Have you ever met Mark Begich?

Mark Begich - Real Actual Person
- Bravenak

Has anyone around here met Senator Mark Begich? Let me tell you about the two times I (kinda) met my Senator.

So, I was working at WeeBee's doing the drive through and an order came in. Super burger I think it was, with a side of fries and a burger sauce and a drink. When he pulled up to the window in his black SUV my boss Bookie, rushed up to the window with a big grin and just started chatting the guy up. My boss was like that, he knew everyone that came to the shop, he was about eighty years old and had been running businesses for years and just loved a good reason to catch up.

Eventually he gave the man his food and the guy pulled all the way around the building by the dumpster and parked. I thought this was mighty suspicious, so I told my boss I was going to take out some boxes to the dumpster and break them down. Really, I was going to see what ol dude was doing back there. But Bookie stopped me.

" Don't go back there bothering the Mayor, you're so nosy." He said something like that, not that exactly.

I said, " Oh, so that's the Mayor? He owns my mothers apartment building. What is he doing?"

I admit, I am really nosy and I expected Mayors to look, well, not so normal. So I decided not to go back there and watch him eat his food.


A few weeks later I came home from work or somewhere, it was a long time ago, like 2005 in the Summer and I heard the noisy ruckus of somebody using power-tools. I hurried up to make sure it wasn't my step dad, poor guy, he worries me to death sometimes, I told myself that if it were him I would just pull the plugs on him. It wasn't him. It was the Mayor sawing up boards in front of the building. I waved at him, he waved back and got back to sawing on that board for whatever reason. I decided to mind my business this time.

I got upstairs and opened the door an the usual smell of medical smoking herbs and incense and pachouli met me in the living room. But the vibe in the apartment felt different. My mom was in the kitchen giggling, and the door to the back porch was standing wide open. I peered out.
The bottom of the porch, you know, the part you stand on? That was missing, I looked over at my immature giggling mother and gave her my WTF face. She started laughing harder. I never find her helpful in these type of situations.

Suddenly, somebody opened the door and came in carrying a huge slab of wood. It was bigger than him. Of course it was the Mayor coming in to fix the porch. That happens all the time, right? I'm sure everyones Mayor just shows up himself to be the handyman for the low income housing he owns. He kept the place up pretty well.

After about 45 minutes of banging and painting he came in from the back porch and told us to give it 24 hours to dry and then we would have our porch back. We thanked him and he left.

When the door closed I asked my mother what was so damn funny. She told me had to go down to the back under our porch and look up. Her and her little games. Fine, I'll play. I went down and looked up. What I saw set me to laughing out loud. The underside of the porch was yellow and said Mark Begich - Mayor. It was a campaign sign. One of those thick wooden ones that they have to set down deep into the ground. Waste not want not.

I liked him so much I voted for him for Senate in his next election. I also sometimes listen in on his telephone Town Halls. So that's my Mark Begich story.