Walking to the River

I have gotten conflicting reports about swimming in the river at the end of town.  One person told me "It's cold enough to KILL YOU" and another person said, "If it gets into the 90s the sun will warm the water enough for swimming!" 

I guess those two statements don't conflict in fact, only in spirit.  I dipped my fingers in and it was cold enough that I was not tempted to change into my 1950s style red bathing suit, for a swim, even though it is a really cute bathing suit.  Another fun thing to do with a river though, besides swim in it, is stare at it while sitting on a sun-bleached log.  And watch birds dive-bomb fish.

Tiny triumphs of nature

Caterpillar tree

Birches

The Little Susitna River.  PJ Harvey lyric: "White sun scattered all over the sea"

Big chunk of leftover snow at the river

Rocks, sun, riverbed

Also, I moved.  I now live in a room by myself instead of a room with three other women, in an apartment with SEVEN OTHER WOMEN.  Yeah.  The night before last someone's snoring woke me up at 3am, and it sounded like she was gargling jet skis and ducks.  I know who it was, and she is very sweet, and I know that people can't help it if they snore. 

Instead of throwing a stuffed animal at her (which was my strategy with Jessica when we were kids - she'd wake up with a start and look over at me; I'd be lying there, eyes closed; she'd roll over out of the snoring position and fall back asleep) - which I actually might have, but I didn't bring any with me, they're all in the back windshield of my car, looking trapped and faded, so that people will stare at me on the freeway and wonder how my mind works - just kidding, haha, - are you even following this sentence anymore? - so yeah, INSTEAD OF throwing a stuffed animal at her, I got up and put earplugs in.  What I failed to anticipate is that I would not hear my alarm at 6:20am with earplugs in.  Ha.

I woke up to a scrambling noise and saw the arm of the girl in the bunk above me reaching down to the dresser, pushing buttons on my alarm clock at random.  I think I said "Oh shoot," except actually the other word, and turned it off.  I looked at my watch (instead of at the alarm clock) (for some reason) and realized it had been on for twenty minutes.  TWO ZERO.  Ha ha.  Sorry, guys!

I think part of the reason no one threw anything at me in all that time is that I have an iHome alarm clock that plays my iPod, and I had it set to play the album "Systems/Layers" by Rachel's, this classical band.  Better than beeping.  Although when I woke up it was playing the song "even/odd," which is the most frantic song on the album.  That is maybe why the girl in the top bunk (NOT the snorer, note) finally reached down to turn it off.

Here is the song, in case you want to close your eyes and pretend you are my roommate:

Uh, so yeah.  The snoring/alarm clock incident was the only one I had with them before moving out today.  They are all nice, and normal, and mature enough to share a space with a lot of people.  There is a girl who tends to be very anxious about when everybody plans to shower in the morning, and wants to know exactly what time people are going to do it.  For some reason (and I think this is unusual) everyone else is very casual, very "Whatever, we'll all shower, it'll be fine" about it.   Last night I told her, when asked what time I planned to shower in the morning, "I don't have to be at work til noon."  

"So okay, what time?" she persisted.  

"Once at seven,  and then again at eight.  I take two showers every morning, an hour apart, or else I don't feel clean."  I said this very seriously and she believed me and started trying to plan around me and I laughed maniacally and said Just kidding, I'm showering tonight.  

So maybe there would have been more incidents.  If I'd kept living there. Because I can't always stop myself from being hilarious.

But yeah.  I am out of there and in my own room because I am going to work two graveyard shifts a week at the Front Desk.  My bosses were concerned, initially: "Will you be able to stay awake?  Will you be okay not talking to anyone for eight hours?"  Oh!  Staying up all night and not talking to people are two of my best talents.  That's why I was asked not to enter the Miss America pageant.

My room is kind of huge.  It has a mini fridge, two twin beds, two closets, a good view.  I will be sharing a communal bathroom and kitchen now - the HR woman told me the two women's showers and two women's toilets downstairs in the common area are shared among 10 women.  That's fewer women-per-facility than before; however, I have to walk outside and downstairs to get to the bathroom.  But whatevs.  I have a little kingdom of silence for the next four months, in Alaska.