Everything I know about Uncle Sam I learned from working for a GIS company that subcontracted for the government. 1) Uncle Sam has no sense of humor. 2) Uncle Sam has no chill. 3) Uncle Sam will tell you one thing then change the rules as he sees fit, so don't get your hopes up about something nice.

As spouse navigates his federal employment, I frame it with my own personal work experience with Uncle Sam.

So we make this ranked list of places, ostensibly so Uncle Sam can match up the federal government's needs with our wishes. And today I was thinking, knowing Uncle Sam, he's going to give us a terrible pick and we'll just have to roll with it. If "almost" no one gets their 30th pick, we are the ones that will be the exception, right?

Well, this is the night that people learn their location assignments.

We are moving to ... Anchorage, Alaska.

Yup. North! to Alaska! The place we thought for sure we wouldn't get. Because supposedly they are fully staffed there. Anyway they're going to give us a 25k bonus and pay for the move so alrighty. Twist our arm.

We are moving to Alaska ... in early March. Solidly still winter. Really crappy. Oh well. On the upside, I fully understand how crappy this is so I can anticipate the problems.

Spouse and I are weirdly not as excited as you'd think to get our #1 top pick. Spouse is like, "But I thought we'd get some more adventures ..." Which just goes to show there is no pleasing anyone.

But overall - we get to go back to our friends, and a familiar place. If we have to fly the kitties up, we know someone who can get them from the airport and take care of them. There's a ton of built in advantages. So there's a sense of relief. But the move will be hard, there's no way around it. And Alaska has it's own challenges, like the remote isolation and the difficulties with shipping. I may need to acquire a portable tattoo table here before we go.

So yeah. Back to Alaska. Oh boy.