I really hate that weekends always go by SO flippin' fast! School/Work weeks should be four days long and the weekends should be three days long. I haven't done much this weekend, but I have caught up on my sleep. For the most part. I have be good about going to bed around 9:30/10:00 so that I can get up at 5:00 the next morning without issues.

My massages yesterday and Friday were amazing. I have another one tonight. I could feel one of the knots in my back yesterday that she was working on. It hurt like a mother. I'm glad my one for today is tonight because I'm going to be spending the better part of the day doing school work and trying to organize everything. I feel like I'm organized, for the most part, with the things in front of me... I'm not organized mentally, and I think that's what is stressing me out. Being organized is easy for me, but when it's for three grade levels and I was thrown into it immediately after a 6-day drive, it's taking me a bit longer to wrap my head around it.

Mom is making breakfast right now... It smells delish. Harley must think so too... He keeps lifting his head up and sniffing the air.

I emailed one of the ladies from Pet Vet to let her know how Harley and I have been doing. She was one of the ones that cried when we left the week before last... She always liked seeing Harley. He's been making himself right at home, as he rightly should be. He's laying on everyone's lap, jumping up on the table trying to steal food, knocking things down... I'm very surprised at just how well he's been adapting. He's doing a LOT better than Gracie and Jello did. I miss them, but can you imagine what it'd be like with Mom, Dad and me, plus a dog and three cats? Haha.

And I was looking on Facebook today... I miss my friends in Auburn. I'm glad I'm home and teaching up here... It's where I need to be right now. But I miss everyone. A 3-hour time difference doesn't seem that big of a deal, but when I'm getting home at 5:30 and finishing dinner and whatever, it's usually around 7, which is 10 in Auburn. Or 11 in Florida where Missy is. I'm glad I'll be flying down in March for Lauren's and Caitie's weddings... I'm still hoping I'll be able to fly down for Lauren's wedding and just stay there until Caitie's wedding. Then I can see everyone, and hang out. We'll see.

I need to go grab a shower so I can start on school work.... Or find other ways to procrastinate. No. I can't procrastinate. Not anymore. Time to be responsible.

Craziest. Week. EH-VER!

The first day of school came and went. I'm glad to say that I will never have a first day of teaching ever again. It went pretty well... The kids weren't overly rambunctious, which was surprising to the other teachers. I didn't know what to expect... So I can't say that I was surprised. The lesson plans that the teacher left for me were written for a school day that started at 8:45 and ended at 3:35. But yesterday the principal told us that the school day was going to end at 3:15 this year, and on Wednesdays, the kids were dismissed at 2:15 so that the teachers can have meetings.

I had 11 students on my roster when I got to school yesterday, but three of them have moved. Yesterday I had seven of the eight students there. They are such good kids. Everything yesterday seemed to go a lot longer than what it was scheduled for. I stayed after school for a little bit to figure out what copies I needed to make for my reading and math lessons, and when I finished, I was starting to head out the door to go make the copies and I noticed it was after 5:00. I ended up putting off the copy making until this morning and I got my things together and left. I got home around 6:30 and was so excited to smell spaghetti on the stove when I walked in.

This morning I left 10 minutes earlier than I did yesterday and made my copies when I got to school. I also went into the 4th-6th grade room and talked to the teacher. She's been teaching for several years, but this is her first year at the school. She's very nice and extremely easy to talk to... She's become my BFF at school. We eat lunch together and talk/laugh it up before and after school. And we take our kids to mid-day recess together.

I only had five kids today. One first grader, three second graders and a third grader. My first and third grade lessons went faster because I was only explaining the stuff to one person and they were understanding it... Which is awesome. And we ended up having quite a bit of free time, so I let them play educational games on the computers and then we added 10 minutes to our afternoon recess outside.

Overall, it hasn't been too bad. Having an aide in the classroom for the majority of the day helps a LOT. I love it. And during lunch, the kids actually eat in the lunchroom while I eat in the classroom. Love that, too.

I've been driving Mom's Tahoe the last couple days.... I. Love. It. My next car is definitely going to be an SUV of some sort. Probably not a Tahoe, since it's a gas guzzler. It takes me about 1/4 of a tank each day to drive to school and back. And gas is $3.40-something up here. No bueno.

Harley and Jack have been getting along more and more the longer we've been here. The other night I was sitting on the couch and Harley was sleeping next to me. Then Jack jumped up and laid down and Harley didn't move. He just sniffed Jack's rear end and went back to sleep.

I can't express how much I hate not having cell service in the house and on my drive to school. Tetlin, where my mom worked last year, is about 12 miles from Tok, and as soon as I pass Tetlin, I lose service. Northway is 50-ish miles from Tok, and then 4 miles down a dirt road. The drive would be so much better if I had someone to talk to throughout the whole thing... But I don't. I need to take my camera with me to school tomorrow so I can take pictures of my two favorite scenes as I'm driving to school. One is when I'm going around a bend to the right and as the road straightens and goes into the next turn, you see all these mountains and the winding road ahead and a lake of some sort. And with the morning sun shinging on them, it looks gorgeous.

So far, I'm having a good time with the kids. I'm exhausted like whoa, and my back has been hurting where my stress points are. My mom made me an appointment with Helen at the clinic for a massage on Friday evening. Helen was my massage therapist while I was up here over Christmas... She's UH-MAZING. And the body-length heating pad... So comfortable. Mom said that I might be going to see her on Saturday and Sunday as well, and they're trying to get it covered by my insurance, since the insurance covers massage therapy.

I'm very much looking forward to Friday... Not only is it the end of the week and I'm getting my much anticipated massage, but I get to come home after said massage and PASS OUT. In case I haven't made that point clear yet.... I'm excited about sleeping this weekend. And I'm making my mom watch Twilight with me. :)

End of the school week. Massage. Twilight. Sleep. I love the weekend.

I'M HOME! Finally. After countless hours in the car and 4,473 miles later, I. Am. Home. Thank God. Today's drive was much less stressful than previous days, especially yesterday. And it was a LOT shorter... 7 hours compared to 11-17 hours. I got home right after my parents. My mom still can't drive because of her surgery, so my dad has to take her to and pick her up from work. Right as they turned on Scoby Way, they saw a car turn on from the highway and my dad said, "Wouldn't that be funny if that was Erica?" Sure enough... there I was. But I was clear on the other end of the road, so they got home before me.

I start teaching tomorrow... I'm freaking nervous! I signed some paperwork for the job and looked over/printed some stuff that the teacher left for me. In this district, since I'm teaching for more than 20 consecutive days, I get a contract. That = awesome! :) And, I get paid the daily rate of a first year teacher. That = SUPER awesome. :) Right now, I have 11 students, but three of them might be moving. I'm actually teaching the K-3 class, but there are no Kindergarten students. I'm really excited about teaching math. And science... We start that next week. We're learning about soil. I'm. SO. PUMPED! And I'm pumped about the super lax dress code -- jeans and t-shirts. If you know me, you know I live in jeans and t-shirts. This is so up my aisle, it's not even funny. And I get to drive Mom's Tahoe. I'm excited about that... And being up off the ground for a change. Dad is going to take my car to Chevron and get the oil changed and get the warming blankets put on the engine. He had an electrical outlet installed on the side of the house so I have somewhere to plug my car in. :) Woo hoo! Now I just need to work on that new cell phone so I have reception up here...

Harley and Jack met for the first time today. I wasn't worried about what Jack thought of Harley -- he likes cats and lived with Jello and Gracie when we had them. I was more worried about how Harley would react. He's never been around a dog before. And except for the two weeks we were living with Sarah-Ashley, he spent the last 14 months as an only pet. He's calmed down since they first met... Harley is spending time in my room (in the window, of course) and he is exploring the house. He's been getting closer and closer to Jack as the evening goes on. There IS hope.

I need to look over some more stuff for tomorrow and organize my binder (aka my bible for the next few weeks). Then I'm going to pass out. In my own bed. At home.

Niiiiice. :)

I'm never making the drive from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse by myself again. It was TOO long of a day. It was GORGEOUS... But it was too long. 17 hours is too much for one person. If I ever do that drive again, I'm either 1) going to have an RV so that I can stop at the rest stops and sleep instead of trying to get to a hotel, 2) going to have another driver with me so that we can share the driving and I have a human to talk to, or 3) all of the above.

I got onto the Alaska Highway as I was leaving Dawson Creek. I went to take a picture of the big "Welcome to the Alaska Highway" sign... And my camera died. Fail. I missed out on taking pictures of some AMAZING scenery along the highway. Double fail. The roads were windy and curvy and at some points, it was fun.

However, the whole being by myself thing comes back into play. I was bored. I had my music... all 190 songs. And I had my audiobook, which I listened to for about 5 hours.

Then it got dark, and I still had 3-3.5 hours left to go. That. Sucked. Darkness + mountain roads that twist and turn at random points = not a good experience. I was so scared I started talking to my grandparents, asking them to guide my car to Whitehorse in one piece. And I talked to them about random things, so that my mind wouldn't wander to what could have happened on that road. I finally made it to the hotel around 12:30 or 1:00 this morning... I can't even remember. I checked in and went to move my car, and then had to load up one of the luggage carts with all our stuff. I have so much stuff for one person and a cat. I had to use one of my room keys to operate the elevator, but my key wouldn't work. So I got another one that made the elevator work. I found our room, and none of the three keys I had would work on the door. So I had to go back down to the front desk. The guy at the front desk came up with me to make sure I could get into my room. I still couldn't, so he used his master key to open the door.

Harley likes to sit in windows and watch things going on, but the window here doesn't have a window sill... That frustrated him, and he tried to climb the curtains so he could hang and watch. But that didn't work. Finally I moved the curtains and put the desk chair against the wall, so that gave him a little bit of a lift.

Oh! Going back to the awful drive yesterday... The last place I stopped for gas before getting into Whitehorse was in Watson Creek. I've never been so glad to get to a place, and then, within minutes, be just as glad to get out. It was a sketchy place. I got gas and went in to pay, and the lady came to the counter, and then told me to hang on. She yelled to a lady in the back, asking her if she was busy, and told her to watch where this guy outside was going. She came back and apologized and told me she was ready for the day to be over. I started to say that I understood and I wanted the same, but she cut me off saying, "I'm sorry. Hang on... I need him to catch this guy." Finally she came back and started to make a phone call, but then hung up and started ringing up my gas purchase, and she started telling me about her day. "This has just been an awful day, and I can't wait to get out of here and go home and go to bed. We've been having problems today... One after the other.... Thieves. Bombs. Drunks. I wish I wasn't working today."

Excuse me?! Bombs? I started eyeing my car like every 15 seconds, as I'd left Harley in there while I ran in to pay. I got my change, ran to the restroom, and PEACED. THE. HELL. OUT. I didn't come all this way to be blown to smithereens. No thank you.

I need to go take a shower so I can check out and get back on the road. I get to sleep in my OWN bed tonight. I'm. So. Excited. I. Could. Pee.

:)

True story... There's a place in Alberta, Canada called Fort Whoop Up. No. Joke. When I left the hotel this morning in Lethbridge, I stopped to get gas and saw a sign for it. I was going to take a picture, but the guy waiting behind me for the gas pump seemed annoyed... I can only imagine what he would have said or done if I had finished getting gas, washing my windshield, and doing everything else I needed to do and then pulled out my camera to take a picture of a sign.

Tonight I'm in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. I set my alarm to go off at 7:30 this morning, and I turned it off and went back to sleep. I ended up not getting up until 9:00. Whoops. I changed and packed up our stuff, and we were on the road by 9:30, give or take a few minutes.

The drive today was pretty uneventful. I was really tired by mid-afternoon, so around 2:45 I pulled over at a rest stop, and took a 30 minute nap in the car. Harley was sleeping, as well. He's such a good traveler... I'm so lucky. And then we get to the hotel and he's ALL over the place. Sniffing everything, getting into everything, etc.

True story #2... While I was driving today, I passed a truck with Alabama license plates. 30 minutes later, I stopped to get gas and there was the truck. There was no one in it, so I proceeded to fill my tank. The guys eventually came back and asked me if I was driving to Alaska. I said I was and one of them said that they were driving to Alaska as well because he was in the Air Force and was being sent to Anchorage. I don't know if they were both in the USAF or if it was just the one guy. I didn't ask what part of Alabama they were from... My bad. But yeah. Small world.

The Alaska Highway starts here in Dawson Creek. I'm kind of nervous about driving it because I don't want to run out of gas. I found this thing online on Dawson Creek's website that has all the gas stations and campgrounds on the Alaska Highway listed. I copied it onto my iPod so that I have the list with me... But it still makes me nervous. I'm driving about 880 miles tomorrow, but because of the speed limits here, MapQuest says it's going to take me about 16.5 hours. I'm not excited at all about that. I've already listened to the majority of my audiobook (The Time Traveler's Wife) that I downloaded from iTunes. I have about 6.5 hours left of it... I need to download another one while I'm thinking about it.

I should go do that now so I can peace out... Sleeping is my favorite part of the day.

New

This is going to be short since it's already after 1 and I can barely keep my eyes open. I made it to Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada tonight. Shortly after getting through Border Control, I realized that since it's my first time ever driving or being in Canada, entering the country after dark was not the way to go. I had no idea where to go... And I couldn't read the signs. Although... all the bugs that committed suicide on my windshield during the last 50 miles of my trip in the US didn't help matters any. I also should have researched Canadian road signs. I knew things were measured in kilometers and kilometers per hour, but the signs themselves I couldn't understand. Then again... That could go back to the whole suicidal bug issue. Who knows. Tomorrow has the potential to be better.

The trip across the US was pretty good. I was on a bazillion different interstates over the last three days. I realized this morning as I was leaving Rapid City, South Dakota, that the route that I took -- which I planned without the "help" of MapQuest -- was the same one we took 12 years ago when my family and I drove across country from Virginia to Alaska. I passed all the monuments we stopped at back then. I wanted to stop again because I don't really remember the monuments (Mount Rushmore, Devils Tower, St. Louis Arch, etc.), nor do I think I was old enough to really appreciate what I was seeing.

Iowa, South Dakota and the Southeastern part of Montana were FLAT as anything... It was so boring. But. Montana made up for it with its Northern part... The mountains up there were beautiful.

I've taken a lot of random pictures while on the road. Eventually, when I can sit down and catch my beath after all this madness, I'll upload them. I've taken a lot of Harley too... It's the only way I can check on him since I can't lean over to the side enough to look in his carrier without swerving off the road. So instead I hold the camera up to the door of the carrier and take a picture. He's been sleeping a LOT on the road... which is AMAZING. The vet in Auburn gave me some sedatives, and I've been giving them to him 1/2 a pill at a time. A whole pill is supposed to knock him out for 6-8 hours... And 1/2 of one will easily knock him out for about 9.

I really need to get some sleep now so I can be alert for tomorrow's 11 hours of driving. As much as I'm enjoying this adventure, I'm ready to just get home and start teaching.