Behind AGAIN. There’s no excuse for me… but we already knew that, didn’t we? Well, better catch you up on the rest of December and just close that year right out:
Friday, December 12 (Workday #53): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
Standard run. Drove the aeroporter back and forth from McMurdo to Scott Base to take the pressure ridge tour groups over. Went pinsetting after that and made $40 in tips! Yeeeessssssss. Then went to Southern where there was a drink waiting for me even though last call had already been called. What can I say, people love me… 
Saturday, December 13 (Workday #54): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
Sunday, December 14 (Day Off #11)
Something might have happened, but I’m having problems remembering back that far…
Monday, December 15 (Workday #55): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
We planned on having a Titanic movie party, but Eli was late, so I helped the DAs decorate the Galley for a while instead. It was super fun – Leslie made her special holiday cider-juice concoction, we listed to chicken Christmas carols, made paper snowflakes and origami cranes, and decorated the tree and hung lights and garlands. Eli FINALLY showed up, so we watched the first half of Titanic (JEEZ, that movie is bad…) but it was so late that we couldn’t finish it. Still need to do that…
Tuesday, December 16 (Workday #56): 6 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 5 urinals
No Gallgher’s – ice runway instead.
Wednesday, December 17 (Workday #57): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
In addition to the normal run, I got to run around all the dorms and pull all the broken furniture out of the lounges. It’s weird when being on broken-furniture detail is fun just because it breaks up the normal daily routine…
Thursday, December 18 (Workday #58): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
Started on the housing department’s decoration for the town party. We’re doing “anti-Christmas” and building a Jeep out of cardboard, to be pulled by 6 very un-PC cardboard penguins: Stabby (Happy Feet dude with a switchblade), Sleazy (rose tattoo on her cleavage, a Marilyn Monroe, and bright turquoise eyeshadow), Smokey Sally (has a red bow in her hair and a cigarette dangling from her beak), Gunther (has a wife-beater stretched over his beer gut and a CD in his flipper), Shaq-L-ton (the emperor penguin, one cool dude), and Methy (instead of Dopey… he’s a little skinny, his beak’s a little cracked, and his eyes are pretty bloodshot). It’s going to be GREAT!
Friday, December 19 (Workday #59): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
Worked some more on the decoration. It’s really coming together, people bringing in all sorts of extra touches from Skua. We have an inflatable tire to strap onto the Jeep hood…
Saturday, December 20 (Workday #60): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
Sunday, December 21 (Day Off #12)
Monday, December 22 (Workday #61): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
NANA had it’s Station Services Holiday Party at Gallagher’s. It wasn’t a very happening party, to be honest, but there were white chocolate-covered strawberries and REAL guacamole… as in, made out of REAL avocados instead of that fake frozen crap. YEEEEESSSSSSS! First time we’ve had that this season (apparently, fresh avocados were on the list of budget cuts this year). We also made it a little more exciting by shotgunning champagne (yeah, they’re selling champagne in aluminum cans at the store… huh??), Go Fast, and beer before going to the party, and then sneaking into the men’s bathroom AT the party and shotgunning one more beer each. Oh yeah, and Nick had a BEAUTIFUL spirits necklace that helped us along – thanks, Katie! After we got tired of playing pool at the NANA party, some friends and I rolled to Hut 10 for the Jew party: “Shalomie, My Homie.” That was a kick. They had b’loonies (remember those?!) and lots of wine. Pretty fun night.
Tuesday, December 23 (Workday #62): 5 bathrooms = 8 showers, 10 toilets, 4 urinals
Got some work time to finish the decoration for the town holiday party, so I didn’t have to clean the FEMC and I got help in Gallagher’s (wouldn’t usually clean it on Tuesday, but since it was a NANA party the night before the janos got volun-told to clean it). Our decoration is going to be the best. We get two hours of comp time since we have to work on our bag-drag day (the day before we fly home), so I took my comp time and my half hour off for my birthday, so I got to go home at 3 p.m. SWEET! That night we had our housing holiday party at Hut 10. Jeff made us some bomb pizza (thanks for the fresh garlic, Sparky!) and we did a Skua white elephant gift exchange. The gift I wound up with was a kegel excerciser… eeeeeeeewwwwwww.
Wednesday, December 24 (Day Off #13): MY BIRTHDAY!
I didn’t have to work on my birthday! Technically, it was a “liberal release” day, meaning each department could decide when to let their people off based on the amount of work they had to do. We did a “Sunday run” type schedule and got very liberal release. I slept nice and late, and then had to go set up our decoration and the greeting area for the town holiday party (housing volunteered to do door greeting, and somehow Chelsea and I sort of wound up in charge of that). I had a lazy afternoon – watched the Colbert Christmas Special with Eli – and then Chelsea and I got showered and primped and dressed up in our black dresses for the special evening. The town holiday party was pretty nice. We did door greeting – had people draw tags to see if they were naughty or nice and determine if they got a door prize – took pictures with Santa, I danced a two-step with Harry the Welder, and then we closed the evening at Southern (of course). We were on quite the rampage – we had a tube of bright red lipstick and started going around giving everyone we knew (and some we didn’t know so well…) lipstick kisses on their cheeks. It was a good golden birthday for me. 
Thursday, December 25 (Day Off #14): MERRY CHRISTMAS!
I got home REALLY late the night before so I slept quite late. I was hurting a little too after all the different drinks people were buying for me for my birthday. I went to Christmas dinner with Eli, Kira, Leslie, and some other friends. It was really good – yay for freshies!
Friday, December 26 (Workday #63): 1 bathroom = 8 showers, 8 toilets, 4 urinals
It would normally suck to go back to work after two days off, but we got to do an MCI drill! I only had to work until about 12:15, took lunch, and then the drill was called. The MCI is kind of fun in a weird way. They stage and accident and get “victims” all done up in makeup and we pretend to give them medical care. A couple of them “died,” though. Sad… Oh well, we got to go home an hour early!
Saturday, December 27 (Workday #64): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
Even though my stuff had not been cleaned well in nearly a week, I had to do a quick clean of most things again because we had an All-Hands meeting. This meeting’s golden safety quote: “Be safe – it’s great fun.” I decided earlier that, with all the partying during the holidays, the last thing I needed to do that Saturday was go out to the bars, so Jeff, Eli, Leigh, Aaron, and I decided to do the Castle Rock Loop hike instead. It was a beautiful sunny day for it, and when we climbed to the top of the rock there was ZERO wind. It was another one of those amazing Antarctic moments. We booked it back in order to make it to MidRats and made wagers on the exact time we’d get back to 155. I won (closes without going over), and guessed it within 3 minutes. We made it to MidRats, too. Whew! What a relief.
Sunday, December 28 (Day Off #15)
Another day off. Aaaaaahhhhhhh…..
Monday, December 29 (Workday #65): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
My areas needed some serious cleaning…
Tuesday, December 30 (Workday #66): 7 bathrooms = 8 showers, 12 toilets, 7 urinals
Wednesday, December 31 (Day Off #16): ICESTOCK!
Another “liberal release” day. Besides being New Year’s Eve, it was also ICESTOCK! The Etta Jameson’s World Famous Etta Jameson’s Safety First Bedtime Orchestra played (the Safety Band, for short) – they were pretty hilarious. The Legendary Beep Beeps also played – did some mashing to that. And the little comedy sketch they did before the countdown was actually very entertaining. When it hit midnight, we did the whole champagne-spraying shebang and there was lots – and I mean LOTS – of kisses. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
The Legendary Beep Beeps play Icestock.
Ceds & Chels enjoying Icestock.
