Brief Update
Wow, time has been flying; life has been busy. I only have a 31 minute lunch break, so I must be brief. But here is what’s been going on:
On the 23rd, the Lake Hotel closed, and on the 24th, we started “deep clean.”
My friend Pete, a Becket guy, came to visit right before we closed, and we had a blast.
He left, borrowed my camera, so my pictures of the last week are on a disposable camera that I bought to make up for the lack of digital. So the pictures in this post are from oldschool, developed film.
Anyways, so the night before deep clean, there was the “survivor party” at the pub. Really, it was no different from any other night at the pub, except that there was security everywhere and the location managers as chaperons Fun! I stayed sober and took care of countless people that got out of control.
Yeah…
So.
Deep clean was 3 days of ridiculous cleaning. We gutted the entire kitchen, and scrubbed with toothbrushes and pressure cleaners in every single nook and cranny. It was actually absurd. My team was Dew, John, Adam, and Curtis, and we were assigned to pressure wash. We had a pressure hose outside on the back deck, and spent two days just scrubbing and spraying. I believe it was the best job in the place, and many of my coworkers agreed. We were able to listen to music and be in the sun all day, instead of inside the kitchen with chemicals abound and little ventilation.
It was slightly ridiculous, the whole event. Some people were on their hands and knees scrubbing with toothbrushes, while others were on ladders scrubbing the ceiling with bristle sponges. It made me wonder how many restaurants do this. There was a lot of grime and grease, and the expectation was that it would all be eradicated by the end. And it was. Oh, it was. It was a lot of work. We were allowed to take group smoke breaks every hour and a half, which just usually turned into sessions of bitching and massage lines.
The clean ended with a gas leak that forced us to evacuate…that was some fun little drama. Megan and I went to the Lodge cafeteria for dinner that night, and it was actually pretty good.
After deep clean, I packed up and checked out within a couple of hours. I headed down to Jackson to meet up with my friend from Thacher (high school), Deirdre. The drive into Jackson was incredible. There were rainbows and beautiful views of the Tetons and the fall colors.
I kept stopping every 10 minutes or so to soak in the view and snap a couple pictures. It’s interesting having a disposable camera, because the care you take with each photo is much greater than with a digital point and shoot. With digital, you can take as many as you want until you “get it right,” but with the disposable camera, I found myself really making an effort to snap the scene just as I wanted it to be remembered.
It was so good to see Deirdre. We got drinks at the Silver Dollar with her friends, and just caught up on life. I stayed at her house and we went out to breakfast in the morning. It was really nice to see her. Hopefully, I will be back here next summer, and will get to see her some more!
After leaving D that morning, I drove back up to the park, and checked in at Old Faithful. Megan had checked in earlier, and got us a room together in Laurel. Everyone says Laurel is the worst dorm, because it’s full of underage people and there are communal bathrooms, but it’s really not bad at all. I’m pretty happy about it. And at least Megan and I are together.
It is nice because it’s right behind the geyser, and next to where I work. So it ain’t half bad.
Yesterday, my friend from Lake came to visit, and we walked around Fountain Flats. There was this little geyser that erupted every 10 minutes or so, and it was really awesome to see. We sat there for a while just watching it, and then trekked through the woods on the way back, off the trail to avoid a bison. Old Faithful area is really beautiful, and I feel lucky that I am so close to all this amazing stuff. My dorm is right next to smoking earth. It’s pretty cool.
I trained last night at dinner, and this morning at breakfast. Now, training is over, and I’m heading to my first lunch shift on my own. Old Faithful is a much smaller dining room, and I feel like it’s more laid back than Lake, in terms of the whole “fine dining” facade we had to put on over there. But I like Lake a lot better. There are so many employees here, it’s pretty impersonal. I guess Lake just has my heart, because it’s where I spent so much time. I miss all my friends dearly, and our pub and basketball court where we all used to hang out. It’s much different here, but I’m settling in well. I will learn to like it, and hey, it’s only for 3 more weeks. Then, I’m homeward bound.
