Saturday, January 12, 2008

Homeward Bound


Here's yours truly and my partner, Bren at the Capitol in Olympia on New Year's Day.

For those of my friends whom I've gotten to know through the blogosphere, I want to share the following announcement, which I sent out to my friends and family members earlier this week. It won't make any difference to those of us who only know each other through the vast expanse of the Internet, but is likely to have a huge impact on my blogging, my artwork, and my outlook on life overall.

I applied for a job with my regional Alaska Native corporation, Koniag, just before the Christmas holiday. Last Friday, January 4, I traveled to Anchorage for a second interview, returning home that afternoon. Late Tuesday afternoon, I received an offer from Koniag, which I have subsequently accepted. The position is hareholder Communications Specialist, and is based in Kodiak. I will be traveling frequently (every other weekend) around Kodiak Is. (to the villages), as well as to Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, and to Seattle. I am very excited to return to Kodiak working for Koniag, Inc. I start my job on Friday, Feb. 1, and anticipate arriving in Kodiak a couple of days prior to that. My last day at work here in Seattle will be Jan. 25. I will be making arrangements for temporary housing, and then looking at a more permanent situation after I get settled at my new job.

Bren will be staying here to hold down the fort, as tax season is just starting up, and she already has clients beating down the door! Some time after April 15, she will come to Kodiak for a visit, and we will start planning what do to for our long-term living arrangements.

We are both really excited about this opportunity. When the job posting appeared in the most recent Koniag Newsletter, I felt like it was an answer to my prayers to figure out how to spend more time with my Mom and Dad, who are both in their late 80's. This affords me the perfect opportunity to enjoy their company as well as my other friends & relations (at least them who live in Kodiak), have a good career with challenging new opportunities, and a healthy diet of salmon, halibut, and hiking/beachcombing, etc.

Thanks to you who have supported me in this endeavor, and with whom I've worked in the past! I will be in touch as soon as I have a new snail-mail address, etc. In the meantime, the best way to contact me will be via my e-mail or checking in here at the blog. Here's a link to Koniag's website:
http://www.koniag.com

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

How exciting! Congratulations and best wishes in your new job and home! Sounds like such a good fit for you. But does this mean you won't blog anymore?

9:28 AM  
Blogger Elderberry Studio said...

Hi Marja-leena: Happy New Year! It was great to hear from you! I will definitely still be blogging! I will be taking my laptop with me, and as soon as I get internet access, I will start posting.

I will be flying to all the native villages around Kodiak in small bush planes, going to Anchorage, the Kenai Peninsula, and to Seattle (every other month to Sea.) so should have lots to take pics of.

It'll be a while probably before I'm settled in enough to make art. But I'm determined, so I'm sure things will fall into place. I will have all the natural materials I need - since I used to harvest all my own wood from the beaches along the road system and in front of my Mom's house. Will try to scan some of my old photos of Kodiak soon, so you can see where I'm going!

9:22 PM  
Blogger Omar Cruz said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

6:00 PM  
Blogger Elderberry Studio said...

Omar - please don't use blogs to advertise your business. It's a waste of your time to disguise an ad in a comment on my blog, anyway.

10:54 PM  
Blogger Elise said...

Hi Jackie! Congratulations on your new job! It's too bad that you and Bren will be away from each other for awhile...is she a tax accountant? My tax/financial planner guy's wife got a new job in Bozeman and he moved to be with her after tax season and found that all of his clients followed him, including me. I just mail him my paperwork and he files for me. We communicate by phone and email if we need to. It's the kind of job that can be done from anywhere, so hopefully she'll love Kodiak as much as you do and you'll be reunited shortly.

Again, congratulations, I'm very excited for you.

2:30 PM  
Blogger Elderberry Studio said...

Hey Elise: thank you! Yeah, Bren is a tax preparer. She could do that here as well, although right now, she is busy and it works out better, so we don't have to try to sell our condo in the winter. It is hard to be separated. But the good part is, my new job requires lots of travel. I have 3 trips coming up in the next month: Anchorage, Seattle, and Las Vegas, including a return through Seattle. So we'll get to see each other then! Plus I'm racking up the AK Air miles!
Thanks again - maybe my travels will bring me through Juneau some day! I'm house sitting for my cousin, who's in Juneau for the legislative session with her husband, who is a senator.:}
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12:23 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

hi Jackie,
I think I left a comment when I visited your site last week. For some reasons it disappeared. Anyway, congratulations on your new job.
Your parents must be excited that they will be seeing you a lot.

4:26 PM  

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