Today I went to the Alaska court system law library in town and did some legislative history research, which was kinda interesting. Piecing together a story is a good time. Reading microfiche, though, made me nauseated.

Today I also overheard a client's story of abuse and ill-doings. At the end she said, "Oh yeah, and I also got shot." Whaaa? "Yeah, my husband's girlfriend's ex-boyfriend [or possibly her husband's ex-girlfriend's boyfriend -- I can't recall] shot me in the arm and they never got it out, so now I have a permanent bullet in my arm."

Dang.

After work, my roommate and I went to a bar, where I had the Alaska salmon chowder and a sampler of Alaskan beers. It was pouring outside for about an hour, even though it looked perfectly sunny. Weird. And then all the clouds disappeared completely.

It's first Friday here, which means a lot of galleries and stuff were open late. We went to the Museum of Natural History, which had a jazz concert going on, and I examined some really cool pictures of northern Finland natives, called the Sami. The guy behind the desk gave us free passes (2 each) to come back AND one of the front desk copies of the bus schedule (I mean, it literally says "Front Desk Copy, Do Not Remove").

On our way to another gallery, someone yelled out of a window, "Konnichiwa! Ni hao ma!" and I thought, "Jesus! Every. Fucking. City." My roommate gave him the finger.

We had the best piece of Hawaiian pizza in the coldest pizza joint in town (why have the air on when it's 55 degrees outside? why why why?), and then we walked home. The sun was heading down over the lagoon in a dazzling display of purples and oranges. It was 10:30 pm.

We returned the DVD we watched last night (Mean Girls), and some 14-year-old riding by on a bike winked at us, according to my roommate. I didn't notice. It was 11 pm when we got to the house and let ourselves in. The sun was finally just starting to sink past the horizon. I noticed a mosquito on the wall and tried to kill it with the Anchorage Free Press, but it got away. I was looking for it, paper in hand, when I felt a burning on my wrist and heard a buzzing sound. I shook my hand, panicked, and sure enough, there were four -- four! -- fresh bites on my wrist, white and raised. I went to wash my wrist and my roommate found and smacked the mosquito, hitting her own finger on the wall in the process and dancing around in pain, which I interpreted as joy, from my view in the bathroom mirror. We mournfully acknowledged that we will both be in itchy hell this summer.

It's midnight and still dusky outside. This time last week I was helping Joiner clean up vomit-y water from a dorm sink and fighting the urge to hurl. It's been a long seven days. I gotta go to bed.