a strange today

I was so happy to be able to talk with my friend, Erin, yesterday. I love my friends down here, but being able to communicate with people who love me back home is fantastic! I was also happy to get some mail today in the form of Christmas greetings and a couple of pictures and a wonderful package from Linda! Since it's my second year down here, I thought people would forget the peculiarity of the location, but the mail is a great reminder that people back home still remember me! So, thanks to those who drop me e-mails, letters, postcards, and packages. It puts a massive smile across my face when I hear from you!

The last two days have been a bit strange. I had a dentist appointment for a tooth that has been bothering me yesterday. If any of you know me, you know I don't entirely enjoy being in the dentist chair, but I've offered the dental industry some job security over the past few years. Nothing is really wrong with it, and it seems that some muscles in my neck that have cramped up may be causing the discomfort. He did say that the tooth in question appears to have gone through a war zone. This was my first trip into McMurdo General Hospital though and it was interesting to see how they operate under limited Antarctic conditions. Our dentist, Fleet, is familiar with the Western Washington area and even knows my dentist's father!

This afternoon, I woke up quite early at noon when the fire alarm went off in my building. So, I put on my slippers first, and then traded those for my bare feet in my boots. I pulled on my fuzzy bathrobe, yanked my external hard drive out of the drawer and pulled the big red parka over it all to walk downstairs for 10 minutes until everything was cleared to return to my room. I've felt pretty good all day, but things seemed to tangle themselves up with our flight schedule and complicate work, and when I put my belt on, one of the loops broke, so I have a little sewing project for tonight!

On the up side of things, it was a whopping 34F today! This is warmer than most of my friends and family back home who live in the northern states, or southern provinces. No complaints there. And, after I leave work in an hour, I'll be off for two days to transition to a day shift schedule. No more nights! I also received my holiday schedule and the way Christmas and New Years fit into the week means we get extra days off for the holiday.