Is it 2:30 am or pm?

Hmm...it's hard to tell when the sun is always shining. The answer is it is 2:30 am and I'm still up. I'm actually pretty tired, but the internet has a way of keeping you awake far too long. Anyway...things are still going well up here in Alaska. My job is going good, but I wish they wouldn't schedule so many servers. I guess the manager thought we were under-staffed the last two weeks, because this week he has scheduled five servers every day instead of four. We could definitely handle the small restaurant divided into just four sections. This week a smaller section has meant less tips for me. :( But that's okay. I'll get over it. We continue to get customers from all kinds of places though, which is really fun. Two days ago we had customers speaking in a language I didn't recognize, so I asked them where they were from. They're from Israel and they were speaking Hebrew! How cool is that!? It's interesting up here because the Latino population is very, very small. It's so different from southern Idaho in that respect. The other day I had a table of middle-aged ladies speaking Spanish, which is cool because it's the first time I've heard anyone speak Spanish since I've been up here! They told me they were from Spain and I conceded to them that I spoke a bit of Spanish myself. :) I tried to converse with them in Spanish as much as I could, and they told me I spoke muy bien! I proudly asked them if their comida was delicioso, and asked, "quieres mas vino o agua" (do you want more wine or water?) among other things. Hehe...it was awesome. Anyway, I digress. Now, on to what I've been doing with my time off....mostly I've been watching lots of TV and rented movies, taking Luke on walks, and of course mindlessly surfing the net. We've actually rented some pretty good movies lately, including Juno (Ben hadn't seen it yet), The Machinist, True Romance, The Darjeeling Limited, and Shoot Em Up. Out of all of these, my favorite was True Romance. How is it that I had never heard of this movie until I became a bordlerline obsessive Patricia Arquette fan? The movie is brilliant. I loved every minute of it. It's part love story, part comedy, part action/adventure. It was an all-around great film and a new favorite of mine. The movie has a great cast, too, including Dennis Hopper, Christopher Walken, Patricia Arquette, Christian Slater, the Gandolfini guy from the Soprano's (first name James?), and Brad Pitt has a small part as the stoner sidekick. Oh, and Bronson Pinchot (aka Balcy from Perfect Strangers) is also in it. Anyway, for those of you who haven't seen it and enjoy Quentin Tarantino (he wrote this movie, but didn't direct it), I highly recommend it. Keep in mind though that it is very violent and contains lots of profanity. The Machinist was also a fantastic movie--highly recommended. How about that Christian Bale? It's unbelievable how thin he got for that role. Sooo unhealthy, but the man is definitely dedicated to his craft. I'm a huge fan of his! Well, this post is getting long so I better end it now and head to bed. I miss you, Idaho(ans)!

Life in Fairbanks

My internet is finally working up here! Okay, so I have been in Alaska for two weeks now and so far I'm really enjoying it. It's sunny all the time here, save for a couple of hours of darkness (although it never gets completely dark), and I love it. Our windows are covered so it's always pretty dark inside when we don't turn on the lights. This makes it easy to fall asleep at night, but it's still quite easy to lose track of time because it always looks the same. On my second day in town I was interviewed for a waitressing job at a nice hotel called Wedgewood Resort and I got the job! I work the evening shift and I like it a lot. It's fun because we get tourists from all over the world. I have served lots of European and Australian customers, as well as some Indian and Japanese people as well. I think there have been more British and Australian customers than anyone else. It's so cool! I love their accents and their questions. I have had customers ask me what the different denominations in U.S. coins were worth and today I had a British lady ask me what a hoagie was. Most of the people we get are in great spirits because they are all on vacation. We also get a lot of people from what Alaskans commonly refer to as "the lower 48." I had a chance to chat with some people from Ohio who were shocked to hear that it gets down to -50 degrees in Fairbanks in the winter and that people need to plug in their cars or they won't start. They were especially surprised (and I was as well), to learn that there are plug-ins at most stores in the area so that when it's really cold, people can "charge" their cars while they shop! Ben and I live about 10 minutes outside of town. We live in between Fairbanks and North Pole, but our address is in North Pole. Fairbanks has about 35,000 people so it's a pretty small city. It has a Wal-Mart, a Sam's Club, a movie theater, a bowling alley, and lots of restaurants. North Pole is even smaller than Fairbanks; it's more of a town than a city. I don't know it's population, but its size reminds me of Middleton. North Pole is pretty cool because all the streetlights in the town look like giant candy canes and the streets have names like "Santa Clause Lane." There are also Christmas decorations that line the streets year-round. I wonder if I'll ever run in to Santa or Mrs. Clause at the grocery store. :) Speaking of the grocery store, food is pretty spendy up here. Meat isn't too bad compared to Idaho prices, but fresh produce is outrageous. Most fruits and veggies are over $4.00/lb! Milk is around $4.00/gallon too. And at the local McDonald's, the $1 menu is $1.50. All fast-food and sit-down restaurants have higher prices than what I'm used to. Gas here is expensive too. I got gas at the Tesoro station the other day for $4.14 a gallon. So, the cost of living here is fairly high. But...the weather here is great! The last couple of days it has been in the high 60s and the hottest it's gotten is about 72 degrees. It has rained twice since I've been here. It's a little bit humid here, but not bad. Overall, it has been a fun adventure so far and I'm looking forward to spending the summer up here! If anyone has questions about Fairbanks, please ask me! :)

Happy belated birthday to...me!

Yesterday was my 24th birthday and it was so much fun! The first thing I did was check my email (just like I do at the beginning of every day!) I found some nice birthday wishes from friends and family there, as well as some companies who gave me free coupons for my birthday! I was running a little bit late and decided to skip my music class. I felt guilty because I never miss school, but it was my birthday so that made it okay in my mind. Plus, I needed to do my math homework, so I worked on it when I was supposed to be in music class. I then went out to Red Robin with Ginny. I chose the restaurant because I had a free birthday coupon for the burger of my choice! I chose a delicious $9 burger! What a deal! After Red Robin, we headed over to Edwards to see a matinee movie. We chose "Leatherheads" starring George Clooney and Renee Zellweger. It was okay, the characters were amusing, but the jokes were corny and it was overall pretty forgettable. I did love John Krasinski in it though, the guy from The Office. Anywho, after the movie, I had to head to my math class which lasted two hours. It was fun, we got into a new unit learning about probability and odds. After math I went home and worked on criminal justice homework for about an hour and a half. Then I went to Hollywood Video and got a free movie rental for my birthday! I rented "Waiting for Guffman" and brought it to Kuna with me. In Kuna, I met up with Ginny again to do some karaoke. That's when she gave me my gift, she got me season 1 of Perfect Strangers on DVD! She also got me a feather boa, a sash and a tiara which both read "Birthday Girl," and play jewelry, including clip-on "diamond" earrings and a bunch of rings. Oh yeah, and I also got a princess wand. She snapped a few photos of me in my whole birthday-princess getup. It was a lot of fun, albeit I don't particularly enjoy being made a spectacle. I was a good sport though. :) Ginny's best friend Ben also got me a gift which was a very nice surprise seeing as I don't even know the guy. (I met him briefly once before.) He gave me an array of items, including a night shirt he got for free (it advertises some kind of medicine I believe), a Horton Hears a Who coloring book & crayons, some candy, and a little pot to grow my own oregano in. Pretty cool, huh!? The waitress offered me a free birthday shot of my choice, and anyone who knows me knows that I don't turn down anything that is free. I don't normally drink, so I had no idea what kind of shot to choose. Ginny's pal Ben blurted out that I should try a "blow job," and the waitress agreed. She came over with two blow job shots, one for her and one for me. She then instructed me on how to drink it: grip around the shot glass with your mouth, NO hands! She was nice and went first on my request, then I took my shot. Ginny got it on video on her camera! I sang one song at karaoke, I don't enjoy going solo so Ginny and I did a duet of Madonna's "Vogue." I then hurried off to Melissa's house to play Apples to Apples with Melissa, Meagan, and Cassidi. Finally Ginny & Ben showed up from karaoke, and we all watched the movie "Waiting for Guffman." It was hilarious!! For those of you who haven't seen it, run out and rent it right away! We all shared some good laughs, but I stayed up REALLY late! The movie ended around 2 am, and I ended up getting home & to bed close to 3. Needless to say, I'm really tired today, but I had a great birthday and a BIG thank you to my friends and family who made the day extra special for me! I love you guys!

My spring break getaway

Last week was spring break for me and it was so nice to not worry about school for a week! I'm taking 19 credits right now, so I definitely needed the break. First off, I flew to Las Vegas where my husband had been staying temporarily for work. (Thanks so much to my mother-in-law who bought me the plane ticket as an early birthday present! She's the best!) It was great to see my hubby, but I really don't like Las Vegas at all. I hate gambling, drinking, and sleazy burlesque show advertisements on billboards. I also hate the high level of crime in the city. We were staying downtown in a scary neighborhood and we had our driver's side window in our truck shattered and our radio stolen! Not nice! Luckily it only cost $80 to get a new window put in. Still no radio though! The only thing we did in Vegas was see "Drillbit Taylor" (it was pretty funny, but also hard to watch, it had way too much bullying!) The fun thing we decided to do was drive to the Grand Canyon. It was absolutely majestic! For those of you who haven't been there, you should definitely go someday. You can't even comprehend how massive and unbelievably awe-inspiring it is! Lots of ourdoorsy types enjoy hiking down into the canyon and camping there. We hope to be able to do this someday when we have more than a few hours to spend there. However, we did have the time to hike about halfway down into the canyon on one of its many trails. The trail was unbeilavable, it was not too wide and some parts had slick ice patches and there is no hand rail or anything, it seemed incredibly dangerous! I admit, it was a little scary. While traverssing the canyon, I imagined how many people had lost their lives there over the years. Not a very pleasant thought, huh?
Overall, we had an incredible time and now I'm having a bit of trouble getting back into the swing of things. :)

Check out my Slide Show!

Hello bloggers!

I'm starting a blog! I will be moving from Idaho to Alaska soon, so I want all my family and friends here in Idaho to be updated on my life via the great worldwide web. : )

I hope to keep this updated fairly regularly, but things might be a little slow the next couple of months before going to Alaska. The next 2 months will be super busy, lots of homework and tests to study for & lots of packing to do! Hopefully all the hard work pays off!