Now that November is here, all of us can take a breath of fresh air and relax a little. No more turnovers in the middle of the week, leaping from fifth graders to high schoolers and realizing that I need to change my tone of voice from high pitched and helpful to normal and "cool teacher style" in the middle of a climbing wall session. We have a lot of project time that I'm using to work on our new artifact cabinet, which actually fulfills a fantasy of mine where I am the diorama creator for a natural history museum. It's not a full-fledged diorama with the fake, glassy water I've always been so enamored with, but it still involves posing dead things so I still consider it a similar task.
We took a class this past weekend (well, not this weekend but the weekend before this one) where we explored prairies, woods with forest ponies in them, sandstone quarries, and Blueberry Falls (arguably one of my favorite places in the world). I also saw a beaver! I took a ton of pictures, I'm excited to post them.
I stabbed myself with a dead goshawk beak today. It takes a certain amount of skill to do that.
I'm getting better at handling bird bates (where a bird launches itself off the glove due to fear/mischeviousness/nervous pervousness).
Salt Lake got 14 inches of snow a couple of days ago. Here it's just freezing (19 tonight), but no snow yet.
I bought The Daily Coyote off Amazon for 15 cents after deciding that I needed it in my life.
Speaking of buying things, we went to Duluth yesterday for both a Target run and a Fitger's outing (always required when one goes to Duluth), and I ended up buying not just the hairbrush I needed, but The Last Unicorn, a thermal shirt with birds on it, face wash, and a "Support Your Local Brewery" sticker. It was an impulsive night.
I fall more in love with wild rice everyday I live here (though only when it's in other stuff, still don't really like it plain).
I learned why tamaracks and alders grow from singular clumps
I'm intrigued by this project. It seems like a good idea to kick-off photo-journaling, which I want to start doing because I like physical items. I love things that remind me of other things, probably obvious due to my adoration of nostalgia. I have six packets of childhood photos I want to scan into digital form somehow, but now I also want to print out photos or use photos I have along with other items I obtain but don't know what to do with to make mini semi-scrapbooks. It might be one of those things where I'm really interested in it today or for this week and then it will wane, though. For instance, like when I was a child and would check out a book about a different type of pet from the school library each week and obsess over it. There was a very specific brand of books where each item the author stated was necessary for whatever pet they were endorsing was a primary color. It's a really vivid memory I have.
The other night while putting Dakota away after a program, I was forced to acclimate to the darkness in a way that I haven't before, since I usually always have a headlamp on me or someone to guide me. I had to rely completely on my feet and partially the hand that Dakota's leash was wrapped around to figure out where to go. I was able to take her swivel and leash off in a surprisingly graceful manner considering my usual clumsiness, and once I stepped outside I noticed the stars. I haven't taken the time to look at the stars since September, when it was warmer and we spent almost every night on the pontoon. They were breathtaking, especially when viewed through the empty limbs of trees. It was like the branches were gnarled with starlight.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Thursday, November 1, 2012
h a p p y h a l l o w e e n
First up, the end of another Halloweek.
Day 6 was pretty uneventful, since I taught climbing wall all day, did a raptor program, and then got home and thought "I'M SO TIRED". And then I ended up hanging out with everybody until late into the night (aka possibly midnight). In fact, I TOTALLY REMEMBER NOW! Megan got home from her trip and brought Mulan, but Anna and I said NO to watching it because we wanted to indulge in a scary movie. We tried to watch The Shining, but it didn't work out because it was missing. A MYSTERY. So we watched The Haunting instead. I watched The Haunting forever ago when I was fifteen with Sunny and I have to say that my favorite scene is still this one.
Start at 13:56. The monologue that the creepy caretaker spews about the night and the dark is repetitive and paranoid, which also makes it hilarious. The entire movie is pretty terrible, it's ripe with plot holes, inconsistencies, and surprise characters that suddenly appear to try and fill the aforementioned plot holes. They didn't. We watched The Haunting and then went to bed.
I had Day 7 of Halloweek OFF! Hurray! The day was spent indulging in Halloweenie activities! For instance...
painting (Anna painted this beautiful owl with my watercolors and I painted a mini pumpkin)
receiving an AWESOME Halloween care package from my mom!!!! Remember how I said that she gives us presents on Halloween? It is seriously the best thing ever. Inside, I got some awesome window gummies
sorry, now you have to see my dirty windows too
The Littlest Witch. I get to read my beloved childhood book after all
my pink curly wig
Halloween lofthouse cookies (YAAAAY!!!)
My toucan costume (remember when I was going to be a toucan last year?) )
I also indulged in...
painting my nails for Halloween
making Halloween cupcakes
finding owls in the coolest places
wearing Halloweenie charms I've made on a necklace
Anna and I also watched Hannibal! Terrifying.
I put the final touches on my costume and got ready to go out for our staff Halloween party at the Gaslight, a tiny bar in "downtown" Sandstone that was once a bank. My version of getting ready was putting on eye makeup ("A step up!" as Megan said) and then attempting to create a colorful montage of eye shadow to amplify my toucaniness. It actually ended up blending into a large sparkly, grey mass. So not so much tropical bird as someone going to a fabulous funeral. I forcefully applied last-minute costumes to people who were not planning on dressing up (my favorite was Leeann, who went as a birdwatcher and wore field clothes, wore binoculars, and her Lab of O hat with a fake crow attached to the top of it. Also she kept obsessively staring at Megan (peacock) and I (toucan) through her binos all night). We then left to go to the Gaslight, where things were a little bit rocky for a while. For instance, the bar was out of EVERYTHING. We would ask for a drink and the answer would be, "We're out of schnapps/vodka/rum/water/positivity". The bartender was also IN THE WORST MOOD EVER. I mean, IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN. He loosened up a teeny bit as the night went on, but at first he just seemed pissed. We got gin and tonics and joined the rest of our peeps, but as time passed we realized how hungry we were. We hadn't eaten yet, so we decided to all chip in and get a pizza. The pizza took AN HOUR to cook, apparently. We were all ready to go raptor on the bartender and eat his hands along with the pizza when it was finally done. Before this happened, however, I witnessed the first time someone has ever been kicked out of a bar in my presence. I was waiting at the bar for a drink with Troy (because, surprise surprise!, the phone lines weren't working which made the credit card machines not work either) when the bartender started death glaring at someone who had just arrived at the bar. It was a seemingly innocent man with a baseball cap on, staring slack-jawed at the assortment of beers (in fact, the guy sort of looked like Starling's boss from Hannibal, now that I think about it). Bartender marched over to the guy and then stared at him from just a couple of feet away. The guy then said, "Uh, can I get a beer?" to which the bartender responded with, "No, you're 86ed. Do you recall why?" The guy stared dumbly at the bartender and asked, "Why, what'd I do?" which is when the bartender started screaming at this guy. Luckily, it was fairly crowded and noisy at the Gaslight this night due to our party and the fact that it was karaoke night. Unluckily, that meant that the only people who heard this confrontation was Troy and I. We quickly turned away from the bar and faced our friends, pretending to have our own conversation while really just exchanging quiet quips about how terrified we were. With a grand, "TAKE YOUR KEYS, GET IN YOUR CAR, AND NEVER COME BACK" and a lot of swearing, the guy exited through the back door and one of our co-workers gave us cash to pay for our drinks (since the credit card machines ended up not working the entire night). A happy ending! Later, when we went back up for more drinks, the bartender felt bad about making us wait so long for our pizza AND flipping out at a customer in front of us, so he was much nicer to us. We got another pizza (since we had split it five ways before and were still pretty hungry), which took WAY less time this time, AND the bartender made us a DELICIOUS DRINK! This was the best part. I told him I wanted something delicious and fruity, so he said he would concoct something for Leeann and I. He poured in shot after shot of fruity vodka and Malibu rum, and when it was 75% of the way full with alcohol he said, "Wow, this is all booze", to which I replied, "WOO! IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!" He topped it off with pineapple and cranberry juice and grenadine, gave us each a handful of maraschino cherries, and handed them to us. I asked how much he wanted for them and after saying he wanted $1000, he eventually told us just $5, which is amazing considering how much alcohol was in them, as well as how DELICIOUS THEY WERE! Seriously, the best drink I've ever had. I asked him what he was going to call it and suggested something Halloweenie, so he said he was going to call it the Dirty Bird since I was wearing a toucan costume. It was AWESOME.
This is the full costume, btw. I had someone take pictures of me in the kitchen with my phone as an afterthought, since no one had a camera with them at the bar
After that drink, I was pretty sloshed. I begged everyone else to stay for karaoke night, but they told me hell no, so I was stuck going home with the killjoys. Despite desiring to do karaoke and then to have a glow-stick dance party, I transitioned to the tired stage of drunkenness rather quickly and instead opted for watching half of Seven before passing out and going to bed (as you saw from my last blog post).
On Halloween, I had to work. The good news is that my class was cancelled, so instead of teaching Survivor in my toucan costume like I had originally planned, I did projects, learned how to teach the evening program, and looked at Halloweenie pictures online. Here are some of my favorites I found.
Jeff, our wildlife coordinator, told me that his daughter was being a mouse for Halloween and all I could think of was this.
Megan and I taught our newest evening program called Minnesota Wildlife that called for our non-existent rabbit, Arnold the Bull Snake, and Dakota. After the program (which I totally wore my Halloween costume to...for awhile), we went home and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
I'd never seen it before, and I loved it! I laughed so much that people thought I was way drunker than I actually was (which I was drinking and got a little bit drunk, but not as much as the night before). I adore things that make me nostalgic, even if I've never seen it before, which is totally what the movie did. I think I may even like to own it.
Next up, my usual traditional fare of my beloved Nightmare Before Christmas
I think I've already explained in too many (or not enough) words about my adoration of this movie. So I'll leave you with this.
This is awesome
Two of my favorite things COMBINED
After Nightmare, I went to bed since it was pretty late and I wasn't feeling too hot. But I definitely had an amazing Halloween, nonetheless (though there was no pumpkin carving, but oh well)
I totally had a dream last night that I was at Disneyland and saw that Jack Skellington was there (with no line!) so I ran up to him and gave him a hug. A good end to a good Halloween :)
font downloaded from here
Day 6 was pretty uneventful, since I taught climbing wall all day, did a raptor program, and then got home and thought "I'M SO TIRED". And then I ended up hanging out with everybody until late into the night (aka possibly midnight). In fact, I TOTALLY REMEMBER NOW! Megan got home from her trip and brought Mulan, but Anna and I said NO to watching it because we wanted to indulge in a scary movie. We tried to watch The Shining, but it didn't work out because it was missing. A MYSTERY. So we watched The Haunting instead. I watched The Haunting forever ago when I was fifteen with Sunny and I have to say that my favorite scene is still this one.
Start at 13:56. The monologue that the creepy caretaker spews about the night and the dark is repetitive and paranoid, which also makes it hilarious. The entire movie is pretty terrible, it's ripe with plot holes, inconsistencies, and surprise characters that suddenly appear to try and fill the aforementioned plot holes. They didn't. We watched The Haunting and then went to bed.
I had Day 7 of Halloweek OFF! Hurray! The day was spent indulging in Halloweenie activities! For instance...
painting (Anna painted this beautiful owl with my watercolors and I painted a mini pumpkin)
receiving an AWESOME Halloween care package from my mom!!!! Remember how I said that she gives us presents on Halloween? It is seriously the best thing ever. Inside, I got some awesome window gummies
sorry, now you have to see my dirty windows too
The Littlest Witch. I get to read my beloved childhood book after all
my pink curly wig
Halloween lofthouse cookies (YAAAAY!!!)
My toucan costume (remember when I was going to be a toucan last year?) )
I also indulged in...
painting my nails for Halloween
making Halloween cupcakes
finding owls in the coolest places
wearing Halloweenie charms I've made on a necklace
Anna and I also watched Hannibal! Terrifying.
I put the final touches on my costume and got ready to go out for our staff Halloween party at the Gaslight, a tiny bar in "downtown" Sandstone that was once a bank. My version of getting ready was putting on eye makeup ("A step up!" as Megan said) and then attempting to create a colorful montage of eye shadow to amplify my toucaniness. It actually ended up blending into a large sparkly, grey mass. So not so much tropical bird as someone going to a fabulous funeral. I forcefully applied last-minute costumes to people who were not planning on dressing up (my favorite was Leeann, who went as a birdwatcher and wore field clothes, wore binoculars, and her Lab of O hat with a fake crow attached to the top of it. Also she kept obsessively staring at Megan (peacock) and I (toucan) through her binos all night). We then left to go to the Gaslight, where things were a little bit rocky for a while. For instance, the bar was out of EVERYTHING. We would ask for a drink and the answer would be, "We're out of schnapps/vodka/rum/water/positivity". The bartender was also IN THE WORST MOOD EVER. I mean, IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN. He loosened up a teeny bit as the night went on, but at first he just seemed pissed. We got gin and tonics and joined the rest of our peeps, but as time passed we realized how hungry we were. We hadn't eaten yet, so we decided to all chip in and get a pizza. The pizza took AN HOUR to cook, apparently. We were all ready to go raptor on the bartender and eat his hands along with the pizza when it was finally done. Before this happened, however, I witnessed the first time someone has ever been kicked out of a bar in my presence. I was waiting at the bar for a drink with Troy (because, surprise surprise!, the phone lines weren't working which made the credit card machines not work either) when the bartender started death glaring at someone who had just arrived at the bar. It was a seemingly innocent man with a baseball cap on, staring slack-jawed at the assortment of beers (in fact, the guy sort of looked like Starling's boss from Hannibal, now that I think about it). Bartender marched over to the guy and then stared at him from just a couple of feet away. The guy then said, "Uh, can I get a beer?" to which the bartender responded with, "No, you're 86ed. Do you recall why?" The guy stared dumbly at the bartender and asked, "Why, what'd I do?" which is when the bartender started screaming at this guy. Luckily, it was fairly crowded and noisy at the Gaslight this night due to our party and the fact that it was karaoke night. Unluckily, that meant that the only people who heard this confrontation was Troy and I. We quickly turned away from the bar and faced our friends, pretending to have our own conversation while really just exchanging quiet quips about how terrified we were. With a grand, "TAKE YOUR KEYS, GET IN YOUR CAR, AND NEVER COME BACK" and a lot of swearing, the guy exited through the back door and one of our co-workers gave us cash to pay for our drinks (since the credit card machines ended up not working the entire night). A happy ending! Later, when we went back up for more drinks, the bartender felt bad about making us wait so long for our pizza AND flipping out at a customer in front of us, so he was much nicer to us. We got another pizza (since we had split it five ways before and were still pretty hungry), which took WAY less time this time, AND the bartender made us a DELICIOUS DRINK! This was the best part. I told him I wanted something delicious and fruity, so he said he would concoct something for Leeann and I. He poured in shot after shot of fruity vodka and Malibu rum, and when it was 75% of the way full with alcohol he said, "Wow, this is all booze", to which I replied, "WOO! IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!" He topped it off with pineapple and cranberry juice and grenadine, gave us each a handful of maraschino cherries, and handed them to us. I asked how much he wanted for them and after saying he wanted $1000, he eventually told us just $5, which is amazing considering how much alcohol was in them, as well as how DELICIOUS THEY WERE! Seriously, the best drink I've ever had. I asked him what he was going to call it and suggested something Halloweenie, so he said he was going to call it the Dirty Bird since I was wearing a toucan costume. It was AWESOME.
This is the full costume, btw. I had someone take pictures of me in the kitchen with my phone as an afterthought, since no one had a camera with them at the bar
After that drink, I was pretty sloshed. I begged everyone else to stay for karaoke night, but they told me hell no, so I was stuck going home with the killjoys. Despite desiring to do karaoke and then to have a glow-stick dance party, I transitioned to the tired stage of drunkenness rather quickly and instead opted for watching half of Seven before passing out and going to bed (as you saw from my last blog post).
On Halloween, I had to work. The good news is that my class was cancelled, so instead of teaching Survivor in my toucan costume like I had originally planned, I did projects, learned how to teach the evening program, and looked at Halloweenie pictures online. Here are some of my favorites I found.
Jeff, our wildlife coordinator, told me that his daughter was being a mouse for Halloween and all I could think of was this.
Megan and I taught our newest evening program called Minnesota Wildlife that called for our non-existent rabbit, Arnold the Bull Snake, and Dakota. After the program (which I totally wore my Halloween costume to...for awhile), we went home and watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!
I'd never seen it before, and I loved it! I laughed so much that people thought I was way drunker than I actually was (which I was drinking and got a little bit drunk, but not as much as the night before). I adore things that make me nostalgic, even if I've never seen it before, which is totally what the movie did. I think I may even like to own it.
Next up, my usual traditional fare of my beloved Nightmare Before Christmas
I think I've already explained in too many (or not enough) words about my adoration of this movie. So I'll leave you with this.
This is awesome
Two of my favorite things COMBINED
After Nightmare, I went to bed since it was pretty late and I wasn't feeling too hot. But I definitely had an amazing Halloween, nonetheless (though there was no pumpkin carving, but oh well)
I totally had a dream last night that I was at Disneyland and saw that Jack Skellington was there (with no line!) so I ran up to him and gave him a hug. A good end to a good Halloween :)
font downloaded from here
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