Nightshift

It is official: I have become a boring person. All I do with my life is watch movies on the TV in the middle of the night. Sometimes I do Rosetta Stone Spanish too. Either way it is not an interesting thing to tell stories about. Someday I will stop being a nightshift worker and see other people again. That time is not now.

Millions of condoms

They ship millions of condoms to Antarctica. I am discovering why very slowly, but as the season drags on I learn more and more little secrets about people sneaking off and doing it. I think half the firehouse has mated with the other half. I hope this ends up producing a firehouse baby, which will be large, boisterous, and hopefully not slapping anybody in the nuts.

Now that no one reads this anymore

I am thinking about staying here for the winter. Is that crazy? It's a little crazy. Perhaps I will change my mind. Perhaps no one will hire me for the winter. But! This Antarctic lifestyle is growing on me. It's growing so familiar. I chain smoke. I drink vodka. I see the same people in the dining hall. Other people cook all my meals.  I hang out with Kirk the Destroyer and he tells me about the stripper he dated when he was 15.

There's something appealing about staying here for the 24 hours a day of darkness. There are only 200 people on the base, stuck in a building in the coldest winter in the world. Why don't they kill each other? Do they start to run around naked in the snow? Do the men steal the women from each other, and does the community scratch out someone's eyes ritually every month? I want to feel what it's like to be insane.

Then again, this may be the worst idea I have ever had and I may not go through with it. In which case, backpacking New Zealand here I come!..in March.