daily grind

Well Cynthia and Dale have pretty much left the store to me and kimberly now. They will still be in town for the next 15 days or so but dale has Tanakon Fuel CO to run (diesel fuel for heating and what not) and Cynthia is running the bed and breakfast. Its nice, just to go at our own pace... and it really helps to learn the job. We are both getting really comefortable behind the till and both getting to know the locals.

two nights ago we had an interesting experience. one of the locals called and begged me to sell her a can of chew afterhours. I told her i would this one time but i could not promise her i would do it the next time. she thanked me and we both hung up. i went down and grabbed her bill to add it to it and a can of chew, came back up stairs and waited for her to pick up her goods. when she got here i handed them to her. She then walked in the door talking to us about a customer that was giving us a hard time earlier in the day when she walked in. that coversation lead into her talking about her son that was killed last summer right before KHBC. He was shot and killed by a friend while at a fish camp seven miles down river... they were all drinking and doing drugs and the death was accidental. She was telling us how she was having a bluzie day all day and she was missing her son. She talked for like 45 minutes and mentioned she knew the next step for her was to go to church.

That was an amazing experience for me but kimberly grounded me when she enlightened me to the fact that she was opening up to us like a native verly rarely would because something was in her system loosening her up (most likely). today Cynthia told us how every once and a while she gets depressed about her son and partys and drinks heavily. nevertheless it was an amazing experience and it was fun to just sit and listen and not feel like i needed to tell her anything.

kimberly wanted to do some blogging so here is my beautiful-

ok, well.....i just had to mention a couple things from my point of view. i know a couple days ago andy was mentioning how we are both doing great and life was good, et cetera. well, i just thought it would be good to tell you all that i had a really rough couple of days. I was just grumpy and upset for like 2 days....kinda like andy was when we first arrived....but i could see myself being really sensitive and not being able to let things go. like people would say something at the store and i would take it personally and it would just weigh me down and i felt like a million thoughts were running through my head and i couldnt relax...just like i was super stressed and everything. so, during work when cynthia and dale were outta town, i went upstairs and wrote a journal entry in our computer. as i was writing it, i just felt like i needed to give it to andy and let him know all that was going on in my head. so, after realizing, to my disappointment, that laptops dont come with printers, i saved the entry and went downstairs to tell andy that he had something to read on our computer. after a while he came down and gave me a big hug and we talked and ever since then things have been really good. i am not as stressed and i realize that not everything (hardly anything, actually) should be taken personally at this job and it helped me trust in God a lot more (knowing that he knows all the crazy things in my head that even I cant decipher). also, it helped me open up to andy and know that he genuinely listens and cares for me.....hes so great!! so, since then all has been well. andy and i got up slightly early (yeah, right!) but made it out for a quick walk around town before work at 11. i was telling dale that it was great because i actually felt like i was 6 again...we found walking sticks and were going around crushing ice puddles and making designs in the broken puddles. it was marvelous and the sun has been shining all day! yeah!!! its the weekend!!! andy and i were mentioning how nothing would be able to describe the beauty up here, like pictures can do it no justice and so when i describe this morning to you, im sure you think its rather nominal but if you were here you would be thinkin otherwise! ok, well, thats all i got to say...andy and i miss every one of you very much!