The Whole Wide World

It’s Sunday and I have the day off. I think I may have only had one other Sunday off the entire time I have been down here and that was back in the summer season. For most of the rest of the station, this is their normal day off though. I woke up and got ready to head over to restock Gallagher’s, since that is part of my part time job, I always have to do that even on my day off.

As I bundled up and got ready to head across station, I put my Yeti in the mesh pocket of my backpack so that I could grab some coffee while over at the galley. When I stepped outside of the dorm, the Yeti slipped out of the mesh, crashed onto the metal grate of the outdoor entryway and the lid went flying. I had to crawl behind the trash center and under the stairs to get the lid which flew off the landing. It was -77F out. As I picked the lid up, I realized the little black magnetic slider that closes the drinking space had bounced off during the impact of it hitting the metal grate. I made a quick attempt to locate it, but I was absolutely freezing so I decided to have a better look on my return journey.

I spent almost an hour looking for it, but with no luck. I was and still am more than irrationally frustrated at not being able to find the slider. Without it, liquid sloshes out and I use the cup constantly every single day. I was meticulous in looking at each crack in the grate, knowing that the magnet might have caught, but no luck. I crawled under the stairs and used the flashlight on my phone to see better, but with all the black volcanic rock and constant wind blowing a thin layer of new snow over things, it felt like a hopeless endeavor.

When I finally gave up, I came inside and did what any thirty-eight year old woman would do. I came inside and called my Mama to whine about my frustration, haha. She recently went on her own treasure hunt to find a friend’s lost hearing aid in sea of of forest undergrowth and was successful, so she encouraged me to keep looking. I went back out one more time, but didn’t have any luck. I’m still working on letting it go, but walking on the grate over and over again is a painful reminder that it is hidden under there somewhere. Mama Bear offered to pick up a replacement slider, but it will be well over a month before it arrives, if I am lucky. C’est la vie and thank you Mama Bear.

On a happy note, I was really excited to have this Sunday off, because someone managed to get a copy (totally legal copy, of course) of the new Barbie movie and there was a screening party of that at 1PM today. There were over thirty of us McMurdans in attendance in the neighboring dorm building lounge and we all had lots of good laughs at the movie, which was completely unhinged, but great. I wore pink and there were many others in full costume. None of which were as good as the outfit my Mama Bear wore when she went a week or so ago to see the film back home.

After the movie, many headed over to Southern for a group haircut event. The only haircut being given was a mullet. This was an event during the summer season as well. I was bartending during the summer show, so I was present for the event, but didn’t feel like I was missing much this time so I came back to my room instead. I ran into my suitemate, Eleni, on my way in and she invited me over for a coffee, so I had coffee and a catchup with her, before coming back to my room until dinnertime. After dinner I went to my friend Marty’s room and we watched Ticket to Paradise on Netflix. It served me well as I was feeling restless and full of anxiety and by the end of the movie all of that had dissipated.