Good words: Festering and Pustule. Ah the beauties of the English language :)

So Saturday I was sick. Blah. It has been awhile since I have gotten sick; I was due. Well, ever since I have been sick I have been having strange, bizarre, random dreams and I can't get them out of my head. Last nights (to make this story as short as possible) combined a double date, Arizona Study Program (for piano students), ASU's music building being forclosed and sold as a mansion home, family road trip/ vacation in Herbie (the car from the movie), squishy, moldy, spiraling tunnel thing to the tiny "beach" (more like a platform) 1000 ft above the ocean, strange lifeguards covered in sea salt being attacked by birds, 2 starfish at least 10 ft. long, and finally waking up with a feeling of being stuck on this "beach" forever unless I go back through that horrible tunnel, an option I would rather not take.

I was so uncomfortable that I opened a book and read until that feeling left me. And now I write it on my blog to complete the cathartic process.

What a great time of year for new years resolutions and learning. I ate a ton of junk food last night but right after midnight I sat down and ate a bowl of salad... followed by a large snicker-doodle cookie. Then I went home and happily went to bed. :)

I am so happy that Christmas music is playing on the radio. I don't care how early it is, I love it! I have never been so excited for Christmas season in my life--probably because I have never been so stressed at school before. With some hot chocolate and a blanket I want to sit in a dark decorated room with the twinkling lights of the mini village and the "Charlie Brown tree" while watching A Muppet Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story... and all the Christmas classic movies. That would be so therapeutic... *sighs* At least it will be nice to have a break for Thanksgiving, but I will still be studying.

I am so tired. But before I go to bed...

I like food.

I like Alaska.

I went whale watching and to the Glacier and was feed at another Salmon bake yesterday.

I saw transient orca breaching and humpback bubble net feeding.

Today I worked until 2:00 pm then flew in a helicopter up the glacier to go dog sledding on top.

I counted only 42 days until I come home!

So happy Fourth of July everyone! We had our fireworks already at 12:00 am (that is when it was dark). I went and watched them over on Douglas Island at a house Camille is watching for free rent (:D This was to avoid the crowds and especially the drunk wasted people wandering the streets after. The fireworks were off a barge in the Gasenau Channel between Douglas Island and Downtown Juneau. This made for great acoustics because the boom of the fireworks would echo off the mountains on both sides. However visually they don't compare to home when the two churches competed with each other. There wasn't even a finale-they just ended! There also was a brief intermission during the show because they accidently lit some fireworks they weren't supposed to and the barge it on fire (at least that is my best guess from what I saw from the coast). It took about ten minutes before things started back up again. When it ended we were confused because of the lacking finale but we accepted it as over when we heard everyone yelling on both sides of the channel (that was cool). After we watched some hillarious late night infomercials and more lame stuff for about an hour, waiting for traffic to die down. So I ended getting to bed around 2 am. Then woke up at 5:30 this morning to go to work (btw I have not slept since). They kept me busy working and added on extra duties. I got stuck in the valley for 3 hours because of the parade. So I then I had nothing to do so I went and did some grocery shopping, ate a tasty feast of raisins fig bars and peanuts, and then stopped by Northstar Trekking to talk and socialize a bit. Then at 2 something I headed back to the valley and got stuck in the worst traffic I have ever driven in; I moved 20 ft or less in 40 minutes. But I suppose this is all ok because I ended up with 5 more hours of work in the end than I was expecting. I still feel fine and wide awake but gross. I bet I will be exhausted later. The only downside is that I was planing on going on a tour that would fly me to the glacier and then a guide would take us on a two hour hike on the giant ice cube, but I got back too late :( Oh well I still have two months to do that. 

Oh I got to wear jeans (b/c they are blue) and tennis shoes to work with my work shirt rather than black dress pants and dress shoes becau

se of the fourth. It was fun. We were also allowed to wear red, white, or blue shirts if they had collars-unfortunately I had none... meh.

Well once again--HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! TH

E FOUNDING FATHERS ROCK MY SOX! 

A view of the fireworks. Notice how the sky is still light behind the mountain still at midnight.

This is a view of downtown on a rare sunny day. My apt. is above the tourist shop across the street from the Red Dog Saloon (the big red building on the left). You can pick out the red pillars of the building in between the yield and curve ahead signs. The blueberry blue bus and the white bus with the blue and green stripe on the bottom are two of the smaller buses that are driven in the company that I work with. 

Oh yeah I forgot to tell you all Alex Trebek (the Jeopardy TV show host) was here last week and went on one of my coworker's tours. He said he wanted to answer every question he got in the form of a question but he refrained. LOL. 

Then yesterday Johnny Deep and Paul McCartney were here yesterday on a yacht together. I gave them both high fives when I saw them walking down the street. (JK. I never saw them but I saw their boat). Here is a picture (I didn't take it I found it on the internet btw)

With all these people talking about celebrities in town I learned that Harrison Ford was here last summer too. Someone said that he was rude and mean... I say meh he is a celebrity and I don't really care...but I can't deny Indiana Jones is awesome! So this place is crawling with famous people but I won't see Sarah Palin or her kids selling lemonade outside much around here anymore (you probably already know, but for those of you who don't she has resigned as governor because [according to the news] she doesn't want to take advantage of the government and it's money and just be a lame duck). I wonder what will happen to the trampoline in the backyard of the governor's mansion now? 

Well today has been another pretty normal day. Today I took my first group from the Baranof to the airport. They were from Arizona and gave me the only tip I got today. The rest of the day I had three minute transfers from one dock to the other for the zipline and the steamboat tours. Then I ended my work day with a Mtn Zip and Glacier tour. This was a family group of six and I loved talking to them. The mom was a nurse and the dad was a doctor. They actually met while working together in The CCU.  They have been married for 26 years now yet they said it seemed they had only been married days. They were so cute. It is nice to see couples with families still sincerely and openly showing love to each other. Most of the folks I drive around just talk about going to the bars and how they want to "eat, drink, and be merry." 

After work I was able to catch a ride home and then walked to the Senate Mall to pay rent and then to the thrift store to buy white shirts to tie-dye at the work softball kickoff party. I walked all the way there and guess what?!?! It was closed! So I walked back but took my time and stopped in the Capital building and gave myself a tour, went into the health foods store to look around and decided that eating that food wasn't worth the price, stopped in the Alaska Fudge Co. and talked to Wendy (who is in my branch), then went and met another girl who is in my ward but I still can't pronounce her name right so I won't bother trying to write it... Then I went home but not for long :) 

Cherish picked me up across the street from the Red Dog and drove me to work where the party was. I had a blast making a tie-dye shirt (I used one that I had brought up with me). Eating BBQ hot dogs and talking with coworkers. Some of us came back to the apartment then turned on "Hello Dolly" and that is what we are doing now. So with that being said I am going to enjoy the movie now :) Adios!

So I just got back from work at 9:30 pm and it took half an hour to walk home so I got home at 10 pm and the sun is still out! I am really happy that I am working some nice long hours. I have been snacking on food all day so I didn't bother eating a real dinner and instead ate pepper jack cheese-Yum! 

Okay, so funny story of the day... 

Cherish was running errands after work and ended up leaving her keys in the apartment and locked herself out. So she called Maria who was staging downtown and asked if she would drop off her keys so she could get back in the apartment. Maria was headed down when she was called to pick someone up and transfer them to a different dock. Cherish did not know this so kept on waiting outside for her at the Red Dog Saloon (it was the second time she had been waiting outside today). After a bit a man who was a bit testosterone happy and working inside came out and asked if she "was lost" because he had seen her out there awhile. After he proceeded to "hit on her" as Cherish put it. Then left and went inside but then came back with a free coaster with his name and number on it. Ooo la la. He was inviting her to a Fourth of July party  with lots o' booze when Maria showed up with a van and keys and saved her yeah! Maria was the knight in shining armor :)

Today I was supposed to do three transfers with Japanese people and I had studied the night before with Cherish and had learned to say "Good afternoon. My name is Heather. I do not know any Japanese. I am sorry." and "Welcome back. Did you have fun" and some basic words all in Japanese. But when I arrived at work I found out that I no longer was scheduled to take these people out :( Sad, but oh well.

Last night I went out to eat with Angelica, Suzette, Maria, Jordan, and Nick at the Baranof Hotel Bubble Lounge where we get a 50% discount as local employees for HAPA. I had Halibut and chips for the first time and it was tasty. I love fish. My goal it to try a bunch of different seafood stuff while I am up here. Ummm... I am tired.  I have work tomorrow at 5:30 am and I must leave half an hour early so I am going to bed now. Good night. 

Oh yeh! Today we rented "Hello Dolly" from Blockbuster (they have a much smaller selection BTW) and I am so excited to watch it soon :D 

Playing softball with coworkers Angelica is above I am below. Do you see how close I was to getting out! The yellow softball is flying right into his glove.

Ok. So the apartment came with wine glasses and when we were done using them that evening a contest broke out over who could fit their mouth over the top. It was hilarious and gross.
These two pictures were taken when Erin our roommate was baptized. Angelica was the one to introduce Erin to the church and she had no idea she was getting baptized. We had kept it a secret from her and told her that she was asked to give her own conversion story at a fireside that evening. She arrived on the plane that day and she was so surprised when she found out. Everyone else then surprised Erin by putting together a special musical number to sing at her baptism. The spirit was strong and we were all happy.
Erin and the missionaries :)