strippers and running a slow treadmill

I will never feel bad about going to a strip club again and spending $45 on drinks and tossing a few loonies at the strippers. Ok, I am pretty sure I have shattered some good guy image that I have had and I am sure I just gave my mother a heart attack but figure being 30+ and male I can admit to going to a strip club a couple times in my life. Anyways, why would I never feel bad about wasting my money on such pursuits? Let me tell you a story about one of the girls here in camp.

She went to New York with a friend for a little over a week. Did a lot of things and had a pretty decent time though has said she will never return to New York ever again. Seems it is too crowded and dirty for her liking. One of the stories that she had to tell was that she went to a strip club with her friend (male platonic friend) and had a little bit much to drink and ended up walking away with a US$7500 bill for both her friend and her. Of course we had to double check the amount she said and it was $7500. We had to ask what the heck could you do in a strip club for $7500 and how many days were they in the club to spend that kind of money. Apparently it was in a 7 hour stint that they managed to spend that kind of money. Apparently she was drinking vodka and sprites at US$17 a glass (which I have not seen prices like that for alcohol since I paid $22 in Singapore for a paralyzer) and after a few too many of those decided that they required a room with two strippers. Of course, now you are running a $2000/hour room charge. I hear that she was in the room for 3 hours. So after a $6000 for the room and a $1500 alcohol and other expense bill, they left the bar at 4 am. What is the lesson that she learned after all this? some people in camp should NOT be set free on civilization after spending 6 weeks in a small remote camp in the middle of the arctic.

On a different note, I am definitly finding camp a bit different this time in than all the other times. Our numbers have dropped greatly in the last two weeks and you can sure feel the difference. When I got to camp 2 weeks ago we were at 104 people and I was in the dishpit. I was jumping during lunch and dinner rushes (which I really enjoyed cause it makes the day and night go by sooo much faster when you are busy). Then when I got to 2nd cook we had numbers as high as 111 and as low as 95. I was making salads using the large plastic containers and would have enough left over at the end of the evening to put in a half pan to serve for lunch. Now, in the span of 5 days we dropped from 97 people down to 62. What is that like? I am relating the feeling at the moment to one of two things.

Have you ever been shopping in a mall and you know exactly where you are going and what you need to get. So you get in to the mall, dash to the store and find the exact item you want, rush out of the store and are halfway back to your car when all of a sudden the hallway packs with people and you have to slow down from your mad dash to a crawl because you find yourself walking slowly behind an 80 year old grandmother and her 3 darling little grandchild that can't seem to decide on the same direction but keep walking exactly where you want to walk. Your insides and legs want to fly ahead but you physically can't and you just trudge along at a slow pace.

OR

You are on a tread mill and going for your daily jog. You are really pounding off the miles at a really fast pace (possibly hitting number 9 on the speed scale) and are really happy with your progress. Suddenly someone (possibly your annoying little brother/sister or jokester wife/husband) and smiles at you and presses the 2 button for speed. Suddenly your feet, and body, are going way faster than the treadmill treads are going and you find yourself slammed in to the front part, causing you to lose your footing and stumble uncontrollablly backwards off the machine and hit solid pavement. However, your legs and feet, still accustomed to the fast pace of the treadmill, are still moving forward but that darn floor has decided to stay stationary and you find yourself moving forward onto the treadmill again but tripping and falling flat on your face.

So, yeah, basically that is what I find myself doing with the smaller numbers. I fly ahead with my daily routine, get all the fixings for the salads and start prepping and doing my work and then all of a sudden remember that I am making salads for 60 and not 110 now and look down and see that I have a full bus tub full of the salad I was making when 1/4 of that tub would be fine. I try to stop myself but keep feeling like I should be doing something. After rushing around for so long trying to do everything, now when I have nothing to do I feel like I am missing something. But I had best get used to things since we are supposedly going to drop again in numbers from 60 down to 30. The conflicting rumours are that it might happen as soon as mid of this month but also some are saying nearing the end of Dec. Will have to wait and see what happens.

All I know is that I am happy to partake in the desserts in the dessert fridge (the new baker makes a pecan pie that is absolute heaven in a pie crust) and just enjoying the food that we have.