“Isn’t it fun when you come back in from the field and you blow your nose and it’s filled with dust and dirt?” I yelled to Jeremy from the bathroom as I was brushing bug spray and dust out of my hair.

He agreed that it is fun– super fun.

The house is much quieter when only Jeremy and I live here. We take fewer trips out on the ATV after dinner and say more things like, “I’m gonna go read… and probably fall asleep. See you later, maybe.” We sit around the table, each on our laptops chatting with friends and wives and cousins, and sometimes Jeremy will send me an instant message with an important piece of information like “BEAR ATTACK!” It is a pretty funny joke, and for two tundra-tired people who probably ate sleepy-pizza, it is a super-hilarious joke, and I jump three feet in the air and we laugh and laugh.

We encourage each other to write in our blogs, and then as soon as Jeremy’s done with his I’ll sit down and read it and he’ll ask me what I’m chuckling about. And vice-versa.

I’ve only been in Atqasuk for nine days, but being in Barrow seems much longer ago. Half of my days in Atqasuk have had Rob and Kelsey and Sergio in them to make them more interesting, but that seems like it was long ago, too.  They all left Monday morning.

I guess it’s easy to fall into a routine, even when there is no routine. I won’t be in Atqasuk for much longer, because I’ve got to go to Barrow and teach Rob everything I know. Everything I know… about… point framing! (Which I don’t feel like explaining again.) Jeremy and I have spent the past two days becoming reacquainted with the point frame and the data sheets and the tags and the system. It wasn’t very hard. We were quite the efficient team back in aught eight. It was quite easy and natural for me to know to write down “hylspl” when he says “hylocomium” or “thasub” for “thamnolia.”

Rob has yet to learn how fun these things are. So has Kelsey, who will switch places with me to learn from Point Frame Master Jeremy. I will be the lucky one who gets to point frame the most plots (we have about 96 to do both in Barrow and in Atqasuk), and I will be the lucky one to who teaches Rob about the fun. It really is fun. Even when we are plagued with dusty snot and bugs.