at worst.) and even though this coffeeshop is pretty cool with its funky world music and subculture beats playing and walls adorned with minimalist local art, i prefer silverbow's back room with its wobbly tables. shrine to elvis, and more private feel. but the differences are in more than just choice of cafes or publications. it's in the pace, the urban planning, the types of facades - purposeful or accidental.

sometimes i get taken aback when i think of reacclimating to "the real world" when i move for grad school. i think when i first moved to alaska, i viewed it as a physical and mental removal from my normal life - not as a natural progression of life events - and i don't think i've ever shed that attitude. i don't know why i saw it that way when it does align with my constant pursuits for travel, adventure, and philanthropy, but this sabbatical mentality has me a bit scared to move out of juneau. for my perceptions to return to 'real' life: the ivory tower studies removed from direct nonprofit social work, the career far removed from anything to do with children, a city of strangers much bigger than 30,000. who ever wants to leave vacation? the 15-year-old me would never have thought i could wrap a small town around myself like a favorite sweater.