The Whole Wide World

I woke up to my alarm this morning. I have the only key on station to the storage room in the bars, which also hosts a control panel that the IT and carpenter teams are doing some work on, so I knew I had to meet a couple of people at Gallagher’s this morning to let them in. I did my morning yoga routine and made my way over to Gallagher’s shortly after 9AM. While I was there I restocked the bar and when the IT rep and carpenter showed up, I left them to it.

Afterwards, I stopped by the galley to grab a cup of coffee and then headed to the store. I anticipated an email from my boss, with the inventory recount items and list of questions he said they were putting together for me, but there was nothing in my inbox. I waited for about an hour, but nothing came in. By this time it was evening time in the States and I assumed they’d signed off for the day, so I stopped back by the galley to see what I could grab for lunch from the grab and go. Chef Marty was on the grill station making a veggie lo mein for lunch in an hour or so and he offered to put some in a to go box for me, an offer I happily accepted. I put everything in my backpack, filled my Yeti with coffee and headed back to my room.

I checked my email throughout the day, just in case a work email came through, but I never got one. It was odd not to get one, it’s my understanding that the recounts have to take place before the store can open back up, which it is supposed to do tomorrow. I can only assume I will wake up to an email with instructions on how to proceed tomorrow morning. One hopes.

With my day off being an actual day off in the end, I spent the bulk of the day lounging. I FaceTimed with Francesca for a bit and got to see Baby Ava sleeping peacefully and that was a treat. I headed back over to the galley at dinnertime only to find the weather had taken a turn and we were in a condition two. The windchill was consistently over -70F which explained why my nose felt like it was going to fall off by the time I got across the road to building 155 where the galley, store and my old room are. I didn’t realize how cold it was when I left my new room and didn’t bring gloves or a backpack with me, so I wrapped up my dinner as best I could and schlepped it back across in the freezing cold to my room.

The final winter American Night at our neighboring Kiwi Scott Base was this evening. They even allowed it to happen with the condition two weather, which was an exception as normally it would have been cancelled. American Night is just another drinking get together at the Scott Base bar, so I opted not to go. Instead I watched a movie called ‘Emily’ while I ate my cold dinner. There is a microwave in the dorm lounge, but I don’t mind cold food. My new suite mate, Eleni, lent me her hard drive before dinner and I pulled some movies from it including the one I watched. It’s the story of Emily Bronte, the author of Wuthering Heights and it was a really good watch. Sometimes I think I would have done well in the 1800’s, watching the movie was one of those sometimes.

As I brushed my teeth before bed tonight I noticed I have a lot of gray hairs at the crown of my head. They’ve been there for some time I know, but I suppose the new light in my little sink area shines just right on them making them all the more noticeable. As I lounged today, I spent a lot of time thinking of all the places I want to travel to, but feeling uncertain about any immediate travel plans. I’ll most likely expand on that more in the days to come, but the feeling of uncertainty brings anxiety and the gray hairs remind me that I worry too much, but also that life is short.