The Store

I don't want to jinx anything, but I pretty much LOVE my job at McMurdo this winter so far. Never in my life did I think that running a retail store in Antarctica (which, in the winter, mostly entails selling cigarettes and alcohol, and then putting price tags on thousands of items that arrived on this year's vessel to sell here and at South Pole over the coming year) would be something that would make me so happy. But:

1) It's a great blend of manual labor (when we do our weekly beverage pulls and bi-weekly retail pulls from storage areas in other buildings, plus all the day-to-day stocking and tidying up) and computer work. So I'm not exhausted at the end of the day, nor am I stiff from sitting in a desk chair for hours on end.

2) It's a perfect (for me) blend of socializing (when the store is open, which is generally an hour at lunchtime and two hours at dinnertime) and independent work.

3) There is ALWAYS something to do here, so that I am never bored, but the things to do are almost never urgent, so I'm also never stressed out. Perfect!



So, all that said: Here's my realm this winter.

First, my office space, which is great:





Then the store itself:

One friend has requested a picture of me behind the cash register, doing my job. But I haven't been able to bring myself to ask anyone to take that picture (yet?). Instead, here's a bonus shot of one of my favorite things about the store: the loitering that happens here when we're open. We even have a designated spot for it. And our two-hour evening opening is the perfect amount of time to show a movie each night. I wouldn't blame you for not believing me, but this crowd is gathered to watch "Ice Castles." Which just cracked me up, because if you haven't seen "Ice Castles" (ever, or recently), I have to strongly suggest that you don't, because it has NOT aged well in the past 40 years. The groaning and mocking that was going on was the actual evening's entertainment.

Finally, I HATE seeing myself on camera, but I'm doing this for you all: one of the other winter-overs is doing a video blog and recently published a video about the store in which he briefly interviewed me. You can see that video here. And can follow his vlog in general here.