9:25am Kenai, AK
Well i must apologize. There are a myriad of reasons why i have not written for so long - really slow internet, illness, end of season organization and just plain laziness but i know that these are things that i want to write about. i have been having some really great fun nights and so much has happened since i last wrote. so i am going to try and fill it all in. working backwards. i am going to put my thing down flip it and reverse it.
I got to go to the store yesterday. I picked up Coline (formerly known as the crazy cat lady) we divided and conquered our shopping lists then road home singing along to carol king, simon and garfunkle, and men at work...you can't beat that sort of jamming. It was great. Then last night i took my crew to dinner to thank them for all of their hard work. We went to Don Jose's a surprisingly good Mexican restaurant. I had the chicken chimichanga - not as good as el coyotes (RIP) but pretty good. We laughed and enjoyed margaritas and not working it was great. I am really going to miss them.
Wednesday morning Sarah and Kelly left camp :( but i mailed out 3 packages of stuff i have acquired in preparation to go home :) then it was a day filled with laundry and the usual followed by an evening in with Field of Dreams (you told me your finger was a gun.) Not too shabby. Tuesday i was sick as a dog - sympathy sinus infection - i think a result of the second hand smoke...hmmm surgeon general you may be on to something. When i wasn't absolutely needed i clocked out and went to bed - probably the fewest hours i have worked all summer. Then Jackie and Kathy left which really made me sad because Jackie and I have gotten a lot closer these past few weeks and we've had a lot of fun. I am not worried that i won't see her again it was just tough to see her go. I ended my evening falling asleep during Nanny McPhee - hopped up on Bulgarian inhaler meds. (don't worry mom the girl that gave me the inhaler is a nurse)
Monday i was getting sick - which was awesome.
Sunday was a regular day. Clean the big ol office, do the laundry that the people who can't read leave on the stoop, snack shack it up...then in the evening Andy (the head of processing) took me, Jackie and Kathy to dinner at Nikko Garden - a Japanese restaurant. He ordered a table full of sushi and took home whatever wasn't eaten. I tried fried eel...it tasted like chicken and i also tried crab meat with egg...it tasted mostly like eggs. And for the record i don't care what anyone says - things that come out of the sea taste like the sea. You can't fool me by saying it doesn't taste like fish or crustacean or whatever...i know...and yes it does taste like fish! People who like something should never say that it doesn't taste like what it is or else why would they like it. I am through listening to people lie about fish.
Okay lets be honest most of my days are the same so i am now just going to talk about my nights because they were the interesting part anyway...and that is what my sieve of a mind remembers.
Saturday night I didn't feel like cooking so i rounded up Sarah and Kelly and we walked to the Sailors Galley - a small restaurant up the road from the Vagabond. Heavily decorated. Where each item on the menu had a special name ie: fries are called seaweed...you know the type of place i mean. Well i ordered the Rigging - we call that spaghetti and meatballs on the street. And you know, it was really good. It's a damn shame that i didn't walk there sooner...but it's probably for the best. (maybe i will go to breakfast there on sunday when i am free...) So after dinner we walked across the street to the Vagabond to get some package goods. Sarah had made a bet with Eddie that she could drink him under the table. Now, Eddie is in college and Sarah is a kindergarten teacher. I am not doubting a school teacher could house a college kid in drinking contest but in this case the college kid is tall and bulky and the teacher is lite and bitty. She never stood a chance but i admire her gumption. I picked up an 18pk of miller lite and Sarah picked up her 2 bottles of jager. That's right boys and girls they were going punch for punch with jager. Kelly got some tequila and that was that. It just so happened that Jackie, Kathy and Michelle were in the bar section of the Vagabond so we went and said hey then jumped in on the cab they had called.
The game was midget beer pong called so because instead of a regulation table they had a bed and in the place of ping pong balls they had pennies. Every time Sarah or Eddie had to drink so did the other one and if either one took a side swig the other one had to as well. I think i actually saw the moment that Sarah blacked out. It was subtle but i knew that it was only downhill for her from there on. And as Chris says, "does anyone really win in a game of 'lets see who can drink more?'" After two rounds of midget pong my bladder was quite full and it was getting hard to see the pennies in the dark. So i called it a night. The next morning there was a bag of laundry with a note on my stoop...a product of the drinking contest.
Friday was a low key night. A casual stroll to the Vagabond for a few drinks followed by a trip to the beach to see what they J-1s were up to. Very chill and just fun.
Thursday was my Bear Grills night on the beach. I had decided earlier in the week that i was going to make a fire on the beach and relax. I thought that other people would come along but after i tell you about wednesday you will understand why i was alone. So I got a ride out to the beach earlier in the day with a truck bed full of pallets and i stashed them in some brush. Then i went back to work readied some dinner and got dressed to go. I stopped by Jackies room but she was not up to the task. She gave me some marshmallows and wished me well. Next i went to Sarah and Kelly's tent - they were having happy hour and said they would be along later. So armed with some cous cous, water and a book in my backpack, a bowl of marinating chicken in one hand and a banana box lid in the other i walked to the beach. I found a place to set up my fire and put all of my accoutrement there. It was time for my pallets. Wearing only flip flops i started breaking them apart to turn them into firewood. Tetanus - i laugh in your face. Next i ripped up my banana box lid. I made a small pile of kindling and lit that thing up. banana box lid...not so quick to light. thankfully really old dry pallets and sticks are. I had a nice sized fire in no time. Now for my chicken. Since i value the small hairs on my arm and the flesh on my body, holding the chicken on a fork over the flames was not an option. So i laid my chicken on a hot flat piece of pallet...heck yeah...special sauce. As I'm sure you can imagine, the outside cooked rather quickly but while i will cook chicken on old pallets i will not under cook chicken on old pallets. So i flipped it, let it cook some more, then took it out and cut it so that the insides could cook. It was totally wilderness-rific. And aside from the really crispy bit the chicken wasn't so bad. I enjoyed my meal, read some of my book and then started in on burning whole pallets. It was windy so my wood was burning fast. I didn't want to be there all night and Lord knows i wasn't about to drag those pallets back to camp. So i created one hell of a blaze instead. A few arm hairs later I let my fire die out, had a wade in the glacial waters and headed back to camp. As I came down the drive Sarah and Kelly were headed my way. I was all campfired out so i called it a night. but it was good. make a fire on the beach: check.
And now here we are. back to where i left you oh so many days ago. Wednesday. So after i clocked out i went and put on my sweatshorts, grabbed a beer and went and basked in the sun with Jackie. Both Jennifer and Ilian had invited me to the beach later that night for this kids birthday and i started thinking...why the heck not. (Jennifer said that 'when you get to the beach it is on the left. upstairs.') "Jackie, lets go to the beach later." "Okay." Awesome. We figured it was a good will mission. We wanted them to know that we weren't above hanging out. Now Jackie was a few beers into her celebration by the time we decided to go to the beach. But we wanted to go - 'we'll be fine.' We put on some pants grabbed some TP for the walk back, a few beers and Jesse's Jager and red bull for the beach and hit the road. It just so happened that Michelle and Kathy were going out to Don Jose's that night so we caught a ride in their cab and had them drop us off at the beach. We got there super early and 'upstairs' made no sense in the context of the beach so we found a nice log, had a sit down and cracked a cold one. After a few shots Jackie says, "I'm drunk. I had four beers before you guys were even out of work" Sweet action. Let the games begin. We sat there for a little while longer wondering where everyone was when i saw one of the J-1s climb up a small hill. 'oh upstairs...i get it.' So we gathered our beers and headed 'upstairs.' When we got there i was amazed. I hear them talk about going to the beach all the time. They eat, they drink, they sing, they have a blast. But until i got there i had no idea. There was a celebratory condom balloon tied to a small tree near the "path" up and a fire going with hot dogs cooking on sticks. But the coolest part was the group of 8 or so people all sitting around this feast that they had created using broken down beer boxes as a blanket underneath a dozen paper plates full of food. There were lemon wedges to go with the vodka and tomatoes with mayonnaise and cheese. It was beautiful. I realized that even though the fishing sucks and the hours suck and most times the boredom sucks, all of these people went to the beach and genuinely enjoyed themselves. They didn't need much (i guess because they didn't have much) and every other night they would come and they sit around their "blanket" eating and drinking while someone played guitar or an ipod played in the background and they would sing along and enjoy their time. I was touched to be there and to witness this. They were so welcoming just glad that Jackie and I had come. We had some vodka and some lemons followed by some 'sausages' and a salad of some sort. It was wonderful. But as she leaned over and told me - Jackie was drunk. We took some pictures and after a bit decided that it was time to go. We were both wearing flip flops and had never been 'upstairs' before but decided that the best way home was straight through the woods. Not back down the small hill to the beach below where we knew the way...no no...that was too simple. So there we were, me in the lead and drunk Jackie wearing the backpack following. It was a hoot - we were laughing so hard the whole time. We didn't even get ten feet when Jackie leaned on a tree, "Gravity pull!" The alcohol was taking over her balance. She righted herself and we kept walking. "Gravity pull." Luckily the route we had chosen was very densely wooded - so much so that the trees were helping to keep Jackie upright. Pretty soon we were out of the woods and into the less solid really tall grass. "Gravity pull." But before i could do anything Jackie was on the ground laughing. "I am so drunk. Meredith I haven't been this drunk in ten years." "Hey it's cool. I'm having a blast." I helped her up. "Maybe i should take the backpack." "Ya think?" Both upright we were back on our way. She must have fallen 3 or 4 more times before she decided to stay down. "Since we're here why don't we pause and have a beer." I busted out two of our unopened beers. Jackie had a few sips and then gently laid her can down and let it go to sleep. The beer drained out - better in the ground than in her. I smiled. "Meredith I am so drunk." "I know Jackie. We're almost there." More laughter. I don't know when it was but i eventually saw the top of a building at the end of our driveway so i steered us towards that. We were getting close. Somehow we made it through the grass and the nature and found our way to a road. And wouldn't you know as we were coming out of the brush there were Kelly and Sarah headed to the beach to see everyone. We told them our tale and they laughed. They helped pick some bits of tree out of Jackie's hair and then headed to the beach while we headed back to camp. As we got to the intersection by the driveway we ran into Jennifer and Ilian. I told them that i might be back but that i wanted to get Jackie home safe first. Arm in arm we walked down the drive way. And by some bizarre twist of fate Kathy and Michelle happened by in their cab. They picked us up and brought us back to Jackie's room where we got Jackie it bed. Water by the bed and cell phone in her hand we said good night. It was spectacular. What a perfect evening. I decided to call it a night as well and get my own water and cell phone. I don't know if i have laughed that hard all summer. And of course the next day Jackie was a total champ. Smiling and happy not looking the slightest bit hungover even though she was. It was just a really great night.
And there it is. you are all caught up. And i am tired. I think i am going to go pack and sleep. More tomorrow. (even though it says that is was published at whatever odd time in the morning i have been writing this throughout the day - between candy sales and laundry loads so that is why i am tired.) Good night.