TGI "Friday"

Last night turned out to not exactly be what we were expecting it to be, but it was still really fun. At about four yesterday Cristina found out that there’d been some kind of wreck in Yellowstone and the roads were either closed or incredibly crowded, so her brother was going to save the trip down here for another time. After talking to Jesse and Nate, though, we decided we’d meet up at six and go to the Pioneer Grill anyway, since we’d all been looking forward to it. All four of us then took a little nap in our rooms before meeting up. Cristina and I had been sitting out on the back porch for a while, and we fell asleep in our beds with the back door standing wide open. We leave that door standing open quite a bit, in fact. It makes the space feel bigger and it’s nice to feel and hear the breeze from outside. I guess that’s a pretty good sign that we feel really safe out here; we know most of our neighbors, and most people just leave their doors unlocked, in our dorm at least. It just doesn’t seem like a big deal.

            At a little after six, Nate came over and met me, Cristina and Jesse on our back porch, and together the four of us headed to the Pioneer Grill. It felt kind of weird to be hanging out in the lodge while not working. Some of the people in the restaurant we recognized as people that we’d checked in, but I don’t think they recognized us since we weren’t in uniform. We all really liked having dinner somewhere other than the EDR; the food there really isn’t bad, but it’s nice to get a change once in a while. But, overall, what we were really coming for was the awesome desserts that the Pioneer Grill has. Cristina and I had a piece of cheesecake, Jesse had a malt, and Nate had a “Mount Owen”, which is two big cookies with ice cream in between and chocolate syrup drizzled on it. Everything was delicious.

            After walking back to the dorm area from dinner, we decided to go to the Whistle Pig to hang out and play some pool. We didn’t really expect to stay in there until it closed at midnight, but that’s what ended up happening. Tanner met us there after he got off work at nine, and we spent the night playing pool, singing along to songs on the juke box, and just having fun. Elliot eventually came to join us as well when he got off work.

            When the place closed down at midnight Cristina, Tanner and I walked back to dorm two together and the three of us sat out on our back picnic table for about another hour just talking and enjoying the moon and stars in the beautiful night. Tanner had to be at work this morning, so eventually he said he had to go back to his room, and Cristina and I both went back inside as well. Before going to bed, we agreed that we’ve met the absolute nicest, sweetest, funniest, overall best guys of our lives right here in this park in the last few weeks. This is really an amazing place.

            Since I worked the morning shift the past three days, I slept in this morning. Cristina and I both go in at three today. Nate and Jesse both have the day off; the four of us just got back from having lunch at the EDR. Tomorrow and Thursday are my days off, and awesomely enough, Jesse, Tanner, and Nate all have tomorrow off as well, and Cristina doesn’t have to go in until three. There’s a chance of rain tomorrow, but we’ve agreed that if it doesn’t rain we’re all going to go kayaking on Jackson Lake in the morning. Employees are allowed to rent kayaks for free from the marina up at Colter Bay, and it’s a really beautiful area. If the weather stays nice, that should be a lot of fun. Tanner actually has Thursday off as well; I think I’d prefer the activities desk’s schedule over front desk. The way theirs works is they work four days of ten-hour shifts, then have three days off before going back in. Since there’s so much here to do on our days off, I think that schedule is better. At the same time, their pay is a little lower than ours. I might ask Tanner if he wants to do something together on Thursday if he doesn’t already have plans.

            I’ve been living here in GTNP for almost a month now. I was surprised how easy and fast it was to adjust to life in a dorm, with a roommate, and just overall the big change of living in this place. I’ve also been amazed at how easy it’s been to make some great friends, and how we’ve all become so close so fast. No, I haven’t known them very long, and I don’t know everything about them, and we all come from different areas of the country, but we’ve quickly become a kind of family here. I can’t get over how amazing that is.