Movin on up

Hi,
Guess what? I'm moving out of the Ghetto House! For those of you who aren't able to see my facebook pictures I thought I'd post some of the highlights of the house on here.

This is the side entrance that doesn't have the icy stairs of death. It is also nowhere near my room. I rarely use this far safer option. Maybe I subconsciously do it because I want to fall down and break my arm and sue the pants off my slumlords. As of this week there is a nice dog urine stain on the bottom icy step of death.

This is the tub surround from my shower that doesn't work. Well I suppose it works if you enjoy having cold water squirt out at you while only scalding hot water comes out of the showerhead. Personally not my ideal shower. Its alright though. The tub will fall through the floor soon because the caulking hasn't been doing its job for a while. I'm sure there are mold issues. Thank goodness I don't own this house.

This is the kitchen. My fridge leaks. There is quite the little puddle in the bottom of it and on the floor outside of it. The microwave is a dial that only has 20 second and 1 minute increments. God forbid I want something cooked for 30 seconds. And you can't see it in this picture but this carpet is hideous. Its something people in Ontario would reject for their cottages. And shacks. But good news for future occupants of the house. The landlords are ripping it up and putting in wood floors. (By wood it may end up being the subfloor but they claim hard wood will be put in, the plan is to do this before they fix the plumbing in my bathroom, smart slumlords, real smart).

See the Tv in the TV room. Its not there anymore. Neither are the lamps or the fans. They have all been snarfed (look at my Yukon Dictionary) by other people who have lived in the house while I have lived here. I don't even know if the curtains are still there. The couches are hideous and are covered by even more hideous comforters.

And I left the best for last. My room. In this picture you cannot see the sexy times shag carpet. It is a cream colour. Not white, maybe it was back in 1972 when it was put in. There is dog hair. In my one attempt to vaccuum the room more dog hair spit back out of the vaccuum. That is when I stopped vaccuuming.

You also can't see it in this picture but my bed schlumps toward the right (if you were in it) it has a dent, or divot for those of you golfers out there.

The Wood panel walls scream attractiveness. The print of the Waterfall over the bed has not caused me to wet the bed but that doesn't mean there isn't still urine on the mattress. There is also a sketchy stain that looks like blood. I don't generally like sleeping on a bed where somebody could have bled to death. Or spilled fruit punch. I'm one of the lucky people in the house who have a baseboard heater that works. One of my roommates had her books freeze to the walls of her room. (I'm not even making this up). Two of the drawers in my dresser don't actually have bottoms. Thus rendering them useless. My windows were frosted over for the better part of 2 months. I can finally see out of them now. The closet is the best part of my room. If only someone hadn't nailed "the ulgurtain" in front of it. uglurtain is an assimilation of the words ugly and curtain. And yet it cannot describe the sheer eye pain it causes. Maybe I could sue for eye damage.


I could go on but I need to leave things for future blog posts. I'm planning on bleaching everything I own that is safe to bleach. Maybe that will help me feel clean again.

Doggies.

I realize it has been a long time. So I am going to try to make this post extra-mega-super-awesometastic.

http://www.yukonquest.com/

If you go to this website the entire blog post will make a lot more sense.

The Yukon Quest is this killer dog sled race which goes from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, Alaska. Take that Iditerod. Anyway, last week was Quest week in Dawson. Which meant Town came to life!

There was a lot of pressure from my coworkers to see a dog sled team to come in. The teams have to come into Dawson and have a mandatory 36 hour rest period. At which point the dogs get massages and the people get to eat.

I planned on hitting up the concession stand because I figured there would be at least 5 different kind of chilis there and lets face it, I hate cooking for myself. I hit the jackpot at the concession however, some wonderful member of the community had brought in sushi. I love the stuff! So I had sushi. It was spectacular:) I also had moose chilli but I'm concerned she mixed it up with the beef one because it tasted quite beefy. At least I can say I ordered moose chili.

And then as I finished eating people started to pour out of the building to see the sled come in. Admittedly, it was a bit anticlimactic but when in the Yukon. Its one of those things that just has to be done!

I will summarize this in 5 words now. Dog.Sled.Sushi.Cold.Mush. (That was almost poetic).

Reputation

I'm starting to get quite the reputation around Dawson City. Don't worry Family, its not for any bad reasons, trust me.

I am becoming known as the girl who wears the pink kids boots.

The story is as follows:

In November 2008 I was in Belleville at the Quinte Mall. After a long Peterborough winter the year before I refused to not have good winter boots to keep my feet warm and dry. I didn't care how I looked all I wanted was a sock protector. Because if you do not know this yet I HATE having wet/damp socks. I thought I was going to be in Kingston for the winter so the -20 cold rating seemed adequate.

It is now February. And when I went to the art show a few weeks ago my coworker's friend (who works with my classmate) looked down and was like... "Oh you are the lady with the pink kids boots". I was like "you better believe it". Why would I pay more when a size 4 with velcro fits me perfectly? Despite the fact that they were advertised to -20 with a pair of thermal socks they were perfect in -50 weather.

To summarize (ha you could have had to only read this one sentence) my pink boots with stars on them make me known around town and are super cool.

Stuff....

Dear World,
I am not partial to people rearranging my stuff. It is disorganized in a way so I know where it is. The only person with permission to touch my stuff is my mom. Cause I trust her. Also using my toilet paper while I am sleeping... LAME.
That is all. Violators will be subjected to "The Shocks".
Jen

2 Months in Dawson

This week was my 2 month in Dawson. I've accomplished a lot in my job since I have been here. Not so much socially. In the next few months my goals are mostly social.

Goal 1: Find a friend that will take you out for a dog sled ride.
Goal 2: Volunteer somewhere in town. Preferably for the Quest.
Goal 3: Walk to the other side of town. And see the ice bridge.
Goal 4: Write some poetry.

That is as ambitious as I feel like being at 10 pm on a Sunday night. I've had a productive day figuring out how to fix my busted shower. The problem with it was the handle of the cold came off. And my roommate put on this temporary handle. The only problem is that cold water shoots out of the temporary handle. I had tried putting plastic bags over it, showering downstairs, and not turning the cold on at all (not my brightest plan) but today I figured it out. Putting a wash cloth over the craporary (a new word for crappy and temporary fix) faucet and it no longer sprays cold water all over me while I am trying to shower. Life is good.

Now if only I could find a way to make my bed not have a wierd dent in it, cover up the nastiness of my shag carpet, and duct tape my dresser into submission life would be ideal.

I should go do readings for my Yukon College Course. My professor is going to be in town for this week's lecture. Which means I can't slack off. But it also means we are having a class dinner before class at the Drunken Goat. And I've heard it has delicious food:) I'll let you all know.

I sometimes get bored in the Yukon

1.YOUR REAL NAME:Jennifer Lynn Gibson

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME(first 3 letters of name plus izzle):Lynizzle

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME(fav color and fav animal):Salmon Bunny

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME(middle name, and favorite place to go):Lynn Hawaii

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME(the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name, first 3 letters of mom's maiden name):GibJeThi

6. YOUR SUPERHERO NAME(2nd favorite color, favorite drink):Turquoise Wild Vines

7. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME(mothers middle name and fathers middle name):Carol Frank

8. YOUR GOTH NAME (black, and the name of one your pets):Black Fissy

9. TERRORIST NAME(middle name spelled backwards, your mom's name spelled backwards):Nnyl Lorac

10. YOUR PORN STAR NAME (name of first pet you had and name of first street you lived on)Muffin Manitou

Hibernation

If bears can do it so can I. As a way to explain my lack of blog posts I would like to blame hibernation. True, the days are getting longer, and it is no longer pitch black when I leave my house in the morning and leave work in the evening. But I think hibernation, as a recreational activity is underrated.

In other exciting Yukon news, I went to an art show opening last week. It was at the local gallery and featured members from the community as well as students from the art school in town. There were some interesting pieces, pretty pieces, and those melon scratcher pieces of art such as a line of pencil drawn across a white piece of paper. I will never get art. Topping the disturbing list of art shown at the gallery was one that featured real human blood. I'll leave it up to your imagination of how the artist got this blood.

My favourite part of the art show opening wasn't the art. It wasn't the company of my coworker either. It was the free food. And free wine. But mostly the free food. See there were red peppers there. At this grocery store this week red peppers/ green peppers cost 5.99/pound.... insanity. I just want some fresh peppers. So I had no shame at the art show and stuffed my face with peppers. There was also delicious hummus, cheese, baguette, and broccoli. I may or may not be writing this blog just before lunch. If you out there reading this have any exciting recipes that can be made with absolutely minimal ingredients (Because everything up here is SOOOOOOOO expensive) please let me know. Send e-mails, facebook messages, reply on this. I'm starting to get sick of spaghetti. And I never thought I'd say that.

I shall now return to hibernation. The greatest nation on the planet.