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.