Greetings from the inside passage

It has been one month, 2 days, 4 hours, and 13 minutes since my last post. Never have I gone this long without blogging. I did manage to find time to type up a blog a week or so ago but have yet to get online with my own laptop and do the copy/paste maneuver...therefore, I will start from the beginning. I am not completely sure where my last blog left off so I am going to grace everybody with an example of a typical day here in Alaska. I waken anywhere between 4:00 and 5:00 am depending on my shift. We set up for breakfast and serve the guests at 6 am. Following a quick bus of the dining room, we set up for the staff breakfast during which we have a staff meeting. For those of you that are curious and just dying to know, staff breakfast normally consists of oatmeal, cereal bar (which is really just honey nut scooters and raisin bran), and whatever may be leftover from the guest breakfast. My team of hospitality gals then cleans the entire dining room...again...and sets up for dinner. This includes setting anywhere from 20-35 places for guests and captains. I am now able to claim competency in the art of setting a table correctly. I have also mastered a few napkin folds, including a boat. When we are done with the dining room, I head to the cottage and clean. This is very similar to cleaning a house every single day. This similarity is actual because really the cottage is a house. In fact it is the house that my dad built. This task takes anywhere from an hour to 2...depending on the day, the rowdiness of the guests, and how dirty people can get. It is policy that when we finish our own chores we proceed to help the other girls so typically I end up (shoulder shrug) helping the other girls. My lunch break is normally at least 2 hours if not more. This break again, depends on the day, how much work is to get done, how much work gets done, and whatever else may be a deciding factor. I spend my break a number of different ways. Some usual activities include fishing, hiking, eating, kayaking, napping, laundry, etc. When break is over I head back to work and begin getting ready for dinner. Our evening ends around 8:30-9:00 depending on what shift we are working. Later if I am on lounge duty. Basically I work. A lot.

I guess now I will let everybody know how life is going. I'm sure you all know (all FIVE of my followers) that my phone was disconnected by Alltel because they did not want me using it in Alaska. This was quite the tragedy until I realized that I actually didn't mind not being connected to everybody. I have 4 or 5 numbers in my new trac phone and that is plenty. Besides, I do not have time to text all day nor do I have time to visit on the phone. I have worn out my shoes. I bought a pair of black shoes just for serving meals in. Either they were cheap (very likely) or I am just working so extremely hard at every meal (also very likely) that the soles have just decided to become paper thin and may not even last through the week. Cross your fingers. Unfortunately we operate on snail mail here, only getting mail once a week, it would probably take until the end of August to actually get anything delivered here. I managed to secure myself a trip to the ER in Ketchikan and I had to fly PacAir to get there. I went out fishing on a lunch break last week and my coworker literally caught me with her fishing pole. She was casting out, hit my leg and pulled. The hook went as far as it could possibly bury itself in my thigh and the barbs made sure they stuck. AND THEN....my peeps thought they could pull it out. OUCH!!!!!! After screaming bloody murder and proving that I didn't need them to try anymore (after two failed attempts), a phone call was made to fly me in to the hospital and let a real live doctor finish the task. I survived. It was touch and go for awhile. And yes, that may be an exaggeration, but until you have a giant barbed fish hook in your leg, do not judge me. Gracias. We are fortunate enough to have a 4 course meal served every night and these are easily compared to 5 star meals...right down to the dessert which we all know is Sarah's favorite part. After successfully eating only brownie for dinner one to many nights for dinner, I decided to give up on desserts and get serious about eating healthy. Mission failed. Not even 24 hours later, I received a care package packed full of treats. The only way to curb my dessert fetish is to force myself to eat the meal first so that I am to full for treats. So far...not so successful but there is improvement. As we all know, I am waking up before the sun (which really isn't true since it seems to never actually go fully away here...) so some days I am only able to crawl out of bed, throw on a shirt and get down to the dining room. On these particular days, I don my glasses. I have managed to lose track of how many times I have been called "Sarah Palin" and every body just thinks it is absolutely hilarious because we are in Alaska. This last group of guests had a bunch of men from Texas and they referred to me as "Gov'na" the entire time. The chefs call me "Governor" or "Moscow" and I just claim that I can see Russia from my bunk house.

Well, I better go check on my laundry and take a nap...typlical break time. Hope all is well for everybody. I am missing you all like crazy and can't wait to get home. xoxo