Solstice!

This past week has been very busy. Things seemed to be better at work last week; less micro-managing and Rece was really nice to me, especially Sunday morning. I think that I’vegotten better too, making fewer mistakes and such.

Except for then, that afternoon, Rece and Darla called me in to tell me that Nicole, the other packer, was being switched to hospitality (the cleaning crew) and that a girl from hospo was being made the new lead packer. Now Lauren is the new lead packer. I have a strong feeling that I might have been switched instead if I had taken the alcohol-training course and could serve alcohol to guests at dinner. But I haven’t. So now it’s me and Lauren. She’s pretty nice. But very flirty with the boys and a little condescending. But overall, not bad. And Rece is very excited that Lauren wants to step in and be a leader and create new systems for doing things and such, so her improved move towards the lunch-packing scene has been pleasant. Unfortunately, the move has lowered morale among the staff though. But we’ll see how things go in the next few weeks.

On Monday Brian and I went out the company’s backcountry lodge for our weekend. You can’t access the lodge by land, so we had to have Trina take us over on the luggage shuttle boat. There were only four guests books, two of whom were Trina’s parents, so they put us up in a swanky guest cabin (with p

ropane heat!). It was a great weekend. The backcountry lodge is beautiful and since the staff

there is so small, it has become a very tight-knit group. They all eat lunch and dinner together every night and then

all of the dishes. Stephanie, the cook, makes amazing food. I ate so much—it was incredible. We

did lots of napping, reading, and playing Bananagrams. Also on Monday night we played Apples to Apples with the staff. On Tuesday after lunch we wen

t kayaking for an hour or two around Skilak Lake. The lake is gorgeous. Years ago there was a big fire that burnt down a lot of the surrounding forest. The charcoal ashes now filter the water as it comes into the lake (like a Brita filter). So the water is really clear and amazing to drink. Also, in some places the lake is between 800 and 1000 feet deep; you can’t see the bottom but in the deeper parts the water is bright teal.

That night it was solstice, so we went fishing to celebrate on the river. I borrowed Brian’s rod (not “fishing pole!")

fished for the first time. I landed two sockeye salmon! It turns out that I am very good at catching fish, but they are very strong and

I am not very good at pulling them in, so a lot of times they get away. I caught at least 10 that got away before I could pull them in. This drove the other fishermen on the lake crazy, because I was literally the only one to catch anything for an hour and a

half, but I couldn’t pull them in. Brian ended up catching two, and Andrew got one (you’re only allowed to catch three per person per night), so it was a pretty good trip. Each salmon gives you two fillets and each fillet gives you three serving of salmon. So one salmon feeds six people.

I made a deal with Minto last week to buy my mother’s birthday present,

I paid part cash and then I owed him part fish. We settled on three

fillets, so he got three of mine and I got one. But I hope to catch more, maybe tonight, and have lots of salmon for me and my friends and family come fall. I am thinking salmon parties. J