34 Hours Awake? Oh No.

School's out for summer!  The students all graduated on May 5th and then we flew with them up to Anchorage that night so that they could go back to their villages.  I went as a chaperone.  There were two flights, one leaving at 11:30 pm and the other leaving at 12:30am.  Of course I was on the later one.  That is my life.  The flight was delayed, but we only had to sit on the plane for about an hour and a half, so in my Alaska Airlines experience, not bad.  Then we were underway.  Normally planes don't fly directly from Sitka to Anchorage, normally we only fly to Ketchikan and Juneau, but because of the volume of students we had two chartered flights that came in.  So, I wasn't really prepared for what chaperoning at the airport entailed.  We got to Anchorage around 3 am, and might I just say what everyone is now thinking, eew.  Yes, it was awful.  I thought we were watching the kids until their flights, but really they are sort of on their own unless a disaster happens and that is what we are in the airport for.  I went down to baggage claim were the other chaperones were already sitting and wished for sleep.  Two of the MEHS staff chaperones ditched me and Jonathan (another AmeriCorps) at the airport to go to the hotel.  Harsh, I know.  So they left and then it was me (I was sick, by the way and was exhausted) and Jonathan.  It was about 4am now.  So, we played scrabble on his iPad, I destroyed him, of course, and wished for sleep.  It seemed like time was crawling at an exponentially slow pace.  The airport makes all these announcements, at the top of the hour and half after they tell you the time and what the weather is like in Anchorage.  At 15 after and 45 they would warn you about how a lot of baggage looked alike and to check your tags.  And finally at 10 after and 40 after they would tell you that the airport was a non-smoking facility and that you could only smoke in the outside designated areas.  We decided that around 7:30 am we would go see about breakfast and get me a really large caffeinated beverage or several small caffeinated beverages depending on what they had.  There aren’t a whole lot of options going on outside of security in the Anchorage airport.  There was Cinnabon, Starbucks and Hudson News.  I don't like coffee or cinnamon, so that severely limited my already slim options.  I went with a cinnamon bun and a couple of sodas from the newsstand.  However, I soon realized that I still don't like cinnamon even when I am really hungry and ate the top and outside.  The soda, however, was like ambrosia sent from Heaven.  Glorious caffeinated beverage, I love you.  We had to take our luggage upstairs with us when we went to get our breakfast stuff because when we were callously ditched at the airport they left us with our suitcases.  Rude.  On the way down, we took the escalator.  Now, as some of you may know, the escalator is not my favorite mode of transportation.  So Jonathan got on and I was trying to maneuver it so that my suitcase went on first and then me.  Well, that turned out to be harder then I thought and the suitcase got away from me to go barreling towards Jonathan (currently unaware with his back to me).  I yelled down at him to look out and now he keeps telling everyone that I tried to kill him.  False.  Had I really been trying to injure, I would not have yelled the warning as the suitcase hurtled towards him. 
So, we were back in baggage claim for a while chilling on surprisingly uncomfortable benches when everything blew up at once.  The valedictorian of the class came down and told us that they wouldn't let her check in because she didn't have her ID on her.  I then asked if she was over 18, because below that it is not necessary, and of course she is 18.  Dang it.  The ID is with her boyfriend in his checked luggage and since he is of course not a student with MEHS he is still in Sitka.  Cool.  He is travelling to Anchorage this morning and will hopefully get his luggage there, too.  A lot of the students’ luggage didn't make it because of weight and balance and the fact that we had 200 kids all checking 3 bags.  But, what person travels without their ID?  Seriously.  Children.  Ugh.  So we are preparing to deal with this and then we look over and there is a police officer with one of our students.  Great.  His face is all messed up and he is quite QUITE intoxicated and a little belligerent.  Sweet.  I love getting ditched at the airport.  So, we make the kid sit and talk to the officer.  She leaves and the kid passes out on the baggage claim benches.  So, now we have to call one of the staff people to tell her about this delightful occurrence.  She was less than thrilled.  So, she has to leave another kid at the doctors and come deal with drunk kid.  Jonathan used to be an EMT and so every once in a while he would go over and check on the kid.  At one point we were talking and I was all angry and outraged and Jonathan said to look on the bright side, he could be throwing up everywhere.  Fair point.  It could have been worse.  The kid lives in a remote village and when we went to rebook his flight, because he obviously couldn't fly, there was no available option out until Sunday morning.  It is Friday.  Cool kid.  The valedictorian’s boyfriend came in and they had to pull his bags off the plane for her to get her wallet out, but at least one problem down.  Some of the chaperones that came in where the coaches, so eventually after sleeping beauty woke up, one of the coaches came to get him and take him back to the hotel. 
Also, as a side note, I didn't realize how much my swearing filter works overtime until this trip.  It is difficult to focus on not swearing when all of your energy is going towards staying awake and alert (ish).  So a few words might have slipped out several times over the course of the morning, but really I blame exhaustion and a faulty filter.  Also, my best friend from grade school a little bit.  She could make a sailor blush with her language.  Finally, we got the go ahead to leave the airport, but we had no car.  There were two rental cars, both of which were with other people.  We were going to take a cab when Jonathan had to brilliant idea to call the hotel and see if they had a shuttle.  I call that brilliant because we were going on 33 hours awake, and with me being sick, it felt like I hadn't slept in a week.  When we got to the hotel and ditched our suitcases, we went in search of food.  We were going to get pizza, but when we walked out of the hotel there was a Qdoba right there!  I freaked and made Jonathan go there.  It was glorious.  I took a picture on my phone and sent it to several people.  Fantastical!  Then we went back to the hotel where I was sharing a room with another female MEHS staff member, she was talking to me and so I was answering from the bed, but as soon as she paused in her words I was like, Go, Go, Go!  And promptly fell asleep until 11pm.  It was amazing.  I don't think I moved an inch the whole time.  I spent 5 days in Anchorage, it is a cool city, but as exciting as it was to be in "the big city", all I kept thinking was that I bet Omaha is bigger than this.  It definitely doesn't have the same spectacular view though.  Mountains everywhere and at one point we were high enough to see the Cook Inlet.  Beautiful.  We were able to glimpse Denali, but didn't go.  Lame I know.  I wanted to, but alas it was not meant to be.  I got back into Sitka around 11pm and went home where my funny roommates had waited up to see me! 

Thanksgiving, Christmas and a Left Knee

Dinner in the living room!

Thanksgiving in Sitka! We decided to do an AmeriCorps Thanksgiving since we were all away from our families. The dinner was held at my house. Each of us took a dish and made it for the group meal. I made a fantastic turkey. It was so beautiful. Also, stuffing and gravy. It was fantabulous. We moved all of the furniture against the wall in our living room (which sounds impressive, but it was just a couch and a trunk) and moved our kitchen table as well as an end table into the living room for us to sit around. We had people sitting on our 6 chairs, the trunk, an end table from my room and stool. For a buffet table, I took one of the closet doors off the hinges and we have two saw horses that we set the door on in the kitchen. It was beautiful. We had a really good night, and it was fun to reinvent uses for the end table, aka chair!

Classy, I know!

Following Thanksgiving, I was pretty checked out. I was going home on December 13th, for Christmas and I just wanted to be gone and see everyone! Finally, I felt like it would never come, it was December 13th and I was going to begin what was to be a two day journey home. I left Sitka around noonish. There are three flights a day in Sitka, two going north and one going south. South is where I wanted to be! The plane stopped in Ketchikan before continuing on towards Seattle. Alaska Airlines (the only airline in Sitka, or Southeast basically) flies directly from Seattle to St. Louis, but only once a day, so any way I tried to work it I had to stay overnight in Seattle. That was a bummer, but I found a very cheap motel for $36. It was just as classy as I thought it would be. There was a pretty shady shuttle that picked me up from the airport and then took me to the even shadier motel. It was one of those drive up to your room places. When I got there the clerk had to leave me in the front because she did not have keys to the front door. So she went around back to let us in and I admired the beautiful front window while waiting. It had one of those push out glass windows like they have at a fast-food place and the whole front window was bulletproof glass. I hadn't seen any of that since leaving St. Louis in August. I missed you bulletproof glass and the comfort that you bring, assuring me that I am in a good neighborhood. The next morning, (yes, I made it the night there! I was a little surprised) I took the classy shuttle, which really was a gray unmarked van, to the airport. I got there really early because when I talked to Dad the night before he got me all freaked out about missing my flight. I was however, glad that I went really early because as I was standing in the security line (I was standing at the tables, computer, liquids, coat and shoes were out and in the little buckets) when suddenly people in the blue TSA shirts were everywhere screaming SECURITY BREACH! At the Seattle airport, you were in line and then you passed through these doors and then you are in line for a couple more people then you start shedding everything you own for the x-ray. When they were yelling the doors were slammed and TSA guys went and stood, back to us, in the metal detectors. So, now we are not sure what's going on and a little freaked out. Someone asked a TSA lady what was going on and she said that someone broke through security and that all flights were being held until the security breach was found. So, now we're just chilling in the security line, in between the closed doors and the metal detectors. A lot of us, including me, were standing there with no shoes on wondering how long this would take. Initially I stood there, but I got bored after a few minutes so I got out one of my books and read until they reopened security. Needless to say, but I was thankful that I got there earlier, because when they reopened the line, which was not bad at all when I got there, there were so many people behind those doors. Now that I was in the regular part of the airport I relaxed, until I found out a little bit later that they had to change planes and there was no seat for me. Cool. I booked this flight in October; it wasn't like I last minuted this! So, now I was extremely upset about potentially not getting to St. Louis when I was supposed to (there were five other people who had been bumped, too). I was standing at the stupid courtesy counter and they closed the doors going to the St. Louis plane, and I knew I wasn't getting on. Lame. They did the count and six people apparently checked in, but weren't on the plane so after much angst the airline people reopened the flight doors and let us on the plane. Thank goodness!

 

SAINT LOUIS!!!

I was in the great city of St. Louis from December 14th to January 6th. Then I had to fly back to Seattle for yet another overnight. However, on this occasion my wonderful parents got me an actual hotel in Seattle with a non-shady shuttle and all the entrances to the rooms were inside the hotel. Fancy, right? It was really nice and I definitely was more comfortable with my surroundings. Thank you!!! Once inside the terminal for my flight I noticed that it was a strange set up. Usually, there seem to be little lounges in front of the gate; however, my gate was 16A. Not an actual gate, more of a door, really, with a huge lounge area that accommodated several different gates. I was slightly perplexed by this, but I was just going to let it ride. They call us to board the plane and I discover why the gate looks like a door. It was because it was in fact a door. We went out said door and walked down a couple flights of stairs to the tarmac where we then walked along the tarmac to the end of the plane. Here there was a metal staircase for us walk up and board the plane from the back. Ok. I can see this happening in Yakutat, Sitka or even Juneau, but I am in Seattle. A huge airport for a large city and I am walking on the tarmac to get in the plane. Oh, Alaska. You are always an adventure. So we’re getting on the plane and I am almost to the entrance and a lady comes and tells us that we need to disembark and go back to the gate. Cool. So, now I am greatly regretting my decision to not where my coat and we all turn around and go back down the plane stairs, across the tarmac and back up the flight of stairs to reenter the airport. Once inside the airport I find out that the reason that we had to come back in was because the pilot was late. What? Don’t you think that is perhaps something that they should have checked beforehand? Now they are trying to find someone else to take the flight because the pilot is about an hour away. An hour? What did he think he was going to make it so why call and let them know he was running behind? Obviously, if at the time the flight was supposed to leave you are still an hour late, there was no chance of you making it. Which brings us back, full circle, to why they did not know that the pilot was not there before sending us on our trek to the plane. They found another pilot and we all went back out into the cold to get on the plane. I wore my coat that time, though! The flight was uneventful until we were approaching Juneau. It was getting a little bumpy and the pilot came on and said that weather in Juneau was really bad and that we were not able to land at this time. Great. The pilot said that the weather was supposed to clear up and we were going to go behind Sisters Island and wait for a little bit, otherwise we were going to have to continue on towards Yakutat. No! Not Yakutat! There are two flights a day in Yakutat and I felt certain if I ended up there that I was going to be stranded. We did figure eights in the sky for about 45 minutes and we finally got the ok to land in Juneau. We landed at 10:50am AKST. The flight to Sitka was supposed to leave at 10:30am AKST. So all I could think was great, now I’m stuck in Juneau. Better than Yakutat, but still not great. However, after leaving the plane we found out that the plane that was supposed to go to Sitka had not landed yet either because of the bad weather. So, I was able to board the plane and go to Sitka without any further airport, plane or flight drama. Once I landed, I was so glad to be back! I love it here!



Me, Amanda and Meghan standing on ice!!



I had the weekend to get settled and then on Monday, the kids were back and it was back to work! It was really cold in Sitka when I got back and Swan Lake froze over to the point where people could ice skate on it! I was driving down HPR (one of the main roads) and I was so surprised by seeing the people walking on the lake. I’ve never seen anyone standing on a lake and it was a pretty bizarre experience.



The metal moose in the lake.



It snowed on Saturday, so on Sunday I went out to the lake with Amanda, Meghan and Jonathan to walk around and play on the frozen lake. It was awesome! Such a cool experience walking on the ice, which was covered with snow, so not quite so slippery. I wore my sweet Xtratuffs, awesome rainboots, on the ice. One of the people who had property on the lake fashioned a ramp of sorts that they froze over and let kids sled down onto the water. It was so cool, such a neat experience. We made snow angels on the water, they were beautiful!

Injury.



Thats a good look, right?  Sweats rolled up, Xtratuffs, crutches.  Classy.

 On Tuesday, Jan 18th, I fell on the ice because I am a big klutz. I slipped getting into my car. I went home and put ice and elevated my knee, but I knew that I had done something bad to it. In the morning, I went to the hospital here. Why is the check in desk for the emergency room not near the emergency room entrance? Does that make sense to anyone? I had to limp down this long hallway while the nurses watched my make my slow way there. Once at the desk, they gave me a wheelchair to sit in. The staff there was awesome. I was in a room within five minutes of entering the hospital. A nurse checked my vitals and called the doctor before I had even registered! The nurse took me out to the registration desk in my wheelchair and I registered while waiting for the doctor. Before I was done, the doctor was there.

The doctor came in and examined my leg, he was very nice and I found out that he was the father of one of the teachers at my school. He ordered x-rays and told me that he thought it was my medial collateral ligament or MCL. I got a sweet pair of socks with grippies on the bottom, for me to wear whilst they rolled me all over the hospital getting x-rays. After the x-rays, the doctor said that he made me an appointment with Sitka Medical, which is a practice here in town, so that I can get examined and get fitted for a knee brace. Ugh. Before I left, the nurse came in and gave me a pair of crutches.

 Apparently, in Alaska, crutches come with spikes on them. They can flip up for when you are indoors, but when outside on the ice, spikes down. They are pretty intense.

At my physical therapist appointment I was poked and tortured even more. On the upside, however, now I am not only the proud owner of spiky crutches, but also a metal torture device that I strap onto my leg that I not so affectionately call Satan’s knee brace or Satan’s torture device. Depends on my mood.

The torture apparatus

I was told that I had a Grade II tear of my MCL. Ugh. The next day, I was at work lamenting my current injured status and the doctor’s office called me saying there was an opening at 10:30am for the doctor who is a sort of specialist in sports medicine here in Sitka. Now, my understanding is that his actual specialty isn’t sports medicine, but on the island he is the best there is. Well alrighty then! So, I went in to see him and he was full of good news and cheer and he said that I also had a tear in my medial meniscus. Cool. Thanks for that wonderful news doc. Anything else awesome you want to share? He thinks that the tear is on the outside of my meniscus where there is more blood flow. Because of the probable location I might not need to have surgery and it could be something that I don’t notice with regular activity for a while or it could be on the inside which would require surgery. So, hopefully door number 1 on that. About once a month, there is an orthopedic surgeon that flies in from Fairbanks and performs surgeries if that should become necessary.

Spikes!!!

Since the accident, I have had three physical therapy appointments. Today, (Jan 25th) I was hoping to get sprung from the crutches, but I am not able to fully straighten my leg without pain, so that was a no go. I am allowed to use only one crutch in doors now. That will be nice, because it is difficult having two if for no other reason then you can’t carry anything. I have taken to carrying around my backpack at all times because if I want to bring my water bottle or a book with me to another room then I need to take the backpack otherwise it is staying there.

On Wednesday, I am going to Juneau with 7 other Sitka AmeriCorps. I am not certain how much I will be able to participate because they have skiing (not doing that obviously), walking around town (I’m only allowed to walk around for 15-20 minutes in a row), a ropes course day (not doing that) and other stuff. I’m sure that it will still be a blast though! It will definitely be different visiting Juneau with people as opposed to just with myself. But in closing, I am a klutz who fell on the ice and tore my MCL and meniscus. It’s because I’m really graceful.

Ugh.  Crutches and the torturous knee brace