4th of July and Beyond...

We finally have internet!  Well, sort of.  We have the capability of internet.  Now we have to get the wireless box.  It's those little details that kill...haha!  Hopefully very soon we can have internet that we can call our own :-)

The fourth of July was crazy.  Living in a small town, you really get the "small town feel" on holidays like this.  There was a parade downtown Juneau that the WHOLE town goes to.  It's really fun, but really crowded.  And, there is one road in and out of downtown.  So, If you can imagine close to 20,000 people downtown at once and then those 20

,000 people wanting to leave at the same time down that one road, it is quite the adventure!  It reminded me of the 10 fwy back home...Here are some pictures from the parade:

They had floats, people walking, riding in mini corvettes, etc.  They had a snow plow that was painted with orcas - it was insane the things they came up with!  Since it is such a small town, the locals on the sidelines watching all knew people in the parade, so the parade would stop so people could talk to each other.  While at the parade, my boss called me into work ea

rly, so I had to leave in the middle of the parade.  I was fine with that - I had been wa

tching it for close to three hours and it still wasn't over.  Time to go...

I went into work at about 1:45 and found there were only two kids there.  It was fantastic!  One of them went with one staff to see the Hulk in the movie theater and the other one and I played Hand and Foot for seven hours!  It was a great way to spend the afternoon, as far as I was concerned.  I left work and went over to the Harris house for the 4th of July party.

This party was crazy!  There were tons of people there, and tons of food and games.  They smoked/roasted a pig (yes, the WH

OLE thing - we named him Pork Chop) all day, and it was so tasty!  We played Beer Factor: you know the show Fear Factor?  Beer Factor is like Fear Factor, only you have to complete all these tasks with a cup of beer in your hand.  The object of the game is to comple

te the tasks the fastest and have the most beer in your cup by the end.  It was quite hilarious...Then we watched the fireworks that were put on by Willie (the dad in the Harris family).  He set the fireworks off on the beach, and it was pretty cool.  They were a bit close for my liking, but it was pretty cool none-the-less.  I left shortly after, as I had to work at 8 the next morning. 

I did my first grave shift (12 midnight to 8AM) on Sunday.  Let me tell you, if ever you want to mess with your mind, try going to sleep around 4 in the afternoon and then stay awake from midnight to 8AM - it's trippy!  Nothing happened at work, for which I was truly thankful.  

My last adventure is kinda two days in one.  In reality, they happened before everything in this blog, but I chose to put it at the end.  I don't know why...I just did.  Last week at work, Kwame (my supervisor) and I took three of the kids to play handball with one of those blue rubber balls at the middle school in town.  While playing (and these kids are hardcore - they play real hard) I dropped the ball.  When you drop the ball, you have to run and tag the wall before someone else throws the ball at the wall and hits it.  So I'm running, and all of a sudden feel this sting on my back.  One of the boys completely missed the wall and smacked me in the back with the blue rubber ball.  I could hardly 

move my arms and back!   I had a nice welt on my back for a couple days.  He apologized and we laughed about it for days.  The next day was my day off, so Bri, Tinea (Bri's cousin) and I went geo-caching.  

We couldn't find the first one, but we couldn't give up.  We went looking for the second one in the forest.  One thing about geo-cache's in Juneau is that they're all hidden in the forest!  So we're hacking our way through the forest, stepping in mud piles, climbing over fallen trees, trying to avoid Devil's Club (this prickly plant that if you touch, the thorns get stuck in your skin and your body has to expel them - you can't pick the thorns out) and such.  Oh, did I mention that I was doing this in flip flops?  Dumb idea #1!  And did I mention that I tripped in a hole in the ground and broke (or really badly bruised) a toe?  Dumb idea #2!  After doing this for about 30 minutes,  we find a red box - the geo-cache!  IT was pretty exciting!  I did get Devil's Club in my foot, and I am still waiting for it to come out.  But overall, it was such a cool adventure - we can't wait to do another one!

That's about all in the Great White North!  I hope you're all doing well!  Know I miss you all and love you!

Blessings!