a brief appearance!

hello friends!  i am in alaska!  hooray!  i love alaska.  let me repeat, I LOVE ALASKA.  it's beautiful and the sun is ALWAYS UP.  hah.  i have to be quick because i only get fifteen minutes, but my job is pretty easy really.  i am the "tally girl".  i wrote to laura about it, so maybe she can tell you since i am in a hurry. the worst part of it is that i am in the freezer, so even with all of my clothes on it's pretty chilly still.  (that's including two pairs of wool socks.)  i have taken a million rolls of film and am desperate for someone to send me some more because it's not cheap here.  the same goes for body wash.  for the love of god if you want me to be clean and not smelly, mail me some body wash!

or just any regular old mail would be nice, i would appreciate even just a postcard with nothing on it if you don't feel like writing anything. 

i haven't been doing much other than reading, photographing and a little bit of work, but it will pick up very soon and i will probably wish that i was back doing those other things.  but that's okay, because work = money and we all like to have a little bit of that.

also, i know laura won't like it, but since today is laura's birthday everyone should sing to her.  see, i got on special today JUST BECAUSE IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY.  even though you never answer your phone when i call you, i still love you.

i would post a photo, but the computer is too slow to get one off of snapfish.  so you will have to anxiously await them for some other time.

bye!

Live from Alaska

Ha, speak of the devil--today I got a letter from Sarah. I can't replicate the Pink Panther stationery, but here is an excerpt:

"So here I am in Alaska! There's no work for us yet; we went to the dock to try to find something today, but nothing. But there's fish in Egigik, and tonight the boats are going to start to go out so there should be fish tomorrow. Which will be nice since Naknek isn't very big and I've already seen pretty much all of it the last two days. It's a really small town, but has two liquor stores, three bars, two B&Bs and a hotel. Plus a couple of churches, a school and a swimming pool. Where I am, AGS, are a lot of similar looking green buildings. And a dock with the cannery, warehouse and freezer, and numerous boats which they have started putting out on the water. The one right outside my and Melody's window is called Aquarius. Oh, and there is also a beach where people regularly have bonfires and drink.

"Our bunkhouse is pretty much what a bunkhouse sounds like. Melody and I have tried to pretty our room up with some rocks and sticks in the window, rocks as bookends, and a styrofoam cup as a penholder. The walls are just drywall with large chunks of paint missing, so on my wall I've put up postcards from our trip, but it still looks pretty pathetic and so I am hoping for some mail that I can hang up to cover up some of those spots.[...] I also wish I had brought some [photos] of you all so that I could put them up.

"It's so weird that I am finally in Alaska. I've wanted to come here for years. Despite the light tricking me so I can stay up until 11 thinking it's afternoon, I really like it here. Even though I haven't done any work yet, I can kind of see why people come back season after season."

The moral of the story is, send Sarah some mail!

An inadequate substitute.

Hello. This is Laura posting in Sarah's absence. Since she's been gone (ha! Kelly Clarkson.) I've had three postcards from her road trip, one payphone call from the Anchorage airport, and ... silence. I think she may have left me one other voicemail but it was so jumbled and I couldn't hear clearly enough to tell if it was her.

HOW many more weeks till she comes back??

sara, megan, and sarah.

sara and megan at a gabe's dance party.

megan and sarah.

um...should be self-explanatory.   (as in, i put cookies on my eyes.  hey, i was drinking!)

since i am actually writing this on the 12th, i have no idea what's going on when it's posted on the 19th.  i'm not able to see into the future.

as far as seattle!

hello!  what an unexpected post!  i am typing to you from the seattle public library.  it's got some crazy cool architecture and they are so awesome they let non-residents use the internet for a whole hour, instead of 30 minutes like iowa city's public library.  ooh!

so tomorrow we are flying out of here to alaska.  i can't say it's something that i have been thinking about a whole lot, because we have been spending so much time just trying to get this far.  we have been driving what feels like non-stop.  or rather, colleen and vikas have been since they are the only ones who can drive stick.  anyway, so yeah.  we made it as far as mitchell, south dakota the first night and camped in a super windy thunderstorm in a campground that was entirely rv's besides us.  but the people next to us were nice and gave us coffee the next day.  then we drove to columbus, montana and camped at the itch-kep-pe city park.  it was next to the yellowstone river, and while we didn't have much time to spend looking around, it was still very beautiful.  the best camping was last night though when we camped at the riverside state park outside of spokane.  we got in early enough to get a spot, and even though it downpoured while we set up the tent, that was the only rain.  we then went and ate indian food and then came back to hike and look at the swinging bridge and the rapids in the river.  and now we are here in seattle after our last day of driving and the first thing we did was come here, lol!  but we have some last minute shopping to do, and we will probably look around downtown as well before we head to tacoma to stay with some of melody's relatives for the night. 

i can't complain too badly, it's been a little stressful here and there, but i can't say that that is entirely unexpected.  it's hard for erin, melody and i to be cramped in the back, but then we don't have to drive which is equally stressful.  but it's been beautiful and i am sure we are all glad to have this leg of the trip done and to get on to alaska for the "big event" as it were. 

i've taken over four rolls of film already and so i guess i will have to buy more.  (you can always send me some too!  i only have 200 photos or thereabouts i can take on my digital, so i'm trying to conserve that.)  i was going to upload a few that i already took on my digital camera and relocate them to my flash drive and post a few, but my camera cord is in my bag somewhere in the depths of the trunk so i guess that's not going to happen.  you can satisy yourself by looking up photos of the places i've been online and pretend that you can see me in them or something.

maybe there is something else that i could talk about, but i can't think of it.  so i guess that i will grudgingly finish up this post, and begin my internetless-ness for real this time.  eek!

to cheer me up

isn't he the most adorable?  i can't believe he can walk. also, i like how he has like this mullet thing going on.  (which you can't really see in those pictures, but it's totally there.)

my parents came and took all of my stuff away this morning.  i am feeling rather desolate, but i can't even call anyone about how i feel because I DON'T EVEN HAVE A PHONE ANYMORE.  at least i have my ipod, maybe the new pornographers can make me feel better.  i'm considering pitching my tent in my room just to have something there.

i finally have an address for the people who want to send me mail:

Sarah Kellogg - Cannery Worker
C/O Alaska General Seafoods
PO Box 149
Naknek, AK  99633

although i get the impression that it will take awhile for me to receive anything that is sent, so probably don't send anything after the first week in july, just in case i'm gone by the time it arrives.  (you can also send mail to my parents house in ottuwma so i have something when i get back if you'd like.)

um...what else?  since laura is a) my bff and b) the only person whose phone number i have memorized, she has access to my typepad account and may be updating for me if i ever get a chance to call her while i'm gone.  also, i have some other photos that i will probably put so that they post at random dates just for the hell of it. 

i can't believe that i am going to alaska.  i also can't believe all of the preparation that is going into this, all of the things i have needed to do (add mom to my bank account, set up automatic payment on my credit card, buy this, that and the other) and the stuff i still need to do like change my mailing address and maybe get my haircut. 

a day and a half until i leave!

temporarily unemployed.

DSC03141 2
Originally uploaded by lirty.

i have been uploading photos from our trip to tennesee/liz's wedding, but i may run out of bandwidth and will have to finish when i get back in august. unless someone wants to chip in and get me a pro account for flickr, in which case i will be done before wednesday.

so, last night was my last night at target. it's weird to think about it. when i went in, i was excited because who wouldn't be? but then i sort of just got into the routine of things and didn't really think about it at all--it was just like any other day, and tomorrow would be the same. but then we finished at 11, and i was leaving, and it was like "wow, if i don't want to, i never have to come back here again." i'm sure i will visit when i get back to see the few people that will still be working there, but wow.

can i say it again? wow!

which means now i need to finish packing up for my moving and for the trip itself. it's difficult; i have a few things out ready, but i know 100% that i will have to reduce at least a third of what i have and it's not even everything yet. yargh, i know i can do it, but packing is hard!

and i know as soon as the last box is gone and i'm left with an empty room and no car/phone, it's going to hit me what i'm about to do. and that's like a triple "wow".

it draws near!

today will be my last day at target, and in celebration i had almost 100 new friend requests on myspace from people i don't actually know.  (guys and bands.)  actually, the celebration will be saturday night when i hang out at my house and drink stuff.

i'm so glad that i am almost done, ever since i put my notice in we have had at least one crazy person in each day.  at least one.  and the closer it gets, the more there are.

aiee.

even though i'm nervous about this fish canning business, fish aren't jackasses, and they certainly can't talk back at you or yell at you for simply DOING YOUR FUCKING JOB.

bitter much?  me?

the plan, stan

we will be leaving iowa on the 14th to drive to seattle.  get into seattle/tacoma by the 17th, leave seattle for alaska on the 18th.

now, i just have to pack.  very lightly.  not something i am known for doing well.