The Great Trans-Alaskan Pipe Dream.

Here it goes. The doubters will believe and the believers will be disappointed. Having recently caught up with an old friend in a present time conjured up strong associations and shared interests. By the time of our first face-to-face in some three years, myself & my former housemate(slash)boss, I had long passed on the pursuit of any profession or future involvement in public radio. The window had been shut by now, the ears were listening to the newly accustomed monitor hums from a cubicle and not a booth. Yet, a simple breakfast at a Killingsworth café near the end of this reunion and celebration for separate futures, sprang a moment of spontaneity where the former housemate(slash)subordinate decided to question time’s passing and inquire about a reunited future of sorts. I should have a more narrow vision by twenty-five, but what about expanding oneself and furthering optional avenues? The latter I had been pondering for some time, and had now seized on a slim opportunity to do so. Managing to land a second position in musicland could reopen this tightened artery, and allow myself to build upon past experience. This may be a favored balance to graduate school intentions in environmental planning in the not-too-far future. Managing to land an advanced schooling in studying the not-too-far future would keep a functional artery opened, and allow myself to build upon past education. This can wait ‘til autumn. Wake up! There isn’t much time before the window is completely closed and you can no longer escape down this closing passage. Clutch onto any sort of chance you have and ask the housemate(slash)boss about an escape. Hell, the friend(slash)friend is in front of you eating salmon cakes! So I asked him about aiding his community radio station this summer for a month or so, expecting little more than a passing glance and smile, and he throws back some gurgled direction about a possible paid-internship. Which brings us a month later, where I have now sent off the necessary pre-requisitions for a potential chance to intern in musicland and view the Great Northwest:

Michael,
Thank you for your consideration for this desired position.
[attached: Steven Gehrke KIAL Cover Letter.wpd, Steven Gehrke KIAL Resume.wpd]

Sincerely,
Steven Gehrke

ALARM: Believers, don’t forget the preface.

Enjoy your day, sister!

Tomorrow will be the twenty-fourth birthday of my one and only sibling, Jackelyn. She is a unique woman that I have so little in common with on the immediate surface, but a greatly shared bond in everything that is of significant meaning to me. It is only presently becoming easier to view her as a mature woman, now that I am spending the sixth of her last seven natal celebrations apart from her; viewing her maturation from afar. Throughout this period (and our entire lives), I have been fortunate to be given every opportunity to succeed and pursue my dreams while she has been forced to encounter numerous hardships and misfortunes. Selfishly, I rarely stop to think of everything she has accomplished and done despite these unwanted restrictions. Instead, I usually get lost in my next careless adventure or meaningless accomplishment and unknowingly gloat, while she is living with and helping to care for my wonderful parents...not to mention my grandmother, who is currently amidst some difficult health issues. She has chosen this path of nurture and familial concern despite her past of irrational behavior, and I have somewhat narcissistically chosen to unintentionally distance myself from those desired traits despite my past of apparently rational behavior. Are we simply following deeply embedded gender roles? I am not too sure nor concerned, I suppose. I just know I owe to her a great deal of gratitude that, at most times in our lives, has not been displayed. So, thank you Jackie and have a great birthday (I wish I could be there to spend it with you, but you know I can’t stand that small town of ours!)!