Wow. Sorry everyone, I didn't realize it had been so long since I had written anything. And I know your lives revolve around me so I am actually quite contrite. Seriously though, my once a week postings are no longer once a week--it took me days to get a decent enough connection to post this. I'll post when I can, and I'll still call and text when I can, but I'm living in the mountains: there is basically no Internet here.
My weekly schedule is one or 2 days off each week, reservationist 2 days each week, and front desk for the other days. When I'm at the desk, I mostly work second shift from 2:45PM to 11:00PM, and then one day a week I work first shift from 6:45AM to 3:15PM. I also substitute as a server/bellman during busy times and cocktail hour when the bellman is busy with something else. I like all the different jobs though. They complement each other but they're different enough that I don't get bored doing the same thing, over and over again. Morning shift at the desk is completely different from afternoon/evening shift, too. Morning shift is the breakfast and lunch rushes and dealing with check outs and billing issues, so it's more administrative. Afternoon/night shift is dealing with check ins, dealing with the dinner rush, handling the gift shop sells, and getting arrival packets ready for the next day, so it's more people oriented. Morning shift always feels longer than night shift for some reason; when I work mornings I always feel like I've been at the desk for days.
Reservations is basically the same as front desk except all my interactions with people are over the phone and I get to sit instead of stand for 8 hours. I work reservations on Sundays and Mondays, the days that our full time reservationist has off. Sometimes the day goes really slow because no one is calling and sometimes I get slammed with calls and voicemails for hours. I have to be careful with area codes too because of the time zones--you don't want to call someone at 5AM on the weekend. So I usually have a good bit of downtime on Sundays, especially now, because the season has gotten rolling and we're not taking very many reservations anymore.
Meeting and interacting with our guests is fun, most of the time. I love the guests who are happy to be here; they're so thankful to be here that it's infectious. I love doing things for them because they're just so excited to be at Jenny. There was one couple here a week or so ago that I thought were great. It was the wife's first time in Wyoming and it had been the husband's dream for 25 years to come stay at Jenny. There have been a few families I have loved having because they're so excited to be here that it makes me excited to make their vacation special. There have been a few guests that have treated coming here like work, though. They hate it as soon as they get here, nothing suits them, the weather is poor, the wireless is working fast enough...they come here as though they have to, not because they want to. But those guests are in the minority, most of our guests treat vacation like a vacation, not like a job. There are a couple of families and couples that I'm sad I probably won't see again. We get CEOs of major companies, senators and congress people. Famous people come here because they get away from everything else and because they can afford it. And then we get the guests who have been saving for this vacation for years. It's a good mixture. We have a number of guests celebrating honeymoons and anniversaries throughout the season. We've had families that have been coming here for 40 years because the grandfather started the tradition and stipulated in his will that the family had to come back every year. There was a guest the other night who gave me his email address and told me to email him if I ever come to New York and he would hook me up with theater tickets and such. So I'm planning a New York trip either later this fall or in spring and I'm pretty excited about that.
I'm pondering coming back next summer. I really love it out here. I like my job, seasonal work would be fun for a few years, I think. Now that I've traveled a bit I don't want to stop; I want to keep exploring everything! We'll see how much I like this place and this job come August and September, but right now I'll probably apply to come back next season.
I did go up one trail that's still impassable, though. About half our trails are still covered in feet of snow. I didn't know that when I started hiking to Paintbrush Canyon, and since the hike is only a mile, when I got to the part of the trail where I was climbing over downed trees and crawling up mountains of snow, I pressed on. It was a pride thing...I wasn't going to let a one mile hike beat me.
So I found a horse wandering around camp the other day. By the way, the horses are finally here. The corrals are really close to the employee cabins so we can just go over and pet and feed the horses whenever we want. But anyway, a group of us were sitting and talking outside one of the cabins last week, and I looked up and there was Idaho, wandering around the basketball court, munching on grass. He escaped and I found him so that means he's mine. My next day off is Tuesday so if there's room on the ride, I'm going horseback riding that day.
Payday was Thursday so that was awesome! It seemed like a pretty big paycheck to me, but that's probably because I haven't received a paycheck since August and I've only worked part time while being a student. But. I am excited to have money, so I went out and bought wedding, birthday, and Father's Day presents. And toothpaste and other items for myself. I think I'm going to apply for a passport with this paycheck, too.
My coworkers/roommates/friends are great. I know I say that with every blog post, but they're pretty awesome people. I mean, we've really only known each other for less than a month now, but I've never been around a group of people in which everyone was so friendly and so encouraging. If I dress up one day (and by dress up, I mean wearing something other than a work uniform or jeans and a hoodie), about half the people here will compliment me. We're just nice to each other, probably because we realize that we're not just friends or just coworkers or just roommates--we're all three, so if one aspect of that relationship doesn't work out then everything kind of falls apart. And we're a small enough facility that if someone one has a problem with someone else, everyone knows about it. But I'm making some great friends--the kind of friends that you can go years without talking to, but if I were in Australia or California or Oregon or Washington, I already know I have a place to stay.
I finally saw a bear, so I can cross that off my bucket list. Also, I can cross not being mauled by a bear that I see in the wild off my bucket list, too.
From my list of to do things this summer, I have currently completed eating nachos at Signal Mountain Lodge and various hiking trails. And I'll be horseback riding on Tuesday hopefully.
Fun fact: There are four distinct types of habitat within the Grant Teton National Park's boundaries: wetlands, coniferous forests, flatlands full of sagebrush and the high alpine environment.
If you would like a postcard from me, just email/comment/Facebook me your address and I'll send you a super cool picture with a snarky message (I'm really quite good at snarkiness if you hadn't noticed)!
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