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).

I like pictures!

HERE ARE SOME OF MY RECENT ADVENTURES THAT I FORGOT TO MENTION AT SOME POINT:

We decided to go on a walk/drive over to Sandy Beach and look around. It was beautiful, but sandy! Haha! Jenny kept getting sand in her crocs so she finally decided to take them off. I thought she was crazy because that sand was COLD! Haley was helping her!

Here is the remains of the old Treadwell mine. This was one of the pump stations... at least whats left of it. It was the only part of the mine that was made with cement. It was so loud and moved so much that if they had built it out of wood it would have just crumbled. Its very spooky and has a Harry Potter feel to it!

We walked back in the old mine. The part that is above ground - don't worry! And I came across this pipe. When the mine collapsed in 1917 they basically just walked away. This pipe is stamped 1914. I thought it was so cool that something so old is still just sitting there.

This is my bum. Haley decided it was a nice shot so I wanted to share it with the WORLD! I wanted a picture of me inside the mine. I guess this is as good as it gets... ???

This the grinder thingy-ma-bobber. We went to the City Museum and there was a miniature version of this but I can't remember what it is. I think its funny thought - theres a sign on it that says "Please Do Not Touch"... its out in the middle of no where getting rained on ALL THE TIME! Whatever.

I rubbed Buddha's belly. He will bring me good luck! I know it!

We went to the Juneau Maritime Festival! I had the best pulled pork sandwich ever! It only cost me 9 dollars but whatever! It was a great day! I got to wear shorts! Its been so nice all week... until today. Its been rainy all day!

Man Can Ted Dance!

I finally got to hike to the ice craves! ADVENTURE! It was amazing! Except for the minor panic attack that I had as I climbed the sheer cliff. It was slightly embarrassing, but what can ya do. When you are scared of heights you're scared of heights dang it! Leave me alone! I am grateful, however, because I had the wonderful Becky and Kyle to help me to the top and then back down again. I was pretty sure I was going to die there. We did the 1.5 mile hike to the glacier and then me and Justice decided it was safer to stay on the NON-MOVING part! I watched as Andrew, Becky, and Chelsi all ate it on the ice. Good thing Justice brought his binoculars :) otherwise it wouldn't have felt like I was standing right there when they fell! On the way back I decided that it was better to just push through the pain instead of take fifty thousand breaks and make the hike laster forever! So whenever the others would stop I would just keep going. Kyle and Becky would keep up with me and we had an awesome "religion" talk. It was fun. I love these people! But I made it to the last hill (according to Kyle... and it was a lie!) when I laid on the ground and closed my eyes and said.... "Just let me die!" They wouldn't let me and I thought that was kind of rude!

I decided to ride back with Becky and we went to Fred Meyer because she wanted biscuits and I wanted cinnamon rolls. I still have the canister in the fridge. I should make those... Yum! Friday I got to do a charter for, I guess, Dennis' family. The only weird part was that he's white... they were not. I was confused at first then I found out they were his step family and their friends. They were AWESOME! And I ended up with a $60 tip - I only had six people in my bus. It was fabulous! 

Friday night was freakin hilarious! We went and saw Pirates 4 (I was slightly disappointed, mostly because of the lag in the middle. I wish they hadn't spent so much time on the mermaids. Who really cares?) I liked it, but it felt like it lasted forever. I was saving seats with Jenny and lucky me, I got to sit next to Brian and Andrew! It was great! Then we dropped off Andrew back at his hotel and we walked down to the Alaskan. Its the only place where you can have an Alaskan, served by and Alaskan, in the Alaskan. Its a bar. We ran into Shaner there and they all decided to go find a more lively place. So we walked over the to the Imperial (another bar - don't judge). I danced. ALOT. Ted was the only guy there so he looked like quite the ladies man withe five girls that were there with him. But I danced until I was beat then we left. At like 3 o'clock this morning I hear loud banging on my window. Haley and Becky decided to walk home after they were done. It scared the crap out of me. I thought someone was trying to kill me - I was very confused. And tired... But they got home safe and I got up to go to work the whole house was a stinky! 

No one could drive me to work and I woke up too late to walk so I called Andrew and ask him to pick me up.  He looked like he hated life at work today. I had a great day of nothing. I love it when they do that! Now its Saturday! Welcome to the end of the world! All week long Becky has been telling me that her husband is preparing for the rapture - mostly just so he can go steal everyone's stuff that was rapture-fied! Its 3:45pm in Alaska, which means its about 5:45pm in Idaho - the world hasn't ended yet. I wonder what it will feel like to have planned and prepared for the Second Coming only to find out they were dead wrong. 

Favorite rant of the day: "When I get home I'm gonna eat hamburgers, and ice cream, and hot dogs - I don't even like hot dogs but thats what I want! And candy corns, and cheese, and then I'm gonna need someone to cuddle with while I watch a really dumb chick flick. But no one will ever love me so I don't have anyone to cuddle with. Whyyyyyyyyyyyyy?" - Erin (I was very tired at the end of that flippin hike!) :)

May 16, 2011

Quote of the day: “You’d feel really bad if I woke up dead tomorrow morning” – Jenny. 

Today has been a fun day actually. I kinda made that sound surprising, but really it was fun! We had to be at work this morning at 8:30am  (I decided the early call time is just so that all the late people have time to get to work before they get left, cuz we never leave when we say we’re going to) and then we went on the second Driver Family tour. The last one was last week and we went to all the hot spots we have to take tours to like the Glacier Gardens, Mendenhall Glacier, Era Helicopters, Eagle Crest, etc. This time we got to go to this weird hippy gardens place called the Green ____ Gardens. It was extremely hippy-ish. It is run by this lady and her husband and it’s a 1000 mile trail that they created to accentuate the plants of Alaska. I guess there’s like 50 or 60 different plants and shrubs that can be found there and each week she numbers thirty of them so that you can study and explore them. It was neat and very pretty. The trip finished off  with a delightful muffin. Thank you strange garden place. Then we went to the State Museum. That place is rockin and I love it! They even have a pirate boat. A PIRATE BOAT! Jenny likes to tell the story of the time she went there and then fell down the stairs and made the only loud noise I the whole building. We then went to the Alaska Beer Brewery. Not my favorite part of the tour but interesting nonetheless. It smelled like really old yeast, I’m still not used to the smell of beer – nor do I ever plan on being. But they had beer bottles from all over the world – hundreds of them! That was neat. I decided I’m going to go buy on of their sweatshirts just cuz I can! J And last we hit up the Chez Cooking School that is located over by the airport. Our lovely driver was Gernet (he’s from Canada and talks like it too!) and he kept pronouncing it how its spelled and not how the French say it. Just so everyone knows its pronounced “Shays”. Then we were done. It was time to go do wash crew. It went way faster than I hoped it would but thats ok, cuz that meant we could be done early! So uneventful. No epic adventures today!

Oy!

This has been one heck of a week! But so much fun!! Friday was our first ship day. They said it was going to be really busy and I guess it was but once I get going I don’t tend to notice unless its so bad I want to cry. Friday that was not the case. Our call time was 8:30am, so we all piled into the cute little red Ford Tarus and trotted over to the yard. As I was pre-tripping my bus, I found out that it wouldn’t start. That kinda stinks considering I  need to DRIVE IT! But they switched buses and I was put into 118! I don’t like the 100 buses that much. They look older than the 200’s but I think they might be newer. Anyway, I got all ready just in time to wait. I didn’t have to be at the dock until 11:30am. So I watched Hitch. It was entertaining and as the drivers were clearing out I started to get anxious and nervous. I couldn’t believe it was time for me to actually pick up tourists. It kinda freaked me out a little. But I was so excited that all that went away when I got to the dock. I picked up my tour (which means I had them all day) and headed off to Allen Marine to drop them off for their whale watching. I told stories and information and they loved me! I dropped them off and went on my way to do the rest of my transfers. 

I had to take people to Temsco so that they could ride the helicopters to see the sled dogs and the glacier. Then I picked up a bunch of them. I kind of anticipated a lot of waiting but I don’t think it really sank in until I had to do all that waiting! After all my transfers I went back to pick up my group from whale watching and take them to the Glacier. I still feel dumb because I was having a hard time speaking – I couldn’t remember the name of the channel so I just said “This water empties into the wet stuff over there” and they laughed! They kept making fun of me and teasing me! Then I accidentally took the wrong turn and I over shot my turn anyway so I had to back up into traffic. It was humiliating. I felt so bad then we had to turn around in a neighborhood. They were all fine with it, but I felt and still feel STUPID! They made the joke that they got an extra tour for free! I just teased back that it was on me! We finally got to the glacier and even after all that we were on time and we even beat Chelsi who left before us! They got their hour in the Visitors Center and I got to use the bathroom and rest for a minute. Then it was time to pick them up from that! As I was loading them on the bus, one of my passengers pulled me aside and actually “lectured” me on how to drive a bus. I thanked him and felt even more like an idiot the rest of the time. It didn’t help that one of the ladies on the bus said to me “We still have one minute left!” Not realizing what she was saying, I thought she meant you are taking us away before our hour is up, I responded in a very pleasant tone mind you that we could stay for another minute. Her face turned into a very angered look and she said to me “Don’t get nasty” (she was british, so make sure you said that with a british accent!)  and that kind of pushed me over the top and my humiliation volcano erupted. I wanted to cry. But I kept my smile and I finished my tour and I was expecting to get punched in the face as I let them off the bus, but I ended up getting $34 in tips! They loved me. They all thought I was funny and entertaining and cute! It was a tender mercy that’s for sure! I am so grateful that they were so patient with me and do feel bad that that lady thought I was being rude. I finally figured out what she was saying and  praised everyone for being back on time! I think they softened her heart a little. I really didn’t realize she was implying they were early. I was on auto pilot trying to get everything ready to go. Oh well, right? Stuff happens as Haley would say! Good thing we all got Saturday off cuz I don’t think I could handle another day of that!

Saturday we all slept in and then Jenny and Becky had charters to do so me and Haley went into town to turn in our time cards. Then she broke off and went hiking with Ted, Andrew, Charles, Kyle, ect. (they ditched Chelsi, which caused a lot of drama but its all good now!) and after her charter I went with Jenny to the Maritime Festival that was happening at Marine Park! I went to lunch there earlier but we walked around there and then went to all the shops in downtown. It was a way fun day. 

May 9, 2011

Hey Amber, I'm practicing being like Monday - CONSISTENT :)

This has been the longest day of my life. I am so glad the work part of it is over. I had a rough day! It was my first day of solo driving, and that by itself was nothing. I could have been solo driving the day I got here (except I hadn't the foggiest where I was going) but its a rule that you have to drive with someone who has driven before for at least 10 hours. It took my a few days to finally get them done but I did it and today I got to go by myself! I was very excited. So I walked out and I picked the bus I knew was going to take me places of excitement and I pre-tripped the crap out of that bus! By that I just mean I did what I was supposed to do and then I drove away in it. I should have known it was all going to fall apart just by the fact that when I started said bus of wonder and fascination it blew large clouds of smoke into my face and anyone standing within 100 yards of the thing. And proceeded to blow that smoke for like 10 mins. FINALLY it stopped when I got the engine warmed up and started driving through the beautiful town of Juneau, AK. 

I had been driving for about 2 hours when I decided I should try going up to Eagle Crest all by my lonesome. So I did. Sadly they were doing construction on the road RIGHT in front of the turn off so they made it practically impossible to turn, but I did it and on my way up the mountain I saw 4 deer. I love deer. They are so cute and friendly and only drive you crazy when they decide to jump in front of your car going 60 mph. Don't worry, that didn't happen. I'm pretty sure if a deer used my bus to commit suicide... it would work. I reach the top of this amazing mountain and I take a quick stretch break and head back down. I get to where that blasted flippin construction is and I realize the have moved down the road. Now the enormous digger guy is planted right in front of where I have to turn. You can't turn a 40-ft bus in tight places - it just doesn't work. But I had to get out of that horrible place so I turned wide, backed up and finished turning. The whole time the construction workers are laughing at me. I make it all the way around the corner and I didn't even  hit the construction barrels that were on the corner. But all the sudden I feel my back wheel start to slip into the ditch behind me and I panicked so I gave the bus some gas and it popped right out no big deal except as it came onto the road I head scrapping metal for a second or two and it was fine. I drove directly back to the yard to tell Kerry, but he wasn't there so I looked under my bus and at all my gages and everything showed normal so I went back out. I called Kerry a few hours later to tell him about "the incident" because my sensitive little conscience wouldn't let me not tell him. After that I felt bad, but better. It continued to drive fine. I decided to go try and see if I could do the Salmon back drop off without any problems.... HAHAHAHA YEAH RIGHT! There were a ton of people so I had to try to turn around in the T-shaped parking lot just a head of the drop off. I got trapped and I had to do like a 20 point turn in order to get out of my stupid mistake and my low air buzzer went off and I couldn't handle it anymore. I cried and drove back to the yard to give up. 

Now I'm home and have eaten dinner and Chelsi is asleep and the other girls aren't home. So its quite. I think I just needed to sit quietly and relax cuz now I'm fine. See... fine. Plus we might be going to Costco... I LOVE COSTCO! All this horrible no good very bad day stuff doesn't make sense because last night was so much fun!

 Zach and Kyle came over to our house last night and we played card games. Kyle decided it would be fun to try to teach me and Chelsi how to play Blackjack and Texas Holdem... with M&Ms. It was a blast! I won! OF COURSE! And I got to go to church. That was nice! So yesterday was good. I had a blast.