Time off

I am learning that days off in Yellowstone more than make up for the crazy hours I have to work. For my days off this last week, I hung out by the lake in the snow and watched some otters play. Then I slept in the next day, got caught up on postcards and phone calls and went for a hike that night on Elephant back Trail. It is about a 4-mile loop that has an amazing view of the Lake at the top. When we got to the top, we realized we were in the middle of a low cloud, but the view was still amazing. Here is me, Chuck, Anke and Jacob from the observation point at the top. After that, we all went to the pub, got pizza, and came home and played Cranium til the wee hours of the morning.
Then, after sleeping in until 11am the next day, I got up and went to the mud volcanoes by myself. I was astounded by the largely overweight tourists and wondered how they were climbing the same hills that left me out of breath. Also, I brought my camera bag and big camera with the telephoto lens. I notice when I actually look like I know what I’m doing, people get
out of my way. So now I just swagger around like a photographer and people quickly move out of my shots.
Anke and I spent a whole afternoon running after an extremely elusive grizzly that seemed to always be on the other side of the shore than we were. After running down to the Lodge, then back to the Hotel, then back to the Lodge and back to the Hotel waiting for it to come within sight, we got tired and went back just in time to hear that the stupid thing finally decided to wander across the meadow in front of the Lodge. But by then, as Anke put it, we were totally over that bear.
That evening, I did an oil painting from some pictures I took of a buffalo and went to bed early. I got to talk to Matt, who was camping in Saratoga.
It was a great couple of days and made me so happy to be here! Plus, I have been making some great friends. Last night, we celebrated my 21st birthday at the pub right when it turned midninght. It was actually an 80's themed dance night and was really fun. Wait'll you see the pictures in my next blog...

My parents!

My dad had a book signing at Old Faithful this last week, and I took the opportunity to be a VIP rather than a lowly peon for a couple days. I met up with them at the Inn and got to take a tour with my dad’s publicist and his family, as well as the law professor who inspired the “Zone of Death” plotline of my dad’s latest book. We got to go up into the Crow’s Nest and Bat’s Alley and look at the old rooms with no plumbing.
My mom and I then took a walk around the geyser basin (and wandered in the wrong direction and ended up two miles further then we intended to go).
To cap the night off, we all sat out on the deck and watched Old Faithful erupt and listen to Rick make fun of my dad. Those are some of the best times in my life, hanging out in Yellowstone with our family friends. After coming back here to work a dinner and breakfast shift, I went up to Gardiner with my parents to enjoy the same type of get-together with the Oligs. The weather wasn't great, however, and we were forced inside by 40mph winds and some rain. After listening to the premier of the newest “Joe Sippet” novel (check out www.yellowstonedick.com for details) we headed back to the Hoeninghausens’ and I came back to Lake the next day. It was a great time.However, things at Lake aren’t so sunny. We are getting scheduled back-to-back 14 hour shifts and I have a solid 3 days with no more than 4 hours between shifts. The problem is that we are under-staffed, but people are getting so frustrated with the extreme scheduling that they are quitting right and left to leave us with even less people. Hopefully, we get more people soon or it could get ugly. All of us are looking forward to the "foreigners" getting here to take over some of the hours!
When I got bummed though, I took Rick's advice and sat out by the lake for awhile and suddenly felt much better about the world.

Work, work, work...

I have started work! I did fine on my first night and morning. I had a few difficulties with being double and triple sat (that’s getting one or more tables sat in my section for you non-restaurant folks) because our hosts have never done this before and seem to constantly be getting me confused with the other red-haired waitress here. But, when I wasn’t scrambling, I did fine and didn’t make any big mistakes. Also, I made over $100 in tips on a relatively slow night. The only thing that is a shame is that we are under-staffed and I am currently working the night shift until about midnight and have to be up at 5am the next morning for breakfast. I can’t say I enjoy this whole “scheduling your employees to only get 4 hours of sleep” thing.
But, as I have been reminded by Matt (see, I mentioned you!) and my mom, that is the nature of the beast. I have the job I wanted and am only working seasonally, so I better work my little butt off. I and the other lake servers stand to make thousands over the summer.
I credit quite a bit of the first night success to a practice we call “shakedown” in which we practice waiting on other employees for practice the day before the Hotel opens. I had a table of Jamaican employees that all ordered the buffalo prime rib and were angry when I brought them the cut of meat they ordered rather than actual ribs. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at them picking at their first-class steaks and muttering. The best part of this, however, is that when we aren’t serving, we get to be sat and waited on. And still better is that we can order whatever we want on the menu and eat it for free! I got to have elk medallions and lobster for free! That was a good night.
So the work part still needs a few kinks to be worked out, but other than that, the ball is rolling on my crazy summer. Also, I just got to spend a few great days with my parents while my dad was signing books at Old Faithful. More on that to come!
Oh, and it is snowing here. Welcome to Wyoming.

Capturing Nature

One interesting thing is striking me almost immediately. There is quite a difference between being a foreigner in a new place and being on your home turf with foreigners. The mindsets are all still different and it is fun to compare differences between people from different regions (we had a long discussion in the dining room today about plain versus sweet tea), but being a Wyomingite here is weird.
For one thing, I know the Park inside and out and have spent a lot of time here. Most of the employees I have met have never even been here before. I have a hard time not getting frustrated when no one can talk about horses, fishing, or wildlife in the same context. The most overwhelming thing I have noticed is how I view wildlife and nature as opposed to people from big cities.
I see myself as a member of the natural world. An animal could kill me, but I could just as easily kill one myself. I appreciate the beauty of a cutthroat trout I catch, but they see a travesty in me holding it in my hands. They, on the other hand, tend to see themselves as protectors (and outside of) of this fragile ecosystem. I first started to notice this distinction when I told everyone how my cousins and I used to try to spit on marmots from the tops of cliffs, and eat the berries we found and fish we caught in the Bighorns. I was greeted with shocked looks and told I abused the natural world. Also, I was lectured on how killing any animal is wrong when I was explaining how skunks spray when you shoot them.

I have never seen myself in this light at all. I love nature and wildlife very much. I am passionately against poaching and advocate catching and releasing wild trout. But their views on preservation are very different than mine. But, most of them see the ecosytem from the outside looking in, while my perspective seems more like the inside looking out. Wyomingites seem to view the natural world much more “barbarically” than anywhere else. Yet, we have more of these wild places and seem to understand it better than just about anywhere else in the USA, barring maybe Alaska.
Food for later thought, I suppose.

It Begins!

Hello all! After the success of my last blog, and my difficulty in keeping contact already, I decided to do one for this summer. As many of you know, I am working as a waitress (the politically correct term now is “server” though) in the Lake Hotel Dining room. It is very luxurious and expensive and I should make lots of money. Because of that, I will be wearing a black and white penguin suit. But once the tips start rolling in, I don’t think I’ll mind much.
I took my first long drive by myself across the state to get here. After a long nine hours, I arrived at the Hoeninghausen’s in Gardiner. They are the most awesome people in the world, and staying with them is like staying with family. I played some basketball with Tori, and she impressed me with her monkey climbing skills.
I got up and checked in, and made my way to Mammoth for orientation and then to Lake to check into the dorms. After living in France, I caught myself expecting the worst and thinking I would be alone all summer. Instead, with the other friendly Americans, I quickly made friends with my suitemates and many other people in my dorm. Anke (my roomie from Wisconsin, is great), and I also share a bathroom with a girl from Georgia and one from Kentucky. They are awesome, but like a group of 20 year old girls, we have to sit up talking about things at night when I just want to go to bed. Here are a few of my new friends and I hanging out by the lake last night:
I went through my first day of training today, and it was long and boring. Rather than starting us on learning the menu or other valuable information, it was more of the “don’t drink chemicals!” type stuff. And then I had to go through 4 hours of alcohol awareness training, and I honestly needed a beer by the end of it.
I haven’t met too many folks from Wyoming. But with the ones that I have, we have had to stand and talk to each other until we find out how we know each other. Apparently this practice is unique to Wyoming, and makes my new Midwestern-Southern friends laugh. But, I have noticed that they are all repeating words I use. They all went from saying “Bison” to “Buffalo” and “Pronghorns” to “Antelope” after I used those words a lot. I haven’t gotten up later than 6am the last few days, and I think this may be a trend that continues.
More to come on the Yellowstone Adventure!