We'll Get There

Scott arrived to our new home city on Monday by ferry. Along with his elderly (yet robust) red Toyota Tacoma, he had boarded the Alaska Marine Highway's Kennicott ferry in Prince Rupert last Sunday at 9 am and when he drove off the ferry a little after noon on Monday, he had started and finished the entirety of Barbara Kingsolver’s Poisonwood Bible, a book I had devoured and loved in Tanzania and had been pushing him to read. So that’s what floated in his mind as he drifted in the ocean from Canada through the islands of Southeast Alaska to Juneau – images and voices of Africa.

During lunch that Monday, I walked from the Capitol to the KTOO office in hopes of catching Scott before I had to start work again. I lingered for as long as I could as my lunch time extended beyond an hour, but not knowing if the ferry would arrive late, I hurried back to the Capitol for more training. Within three minutes of leaving KTOO, Tiffany from the control room called for me over the radio (which I’m always plugged into during work hours), “Lisa, your fiancé is at KTOO.” Luckily, my supervisor, Skip, let me take the rest of the day off.

We spent two nights with Scott’s good friends, Anthony and Lori. They were a couple of the first people Scott ever met in Alaska in 2001 when Scott went to Haines to do bear research with Anthony. With their two kids, Eli and Serena, Anthony and Lori warmly welcomed us to Juneau. Staying with them almost made it feel like we were just visiting friends in Juneau and we’d be off again. A couple times, Lori even said, “It’s so nice to have you guys here and I can’t believe you’re staying; you’re not leaving.” It was a weird concept for all of us to take in.

But we didn’t want to overstay our welcome, especially since Anthony and Lori have busy lives juggling work and being good parents. And we were eager to move into our new temporary home. We got the go-ahead from the house owners on Wednesday and that night, in the heavy, cold rain, we unloaded Scott’s truck with our belongings into our new home at 9601 North Douglas Highway. Carrying heavy loads (Scott’s loads being heavier than mine), we were careful with our footing not to slip on the thick layer of ice that covered the driveway. On Wednesday night, we were chilled, wet, tired, and home. We were home.

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Now it’s late Saturday morning. Scott is shoveling the driveway. Stacked up rubber tote containers still remain in the kitchen and the bathroom. For the most part, Scott has unpacked, but I still can’t bring myself to. For one thing, it’s hard to unpack knowing we’ll just have repack it all in six months (that’s when the homeowners will return from their two years of sailing). Also, it’s still a strange concept having all this stuff, stuff we’ve lived without for three years. Is there really a need to unpack and organize so many items of clothes when I’ve grown accustomed with having such a limited amount? I did enjoy unpacking and rediscovering how many cookbooks I have, but it makes me wonder where I got them all. I have all these balls of yarn. What plans did I have with all of them? All this stuff, all these choices, just complicates things. Who needs all these options?

That’s how most of Juneau is – options. What restaurant should we go to? What cell phone provider should we choose? What grocery store is most affordable? What pump has the cheapest gas? On what trail should we go snowshoeing tomorrow?

But living here does necessitate a lot of stuff. Our shopping list is ever-growing – sponges, paper towels, dish rags, cooking oil, dish detergent, laundry detergent, tissues, soap, garbage bags, a radio, an endless amount of food items … And once we buy all this stuff we’ll need to find a place to put it. So much of this life is having places to store all the stuff we buy and have – the reason to have cupboards and shelves and closets and drawers.

But we’ll get there. We’ll adjust.