This is what I call Pete. It is short for Plum Job. A plum job is a good job with a lot of perks. Seems fitting, but of course, I don’t know.

When he first started teaching Public Speaking at Mat-Su College, students, as a part of their seven minute presentations, would bring in food to share with the other students. I remember once, when I was working in the writing center, a Russian student brought in a cake that must have had 32 very thin layers. I didn’t get to hear the presentation in which she talked about how she made it. It was the best cake that I ever ate.

Public speaking is an interesting class – the students soon become less apprehensive and begin to enjoy talking in front of their peers. All P.J. does is get them relaxed and at ease talking in a public setting. They are then indebted to him, so much so that they say in their evaluations things such as, “this teacher walks on water.”

Pete harvesting strawberries

When Covid hit, the student enrollment dropped. Pete was then able to work at home, which was made easier by the fact that the enrollment (as does every so often the stock market) took a nosedive. It has slowly started to climb back up, but slowly, enough so that I can still call him P.J.

I have been lucky that part of P.J’s job involves service, which in his case involves giving me an assist on the book project. I could not do this without his help.

Today P.J drove with me to Anchorage. There we picked up a truckload of books at the Airport, donated by Erin Kirkland, who is in charge of Read on the Fly. She has bookcases in the airport. Erin has a broken leg right now, so she had to reduce her inventory somewhat.

We next went to The Natural Pantry and did some food shopping. Then we went to Office Depot where we purchased Bright Lights Book Project supplies. After, we drove across town and met Michele, who co-owns Kaladi Brothers coffee. We went upstairs to her spacious office and talked for close to two hours about the book project and the progress we’ve made since we met with her last summer.

Pete and I engaged in a tag team book project conversation. I was more chatty than usual because I had eaten some dark chocolate (from Natural Pantry) and drank a hot chocolate at Kaladi Brothers. I asked Michele and she said that she has just one beverage in the morning, as I understand it, something called a four-shot, a very strong drink.

It was a good conversation – we simply brainstormed about future book project plans, and perhaps setting up shop in Anchorage. I am thinking for this to happen that this will have to be serendipitous – my hands are full right now.

We wrapped up our Anchorage day by visiting with our friends, Judy and Brian, then on the return trip stopped at the Meeting House. There I unloaded and sorted out the Read on the Fly books.

And tomorrow – P.J. and I are going to salvage books at VCRS. Sunday, I hope, will be a day of rest.

Next: 21. 1/21/22: One Month Beyond the Solstice