Friday, July 31, 2009

Sunshine

The sun is warm. The village is warm and dusty. Actually, we've been having showers off and on amidst the intense sun. Those are always nice breaks. We need the rain too, it's too dry here.

I was dinking around the village and I came by the evacuation plan. If we were evacuated I would be a floater. I'm not sure what that means, but it seems important to me!

Wednesday I went to dock day with the minors and junior minors to say goodbye to my friend Sam. Three hours down by the lake and I didn't jump in once even though it was in the 90's. Dillon, Sam, Jo, and I ended up playing this game of hearts that lasted the entire time. Actually, 10 minutes of my time was consumed by my taking pictures of Dillon and Sam jumping into the lake doing different poses. They turned out really well.

When it came time to walk over to the normal dock from refrigerator harbor to say goodbye to Sam we all got really mopey. We walked over and hung out until the boat arrived. Once it was time for Sam to get one we all had probably 10 group hugs and individual hugs. All the people on the boat and on the dock were looking at us like we're crazy....but we just love each other! Anyway, Sam left and it was sad. Our last words were Hanna shouting out "Don't you leave us Sam Wise Gamjee (sp?)" Of course he shouted back, "And I don't mean to!" Then we waved at the boat while walking backwards until we turned a corner and couldn't see him anymore. Everyone slept on the bus ride up the hill.

We got back into the village and I went to the Snack bar (I had taken the shift off because I've been working Beanie (the espresso cart so often this week). I guess 2 people didn't show up to scoop so Maggie from the pool hall came up to work and they were short a person. Poor Julie, this was the 2nd shift she had done alone. Ohg well. I gave here a 3 day weekend to make up for my missing for dock day and the stehekin trip. She's thrilled.

We're all sad that Sam is gone but we are all planning to meet in Seattle for New Years Eve. I guess this is a yearly tradition. A lot of the people I'm friends with this year were all friends and staff from last summer. I'm excited because I'm going to be in the greater Seattle area for New Years too! Woohoo.

The last three days I have been working Beanie (the espresso cart) in the morning then going to my job in the afternoon and at night. I've been tired. When I work Beanie I start at 6:15am and finish at 11:00am. Then I start my job at 12:45pm and am pretty much doing that until 10:3opm. Looong days. Tom, director Tom, got wind of this and told me that I was working too hard and that he didn't want to have to worry about me but that it was a really really great cup of coffes that I made him and that he heard I was Starbucks trained? haha. That rumor made it around somehow because people ask me a lot. Weird. Anyway, I'm going to tell Paul that I can't do more than 1 shift a week, unless they're really jammed, just because I'm already at 40 hours wiht my job and another 14 hours on top of that makes it so I don't sleep much. Needless to say, I slept in until 1oam this morning. I do like working Beanie though, it's fun....I'm just tired.

MY POP CAME YESTERDAY! Finally, there is pop other than Dr. Pepper in the Snack bar. I had to wait for 2 barge runs because Weinstein bevereges deceided not to record my order. Oh well, it's here now. The only problem is that 14 canisters (5 gallons each) came in and they're probably 40lbs a peice. My arms and shoulders are hurting from carrying them. I was tempted to wait a little bit longer to put in the pop even though everyone knows it came it just because people were so rude about it. Then I decided not to be a brat :). I spent probably 30 minutes messing with the Diet Pepsi to get it to work until Aaron (the medic) finally pipped up that he knew how to fix it. He messed with it for longer than I did and determined that there was a clog in one of the hoses but that it was gone now and the machine was working.

Yesterday for dinner a bunch of us split the 24oz Mountain Dew that Same left to us. YUM.

Ok, what else is happening. I think I decided not to extend. I'm going to talk to the staff coordinators anyway to see what I would be doing if I did extend but I'm pretty sure I won't. I kind of want to go on this road trip down the washington, oregon, california coast, over through Arizona to see the grand canyon and over to New Orleans (I'm still stuck on doing disaster releif there, I just don't know how to do it). I have friends in places all the way down the coast so I wouldn't have to pay for lodging or anything.....I've always wanted to do a road trip like that too. The only hang up is that my car still won't pass emissions and all the money I would have to spend on the road trip will probably go toward fixing the car, then there wouldn't be much point to doing anything but selling it. Hmm. Anyone want to go on a road trip??

I think that's about it for today. I can't beleive that tomorrow is the 1st of Augest already! Weird. I need to get some people to scoop ice cream for today. Anouncement anouncement!

I guess that's about it. I'll try to get some pictures up soon. I decided what kind of camera I'm going to get! Now it's just a matter of finding a deal on it.

<3 Amy

Monday, July 27, 2009

Some highlights from the last week.

Last week I was sitting in Vespers waiting for it to start when Tom, one of the directors, came up to me and sat down. He told me that they recently had a staffing meeting and my ears should have been burning. He said that they talked about my "uber fabulousness" for about 5 minutes straight and that I am the treasure. It was really nice to hear. That explains why Noah, one of the staff coordinators, came up to me and told me that I'm doing a great job and asked me to extend until I absolutely had to leave to prepare for Peace Corps. This seemed like even more of a compliment after I found out that my roommate tried to extend for fall and winter and they said that they didn't have a place for her so she is only staying until November. Weird.

Right now Tom and Paul, two of the directors, are running around the offices with socks on but no shoes talking about who is going to water the window boxes. Only at Holden!

Dance party in the garage on the second level. Did I explain that already? Terry, the mechanic, and Daniel, the mechanic's apprentice hosted a dance party in the garage on the second level. It was nice and cool down there with the giant doors open. After we all got too warm and tired we hung around outside and watched the stars. Then we helped Daniel clean up and played this game called "imagineifff..." Turns out I'm really bad at it. There were 7 people playing. I tied for last place with a girl that hadn't played the last 45 minutes because she was sleeping on the couch. Awesome. It was fun though.

Last night I went in the jaccuzzi with a few people. After we got too warm and pruny we went into the sauna (much better). We listened to music, hung out, and sweated a lot. One last dip in the dipping pool and we all went our separate ways. I read for a while, then went to bed feeling really relaxed from the sauna.

It is too hot already!!!! Boo. I think I heard that it is supposed to hit 100 today and tomorrow. Wow.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

:)

I'll start from this weekend and then move backwards through the week so I don't forget anything.

This weekend was a good friend of mine's birthday so a big group of about 12 people went to go camping in Stehekin. Best weekend ever! We left the village on the early bus at 10:45. The boat ride was only an hour and a lot of fun. We played cards. There was another person who knows how to play euchre, so we taught everyone. When we got to stehekin we brought all of our stuff up to the ranger station/visitors area to get a permit for camping. The ranger invited us to a potluck within 15 minutes of being in Stehekin!! Judy Clark welcomed us off the boat (she has a strong relationship with Holden). We brought all of our stuff up to camp then went down to get lunch at the restaurant. I got a veggie burger and a coke (this weekend was about food mostly). As soon as we were done eating we went to the small general store where we all bought things we can't get in the village (ie. chips, beer, ect). By the time we got out of the store it started pooring down rain!! We waited out the storm a little and then headed up to our camp site. We set up our tents and set up everything we needed. It started pooring again. We waiting out the storm again, this time in our tents, and then just kind of hung around until it was time to make our 7:00 dinner reservations at the same restaurant (the only restaurant in the town). The potluck started at 7:30 and since we didn't know anyone but ourselves in the village, we decided to go late to limit the awkwardness. The time came, we ate. I had a grilled cheese and french fries! Mmmmm. Good times were had.

After dinner, we headed straight to the potluck. It was full of people our age, we didn't realize there were 20 somethings in Stehekin. We had a good time. I guess it's a stehekin tradition to have your toe nails painted when you first arrive; it's a sort of welcoming ceremony. We participated. We hung around with the locals for a while until it was nice and dark. Then we decided to head back up to camp to have a bon fire. We had a bon fire, roasted marsh mellows and enjoyed each others company for a while. We also sang happy birthday a few times to Hannah at midnight after a fairly intense countdown. After we let the fire burn out, we decided to go down to the dock to watch the stars. We did that for probably an hour until we were all falling asleep. We brushed our teeth, cleaned up, and went to bed after a long stream of goodnights yelled from the 5 different tents we brought for 12 people.

The morning was pretty much a dead race to the bathrooms because they were so far away that nobody went to the bathroom in the middle of the night and going around the camp wasn't going to happen because it was a pretty hopping camp site. We cleaned up our tents and trash and everything and went down to the visitors center to store our stuff until it was time for the boat to leave. We dropped our stuff and walked to the bike rental place to get pikes to go to the bakery. We did. It was beautiful and warm and a gorgeous ride. The word "Euphoric" was passed around a lot. We went to the bakery, got food (I got a cinimon roll and I got a cheap day-old blackberry scone to take back to the village and supplument the oat meal) and hung around until it was time to get our bikes back. On the bike ride back we all sang "American Pie" really lowdly as we road around the lake in the sunshine. It was really great how aware we all were that we were having a great time.

When we got back, we grabbed our stuff, put it by the boat and hung out around the porch of the restaurant we had been hanging around. We played cards and talked about everything. Once it was lunchtime we ate lunch (I got a basket of fries and a cocoa-cola. I also had a drink of Hannah's chocolate milk! By the time lunch was over and we had hung around outside some more it was time to board the boat and get back to the village. On the boat ride back we played Euchre and talked to Lee Klueth and his gang from Trinity. I didn't see him because he was behind a poll until I heard, "Hey! Cross girl!!" He asked me about the graduation card he sent me (I took a picture of it and put it up here a while ago, it just has a picture of his face on it). I told him it was awesome and I posted it on my blog. He got a kick out of that. We talked about hiking in, they hiked in to Stehekin and were boating in. I talked about my hike in from Trinity. We swapped stories and chatted for a while. When we got off the boat we had to say goodbye to our good friend Aaron who has been here for a month and a half (this trip was half happy birthday and half goodbye Aaron). He stayed on the boat. We had a massive group-hug that freaked out all the people on the boat and stepped onto the dock. I guess Aaron graduated with me from PLU but neither of us had ever seen the other. I hate how often people leave here.

On the bus ride up the mountain into the village we all pretty much dosed. This was the best weekend I've had in a loong time. Also, I'll never eat again...seriously.

I feel really refreshed being back in the village now. I also feel like a big part of it based on how many people have come up to me and asked how my weekend away was. It was great! When I got back, I checked my e-mail. Someone sent me a picture of my and the rootbeer float from the parade on the 4th of July. Here it is!

Last week has pretty much been hanging out on different porches. That pretty much fills my day. Hopefully the story of my weekend is enough to satisfy you until I can get pictures from Jubilee of my ice cream creations from the auction!

<3 Amy

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Mmmmm Tuesday mornings = Pancakes!

The last few days have pretty much consisted of hanging out on porches, like normal. I wasn't going to post that over and over again, but then I was informed that it is important information.

Today Noah, one of the staff coordinators, came up to me and asked me to extend my stay through fall. He said that he didn't know how long they could continue my area head stipend but they would love to have me up here. I told him that it was on my mind and I would go and talk to him and Daniel about it before long. Then he told me thank you for everything I do. I guess I'm not doing a bad job.

This last week some people that know my grandma were up. They were nice. Also, I have a group of 5 cousins that have scooped for me 2 or 3 times now and are going to scoop again tomorrow night because they like doing it so much. There are so many of them that I don't really have to work. Plus, their families hang around and they're a riot. They keep making me be in all of their pictures and home videos. I like them a lot though, they're great.

Last night we had a get together on the Lodge 6 porch because it was my friend Wacky Jacki's last night here before going home. We hung around on the porch for a while then decided to walk out to the ball feild to go star gazing. We played a game called "Star tripping" where everyone spreads out a lot, you look straight up, pick a star and stair at if for 10 seconds while you spin around in circles. After the 10 seconds are up, one person (pre-determined) turns on a flashlight (because it's completely dark) and everyone has to run to the light. The first one to the flashlight wins. It's more fun than it sounds like and it sounds like a lot of fun right?

After that game we laid in the grass for a while and watched the stars until we were tired enough to go to bed.

That night, before going to bed, I decided to check my e-mail. That's when I found out about Bill. My heart and prayers go out to the Stepp family.

Jacki was the first one of my good friends here (besides Allison) to leave. This week two of my other friends, Aaron and Sam, are leaving. Lame. This weekend a bunch of us are going to Stehekin for Hannah's 21st birthday! We're going to camp! Don't worry family (Mom), this will not be like my or Sarah's 21st birthdays.

My rootbeer that was supposed to come 2 weeks ago and then was promised again today never came. I might have to switch distributers. Grr.

Thursday is Jubilee....I need to get on the ice cream creations for the auction. I know I'm going to make a bunch of ice cream sandwhiches, a giant ice cream Sunday and some banana splits...I just need to actually do it. Ok, that's all for now. Thanks for the mail everyone that has been sending me mail and packages...it makes my day every time! I think about you all very often and miss you tons!

<3 Amy

Friday, July 17, 2009

I haven't posted in a while


I came back to a very colorful ice cream freezer that badly needs defrosting.

Diana at the top of Clowdy Pass looking back.

Top of Clowdy pass near where we ate lunch.


Esme and Andrew at the top of Clowdy Pass eating lunch looking out on Lyman Lakes.

What we were hoping was Buck Creek Pass....turned out to be No Pass Pass (accuratly named).
Here are some pictures to make up for the fact that I haven't posted in a week.

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2009-07-17.8791799062

Here is a link to my Dad's trail report on our trip on the WTA website. This is pretty much how the hike was. He just left out how we hung out a lot...Diana, Esme, and I had story time in the Taj Mahal (Diana and I's tent) with a guidepost that Diana brought because it was lighter than a book.

It was great (and a little weird) having my familly in the village for a while after the hike. I spent a lot of time with them when I wasn't working, and a little when I was working (I got Diana, Esme, Mom, and Dad all to scoop for me). On Tuesday the 14th, I got my new staff member Julie. She's not Allison but she's pretty great. I thought I scared her away when I first met her with my enthusiasm...turns out she was just hungry. Oh well. That day Julie, Diana, Esme, Andrew, and I all played our traditional game of frisbee golf. While my family (I'm in including the Dutchers in this) was here we did freisbee golf, blindfolded hallway walking, and all the other things we do when we're at Holden. Good times.

Thursday afternoon they all left....except for the Wilsons who are here still...I think I've only seen them 3 times since I've been here.

That day I spent catching up with my Holden friends. I had been gone so long with the hike and with my family here and everything that there was a 50% turnover of people in my group that I hang out with a lot. Weird.

Today I slept in for the first time in a long time. I got up and had some cereal...since breakfast had been long gone. After breakfast, ordering ice cream and pop and writting out a schedule for Julie I went back to my chalet to take care of the massive pile of stuff I had been accumulating on my bed since the fam was here. I just kept piling it there because at night my roommate is sleeping and I didn't want to bother her and in the morning I was too tired to take care of it. I'm rarely home in the middle of the day. I cleaned up a little but too because Chalet 1 is hosting the staff social tonight. I have to get marsh mellows from Larry.

After I cleaned up I unted down Paul, my supervisor, to see if he still needed me to take a few shifts on the espresso car that just opened. Grace, who normally runs it has the plague that has been running around Holden so she is in bed sick leaving the very busy Paul to run it all alone. He was extremely grateful that I was willing to help out. I told him that I prefer to not work Sundays but that I was more than happy to fill in whenever there needs to be a person work. I start tomorrow morning at 6:30am. I didn't see that one coming.

At lunch just now I was found by Karen (Paul's whife) who was asking me about my Jubilee plans for the snack bar. I have some plans stewing in my head to make some ice cream creations for the auction but other than that, I need to figure things out. She did give me the times we should be open (different than normal because it is a festival day) so that was helpful.

Last night, after I closed, I went over to Creekside where a bunch of the staff members were watching the first of the Lort of the Rings movies. It was the first time I had ever watched it in it's entirety. It was the extended edition. I didn't get to sleep until 2:00am. Good thing I could sleep in this morning.

Now that things are back to normal and I'm back in my routine(ish) I'm going to head up to the kitchen to grab my dishes before I meet Julie at 1:15 to start carrying ice. Fun fun!!

My rootbeer shipment didn't come last week when it was supposed to and now I'm still waiting ot hear from my supplier to see if they received the order....even though I know they did because they sent me a confirmation of the order....sheesh.

It's hot out today (upper 90's) for those of you who care.

That's all for now. I miss you all!!!!

Amy

Oh yeah! I learned out to knit hats! I'm a hat knitting feind now!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Day off

I broke my tradition of going for a hike on my day off to ride the bus down to the lake and hang around for a while. There was a group of 7 of us originally, then 2 hiked down and 1 ran down. We spent the day lounging in the grass at refrigerator harbor and jumping in occasionally to escape the extreme heat. We played Frisbee and rummy and just kind of layed around and talked. It was the perfect day, one that I will definitely judge others by. After a while we went over to the main dock before the boat got in. We spent a long time jumping in the lake over and over again. The freezing water felt perfect since it was above 90 F. After a while the bus came and we headed back to the village. Once back in the village we still all hung around for a long time. After Vespers I watched Aladdin with some people in my chalet. Great day.

Monday I was back to work. Both shifts went really well, I had great people helping me out. I had a small child come up to me this morning to tell me that Holden wasn't going to be the same without me. After I told him he could still get ice cream he was a little happier. Haha. I see what I am to these people...the supply. I found out Monday morning that I could officially go on my out! I spent the rest of the day (outside of work) finding people to cover my shifts. I gave one shift to a different person every day. Yesterday (around midnight) I spent a while typing up a very detailed description for how to do my job. I think things will run smoothly while I'm out. I now owe some people some favors for talking multiple shifts. I will be re-paying them by going to Safeway tomorrow at home to get some things they can't get in the village (peter pan peanut butter? White bread?).

Yesterday at 4:30 I had dinner dish team. It was a great team and things went really smoothly. The monday after I get back (when my family is all here) I have garbology duty (a once per month requirement for all staff). I can already see them walking up to the second level to laugh at me crunching up compostable bits for the compost bins....mmmmmmm, smelly.

Diana is coming to pick me up today when the boat gets in to fields point, I'll be home (packing) all day Wednesday, then Thursday morning I leave with the famed Ebenezer hikers to hike into Holden. The idea that I am going on an out purely for the sake of hiking back in is impressive to some villagers and disturbing to others. It's kind of funny to see reactions.

I feel like I haven't seen my family in a long time, the 5 days of hustle and bustle in between graduation and leaving for Holden were not enough for me. I'm excited to be home, even if it is only for a little while. That's all for now. I'll see a lot of you soon (tomorrow).

Goodbye for now from Holden!

Amy

Saturday, July 4, 2009

4th of July

I woke up this morning to Brandon jumping on my bed asking to use my ipod. It didn't really phase me because I'm used to being woken up that way.

I finally got up around 8am and hung out with some people in the shade (because it was already a sauna everywhere) until 9:15 when breakfast started. It was a special brunch because it was the 4th of July. French toast. Breakfast. I said goodbye to the bus. After the bus left there were proclamations which included anything from reciting a speech from Sitting Bull to "Oh captain, my captain" to an amazing made-up proclamation read by a man in a penguin head and a graduation gown. After the proclamations I started carrying buckets of ice and supplies and ice cream and dishes and laundry down to the snack bar. That took until noon when it was time to line up for the parade. I found a rootbeer float costume in the basement of the VC where I keep my extra pop, CO2, and ice cream. I convinced some 17 year-old kid to wear it. We lined up for the parade behind the Pool Hall, and in front of the minors and junior minors. Turns out the kid I convinced to wear the rootbeer float costume decided to wear shorts that were short enough to not see them and take off his shirt so that he looked like a naked rootbeer floats. I wore my crown and carried Kinicin. The rootbeer float was a big hit haha. There were alot of pictures taken. Watch for them. The parade was a lot of fun!

After the parade I ran around the village looking for my rootbeer because we handed out free rootbeer floats. I never thought my production and manufacturing class would come in handy but it did for rootbeer production. The line was consistantly small and we had a really good time! We cleaned up and headed to dinner. During dinner there was a joke-a-thon. I hung out there for a while until it got too Hot, then I moved to Lodge 1 porch. A bunch of us hung out there until 7:00pm when there was Vespers on the arc. Patriotism galore...but it was fine. Oh, before Vespers I went to a session where we watched Obama's inagural speach. I left during the discussion. After Vespers we all moved to the VC for fireworks. Turns out fireworks at Holden are as follows. Everyone packs into the VC, they turn the lights off, project a fireworks show, play music and and out bubble wrap to EVERYONE. Amazing!! Fireworks will never be the same.

After the fireworks were over I rushed over to the Snack bar to open up. IT was a good night. I HAVE A STAFF MEMBER NOW!!!! I thought one of the people here was just volunteering but turns out she is assigned to me. Woohoo!!!!! I'm so happy to finally have someone for the first time since Allison left. I guess she is going to be working with me until the 14th when I get a different person, then after they leave, she'll be back to work with me. Yes.

After work I caught the end of the talent show....nice. Then I went to the dining hall to hang out and now I'm here.

I'm really looking foward to my day off tomorrow. A bunch of us are going down to Lucerne to hang out by and jump into the lake. That will be great on a 92 F day.

I'm exhausted.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Pictures!


The view of the mountains from where we were watching the Sound of Music at the top of Chalet Hill.


I lightened the picture a bit so you could see that there really were people watching the Sound of music and so you could compare how big the screen is with how small the people are. There were a lot more people watching than this...behind me and next to me in front of all of the chalets on the hills there was pretty much the entire village sitting. It was fantastic!!! I've never seen the South of Music on a big screen before!

Baby in a bucket!....this isn't cute at all.


This is what we sang to welcome and bless the new espresso machine that isn't working yet for some mysterious reason that no one seems to know.

I'll get pictures of the llamas as soon as I snag them from a friend of mines camera. I chose to stake out my place in line for walking the llamas to the ranger station rather than run and get my camera. I think I made the right decision.

I just got done with dish team and my hands are dry and warm...it is supposed to be hot today.

Right now the village is a-buzz with plans for the 4th of July. We all had an excellent Canada day yesterday, I can't imagine what's in store for the 4th but I hear that it will be epic. As far as my planning goes, the Snack Bar will be open normal hours so I don't need to do anything special except for get together an all star group of scoopers for Saturday because it will be busy. I hear it's supposed to be in the upper 90's (thanks for the forecast Mom).

Right now I'm waiting around for my ice cream shipment to come. I only have 2 one half gallons of ice cream left. Last night I only gave out kiddy-sized cones because of the lack of ice cream and crazy lot of people coming in. I have a massive order in today and then I'm going to order more so it comes on Monday. Note to self- get a shipment every Monday and Thursday and order every Monday and Thursday....sheesh. We go through 60 3-gallon tubs a week...that blows my mind. What can you do?

Right now there is a drumming circle happening on the arc (Allison would be jealous). There are a bunch of Djembe's in a circle around the tree on the arc drumming away. Maybe I should go and document this with my camera. Hmm. You all can relax and know that I have started to carry around a bag with me so I will have my camera on me more often...all the better to catch the Villagers in their normal Holdentastic Hilarity on a more regular basis. Oo..coffee break bell, got to go!

I miss you all! E-mail me.

Amy