Saturday, June 20 – Day 7 Training

Clouds, Connections, and No More Conifers

Seattle to Chicago. Chicago to DC. DC to Miami. Miami to St. Thomas. St. Thomas to St. John. St. John into Cruz Bay. I sent ahead two large boxes to St. John so I'd be ahead of the curve on buying up all the dry goods I knew I'd need once on the island. Only one box of the two packages has arrived. The one box arrived Wednesday. It's now Saturday. I'm hoping the other half of my packages arrives soon. Worst case scenario, I'll need to buy all the items I already bought, again. It would be a bummer to have to purchase those items again and also know I may never see the deliciousness that had been packed inside. Speaking of packages, I know I'm also getting a big box from the SCA with sweet swag to add to my existing collection of a stainless steel mug, a few patches, some stickers, a short stack of business cards, some pins, and oodles of training materials. There is a small thumb drive on the way as well, with useful files and documents from the training session.

Caitlin dropped by yesterday evening and was also able to swing by this morning for breakfast! It's so awesome to see folks from fun experiences in the past, especially when it's someone you weren't sure if you'd ever be able to see them again! She's a back country ranger for Rainier and needless to say, many folks ought to be quite jealous of her awesome job! I know I am! For 9 days, she'll head into the wilderness, rove around the trails, do fun Parky things, and then come back home for a few days off here and there. She's just taken a high-angle rescue course and is starting her Red Card on Monday. I'm stoked for her! Admittedly, I'm pretty stoked for me, too, since I'm going to the Virgin Islands. Caitlin stuck around the Community Building for a little while and helped everyone (SCA staff, interns, and NPS staff that were still around) clean up the building and return the facility to ship-shape. She even snagged a huge box full of groceries! There were lots of leftovers and obeying the Leave No Trace principles, we all packed ourselves nice Ziplocs of GORP, cookies, veggies, fruits, and whatever else we could stuff into our bags. There were large containers of mole, dal, pasta sauce, dry cereal, and all sorts of other goodies that Caitlin was able to add to her box. It was likely enough food to avoid buying groceries for several weeks. After a few obligatory and appreciated photos of the group, we parted ways and headed for the airport. I gave Caitlin a big hug goodbye and also hugged as many of the staff and other interns as I could. Hopefully, my path will cross the paths of those I had the fortune of meeting and getting to know during the week of training at Rainier.

I'm now sitting in Chicago's lovely O'Hare Airport. The airport is nice and I like the large quantities of people movers that are placed neatly along all of the terminals. I've just called a friend to let her know I'm headed back to the East coast, only to inform her that I won't actually see here while I'm in Virginia. I have about five hours before I leave my house, once I'm on the ground. I should arrive somewhere around 11:24PM. My next flight's departure is 7:59AM. Yikes!

While mulling around Seattle this morning I had the urge to hit the bathroom before my four hour flight. I ventured into the Women's bathroom and low and behold, to my utter non-surprise and non-amazement, the line was a dozen people long, or more. Who wants to wait in a line like that when their bladder is about to pop? Not me. I sneakily walked down the terminal a little ways and found the Family bathroom. I figured, it would be much faster to wait for a family of four, than to wait for a dozen or so women that are taking their sweet time and unloading their bellies... and other unmentionables. I chose poorly. The woman and her two kids took a seemingly endless amount of time to do whatever they needed to get done. I waited outside the door patiently. I'd say at least 20 women stopped and looked confused, stared at the family bathroom door (clearly labeled), looked at me, stepped in front of me (like cutting in line), and then looked at me as if I was the beholder of some magical answer that they needed. Nobody actually asked me, “Is this the women's room?” They just stared at me quizzically, one after the other.

In response to these puzzled women in need of bladder relief, I shrugged the first few times. Then, the nicer side of me kicked-in and I decided to actually point and verbalize, “The women's restroom is over there.” I grew anxious as I heard the jiggling of the door handle to the bathroom. It would jiggle, then not open. Jiggle, not open. Jiggle, not open. Who does that? Children. They jiggle the handle while mom tries to pee and of course, they finally figure it out and actually open the door, before they should. I heard the door open, I got excited, and then heard the door slam shut again, then the click of the lock sliding back into place. Damn. I had to wait some more. Finally, I saw the family of three leave and it was my turn. I wonder if it would have been faster to just go for the dozen-plus line at the actual women's restroom. I'll never know.

After the restroom break, time to refill the tank with some delicious coffee. Seattle. Starbucks. I found the Starbucks (Airport versions have never been something I enjoy, but I had little choice, and if you'd like, I can open whole can of worms on the topic of Starbucks in Airports). Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks and so I thought, “I will get great service here and the best cup of Starbucks coffee, ever.” I ordered my tall coffee, the Pike Place blend, to be put into my sweet new swagalicious SCA mug. I confirmed it was a tall sized mug (12 oz.) and she added some coffee to the mug. I don't know what people do in Seattle, but to me, two inches is a little too much room for cream. I do usually put in a pretty decent amount of cream and sugar, but not 2 inches! After paying my $3 for the coffee and muffin, I went back to the counter after adding my required cream and sugar and requested some more coffee, so my mug would actually be “full.” The barista complied and filled my mug. I was a little disappointed with needing to ask for more coffee. I ordered a 12 ounce coffee (tall). Ergo, I should get 12 ounces of coffee. Again, I could really whip out a novel when it comes to the poor quality and poor service of Starbucks in airports (nutshell: it's a matter of consistency and also following the same policies and rules of the corporate retail stores, not an entirely different set of rules). In the defense of said Starbucks location, the coffee, once in my mug, was served hot and delicious.

Oh! I almost forgot- getting to the airport was a bit of a fun one. The drive was lovely from Mt. Rainier to Seattle's Seatac. I got into the terminal and prepared to check-in for my flights. Being radio-free for the past week has been awesome, but with the downside of not checking-in online ahead of time. Thus, I had no boarding pass or seat assignments to facilitate the quicker baggage checking process. As I waited in the line that looked like it might take the full two hours I had until boarding time, an agent stepped up on a box and began speaking into the P.A. system, declaring several flights that were nearing their cut-off times for check-in. I heard my flight announced over the loud speaker. I immediately jumped up and down and waved my arms (as instructed) and caught the attention of the agent. He instructed me to come straight to his check-in counter. Delightful! I did not have to wait in line for a grueling amount of time, just to check my bags! I literally had stood in line a full three minutes before the announcement was made. After I started walking toward the agent, it took just another few minutes before I was in line at the security checkpoint. I think it actually took longer at the security checkpoint than it did at the baggage check-in. Yay! (For not having to wait in long lines.) I didn't get a boarding pass with my early and accelerated check-in. In fact, I had to wait until after boarding had begun to get my seat assignment. I was really getting worried, do I have a seat, will my butt be on that plane? What on earth would happen if I got bumped, didn't get into DC on-time, didn't make my flights to the Virgin Islands, what a nightmare that would be! I grew more anxious as the passengers began lining up outside the gate entrance. I took action and approached the ticket counter for a fifth time (I'd already been to the customer service desk once and the ticket counter three times) and re-requested my boarding pass. At first, the agent told me I already had one. I told her I did not. We went back and forth a few more times and finally, she printed my pass. Economy Plus. I've never flown on United before, or haven't enough times to know what Economy Plus even means. I figured it was just a fancy way of saying coach. I was wrong, to my pleasure. I boarded the plane and found an insane amount of foot-room. I commented on this extravagance and wondered at why I had so much space to wiggle my little toesies. The man to my left (aisle seat) informed me that I was in Economy Plus, which is like 6-8 inches of extra foot room, typically costing a passenger an extra $40 per seat, or it's a free upgrade for frequent flyers. Wow! Sweet sweet foot room! I guess there may have been some kind of situation where they were hoping to shove me at the back of the plane, but it turned out the only free seats were in this fancy area, so there I was assigned. It is totally worth the $40 (I didn't have to pay it this time, but I would if I had the choice and the spare $$) to have that extra bit of room. I fell asleep before we even took off.

The in flight movie? The one about the shopaholic, the full title escapes me right now. It was great, I woke up from my nap and plugged in my headphones in time to watch the second half of the movie. Hopefully I'll be able to watch the first half sometime soon.