The Whole Wide World

Today is Monday. So it is my Thursday. I struggled to get out of bed this morning. Sometimes that happens. It’s like my bed exudes its most comfiest feels just after the alarm goes off. So rather than jump out of bed post alarm, I hit the snooze button about ten times. I don’t really do that in normal life. Certainly not ten times and I am not exaggerating that number either. Pretty sure that it is to do with the lack of sun. It doesn’t happen every morning, but when it does the pull to burrow down into my mattress is strong. Despite the excessive snooze button tapping, I still made it to the gym before work, which is what counts. I wouldn’t have beat myself up if I hadn’t made it, but there would have been a cloud hanging over me all day and I try to avoid those. It’s dark enough here without any self made clouds. 

It was a good thing I made it to gym, too, as there was cake and ice cream today. We have a soft serve machine in the galley, so there is typically always vanilla soft serve available. There is actually a second machine, dubbed flavor boi which is also soft serve, but the galley team turn that into a special weekly flavor, hence the name. Last week it was bananas foster. But I don’t waste calories on soft serve.

Today there was real ice cream, boysenberry swirled into vanilla. For some reason it tasted just like England to me. I have yet to find out where the ice cream came from, that is not a normal occurrence. It was a birthday treat for one of the cooks and being a former stewie and still working for the same contractor, I was able to finagle some cake and ice cream. The cake, which I have been saving for this evening, was carrot cake and it looks insanely delicious. Everyone was raving about it, and I mean raving. Our baker is super talented. Trouble. She bakes up the most delicious baked goods which are put out at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every.Single.Day.

Being a special treat for a birthday, the cake and ice cream were the third dessert for today. Told ya it’s trouble. My brain does the best mental gymnastics, too. Since I do not drink, I rationalize partaking in every dessert.  Everyone else gets those extra sugar calories with their White Claws and wine, so why shouldn’t I indulge in all the dessert offerings? I also prefer to take the dessert that is out at dinnertime back to my room for later when my dinner has settled and I can enjoy it properly. Builds the anticipation up and gives me something to look forward to. Many here are aware of my bedtime dessert shenanigans. I am not shy about announcing that I’ll be taking this cake to bed. Don’t worry Mom, I get up and brush my teeth afterwards. 

On the topic of food, there is a young ‘un here named, Jace. Jace, is on day twelve of his roller derby challenge. The roller derby is what you find the hot dogs spinning around on in a 7-11. The galley has one of those and it is stocked with hotdogs, corndogs and egg rolls at meal times. Jace is breaking someone elses record of only eating items off of the roller derby. He has two more days to go to. That will mark two weeks of surviving off of garbagio food and powdered milk, the only exception to his calorie intake.

It is painful to watch him eat. Yesterday, the only thing he ate was eight plain hotdogs. The galley was out of buns for the week, so he simply ate, eight plain hotdogs. No snacks or other food allowed, just the roller derby offerings. At dinner tonight, I asked him how he was feeling and he admitted to throwing up before he went to bed last night. He is also missing getting to eat freshies, which won’t be around much longer. Crazy. Even crazier, is that the person whose record he is about to beat is returning to the ice later this year, so this insanity will most certainly continue. Yuck. 

After dinner, I went to yoga, which is a regular Monday night occurrence. The class is led by a bad ass chica who goes by the nickname, Pepper. Funnily enough, not too long after I got down here my Mom reached out and asked if I knew a gal named Pepper. Turns out one of my Mom’s friends who is a big deal in the cycling world in Alaska (and elsewhere) knows Pepper (who bounces between here and the oil fields in Alaska) and when she told him I was in Antarctica he told her to ask me if I knew a Pepper. Sure do and she is an awesome human. Her weekly yoga class is at the top of my favorite winter things list. I look forward to it every Monday. And I love those reminders of how small our big little world is.

After yoga, I scooted on over to Gallagher’s for open mic night, which I’d also been looking forward to. I love an open mic night, both here and back in the non frozen world. I do not have any musical talents, but I admire those who do big time. For me, there is a palpable energy in the atmosphere of people sharing their talents at an open mic session. It really does fill my cup up. This was the first one of the season and it was nice to see some of the talent we have here on station.

And now, it’s time for bed and that, as my mama would say <insert British accent> naughty looking cake and an episode of Ted Lasso. Toodles.