The Whole Wide World

My bestie, Francesca, asked me about food earlier today and said I should share the conversation with whoever is reading this (hi Mom). What she found interesting is that per the Antarctic Treaty, biologically viable organisms in food, personal care products, and supplements are all prohibited for importation and use in Antarctica. This includes “SCOBY” (the symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast used to make yogurt and kombucha), probiotics, spirulina, and similar biologically active products. So while we do have yogurt here, it’s made on site and isn’t quite what you would get back in the non frozen world, but it is tasty!

The civil twilight combined with another clear afternoon gave a sweet view of the mountains and also the sea ice today. It’s all clouded over now, but the view was awesome while it lasted. Plus, the moon is HUGE right now. Super moon. Number one sky orb. I’d never heard that term before, but it’s used often down here. This period of civil twilight is called the Blue Hour. It fits, the roughly two hours of twilight cast a blue hue over everything. Much like the golden hour when the sun sets. It’s exciting when new things like this come along. Reminds me of where I am and how I’ve spent the past almost year and what a special experience I am having. It is easy to lose sight of that in the daily grind, so I am grateful for the reminder today.

Today is also day two in the books of gerbil gym time, along with day two of the Center series of Yoga with Adriene. After I closed the store this evening I went to the galley for our own version of Family Feud. Our carpenters and electricians built a podium complete with buzzers and lights and a couple of community members came up with a Family Feud game show which was broadcast on the big screen in the galley. I was on the Crazy Cat Lady team. We all wore shirts with cats on them and our name tags donned our names, but with a meow in it. I was MeowMarie. My friend Marty loaned me a shirt-he packed all the crazy clothes. It had three cats howling at the moon on the front of it. We didn’t make it past the first round, but it was something different and fun. These types of things are morale boosters and all the small talk on station revolves around these events when they happen.