When I graduated law school nine years ago, I wanted to work at the public defender’s office in Alaska. Preferably in Juneau, where my husband lived and worked. I had interned there for two summers, but the timing wasn’t right upon graduation so I took another job. And then another. There was a hiring freeze at this time, and when a position opened up about two years later I took it!

That position wasn’t in Juneau. It was two flights away in Barrow (now called Utqiagvic), the northernmost point in Alaska. It was here that I had a variety of interesting experiences in my 13 months as the only public defender in this remote town. I will share just one of the now.

Housing is extremely difficult to find in Barrow. In search of a comfortable space, and always willing to move in order to upgrade, I lived in 4 different places in 13 months. At one point I took over the lease for a 3 bedroom home from a local police officer who was moving out of town. In addition to the lease, I inherited his two roommates – one of whom was his wife – and I purchased all of the items in the house for $3,000. I do not know the details of this marital relationship, but I do know that she is from the Philippines, and they didn’t know each other before he traveled there to meet her and they were married shortly after. My purchase of the home’s belongings meant that I suddenly owned all of the furnishings in his wife’s home. This was a bit awkward, followed by an even more awkward negotiation when I eventually moved out. Her and her roommate couldn’t keep what they couldn’t afford. At least in theory; I forget our arrangement…but I’m not a monster.

I ended up not only keeping, but then moving, two of the items with me back to Juneau and I still have these today: the tv and a set of weights.

These weights are awesome – it is one set of barbells, but you can adjust the weight for each one between 5 to 52.5 pounds. Called the Bowflex SelectTech 552 Dumbells. It saves so much space since you don’t have to store multiple weights. I use them regularly for my in-home strength workout. Shout out to recommendations from The Week, which highlighted these in their recent feature “The best of…home gym essentials” for making it easy to find these online to share with you.