Up to Date

Sorry I realize that these blogs are extremely poorly designed and not very interesting to look at. I'd add pictures and do more but with the way our internet is here and having to share it with a whole dorm... I'm just making excuses.
I left a few things out from Sunday. One cool thing that happened at our second service, well, a couple things I suppose. First, I was just about ready to cancel it, we were coming up on 11:30 and no one had shown up yet. 5 minutes before, two people showed up. As we started our service, several others filed in and we were able to have a decent audience of 14 people. One of those people was a guy named Anthony that I met at work the week before. He is a quieter guy, I guess due to that I don't know much more than that. But he came up to me after the service and told me that he had been praying that he could find some more Christians in the area and that night he noticed our poster for our services. It was really encouraging to know that he is a Christian, he's working in the Pantry now so I still see him around. One of these days I hope we can sit and have a good talk, we'll see where God leads.
Monday. My second day off, and really I couldn't wait to get back to work so that I could start sleeping in again! We (Amber, Staci, Sarah, Amber's friend Heather, and I) piled into Amber's truck and drove up to Mammoth Springs to go hiking for the day. It was a long drive and the weather was rainy/drippy so we weren't too enthusiastic. Thank God, when we finally got to Mammoth and started hiking the weather cleared up and we had some pretty good hiking weather! I brought my big backpack, probably shouldn't have, but the exercise was appreciated. We hiked a loop first, about 5 miles. It reminded me a LOT of our backpacking trips, mainly because I started to get hungry about halfway through and by the end I was sore, tired, and I couldn't WAIT to get some food. We then went to Bill and Debbie Young's house where we met up with more ACMNP students who had done similar hiking. After eating most of us went off to hike Bunsen peak. About 4 miles round trip, but this one is pretty much switchbacks all the way up. As we got to the top some nasty storm clouds rolled in, and after sliding down a few snow fields (heck yes) we hiked the rest of the way through the rain back to the cars. So, we (Amber, Heather, and myself-Staci and Sarah skipped this second hike) are now in Amber's truck. A big, red Ford truck, and for the past week at least there had been lots of laughter about how tiny Amber drove such a big truck. Well, about 100 feet from the Young's house, this lady backs up her new Subaru and hits us as we rolled past. Surprisingly, the Subaru was fine, just some bumper damage, and I think the tailight was damaged. (Oh yeah, no one was hurt) The truck's back right wheel well was dented in pretty good and if we had hit even a slight bump or probably less, it probably would have shredded the tire. So, we got "stranded" at the Youngs for the night. They ordered pizza and we watched UP- such a good movie, I'm so glad I finally got to watch it!. The next morning, David, a friend of the Youngs, drove us back to Old Faithful as some of us had to work. Yup, we had to get up around 7:30 so I still didn't get a chance to sleep in.
Tuesday, I have to think now. Oh yes! This was my first day working Storekeep all by myself. Chris has Tuesdays and Wednesdays off so I work storekeep then. All went well for the most part... I'll get to that. I love that job though. I realized one day while working that one reason I love it so much is that it is at times like a big game of Rush Hour. The game where you have to move the trucks and cars to get the red car out... I love that game. I get to do roughly the same thing except with boxes of food. I get to stuff them onto shelves and hope that people can get to them when they need them, in addition to labelling and rotating so that we can keep "fresh" food coming out. So yeah, I was able check off our order that came in, making sure that we got everything. Then I put it all away, then walked around with my clipboard and made the next shopping list. I thought all went just fine... it sure seemed like it.
Wednesday: I get to work, again all by myself. I didn't really have much to do, waiting for the supply truck to show up. Frank gave me a few things, and I reorganized a bunch of shelves. When I get back from my dinner break, Jenn our head chef, finds me and tells me that my order didn't go through... there would be no truck. The warehouse manager had aparently tried calling her asking her what was up, we order SOMETHING everyday from them so they kinda figured but didn't get any further than that. I had sent the order to the wrong location, wrong numbers into the computer. Thankfully, it was during a lull, not a whole lot of food was needed and we were able to get by with what we had. So, added more items to the list and sent it properly.
Thursday. My first day starting my THIRD position here. I'm now also a cook. My training so far has consisted of following people around and doing whatever they tell me. I trimmed fat off of about 30 pounds of chicken breasts. One guy walking past, I'm assuming, jokingly asked if I was having fun yet. I thought about it... yeah actually, I am! Spending 2 hours with a large super sharp knife cutting stuff up, why wouldn't I enjoy it??? I think I might enjoy the storekeep job more, but switching between the two is going to be great. So Thursday, I did a little food prep, nothing huge. Between trimming chicken and putting frozen lasagnas and pizzas onto trays, they pulled me out and had me help poor Chris with putting away a huge order(ooops). Again, nothin that I didn't enjoy.
Friday. For some reason, I thought today was Saturday. Again, I was working the cooks position. A few new things added to my cooking experience, someone finally showed me how the steamers work so I'm capable of "cooking" things now. In addition, they gave me a meat thermometer. Everything we cook is considered ready when it hits about 160-165 degrees Farenheit. I shadow another cook and in the process they realize that I haven't taken knife and sharps safety training yet... ooops. So they wouldn't let me trim more chicken :(
Instead, when I got back from dinner they told me that Chris called in sick. So I got to clock in as storekeeper and did my job entirely correct this time. Jenn kept thanking me and asking if I was frustrated with the job yet or if I wanted to go home and I could honestly tell her no. I got off of work around 6 and enjoyed the rest of my evening. I went to the General Store and talked with Vince and Kristi for a bit. I really like them both, they're very cool people. After that, I called Koobmong and talked to him for about an hour... yep, I did it. It was good to catch up, it was well worth it :)
Tomorrow, I don't know if Chris will be back or not... I secretly hope not, but on the "down-side" I get to cook! I'm still waiting on my new uniforms, I don't know where or when I'll get them. I feel like I could almost run a restaurant now with all the positions I've held so far hahaha. Gonna keep on dreaming.
One last segment. I love my roommates. They're both just awesome. Nam works in the gift shop of the Old Faithful Lodge where I work. His English is very good, he sometimes has to translate for Nyah which I'm often very thankful for. A few days ago I went to lunch with Nyah and met up with his... our... other friends there. Nung, Hiep, and Tung. Tung and Hiep work in the EDR with Nyah and Nung works in the dish pit in the OFL Cafeteria where I work. Nung is the only girl in the group, she's very sweet and her English is pretty good as well. They're all very funny and great to hang out with. Hiep's English isn't that great, I'm not sure he's entirely interested in improving it either, he seems to be a quiet, loner type. I still love seeing them at the EDR though. OH! As we were eating lunch that day, I asked them what their favorite Thai food was. Pho. I'm not sure who was more excited. Me, because I know what Pho is and REALLY enjoy it... or them because I knew what Pho was and really enjoyed it!
Both my roommates want to watch the World Cup. Since Rod and Linda offered, I might try and see if I can bring my roommates to watch a few games, I'm pretty sure they (everyone) would love it.
So that just about finishes it. Sunday I'm planning another trip to Bozeman. Sarah and Staci will be with me at least, I might have Nyah or Nam with me as well. Otherwise, payday hit and boy is it nice to have some cash on hand. Monday I'm planning on hiking Fairy Falls and beyond making a full day trip. Hopefully we'll have good weather, I heard snow showers and rain at least the next couple days :(
Thanks for sticking it through!