Day 12 - October 22 '11

Day 12- October 22 ‘11

Tonight is the ATO (Antarctic Terminal Operations) BBQ party in the cargo bay. It’s a meet and greet for everyone in the unit. Every unit in town is having one tonight.

Spring and Tricia

Spring the shuttle driver brought her roommate, who coincidentally was Tricia M. I hadn’t seen her much since we got to the Ice, so it was nice catching up with her.

The 2 Tricia's

Cassa trying to force feed Sully a drunk inducing Carl Bourbon Cherry

The food was delicious. Excellent cheese (fancy type) and crackers and salads along with Carl’s bourbon soaked chocolate covered cherries. One cherry and you felt like you could be instantly drunk, they were so strong. All the meat was seasoned and grilled to perfection. There were 2 huge watering trough tubs filled with snow (and volcanic dirt). One filled with cans and bottles of beer and wine and the other pop.

Craig trying to cut in on Kevin and Tricia

The ambience and decorating of the cargo bay, gave the feel of low budget wedding receptions in fire halls or VFWs. Or school dances and proms in Smalltown USA, like in the movie “Footloose”. 80’s music was jamming. Some people started to dance and it was like an awkward Jr High first dance, which Tricia and Kevin reenacted by dancing stiff and 3 feet apart like teenagers who’d never danced before. It was too funny.

Kevin and Tricia

Queen and Burke

Tricia trying to mess up me capturing the essence of the ambience

Luke

Kevin and Christen

Jamie

Burke is from Seward AK and I coincidentally worked with his Dad Brandon Anderson at Point Thomson.

Danny and Kelly

Today was the first day Jerry and I started having phone issues. We think it had to do with the phone cards we got at RadioShack. Whenever I called the house, I got a busy signal or his cell phone went right to message, but on his end it rang and when he answered it, all he heard was a dial tone. It was so frustrating.

So we Google chatted. This will go on for 3 days before I decide the phone cards are useless and I purchase a virtual phone card from pingo.com that will take another few days to activate. At least there are other ways to communicate thankfully.

Day 11 - October 21 '11

Day 11- October 21^st ‘11

Jamie has arrived! She is full of energy and everyone likes her. She is a 2^nd year returner and seems to have been missed by a lot of people.

I heard a cargo guy named Sully talking about a Euchre game at the coffee house. I got super excited and invited myself. Sully told me that Mel(anie) the loadplanner, Cassa ( my 1^st friend -also work in Shuttles) and Luke another Cargo guy were meeting at 8 pm.

The coffee house is nice and cozy. It doesn’t just serve coffee, but espresso, cappuccino, dessert liqueur coffee and a small selection of wine. It has a few computers and a shelf full of card and board games.

I arrived to find my group in the corner with a fourth guy already playing. I ordered a glass of delicious red wine called Diablo Rojas. All of them know the game by being from the north/central east. Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York. Since they had their 4 so far, Mel asked me to be her consultant since I was the only one who had played as recently as last week. Mel, Luke and I took the first game easily against Jim and Sully and Cassa. Jim and Cassa were headed to the bar to watch rugby, so Sully needed a new partner, and I sat in. Sully and I took the last 2 games. I was the only winner of all 3. (:

The Quonset w/ the dumpster is the movie "theater" attached to the coffee house

The cozy coffee house Quonset. Excellent coffees with or without liqueur embellishment and good selection of New Zealand wines.

It was the first time I’d been out since I got here and I had a lovely time. I got to know my coworkers a little better and they me. It was a nice evening.

Day 1 October 11th, 2011

Day 1

The first day of this amazing adventure started with a very early morning trek to Anchorage at 3am. My flight to Denver was at 730am. Thankfully I was an Alaska Airlines MVP, so I was able to upgrade cheaply to first class all the way.

Sadness has been plaguing me for a week. My friend Brittney pointed out that the deep sadness of missing my husband was proof of how much I loved him and that he was still my best friend that I couldn’t live without. Point well made.

 Deep, deep sadness of missing my wonderful husband and my whole family in general. Are we a normal family? A family so close, that a few months apart is gut wrenching? Yet it was the same wonderfully awesome husband who insisted that I could not pass up this adventure. Who was supportive and trusting enough to let me have this experience, to take this journey and not have regrets for not seizing this opportunity. Still- I was sad and homesickness was already setting in.

I took my seat in first class and was pleasantly surprised to be seated next to a Point Thomson friend, Dave the geologist. We made pleasant conversation for a bit before I was sound asleep for the entire flight.

I met the first person I would become friends with in the shuttle van from the airport. When the van pulled up to the curb, a rather ungentlemanly fellow Raytheon, butted in front of me at the stop, loaded his bags and took the front seat of an almost full van. The last seat left was in the 3^rd row. There was no way I was going to get back there with my backpack with no other door to get back there. I took one look at the situation and uttered my usual “Really? This isn’t going to work.” A gal quickly and correctly assessed the situation and promptly offered her door seat to me as she crawled back there. Super cool move. When we got to the hotel, I once again sincerely thanked her and we introduced ourselves. Cassa from Montana was my first Antarctica friend. She is a wanderlust, who loves working jobs that typically women don’t work. She loves to raise eyebrows. I liked her immediately.

The Red Lion hotel in Denver was very nice. Having so many heavy bags, I grabbed a luggage cart from bellhop, loaded it up and took it to my room. I didn’t have the energy or want to take the time to unload it, take it back downstairs, just to reverse the whole process in 2 days. So I left my bags on it and left it to sit in my room. Hey- there were still 3 others I saw in the lobby. I wasn’t feeling guilty.

Room service for dinner was excellent, after which I slept hard. Orientation shuttle was starting early the next morning.