It is the end of the world...I CAN'T TALK

I have no voice! This is driving me absolutely crazy. First off, I had to call in sick, (I NEVER EVER CALL IN SICK!!!) but I didn't call in, I drove down to the rail yard and went in, in person because I wanted management to see in person that I CANNOT SPEAK! Can you hear my frustration...this is killing me slowly. As of today I should be on the train running my mouth, talking, and making a fool out of myself. Instead here I sit trying to vent through typing/blogging since this is now my only form of communication. I have no idea how I lost my voice, but it started to leave on Monday as we were taking people to Whitter to get on the ship. Luckily I had my voice all the way to the very last goodbye of the folks getting off the train. I thought the next day of rest and "no talking" it would come back - if anything it has became worse! I have searched the Internet and have found that I have laryngitis, I have gargled salt water, drank all kinds of teas - which I HATE tea, I've been sucking the life out of throat lozenges, and lastly I HAVE GIVEN UP MY ABILITY TO SPEAK, and for those of you who know me - I LOVE TO TALK!!! Good heavens how long is this going to last, how long am I going to go with out speaking, talking, HOW LONG, HOW LONG!!! This must be what Hell is like...alright, I'm becoming a little over dramatic, but seriously not having my voice is like the end of the world in my book!!! Voice, come back, come back...I need you, you're my everything, your my money maker...come back, come back...

Summer Soltice!!!

June 21, 2008 marked the longest day of the year, and for Alaska it's the day that the sun never sets. Basically it's the day everyone parties all night long! I happened to have the day off and partied just as hard...not really, but I did have a good time. The morning started out with pouring rain as my friend Camilla and I ran the 10K race that was going on with the Mayor's Marathon here in Anchorage. The best part of it was the fact that the course was absolutely beautiful as we ran along the cost of Anchorage, under lush green trees and foliage, it was so serene and gorgeous. Camilla and I came in at 1 hour and three minutes - she could've done a lot better but she chose to run with me through the whole race. I kept waiting to see Jessie at the finish line with signs, but no support this time...it was fine though, it was only a 10K. After cleaning up from the 10K we got ready for a Third Eye Blind concert held at the Moose's Tooth. We showed up at six and hung out visiting until the concert finally started at around nine. We were able to get pretty close to the stage, and had a good time listening to the band. One downfall, there was a lot of beer present, which meant a lot of drunks, and I officially hate drunk people. Minus the drunken idiots the concert was a lot of fun and was over by eleven so I was able to get home and be in bed by 11:30 since I had to be to work by six in the morning.

The longest day of the year was a lot of fun, and I had to keep reminding myself that it was just another day because everyone up here made it sound, look, feel like a holiday??? If anything it's a holiday for Alaskans.

Life is SO HARD...

I just can't decide where to go on my next cruise. Life is so hard sometimes??? As of now I want to go on a Panama Canal Cruise that starts in L.A. and ends in Fort Lauderdale. The only problem I have is finding the time that would work for me, and finding the people who can take time to go with me. It's fourteen days and sounds absolutely amazing. The other cruise I want to do is the Eastern Caribbean which is ten days round trip from Fort Lauderdale.

Eastern Caribbean

Itinerary
Departure
1 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 12:00 AM 5:00 PM
2 Princess Cays, Bahamas 9:00 AM 4:00 PM
3 At Sea
4 St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands 7:00 AM 6:00 PM
5 St. Kitts, St. Kitts & Nevis 7:00 AM 4:00 PM
6 Barbados 9:00 AM 6:00 PM
7 Dominica 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
8 Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda 8:00 AM 6:00 PM
9 At Sea
10 At Sea
11 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 7:00 AM

Panama Canal

Itinerary

Departure
1 Los Angeles, California 12:00 AM 4:00 PM
2 At Sea
3 At Sea
4 At Sea
5 Huatulco, Mexico 7:00 AM 1:00 PM
6 Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala 7:00 AM 5:00 PM
7 Puerto Corinto, Nicaragua 6:00 AM 4:00 PM
8 Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica 8:00 AM 8:00 PM
9 At Sea
10 Panama Canal, Panama 7:00 AM 4:30 PM
11 Cartagena, Colombia 8:30 AM 2:00 PM
12 Aruba 12:00 PM 7:00 PM
13 At Sea
14 At Sea
15 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 7:00 AM

I'm looking for three people - have any takers???

Peanut Butter Pie

Dare I say this...I think I might actually be sick of the wonderful Peanut Butter Pie. Tis true, it is a sad day. When I first got back to Anchorage this summer I was practically consuming one of these heavenly "party in my mouth" slices of pie a week. I even have the Glacier Brewhouse on speed dial. I guess after eating about one of these a week it can get very old. I'm going on a break! No more Peanut Butter Pie until the fam comes up in July. I've got to take the family to the Glacier Brewhouse so they can experience this sweet taste of heaven. Until then, I hope that my desire for peanut butter pie will come back to me! (For those of you who don't know, my parents and younger brother and sister are coming up for about two weeks in July - happy day!)

My German Hunk

We picked up a group of people from the ship once again to take them to Denali. It's not my favorite thing to take people from the ship to the park because they are always a boring group. On this day we had eight tables full of Germans, a whole family. Some of them didn't even speak very good English, and to top it off they were not very pleasant - at least for the first two hours. However, we both warmed up to each other and became fast friends.

In this party of Germans there was a young man traveling with them who turned out to be 21, unfortunately. He was so nice and fun from the very beginning. As we got closer to Denali we went through the town of Talkeetna which is a party town and I always tell people about the festivals they hold here, one being a "Bachelor Auction" and since my whole tour is based on the fact that I am "27 and Single" the "Bachelor Auction" just adds to my desperate search to find a man! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE BEING SINGLE, but the passengers love trying to play "matchmaker" especially between Noel and I. (Example: one mom was traveling with her 35 year old son and she purposely spilled his drink, came running up to me and tells me her SON had spilled his drink, can you go help him clean it up, oh and by the way he is single and has a great job - that was the most awkward and embarrassing thing yet.) Sometimes they catch me though, and realize that this whole show is just for show... Okay back to my original story about the hunky German! As I tell about the "Bachelor Auction" he yells out to me, "Libby, would you buy me?" I of course tell him and all the passengers that I would buy him in a heartbeat! Then he proceeds to ask me how much money I have on me. I tell him I only have about $25.00 he said that would be enough! Okay - SOLD!

My hunk of a German got off the train that day, but without a hesitation he gave me a nice long hug at the bottom of the stairs just before he told me good bye. Auf Wiedersehen you sweet German boy!

Will you take me up front and show me your stuff?

On Monday on our train run to Denali we were the only train cars on the train, which meant that our car was directly behind the train engine. I have always wanted to go upfront to the engine and check it out. On our Monday runs the Conductor will walk in and out of the cars, so this morning we had Chad, who was our Conductor. He's a pretty good looking Conductor considering that most of conductors are all pretty old, Chad is 34. As we were boarding people he came and hung out with me. We talked, I got my flirt on (if you can only imagine that...), and made the mistake of trying to ask him if I could go up front and see the engine...only problem was the way that I asked him. I said, "Chad, can you take me upfront and show me your stuff?" I definitely got a reaction out of him, but I did not do it on purpose! I wanted to see the engine, I guess I should have picked my words a little bit more careful? He never did take me up front, but the other Conductor gave Noel and I a chance to go up after we dropped people off in Denali. It was pretty darn cool to go see where the magic is made. However, I would've rather had Chad take me up and show me where he does his thing...

Okay, so you all know - this Chad is a burly man, and they have nicknamed him "Wolverine" because he looks like "Wolverine" off those lame movies that I can't even think of what they are called, but I'm sure you get what I'm saying. He's got these massive "chops" and a little "sole patch" that I once again made a fool out of myself telling him that I liked his look - can I be anymore ridiculous??? (I hope to get a picture with him before the end of the summer...that's my goal!)

The things that happen on the train...

On Monday morning if I ever have to work we have to leave Anchorage at 5:00am - yes that means I have to be up at 3:30ish to be at the rail yard by 4:45am. And YES it does happen, and I am fairly on time. Anyhow, once we get to the rail yard we are bused down to Portage which is about an hour drive from Anchorage. Once there we get on the train and take the train into Whitter to get people off the ship and board right on to the train.

Well, on this particular morning we get down to Portage to see the train waiting for us. We immediately board the train. On this particular morning Noel and I were in the car that is directly behind the train engine. As we were still trying to wake up and begin our morning duties of getting ready one of our coworkers comes upstairs and tells us to look out the window. I turn forward and look out the window to see a man leaning over the hood of his truck with a camera. I think, he's just trying to get a photo of the engine. I then notice that his woman is standing in front of the engine with her pants down. I think to myself - just another "mooning" it's a pretty common thing. As I'm glancing I notice that she is taking more than her PANTS OFF - she is completely nude. I start to scream, which that finally gets Noels attention and he looks up to see what I'm screaming at. I cannot believe this is happening, I then try to cover up Noel's eyes and Pete, our servers eyes. Within 30 seconds the woman gets in the truck and they take off. Oh MY FREAKING GOSH - did that just really happen? I seriously just threw up in my mouth.

We arrive in Whitter to start loading people onto the train and I see one of the engineers walk past me, I say to him, "That was quite the show you had this morning?" He than says to me, "I've been working on the train for about 14 years and that is the first time I have ever seen anything like that!" Needless to say we told the story two different times on our train run up and back and it made for some good laughs, but seriously who does things like that???

What to do on my day off...

Working on the train gives me three days off in a row. My first day is spent sleeping, trying to catch up on the previous two long days of not much sleep. The second day is usually spent doing something fun, and the third day is spent getting ready to go back to work. Well, this last three day wasn't anything spectacular. However, on one of my days off I spent the day at the bookstore, Borders, down the road from where I live. One can only guess why I was at the bookstore...yes folks, the new special edition Eclipse came out this weekend with a chapter from the fourth book, Breaking Dawn. As soon as I walked in the door I spotted the book and grabbed one and headed upstairs for a big comfy chair and made myself comfortable. I can now say I have read the first chapter of the final book in the Twilight series. I do have to say that I think Stephenie Meyer just might be winning me back...kind of struggled in the fourth book with Bella and her attitude with marriage, along with her mother, Renee, and her views on marriage as well. Fourth book is going to be good, and such a fast read that when it's all over I just won't know what to do with myself?!?!? Hmmm...maybe I'll focus on "real life" for a change. Probably not because the movie isn't that far away...December 12, 2008!

Twilight First Complete Scene

They just had the MTV Movie Awards and they played a scene from...that's right, Twilight!

It's getting ever so close to the movie event of the year...Look'n AWESOME!!! Enjoy, my Twilight buddies!

(Also with all the hype out there for Indiana Jones - the Twilight Teaser had more views online than that Jones movie. Just a little tid bit of useless information for ya!)