Susie's Meanderings

Bora Bora

Imagine, if you will, swimming in a crystal clear aquarium, and that's more or less Bora Bora. I've done some fantastic snorkelling on this trip. The fish are perhaps a little sparse, but the variety is amazing, and the water is unbelievable. This morning when we dropped anchor there was an entire pod of dolphins off the bow. I'll post pictures (and there are some amazing ones) just as soon as I can find an internet computer that will let me attach a peripheral device to it. Katie, I do remember our code, and I don't need it. I really like it here. The hardest thing about the job is just being friendly and open ALL the time. One can get away to one's cabin, but it's hard to look out a tiny porthole when you know there's incredible scenery going by. It's an odd adjustment after having a job where I really had more solitude than I wanted, to change it for one where I have none. Hope everyone is well!

Raitea

Well, the seasickness seems to be behind me, and I had a full day off today to play in Raitea. There's a fantastic resort here where we spent the afternoon, and you could snorkel right off the end of their pier. The water was crystal clear, it was fantastic.
Still having a great time on the ship, had my first big day of classes yesterday on Photoshop and Web design, both of which were pretty popular. Times burning, more from the next port.

Cruising

I'm loving Tahiti!! The cruise ship is fantastic and everyone is super nice. I'm also incredibly busy, so this will be short. Today's my first teaching day, though yesterday I debuted to the entertainment staff. They were fantastic, and we had a good laugh. The food is yummy, my cabin is cute and comfortable, and everyone on the ship has been fantastic so far. Not too seasick yet. I'll write more when I'm not paying passenger rates for internet.

Rescued! Out of the jaws of death!

In the throes of moving today, I was forced to throw away my plants. It made me very sad, because they have all gamely survived two years of abuse and neglect, and come through heartily, and it really didn't seem fair for them to end their days in the dumpster. I casually mentioned to Pete in the van on the way in from the parking lot that they had a nice plant in the guard shack, and he said that Calvin had a real green thumb, and we came to the conclusion that perhaps Calvin would like my plants. However, in the heat of the moving moment, I became overwhelmed and sent Ross away with my plants (since I couldn't bear to throw them away myself). Then, 3 hours later, I get a call from Calvin, wondering if I have any plants for him. I threw down the phone, raced up to the dumpster and dove in (not very deep, the plants were all resting on top). I set some of them to the side, and carried two down. When I returned, the garbage truck was in place emptying the dumpster. 5 minutes later and the plants would have been gone forever. Instead, they will now reside happily at the guard shack here at the foundation, under the tender ministrations of Calvin and the security team.

Stuff

I'm so tired of my stuff. In the past week I've handled every object that I own, and have been forced to think about its usefulness now, its sentimental value, and its potential for future usefulness. I'm ready to drag it all out to the dumpster and light it on fire. It reminds me of the movie "The Mission" where to atone for his sins, Robert DeNiro has to carry all his worldly possessions on his back up some huge steep muddy hill, and he keeps dropping it and having to go back for it. My greatest fear is that in the afterlife all the stuff that I've ever owned will have to be accounted for. Ugh.

Moving Craziness

I guess when my page goes blank, it's time to post again. Monday, the nice movers came and took away all my heavy furniture and big, overloaded boxes, but I guess I wasn't really emotionally ready for the move, because I left a lot of stuff out that should have gone in boxes, and my "empty" apartment is still half full of junk, and that means I'll be trucking it all up to storage by myself. Somehow my days have not arranged themselves to be conducive to packing. I took a page from Stephanie's book, and took advantage of Nordstrom's personal shopping service, and I highly recommend it. Despite a rather disturbing tendency to bring me flowing old lady clothes, my shopper did find some fantastic outfits for me, and we got it all done in under an hour. Very efficient.
I can't remember the last time I've been this scattered. I'm leaving little pieces of myself all over Seattle. I'm sincerely hopeful that I pull myself together before I leave for Tahiti on Saturday. If I'm lucky, I'll remember my passport.

Shamelessly Procrastinating

I'm supposed to be packing. In the last 4 hours I've mostly emptied one closet into 3 boxes, and have completely emptied one bookshelf. I'd say that constitutes about 2% of my stuff, with only a weekend between me and the impending movers. In the meantime, my laptop is singing its siren call, and I had to sort out the pictures from my last trip. This one is for Katie. You can't see it in the thumbnail, but the sign says "Toft Tree Farm".

Last Day

In a fine capping moment to my final day of work for the Foundation, I found myself out in the hallway of my Hampton Inn, futilely trying to open my door with a key from a different hotel. Of course, it wasn't until I had deserted all my luggage by the door, questioned myself as to whether I had the right room, walked dazedly up and down the hall trying to orient myself, and ran down the stairs to the lobby where I saw that this Hampton Inn did not, in fact, give out snazzy gold plastic keys, that I realized my mistake, and tromped dejectedly back to my room, where the Hampton Inn key which had been resting quietly in my OTHER pocket, worked as expected.
On a lighter note, I was truly determined to stop at the Spam Museum in Austin, MN on my way to the hotel tonight. I pulled off at the appropriate exit, which was right next to the Hormel factory, and was immediately so overwhelmed by the smell of hot Spam, with an underlying whiff of something worse, that I laid on the accelerator and took off down the highway as though all the hounds of hell were after me. So sorry, there will be no pictures of the Spam museum.

Weekend Fun

Here's a photo from this weekend. A little mini golf at "The North Forty" in Sioux City......

Alarm Clock

My alarm clock went off at 6:30 this morning, because, in almost three years of travel, I've never figured out how to turn it off for the weekend (partly because I'm afraid if I do turn it off, I won't remember to reset it for Monday morning). And I was so relieved, because I realized that after this trip I will no longer live by the tyranny of that 6:30 am alarm that, as far as my body is concerned, is really ringing at 3:30, or 4:30 am, because I never get to stay in one time zone long enough to adjust to where I am. I may be moving forward into a travelling life. but for almost 3 whole months I my body gets to stay in one place.
On the other hand, I was a little sad this weekend. I had to install a NIC in my last library because "I was the only one in the whole town who knew how", and it sort of brought me full circle back to my first week at the Foundation, when Erin sat us down with the pull apart computer and said "who wants to pull out this NIC?" and I was terrified. Then, on Friday, there I am, both hands fearlessly inside a working computer, while my librarians stood by and said "How terrifying, I could never do that."

My Last Piece of Broken Luggage

Well, I just wore out my third suitcase in just over two years. In my time as a trainer I have broken the zipper on my first suitcase, utterly crushed the clasp on my hard sided case, and today, disintegrated another zipper on my third case. I didn't even know it was possible to wear luggage out until this job. Oddly enough, this is my small second case, and I was contemplating not bringing it on my last and final trip for the Foundation, as it's only a one weeker, and my training partner has sent all our supplies ahead of us, so two cases would almost be excessive. Oh, I have to stop before I get maudlin. I was just about to wander down memory lane, and that way lies madness.

Oh, and my apologies to Kent and Kirstin for taking so long about updating my links...