Gas Station Friends

 I stop by the gas station semi-regularly to pick up a donut on my way to school or work. You wouldn't think gas station donuts would be particularly good, but this gas station sells donuts from a local donut shop that is glorious. We don't have a Krispy Kreme in Fairbanks. There's one in Anchorage, but of course, that's several hours away, and certainly not worth going for just a donut. I've actually never been to the Krispy Kreme in Anchorage. The few times I've been to Anchorage, the Krispy Kreme had a line out the door and down the street. I imagine the line doesn't get quite as long in the winter time, but I avoid the trip to Anchorage in the winter, if I can. Come to think of it, I think I've only been to Anchorage twice in the last five years.

Anyway. Where was I going with this? Oh, right. So the gas station donuts are great and all, but I'm well aware that donuts have a ton of sugar and saturated fats and really aren't that good for me. But the people at the gas station are super friendly and I just enjoy stopping by a little place often enough to be a "regular." This summer, when I was passing through at 6:30 a.m., I would get there before the donuts had even been put out yet, and they would pull the donut fresh from the box for me. One day they were training a new girl, and when I walked in, the lady training her made sure she knew to pull out a Bismarck when she sees me. Another employee, who I privately call Nerdfriend, looks and takes like a quintessential gaming nerd, and he often recommends new energy drinks or snacks I might like to try.

The first guy who started recognizing me as a "regular" is a guy I just call Gas Station Guy. I think Gas Station Guy is the manager. Assistant manager, maybe? Something like that. I know his real name, but I always privately just call him Gas Station Guy. He's a large, friendly dude who swaps Dad jokes with me whenever I go in there. Most recently, he told me the following joke:

Three dinosaurs were running through the jungle when they saw a bacon tree. The first dinosaur ran straight up to it, and then the bacon tree jumped on him and ate him. The second dinosaur turned to the third and said, "That's no bacon tree! That's a hambush!"

Nyuk nyuk.

Look Who's Back

 Well... I guess it's time to write again.

It's fall in Alaska, and everyone is finishing up their construction projects. The other day, in my normally-ten-minute drive to work, I went through four different construction zones. That's fun. The potholes on the dirt road I live on are not appreciated by my car's suspension. No one's going to bother fixing it, though, since once it snows, it won't matter until spring, and then spring will completely destroy the road anyway. 

There's some kind of blight or bug or something that's been attacking the trees around town, meaning that instead of the leaves turning brilliant yellow or red, a lot of them are just going straight to brown. It's sad, since the pretty fall colors are a big part of what makes this season so great. I enjoy fall more than I used to. Maybe because the season is so short. 

Two young moose were hanging out in my yard chomping on the willows. They were definitely young enough that they should have been with their mama, but she was nowhere in sight. On the one hand, it's cool being able to watch young moose without the fear of their mom getting mad and murdering everyone, but on the other, it's a little sad because it's hunting season, and that seems a likely reason she's not with them.

A few important updates since I last wrote: I divorced Boy several years ago, and he kept the dogs. Since then, I acquired a cat, Monkey, a different and better Boy, and a dog, Tut.

I'm also in my last year of getting a degree in engineering, and have an internship at an awesome company, so that's cool. And I'm working on recovering from an ankle sprain that happened mid-February. They may have to do surgery to stitch a tendon back together. More info on that soon. I think that should be enough to catch up to make sense of things I reference in future posts.

Historically, writing has been kind of therapeutic for me, so I'm going to try to start writing regularly again. We'll see if I can stick with it.