Alaska Comes Home

It’s been an interesting week. It’s not every day you get to meet a celebrity / governor of a state / vice presidential candidate. I mean, unless you work in D.C., and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Well, maybe some.

In any case, Sarah Palin came by the office! She was in town and came by to visit the station, and I was introduced to her by the station owner. He told her I was writing a book and she asked about it. I explained The Sovereign as briefly and simply as I could, giving my best elevator pitch while trying to reconcile the fact that I was talking to a national figure. She seemed interested, and offered to take a picture with me to help me out and promote my book.

I kicked myself for not keeping an extra copy handy in my car, smiled and shook her hand, and as soon as she was out of the room raced to my car and sped home to grab a copy.

I’ve never made the drive to work faster than I did that morning.

She was still at the station when I got back and I caught up with her, she happily snapped the above photo with me, and then we got to chatting for a few minutes while the station owner talked with her husband. For someone as busy as she is, she is surprisingly down to earth and easy to talk to. We talked about my trip to Alaska, what life in the north is like, and what it’s like being a political figure. I’m not sure if sci-fi is her genre or not, but she said she enjoyed taking a break from politics, and lamented how petty they could be. She explained it gets tiring to be around such vindictive people all the time, and it’s nice to get away from that. I can’t blame her, she’s been through more than her share of the gauntlet, and I can’t imagine the kind of resolve it would take to consider diving back in.

In any case, I was sincerely happy to meet her, and discover that (unsurprisingly) she’s nothing like what the media portrayed her as during the election in 2008. Funny how media can paint a picture when it has an agenda to achieve. I posted the picture to Twitter and Facebook, and although it’s gathered a lot of attention, everyone is interested in Sarah and couldn’t give two hoots about my book. So it goes! Can’t regret getting to meet such an interesting lady.