Ron, Kenny, and Asshole Danny

Oh the people I work with. I'm not technically on a crew, but I have been working with some of the same people again and again.

The three that are my favorites are Ron, Kenny, and Asshole Dan.

Ron...is super attractive to me. I know, it sounds weird. He looks almost exactly like the coach from Forever Strong. Not Larry Gelwix, but the other one. Super intense blue eyes. He's attractive. And he's really funny. He invited me to the bar when we get back on day shift, and to go to a Twins game while I'm in town.

Kenny is great. He's really short, like 4'11. He looks like one of Santa's elves. Him and Ron interact...and it's hilarious. I wish I could think of a good comparison. But I can just sit and watch them talk and listen and it kills me. So funny.

Danny...is an asshole. A lovable one, but still an asshole. He smokes a pack of extra long cigarettes every shift, chews a tin of tobacco, and drinks a bottle of whiskey a week. He's a supervisor, and so when he's around we kind of have to look like we're busy...but it's not too bad.

I just really like the people I work with, and am excited to keep working with them and go to the bar.

Birthday!

I just barely realized that I forgot to write about my birthday weekend. It was a blast for sure. Let's see. On Saturday we had a party at First Dam. It was super chill, just a bunch of people and food. It wasn't like a big thing, I just wanted to see people before I left for the summer. I believe the people who came were Cody, Jessey, Sissy, Kea, Noelle, Texas, Mckenna, Moriah, Cherisse, Colton, Cat and James and their baby....I feel like I'm missing people. But it was really fun :)
Sunday I basically just had a family day. Opened presents and such and Texas came over to have cake. Sheri and Calvin brought over cinnamon rolls and a card for me, which was super nice.

The loot: I got a hollowed out book with a flask and a bottle of rum from Moriah. Texas gave me the new Foster the People album, which I LOVE. Listen to their song pumped up kicks here. My grandma gave me 40 dollars. From my family I got 2 Billy Joel CDs, a couple of memory cards for my phone and mp3 player, a GPS, a New York Yankees license plate frame, and some earrings. Jessey and Sissy got me a Billy Joel vinyl!! That was super exciting :) It really was just an amazing day.

IHAVETHEBESTJOBINTHEWHOLEWIDEWORLD

I really love it. I'll explain it, but it sounds really boring. Sorry. I'm just ecstatic about it :)

So I got there and clocked in at 5:40 this morning. My trainer got there about five minutes later. He told me and the other lady, Paula, what we would be doing. Starting out with absolutely nothing. Until 7:15. :) Then we go and pull ash. Basically there's these giant containers, three of them, that contain ash. You take a giant, 40 pound steel rake and rake it towards you. It gets sucked up into a vacuum and taken to the ash silo. That takes about 2 hours. Then we chill for a while longer. After that we go out to the south building and fill these giant things called grizzlies. We drive the front loader around and fill the grizzlies up with coal.

Ha it sounds like I work in a coal mine. You get a little dirty, but it's super entertaining. After you fill the grizzlies, it's lunch time. So we take an hour lunch, and then go underneath the mill and clean up.

We basically sweep whatever fell off the conveyor belt and make sure there's no build up in a bunch of random hatches. We scrape shiz off and climb around on railings. It's nice :) After that we take some environmental numbers from a bunch of different gauges, and write them in the environmental book.

Then we drive the front loader again, and pile up all the piles of coal that have come in. So there's room for more.

Then we take another break. After that we straighten up and head back to the control room, where we do nothing until the shift is over.

It's a 12 hour shift, but it's not nearly that much work. He told us we could bring a book and just chill in the south building. It's really nice. I love it :)

Le New Job

I'm in a department called utilities. My official title is "fuel technician." It sounds super bad ass, like I'm really smart. But it's pretty chill. Basically I drive a front loader around and move coal from huge piles and dump it into a steel grate in the floor. From there, it lands in this giant inverted pyramid, where it's slowly dispersed onto a conveyor belt. It goes all the way up that long blue tube and is used to fuel the rest of the mill. It's actually really interesting. This is what I get to drive everyday :) But a much bigger version.

And this is the actual mill:

I work in the building on the bottom right of the picture. The Mississippi river is right behind the mill. Maybe this is boring....but it's pretty sweet to look at. This is the machine my uncle owns:

It's a lot cleaner than I expected. I'm finally done with training, and get to start the actual job on Monday!

Thoughts Thus Far

This is the weirdest thing ever. I don't generally do things like this. I'm safe, predictable, boring. I can't believe that I'm actually going so far away for the summer. I would've been just fine staying in Smithfield, working at McDonald's, just like I've always done.

I can't believe that I'm doing this. It's a weird feeling, knowing that I'm not going to see Liz for three months. That's what I was the most upset about when I left this morning. I can't just drive home in a couple of hours like I did in Ephraim. This is very uncharacteristic of me. I'm apprehensive, but excited. :)

Observations so far:

I haven't seen a single LDS church house.

People really do have the Minnesotan accent. The weird o's make them sound like Sarah Palin.

I met some people tonight named April and Devin. I was longboarding with my little cousin and he ran over and wanted to talk to them. They have a little boy his age, and three girls who are triplets. They were out on their porch enjoying a glass of wine. Which was weird to me. Just because it never happens. They were so friendly and sweet. It makes me realized that people don't have to be Mormon to be nice.

I'm gonna get lost A LOT. None of the roads are organized. They're all curvy and not numbered.

I really like my little cousin John. We read stories tonight and went longboarding. We share a room, and he's a cutie. He's super polite. We were out longboarding and saw a car drive past, and he asks me "Where are they going?" So I said, "probably to their house." and he said "can we go hug them?!" He's friggin' adorable.

I miss my sister.

I miss Colton and Texas.

I'll take pictures of the new place as soon as I'm all settled in :)

First day of work is tomorrow. Wish me luck.