Wow. What a strange, twisting and winding road this past summer has been. I've never cared much for the number 11 and now I kind of know why but also don't dislike it as much now. Blargh. I don't even know where to start. I got kicked out of the house by my parents after an incredibly stuipd argument over lipstick. Mom got furious that I'd spent "too" much money on lipstick (I had waited to pay off my debts and that was my reward- it was less than $20 and half of it was shipping costs. Do live in ALASKA). I sent her a nasty text saying she shouldn't be digging through my mail and how I wouldn't even be living with her if she hadn't insisted on me moving with them. She got all pissy and Dad got all pissy and they were like, "Out of here by May!" And thus began nearly two months of the most miserable weeks of my life. My parents ignored me and I pretty much just went to work, came straight back home (my brother needed his car), and went to my room and slept. I was do depressed and angry. My mom even hid the stupid lipstick and then finally dropped it off on my bed one day.
And then I applied at all sorts of places; Yosemite, Yellowstone, Cedar Point, and a couple other places. Those were the three that all got back in touch with me. I really wanted to work at Cedar Point because my best friend lives in Ohio and I could have seen her. I was so excited, but me and the interview lady kept missing each other because there is so much distance between Ohio and Alaska so obviously we had a bit of a time gap to deal with. Yosemite never called for their phone interview and it sent me to voicemail when I called. Yellowstone sent a letter saying I'd been hired as server.
I was sooooo stoked! I'd heard the servers made a ton of money especially in a touristy place like that and I was still bussing tables at the time and cleaning a house on the side. So, I accepted right away. My parents and I eventually made up before I left. I told them I'd be gone soon as my start date for Yellowstone was April 30th. I remember at the airport, my dad, youngest sister, and brother saw me off. Dad looked at me and wished me luck.
My flight out of Seattle got cancelled and sometimes I wonder if that's the best or worst thing that ever happened to me. So I wound up being three days late to Yellowstone. It put me behind in training and made me miss the introductions of the 39 other servers. Yet I had to stand up and say crap about myself in front of all of them. I was so nervous, I had my eyes trained on Kathy and Susan, two older sweet ladies the whole time and was incredibly thankful for Linzi beside me. I really thought I was gonna puke having to stand up and be the only person to introduce myself that day. It wouldn't have been so bad had I'd done it with everyone else but being singled out like that. It was horrifying.
Obviously, I made it to Yellowstone. My roommate, Kimberlyn was amazing!! We'd arrived the same day and ridden the bus together but didn't meet until we were assigned the same room. She was one of the sweetest people ever and still is. She was a busser, we had similar schedules but she was only my busser one time. It was hard, though- the work schedule was pretty rough and you were lucky if you got six straight hours of sleep. Some nights you'd be there until 11:30 and have to be up at 5:30 the next morning. They had split shifts. It was insane. I never understood why they didn't just schedule a group of people for breakfast/lunch shifts for a week or two and another group for lunch/dinners and then swap them off every week or two. I'm sure some would argue that certain dinners get more, but if you're getting all dinner shifts one week-- it would have made more sense to me.
I went on a lot of hikes, not as many as I wanted to and not as many as I did the first time I worked there five years ago. But it was still fun; I saw a ton of tourist attractions, drank a lot (for me, haha). Though, the drinking only came with a lot of fun pushing from my roomie who got tired of seeing me read all the time, which is mostly what I do, after all. She kept asking and asking as did her friend, who would come over and ask me to eat with him and would just hang out. I was never really sure what to do about him, but he was a cool dude. Eventually, he got fired.
There was a server there that I gave my virginity to, but that will be a separate post.
I met such fun people there. My youngest sister came and visited for a few days and it was such a blast- we went whitewater rafting, horseback riding, I took her to all the geyser basins courtesy a friend and we also hung out around the Firehole Falls, it was great, absolutely loved it. Even though I spent a lot of money. And you DID make decent money as a server, no doubt about that. But the first month, the month of May was so slow you lost money, so I would recommend not going until June personally.
And then I got a second roommate, Robin, who was so nice. She was no-nonsense and super nice and just an amazing person. She could make some of the best sweet tea. We watched her favorite movie, Stardust, but never got to finish it. She was so nice, she would hang out with me at the pub and she would hang out with the Christian Crusaders. Sometimes I wish she AND the CCs would have gotten there much earlier. But oh well, it is what it is, I guess.
I went whitewater rafting a total of twice. I met some of the most awesome people in the world. I hiked, horseback riding, I lost around 10 pounds. Would still like to lost 15 more. I saw Old Faithful go off a billion times. When my sister was over I even saw it erupt with a rainbow in the sky next to it. It was soooo amazing, the best eruption ever. I loved watching the geyers. Me and my sister saw Daisy explode over the river as well. It was great. We had ice cream and shopped and it was just a fantastic time for most of the summer. I even started going with Robin to the gym to workout.
Overall, there was more good than bad. But I was stressed out a lot throughout the summer and that put a damper on things and overshadowed all the good. Will write more tomorrow.....
No comments:
Post a Comment