Thanksgiving

I’ve been sick with “the crud.” It bypasses very few people – even the folks at AGAP all have it. It is a lingering cold, with a nasty deep chest cough along with headaches and ear pain. Bodies definitely behave differently down here and I’ve been frustrated with feeling blicky for a whole week, but there are some down here who have been coughing and ill for 6 weeks!

Hmm, I think my eyebrows need some tweezing :)

I took that picture of my sick self just before I finally caved in and took a few ibuprofen with a beer in order to rally for Thanksgiving (celebrated on Saturday). That plus a little eyeliner and a shampoo for the first time in 5 days and voila! Smiling and chatty for an hour…then it was back to bed.

I’m starting to feel better now though. My roommate gave me a great book to read while I was recovering: Truth and Beauty, by Ann Patchett. It’s a memoir of a friendship, what happens to a woman when she grows up with a disfigured face, plus it sheds light on lives of writers. Very well written. I also indulged in several sappy happy-ending movies which Scott would have no stomach for whatsoever.

Things that made me feel better.

Thanksgiving meal was delicious – the kitchen goes all out and makes a grand feast.

Crab legs were a big hit, but they were too unwieldy for me. When Colleen held them up, all the juices ran down onto her skirt.

 

The parfait was my favorite part of the meal because it had real mint and lavender on top which I ate, plus fresh berries AND now that I washed out the glass, I finally have something to pour wine into for my room (even if it is plastic).

The shuttles family.

Somehow we have a bagpiper down here - he played for us at the end of our meal. You would not believe the hidden talents this town has and all the little groups and clubs there are – many of which are not advertised in any way. Just tonight I found out there is a 40s-50s club, that is, people over 40 who get together every week to watch movies from the 50s (not my cup of tea but still…). And I am always seeing folks walking around base with instruments in hand, going to jamming sessions throughout the week. I was thinking that Mark, Scott’s brother, would probably love to take part in some of those. I think it would take many years to uncover all that goes on here. Who knew McMurdo would be such a cultural bonanza? I would love to find more things like this back in Montana.

I took a very slow hike around Ob Hill yesterday afternoon, and as I rounded the bend back toward town, I heard “It’s a mistake” by the 80s group, Men at Work, blaring from the helo hangar as some mechanic was working on the new slick blue Kiwi helicopter (with an enclosed tail blade). A group of about thirty people were running around on the ice below practicing for the upcoming rugby tournament with New Zealand team next month. The four Herc planes out on the ice runway were all lined up in a row and quiet for once. The sun was warm and the silted streams of melted snow were gently carving jagged ruts in the dirt roads. It felt like, well, the day after Thanksgiving (minus the awful shopping of course) – peaceful, relaxed, lazy. There are very few days like that around here.

In fact, on Friday of this coming week, the Ice Runway will be moved about ten miles further out on the ice to Pegasus airfield. Then a bit later on, the 10-mile shortcut route will melt, and we will have to travel an hour in another direction with all airfield personnel as part of our job. There are a lot of unhappy folks about this big change, and it will make our jobs in shuttles quite stressful because of the very long drives each day in ancient vehicles, but there is nothing that can be done about it. There is a sense of morose resignation around town about the situation.

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“I know where it is! Shit, maybe….no, it’s not!”  This I hear from my roommate several times each day. She is always losing things. She spent 45 minutes at 5:30 a.m. a few days ago riffling through her things looking for her phone card. I finally lent her one of mine, but she later found hers…in her boot. Then she will leave me a chocolate and a nice note on my pillow inviting me to hoolahoop group, or she will come in and rub my foot fiercely for a moment or two asking if I feel better. For my part, I have been making horrible snorting and clicking sounds with this cold waking us both up, and I go to bed way earlier than she does, but I do compliment her on her guitar playing and I leave the door unlocked for her (she’s lost her key).  I forget what a wild ride having a roommate can be.

I have had a few very brief chats with Scott on the phone. He sounds like someone calling from some base camp high in the Himalaya - he has a terrible cough and almost no voice. Also, he has been getting very little sleep. His is the only field camp that is on schedule at the moment though and apparently also the only drama free camp this season, so he is doing something right. Because he is in the Coms tent with others when he calls, he has on his camp manager persona which means no lovey-dovey talk :(  I miss him even more this time.