Seward ho!

It's been a while since my last update, mainly because it's been a while since I've had internet. Finals were a bit hectic, and then packing was even more hectic. The drive down was pretty relaxing except for the fact that I was enormously sleep deprived--in the three weeks before I left Fairbanks, I averaged about two to three hours of sleep a night except for the nights when I was so exhausted that I don't remember ever hearing my alarm. I was actually afraid that the alarm feature on my phone was broken somehow. So on the drive down, I found myself falling asleep at the wheel several times. I thought about pulling off the road and taking a nap because I refuse to die by car accident, but I was already four hours later getting started than I wanted, and besides, sleeping by a main highway doesn't seem very safe to me, even if you're in your car. So I rolled down my window, turned on cold air conditioning, turned the music to the most upbeat songs I had, and made sure to shift my eyes around a lot when I was starting to space out from staring at the road. I even slapped myself in the face a couple times. Not hard enough to bruise! Sheesh!

I made it to Seward at about 8:30 last night. I didn't recognize any of the evening desk attendants, but they seemed pretty friendly and competent. The girl, Jen, seems like the least ditzy front desk girl I've met so far. She checked me into my room and told me about my roommate, who will apparently be moving here in about two weeks. Supposedly she's 18 years old and seems pretty irresponsible so far. I guess time will tell.

I'm in the Barracks this year: one of only four girls living there, including Jen. This is my first time in the Barracks--the three summers I worked here before this, I was up in room 417, which is nice and private, but could also be referred to as "solitary confinement," since I live on the resort, but am kind of tucked away from all the other employees who live here. The Barracks is kind of dorm-style living with only one desk. My room is actually missing its desk because it was nicked a while ago for the computer in the common room. Jen said she'd get one moved in for me from 501, but it hasn't happened yet. Oh well, I don't mind sitting on the floor too much.

Rye was really nice and helped me carry my stuff in from the car yesterday. It was funny when I first saw him, because he tried to sound all gruff, saying he hadn't even noticed I was gone, but he had this big grin on his face that he was trying unsuccessfully to hide.

I have a new boss this year, Mike. Jen says that means that Rye isn't actually my boss anymore, although he has more authority because he's worked here longer. So he's just my coworker now. How weird! I bet he's pretty happy about it, since he often said he didn't like being in charge anyway.

Mike seems pretty cool so far. He made a few changes, many of which Beth apparently doesn't like. Mike seems a little terrified of Beth, which totally cracks me up!

We got new golf carts, which is awesome, because our last ones were PoS's. We also got new washers and dryers, which seem pretty similar to the old ones, except the washers take up less space, so there's tons more room to fold laundry now.

Other than that, not too much else seems new. I'm really enjoying the Barracks so far. Well, in most ways. My room is right beside the common room, so I'm probably going to be kept awake often by people getting drunk and watching violent movies. But the room is nice and spacious. The beds are small (twin extra long, or something), which I like (big beds take up valuable floor space, in my opinion), and I have four drawers under my bed, a nightstand, an armoire, and a fridge and microwave. Well, actually, the microwave is broken, so I need to talk to Toby about getting it replaced, probably. The fridge is a nice big one, though. Unfortunately, whoever was in this room last didn't clean it before leaving, so everything's a little nasty, and it smells pretty bad. If I were feeling a little less lazy, I would go get some chemicals and rags and clean everything up real well. Maybe tomorrow.

I'm going to go apply for evening jobs in a few days. My extended period of sleep deprivation got to me, and I've been feeling a little under the weather lately, so I want to take it easy for a few days. ...Hmmm, where did the expression "under the weather" come from? Weird!

Anyway, I thought I wasn't going to like having the communal bathroom down the hall, but so far, it's not half bad. There are two sinks, two toilets, and two showers. Normally, I feel really uncomfortable taking showers in public places, but when I went in to take a shower this morning, I noticed a few things that make it way better. First of all, when you enter the shower area of the bathroom, there's a sheet you can pull across the doorway so you don't have to display your naked body to everyone who happens to walk into the restroom while you're undressing. Also, since there are only four girls in the Barracks, and we all have different work schedules, we'll probably rarely be showering at the same time, so there's more privacy than I had expected, which is nice. Then I discovered ten massive lockers where we can store our soap and stuff so we don't have to lug that back and forth every time. In addition to that, the water pressure here is wonderful! The water is soft, but the pressure is so high that it's like having a massage at the same time as a shower. But it's not so high that it hurts, which is nice.

So yeah, I approve. It's also going to be nice only having to walk down the hall to do my laundry instead of having to lug it all the way across the resort. Plus, I can bother Rye whenever I feel like it.

Oh yeah, Rye's roommate is really big into Dungeons and Dragons! He said he was a DM for years, so we only need one or two more people and we can probably get a campaign going this summer! How awesome would that be???

Okay, I'm going to guess that this post is long enough to make up for having neglected you all for a week, yes? I hope so, because I'm going to go finish my book now. Type more later. Toodles!

This post has been brought to you by the word Menzoberranzan.