On an utterly golden day in Alaska,  confident with unthreatened sunshine, I sat with three friends in our gloriously green backyard and discussed the world as it came to us, topic by topic. Boys, religion, dall’s porpoise, dementia vs. alzheimer’s were among the ranks of discussion. We talked to our hearts’ contents as our cheeks were sunkissed. We started with mimosas, switched to tequila sunrises and ended with guac. This required a few extra trips to the store but it was all good.

Today was like gravy on a heaping pile of mashed potatoes, I was as far from worry as my cat is from a healthy weight.

After an excursion to Arctic Bar with prime seating on the patio as we “binocked” (new word) at the cruise ship passengers, scouting out “Robers” and “Skinners,” I retreated to my introvert cave and started Gilmore Girls. On my way home, I passed my friends’ crush and waved hello. I promptly texted her that I had seen him and she managed to surreptitiously find herself in his path.

Before you know it, I have two friends on my twin bed giggling, rippling with laughter and full of cuddles as we unpacked the events of the glorious day. I felt swollen with gratitude.

Now that I am here and I’ve seen the outline of my job, I’ve made friends, gotten a sense of the town and learned what it’s like to wake up every morning at 6am and live to tell the tale (read: bitch about it whenever I find the chance), I’m really shocked that I pursued this new life. A complete and dramatic change like moving 4 time zones behind and 2698 miles away from my friends, family and cat seems like such a difficult thing to do. It has been hard. I’m finding that I am feeling my age, and that this is one of the last blind changes I will make in my single youth. Eventually, the comfort of knowing your own refrigerator and your own pillow overcome the ability to pursue whim.

But I’m still chasing the sunset, wondering what will anchor me at last. More than likely I will learn that change is my anchor, whether or not like it.

But if I can carouse through my day off with a braided floral crown in my hair, matching my three friends, then I’m happy to experience it.

I’m happy to host two giggling friends in my bed, squealing over boys and tearfully recounting a recent loss that shifted a paradigm only to find that shallowness is not exclusive to certain people, it’s a tendency in all of us.

In the rush of my ever-search for meaning, sleep and peanut butter, I find two gorgeous women who happen to be my roommates. I found myself wondering today “How long will I continue to be surprised by how close I am to overwhelmingly good people?” I had a truly beautiful time living with my 4 roommates and friends in Seattle, this feels like a glorious post-script to another West Coast adventure that I did not anticipate.

It’s a gift, a blessing and a rarity to find friends in neighbors, and to find neighbors in friends, and I have won the lottery of circumstance with a fabulous cast of people to hang with this summer. I kind of can’t believe it.