Fun With The Crew

So I am one of the older ones on my crew. Most of the members are 18 or 19, so I feel just a little old. :) But we all have a lot of fun together, like yesterday we went on a great little trip to the Valdez Glacier, a fish hatchery, Bridal Vail Falls, and Horsetail Falls.

We had a great time and I just thought I would put a few pictures on here so you can see the crew.

This is Jacob and Caleb

This is Ashton and Colton.

This is Garth and Birnlee. Brinlee is trying to be all ganster.

This is the Valdez Glacier (I thought that there should be more ice).

This is Catherine and Stephen Blakeslee. Aren't they a cute couple? Just kidding they are brother and sister.

This is some of the crew: Mark, Shelby, Me, Eric, Ashton, Brinlee, Garth, George, Catherine, Stephen, Camille, and Lily is kneeling in front.

Valdez Alaska

So I am have been in Alaska for a few weeks and I just have to say that I don't know that I have ever been anywhere this beautiful! Lets start at the beginning...

The flights here were awesome I met some great people and the flight from Anchorage to Valdez was the most beautiful flight that I have ever been on! Then I got to Peter Pan Sea Roods I had a little of a breakdown because I was the only white person around. Now I do not say that to be racist because I am not, but when I got my room key and grabbed my bags I had to walk down the street and on every side there were people smoking and staring at me. It was very stressful. I called home and stressed out and cried a lot but by the next morning I was doing better. After I went for a walk around the harbor I was doing SO much better. I was just so so amazed at how much better I felt.

This is Peter Pan Sea Foods where I work.

This is my dorm. The top floor anyway.

I started training at work a couple of days later and I was way excited to just be doing something. This is how work goes...

There are cans that come off the canlines and we "rake" the cans into these metal carts called bussies. Now bussies are about 4 feet tall and when they are totally full of cans they weigh around 1600 pounds. There are 8 layers in a bussy of "tall" cans (tall cans are 14.75 ounces) and there are 17 layers of "half pound" cans in a bussy (half pound cans are 7 ounces). So anyway we rake the cans into these bussies and then the bussies are wheeled in to the the retorts. Retorts are large tubes that cook the cans with steam. Ten bussies can fit in a retort and we have 7 retorts, well number 7 only holds 8 bussies, so we can be cooking 68 bussies of cans at a time. Go ahead do the math I dare you!!

After the cans are cooked you have to remove them from the retorts and take them to the cooling room. So you go into the hot retorts and then go into the cooling room where it is open to the outside and has more than a dozen fans blasting cool air 24/7. Most of the time this is a relief but I think that is how I got my cold.

Next the cans are taken from the cooling room to the pallet area. They are put on a conveyor belt and then a magnet comes down picks them up and takes them

to a pallet. In the pallet area there are several jobs, they are: strap; you pull a strap to take the cans from the bussy to the conveyor belt, strap assistant; you are on the other side of the strap making sure cans don't fall, quality assurance; you watch for wet, dented, or dirty cans, two void positions; you make sure there are no voids before the magnet picks up the section of cans, magnet; you put the pallet down and make sure that all the cans are on the pallet and you also place a layer of cardboard between each layer of cans (there are are 8 layers or cans on a pallet with 169 cans per layer), controls; you control the magnet and you help with banding, banding; you use plastic strips to hold the layers on the pallet, and finally Saran wrap where you control the machine that wraps the pallet and put on the labels for the pallet. The pallet is then taken away on a fork lift and placed in a metal containers for transport.

Yes I know I just described in way too much detail all that I can possibly do here but well I actually have the time right now so why not.

This is the small boat harbor down the street and around the corner from my dorm.

This is a view from around Valdez. I just think that it is so beautiful here.

This is the bear that I saw a few days after I got here. Isn't he (or she) the cutest! I wasn't more that 7 or 8 feet away from him (or her).

My New Adventure!

I have been really bad about blogging! I know there are a so many of you out there that are really interested in the blog (ha ha ha). Anyway sarcasm aside, I am headed off for a new adventure this week. On Saturday the 25th of June I am headed to Alaska to live for the next couple of months. What am I doing there you may ask, well I am going to work in a fish cannery. Yes some of you who know me may think that I am joking, but I am not! I am actually going to do this and I am so very excited.





I have felt for months that I am not where I am supposed to be in my life. I feel like I am stagnant. I am ready for a change! This job opportunity just fell in my lap, and well as much as I thought there was no way I could move to Alaska, I know that it will be wonderful for me. I am going to try and keep my blog updated from up there and let you all know what I am doing!

So I hope that you are all ready for an adventure!

What am I looking For?

For some reason I feel a lot like Cindy Lou Who when she says "Where are you Christmas? Why can't I find you?" This year I have had the hardest time getting into Christmas. It really isn't just Christmas I am having a hard time with, I can't seem to get into anything. I don't want to go to Church, I don't want to spend time with my family, I can't decide what I want to do with my life and I never really want to even leave my house.

I seem to be lost. Not that I know how to find what it is I seem to be looking for. I am not even sure that I am looking for anything. I know this post sounds crazy but I figure that very few people if anyone will even read it. I am just using it as my sounding board. Input is welcome.

What Next?

I have now moved back into my parents home which in a way makes me feel really lame because I have finished school and have no where else to go much less any money to go anywhere else.

Anyway reality hit yesterday at around this time when I went to check my bank accounts. I do not want to get into the whole story but I will say that there was crying on my part(not surprising) laughing on my fathers part (also not surprising) and some good old fashioned advice on my mothers part (definitely not surprising). I am now seeking immediate employment.

I wanted to have some time off but as we all know, well at least the two of you that actually read my blog know, God has different plans. Believe me we have had a little chat about this situation, and he has yet to answer me. I am trying to be positive about this but I am finding very little about the situation to be positive about. I would really like to crawl in a Hole and not come out for a year or two. Option two of course is my old stand by of finding a one foot in the grave outrageously rich man to marry but those prospects are looking even thinner than me finding a poor young man to marry. I promise both prospects are only in the .000000001 of happening.

Well I have poured my frustrations into this blog as usual and have found that I only feel bad for having actually written them out. Oh Well.

Why Not?

I am sitting here enjoying my relaxation time. It is not often that I get such time lately. My student teaching is winding down, and so is my energy. I have loved student teaching more than I thought I would, but it has been such a great deal of work that I did not anticipate. I am excited to move home and spend the Holidays with my family. My little sister is just thrilled to have me come home! She is looking up all sorts of projects for us to do. It will also be nice to have a break. I do not know what I will do when I get home, but I guess that will all come together later.

Update

Well, I must have missed September becuase I am sure that it cannot almost be the end of October!! Time has just flown. I have been insanely busy! I haven't really even stopped to breath. I leave for school by 6:00 most mornings and don't get home until after 7:00 most nights. I have absolutely no life (so all my plans of coming to the big city and actually finding someone to date have not worked out. Not that I expected them to...) I haven't done anything with anyone other than my family in over a month. Almost 2 months! That is all my own fault and I know it but when I don't get home until later, I have no energy or patience for doing anything or being around anyone.

I have to say that I love teaching a lot more than I expected to, but that I am still not sure if I am going to end up as a teacher. I have too many thoughts to put into words on the subject.

Just a small rant about the city... IT SMELLS!!!!! I hate all of the nasty, horrible, disgusting smells that you are all of the sudden accosted with while driving down the street. I have gagged several times! IT IS TOO LOUD!!!! Right at this moment I can hear sirens, I hate all the noise!! I need more quiet! LASTLY... My bedroom walls are not insulated enough. I love my roommates but I hate hearing every conversation they have at1:00 in the morning when I am trying to sleep. It is really starting to annoy.

Other than having a headache and feeling completely exhausted, I have nothing new to report.

P.S. Even though this post sounds just a bit annoyed and angry, I am doing quite well!!!