This one's for my Grandma!

I keep swearing that I'm going to improve on my blogging skills. It has yet to happen, but I'm not dead yet so I think I have time. Today was a beautiful day! We had wash crew, I had a pick up from Allen Marine because a HAPA bus broke down and I made $8 in tips, and then we went to Auke Lake and sat on the dock until we were sufficiently cooked. I would say I am about medium well (don't tell my grandma...). These last two weeks have been... a struggle. So we're just gonna lay out the drama and then get to the fun stuff because quite frankly drama is often part of the adventure.

Here we go... so over the last week, maybe, week and a half a huge chunk of HAPA's drivers have quit (HAPA is Holland America Princess and something that starts with an “A” that I don’t know) and a significant amount of their buses have given up the ghost. So they have show the bat signal and we came to the rescue. Which honestly is really nice for us because so many people (shh myself included… hang my head in shame) have complained about the lack of hours. Our people have done really good at trying to make sure everyone gets an equal amount of hours but try as you may in life it’s never good enough so there was a lot of complaining. This has basically been a huge tender mercy, miracle, Heavenly Father has a spot in His heart from the ingrates of ACT – whatever you want to call it, it’s been that.

Then not very many people have shown up to wash crew as well as a few people have gone and found themselves second jobs, which has freed up some more hours for us. We really don’t deserve this but it’s been great. Then come to find out one of our drivers quit yesterday, which is very sad because she was very nice. But that brings up a whole new can of ridiculousness. With her spot open at Gold St. there has been an auction of sorts to see who is going to fill that slot. I don’t want to leave; I really like who I live with and where I live. It’s had its moments but what apartment full of girls from different backgrounds doesn't have its moments? 

I know none of that was important but I figured it would be fun to put up those pictures with a fun little dialog surrounding them. Now, on to the fun stuff!

About two weeks ago Tyson and I went on a whale watch as our comp. We get to go on pretty much any tour we want to for free but it’s a "only if we have room" kinda deal. So we were really lucky. I was sad because I really wanted to go on the Whale/OPL - that’s the one with all the food! So despite the rain, we headed to Marine Park dock to get on the bus. Our driver was a HAPA driver. He was very nice and very excited to be a driver! We headed out to Auke Bay (Allen Marine) and caught out Whale Watching ferry. We were on the St. Yukov – all the boats at Allen Marine are named after Russian Saints. Anyway, pretty much the second everyone was on board we were off to find us some whales! It wasn’t even 20 minutes into our 2 ½ hour adventure that we found them! IT WAS SO AWESOME! 

I mean I’ve seen Free Willy like fifty times but it’s just NOT the same! It really was so amazing! I loved it! Tyson thought I was crazy because I just kept jumping up and down with straight up excitement that we were seeing WWHHAALLEESS!! There were babies and Orcas and Humpbacks and WWHHAALLEESS!!!! It was GREAT!

This is Tyson by the way!

Someday I'll get this... or not. Whichever!

I am a complete failure at this "Epic Blogger" thing. I have never been very good at writing in my journal. I couldn't even blasted keep track of my days on my mission, what makes me think I could ever start now. Its been like a month and a half since the last time I updated this blasted thing so here it goes...

Alaska is... rainy. It's also tons of fun. Starting my update from reverse, last night we attempted to go watch the Northern Lights. Someone told us that last night was THE night and that despite the fact that its JULY, you might be able to see some level 3 lights (mostly green, some yellow). That sounded like a reason to have a get together so we all headed out to False Outer to watch the lights. Last time we attempted to get together at False Outer, group A (Me, Jenny, Haley, Chelsi, Brian, Amy, and Dylan) all went as planned to the aformentioned location complete with firewood and the components of delicious s'mores. Meanwhile group B (EVERYONE ELSE) "thought they were supposed to go the Outer". Lies. Its all lies! Anyway, I'm not bitter. There was a minor miscommunication and anyway, we did the Summer Solstice party our way and needless to say they did theirs their way. We both had loads of fun and it all worked out in the end.

Group A

Please tell me this isn't weird... its about 10:30 pm. WHO LIVES LIKE THIS?!?!

Since we know that mustaches are pretty much the 

coolest things EVER - we had a mustache party... sort of.

We decided, when it was time to leave, to just burn ALL the wood we brought. 

Maybe it was a good idea... maybe not. Too late now!

I apologize for my random Summer Solstice party tangent. As you can see it was actually a lot of fun and worked out for the best considering the other group got stupid drunk and I really didn't want to deal with watching them try to find their own feet and then giggle while screaming weird facts about fish. Yes, it happens. I witnessed it again last night. I love them. They are so funny.

At some point in the last month and a half the city of Juneau held a "Poetry Bash" and our little Kyle cakes decided he was going to OWN THAT BASH! And boy did he ever! He did such a great job! It was superhero themed. His poem was from the villains perspective and it was very good! My favorite however was this random girl that was slightly Emo and a little bit more weird than the normal person but man did she know my life! Haha! Her poem was about how if she were a superhero, she would use her powers to make the boy she loved notice her. It sounds pathetic and slightly creeper-ish but it really was good. Maybe one day when Eric doesn't hate me and I've decided to stop loathing him for all eternity I can ask him for the recording of it. I think you and the world (mostly me) would enjoy hearing it (again).

Andrew and his stupid looking face. Not an insult... look at it - 

what else would you call that face?

Ahh, my friends! Jenny and Sarah are the right side of the cheering section 

(that managed to take up the entire back row of the room - yeah we KNOW how to represent!)

Myself and Kyle (errr, I mean the "Masked Man")

THE OTHER GUYS! Nah just kidding! This is Paul, Chelsi, and Haley! The quieter, more reserved part of our cheer section. Well done guys! I mean look at those faces! Don't they just scream supportive!?

Now jumping forward in time to right about..... NOW! We are currently watching one Harry Potter movie a night in preparation for the GREATEST OPENING NIGHT IN THE HISTORY OF OPENING NIGHTS! WHO'S EXCITED?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Tonight we are on Harry Potter numero thrice! And on Thursday the Valley theater is doing a double feature! We're going to go watch part one of the last Harry Potter at 9:30pm and then at midnight Alaska time they are showing the second half. This is all very exciting and I'm not exactly sure if I'm going to be able to contain myself. Yeah... I'm not this is just all so EXCITING! I can't believe that the thing I haven't really cared about nor ever really wanted to become involved in is coming to an end in less than 3 days. Its like when Christmas is finally over. Or when you have a baby (I guess). All that anticipation and then BAM its over in just hours. Now that I think about it, its making me ridiculously depressed. Kind of like listening to Christina Perry's new CD (it speaks to me).