Yet another update

So apparently I'm not very good at keeping this updated. I guess I'm just too busy and important for menial things like blogging.

I'm now working at a new job. Yes, that's right, I am no longer a professional tourist wrangler (that also means less amusing stories about old people on vacation). Now I'm working at North Star Hospital (an acute care psychiatric hospital for kids 3-17) as the Administrative Assistant to the Nursing Department. Right up my alley. Currently my job involves me following around the Director of Nursing and doing whatever she tells me to do. She's awesome though, so it's not as bad as it sounds. Soon I will be doing her bidding in the mornings and then answering phones on the Children and Pre-teen units in the evening.

In non-work related business, I just returned to the great frigid state of Alaska from a fantastic vacation. I went to Portland, OR to visit a friend from college and then we drove down to Santa Barbara, CA for my dad and Paula's non-Alaska Wedding Bash. We left Portland at about 12:30pm on Oct 24, stopped in Eugene, OR to have coffee with a friend and then continued on south for another 8 hours. That got us to Sacramento where we thought we would spend the night. We decided we would drive past downtown to try and find a hotel in the interest of possibly saving money. That was a bad assumption. Apparently every hotel in Sacramento is just North of downtown. So we drove South for another 45 minutes until we arrived in Lodi, CA. We stayed the night listening to the trucks parked at the truck stop next door idle their engines and honk their horns with a little bit of ambient highway noise in the background. The next day we were on the road before 9am. We ate lunch at In-n-Out burger in Gilroy and then met my dad and Paula in San Luis Obispo for coffee before we all headed to Santa Barbara. We then spent four absolutly fantastic days in Santa Barbara shopping, going to the beach and working on our tans, hanging out with my family, partying it up, and eating too much. We both enjoyed Santa Barbara so much that we stayed until the last possible minute. Thus, we got up at 4:30 am on Monday Oct. 30 and drove for 16 hours straight to get back to Portland in time for Margaret to go to work at 9am on Tuesday morning and for me to fly home on Tuesday night.



The sight of our future beach shack












The result of this vacation is that Margaret and I are going to move to California and live in a shack on the beach.

That's the update.

The flood of 2006

August 19, 2006 was almost the end of the world...ok, not the end of the world, but Alaska almost disappeared underwater. Either that or it was time to start building an ark and collecting animals. I knew it was going to be quite a day when I walked upstairs that morning and heard my boss on the phone saying "well, what kind of whale was it?" Yeah, the ship hit a whale and it was STUCK to the front of the boat.

I was spending my usual Saturday at the airport getting crabby old people on buses to Seward, while the state was flooding. I thought I had it bad when 50 people were going to show up at 5:00pm (we have to send the last bus to Seward by then or they will miss the ship). My boss informed me we would be holding the bus for them as well as the ship. One disaster after another led to the last bus leaving at 6:50pm. When I got back to the office, I realized that was the least of our problems. The road from Talkeetna to Denali was closed because Troublesome Creek flooded and washed out the bridge (go figure that Troublesome Creek would be the "troubled" area). We had guests from Alyeska to Talkeetna that were going to need places to stay and new tour patterns. 40 hours in three days and we got everyone where they needed to go. We ended up sending 4 tours worth of people on the Richardson Highway to Fairbanks, turning a six hour drive into 14+ hours of driving. We put 112 people on a train that only holds 65, and we made 380 turkey sandwiches to send with people on their excessively long coach ride. Not to mention the fact that on Sunday night the phones went out in Talkeetna and we had no way of telling the drivers and tour directors what odd route they would be taking the next day. Luckily one of our employees was at her mom's cabin out in that direction and had cell service, so she called the office and then drove to Talkeetna to relay our messages. It was an interesting few days...but we all came out of it alive, and a little wet.

TV Material

So I've decided that our office should be the subject of a new TV show, it will be called "As the Ship Turns." If "Airline" is a relatively successful TV show, then why not have a show about the cruise ship industry? Who wouldn't find things like guests yelling and screaming about having to wait 30 minutes for a $74 bus ride to Seward which is three hours away (a taxi costs upwards of $300)? What about sending a one-armed man from Tennessee, who has only been west of the Mississippi once in his life (and he was pushing 70), on a charter flight to Seward, only to have the plane turn around due to bad weather and a mechanical failure. Or how about when you go to talk to your boss at the end of the day and his office phone rings, he answers, then his cell phone rings and he tosses it to you to answer, he gets off the phone, your cell phone rings, you toss it to him to answer, you get off the phone, his office line rings again, you answer it, and so on. Really, it would be funny in a tv show...I promise.

How I spent my Saturday

I spent this Saturday as I have spent every Saturday since May 27, and will spend every Saturday until Sept. 9, at the Airport, working. On Saturdays we turn our ship, which means a mass influx of people through the airport. Both people coming off the ship and going to the ship (which leaves from Seward) come through the airport.
Here is what happened:

*I got yelled at by a man and his wife who booked their cruise through AAA and their flight home had somehow gotten cancelled. However, when guests don't book directly through the company there is nothing we can do for them regarding their air travel. So I told them this, gave them a phone number, and smiled. It wasn't very effective.

*We recieved a bag from the ship that had been urinated on. We did not know this until the guests picked the bag up around 1pm and brought it to our attention. The guests were very good natured about this and were content when we provided them a replacement bag and a phone number for Customer Service. It is suspected that an intoxicated ship employee committed this act when the bags were collected on Friday night on the ship.

*I had a couple of guests who arrived too late for a bus transfer (they arrived at 5:45pm and the last bus transfer is at 4:30pm because it's a 3 hour drive to Seward and guests need to be onboard the ship no later than 8:00pm). We got them a charter flight to Seward. While I was waiting with the one-armed man and his wife from Tennesee I learned that this was only the second time the man had ever been West of the Mississippi. So we put them on a small plane to Seward where their friends were waiting, only to have a mechanical issue with the plane and have the plane have to return to Anchorage. The couple will miss 1.5 days of their curise as they can't meet up with the ship until Monday when it docks in Skagway.

*We had six bags found at the Hospitality Center at 6:00pm that were supposed to have already gone to the ship as the guests we onboard waiting for them. We put these bags on the charter flight with the late guests...the bags are now sitting in our office waiting to go to Skagway on Monday.

Overall it was a productive 15 hour day. That's how I spent my Saturday and how I will spent the next 8 Saturdays.

Why there should not be a 4th of July parade in Downtown Anchorage

10:00am – Supervisor makes several attempts made to get from A street to Kaladi on the outskirts of downtown Anchorage (13th & I). Attempts unsuccessful, coffee not obtained, day ruined.

10:15am – Supervisor arrives at office, angry due to the lack of caffiene available at this point in the day.

10:30am - Various issues with manifests, computers, paperwork, etc. caused increased stress (mostly stemming from the unsuccessful quests for coffee).

10:35am – Supervisor contacts employee at the Marriott downtown to come and pick up another employee and return to the Marriott.

11:00am - Other staff memebers arrive. Employee coming from the Marriott still not arrived. Take employee needing to go to the Marriott as well as those going to the airport.

11:10am - employee FINALLY arrives at the yard only to find that he was too late to pick up co-worker as we decided to send her with the airport bound group. SO his supervisors supervisor offers to drive him BACK to the Marriott because she knows that parking will be a disaster.

11:15am – Supervisor arrives as close to the Marriott as possible (about 4 blocks away) drop off employee (after almost killing us all due to cars without break lights stopping suddenly in the middle of the street).

11:30am - Successfully obtain Kaladi coffee after taking the last parking spot in the parking lot (later to learn that my dad was also attempting to park in the parking lot at the same time and was not able to get a parking spot and left in a snit without his coffee). On approach to Marriott the supervisors supervisor realizes that all streets within 3 blocks of the Marriott are closed and there is no place to stop or pull over on L street (shy of Minnesota Carrs) to drop off employee. Due to the FREAKING parade there were cars all around and no place to stop so the supervisors supervisor slows the truck down and informs the employee that he is going to need to jump from the moving vehicle and then walk the 4 blocks to the Marriott. After he wipes the look of shock and fright from his cute little face the employee jumps from the moving vehicle, nearly trips in the street (which because of the parade has become the only vehicle route in downtown Anchorage therefore the busiest street in Anchorage all together!) and dodges through oncoming traffic.

11:31am – Supervisors supervisor then gets trapped in the downtown parade traffic (oh what a mother duck will do for her little ducklings!)

11:40am – Supervisors arrives at airport.

11:55am – Supervisors supervisor finally makes it through the downtown traffic maze to 15th and Cordova (about a million blocks out of her way!)

12:00pm - First flight arrives with two guests. Coach has not left the yard yet due to the fact that there is no possible way for her to get near the Marriott. Tell guests they will have to wait approximately 45 minutes before we can leave the airport. Luckily guests ok with this.

12:05pm – Supervisors supervisor finally makes it back to her office after nearly an hour of battling downtown traffic because of the freaking 4th of July Parade...who in the hell goes to parades anyways?! I mean seriously!

12:45pm - Second flight arrives, guests and bags not shown up yet. Tell first two guests that will be going to Marriott in van so as to not have to wait another half an hour to get on the coach with the second group of guests. Informed need to hurry - window of time allowed to get near the Marriott short due to end of parade and start of a wheelchair race.

12:15pm – Supervisor calls into other supervisor to inform of our approach to barricades.

12:16pm - Arrive with guests at Marriott, allowed near Marriott after other supervisors convinced cops to let us through the baricades.

12:25pm - Take one employee back to office and pick up another and drop off within 4 blocks of Marriott.

12:35pm - Second group of guests leave the airport with a luggage crew onboard to help move bags the 1.5 blocks from the coach to the entrance of the Marriott.

12:50pm - Coach calls in to other supervisor at the Marriott who meets at barricade at 7th and L to move it. Coach pulls through and parks 1.5 blocks away from Marriott, guests walked inside, bags to follow.

12:55pm - 5:00pm - Repeat process five or six times each time having the coach call in on approach to the Marriott and having an employee run 3 blocks to the barricades, move them, let the coach through, replace barricades, run to next block and repeat the process. Coach parks 1.5 blocks from Marriott, guests walked to front door, bags carted behind.

Happy 4th of July to you too...