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Monterey Bay Aquarium!! My aunt and uncle have both worked here since I was little and so I've been multiple times. I love it; aquariums ultimately leave me feeling at piece with their glowing blue lights, sunbeams filtering through water, silhouettes of children pressed against the glass, and fish drifting lazily through the water.
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Makana the Laysan Albatross. Even though she is encompassed by the aquarium, she is a separate entity that I absolutely adore. I first met Makana when I was doing a short "internship" with the aviculture department at the MAB. After her daily educational program, I trailed after her pushcart that she was trailed to stand steadily on until we reached her top floor apartment. It was a hot day by Monterey standards, so one of the aviculturists instructed me to toss ice-cubes into Makana's pool. We made a game of it, Makana and I, and I gently threw ice-cubes for her to catch, or bat away with her beak. Soon, she emerged from the water and we danced together. She whistled and flirted with me yesterday when I was there, gently lifting her beak and "sky mooing" before I had to tearfully tell her goodbye. My emotions are that strong for this bird.
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Seeing old friends. I was able to both have a sleepover with Claire in her apartment in Pleasanton and have dinner with Fir at a burger joint in downtown Monterey. With Claire, we watched Wreck-It-Ralph, made jokes, stayed up too late telling "secrets", bought Runts at the candy store, and pet a pig that was being walked on the street. Fir and I gossiped about the bird community (not really), talked about AZA-accredited institutions, ate burgers, and tried to find the famous parrot card of Monterey.
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Not only do I love this whole flickr photostream (parrots galore), but I also love the entire idea of free-flying parrots in the deserts of southern utah. Specifically, this love is for these photos and the act behind them, but also about birdtricks.com, the home of these amazing trainers who have had such success free-flying their parrots. I highly recommend checking them out if you own a parrot: so much good advice and fun anecdotes, as well as beautiful pictures!
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Baby sea otters! I saw on the Monterey Bay Aquarium tumblr (the MAB is sort of the theme of this week, since I was just there) that there had been a mama and her tiny baby floating in the back tidepool area one day. I desperately hoped to see them this weekend, but they were nowhere to be found, so I assuaged myself with watching Pup 69, the newest 12 week old otter baby to be rehabilitated by the aquarium.
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My Aunt Traci. Traci has always been one of my greatest heroes, a star shining bright near the ocean in her position as head educator at the aquarium. When I was little, she would dutifully play a game I made up based loosely on the board game Conspiracy, going along with my six-year-old imaginings. She invited me to visit her, my first airplane trip by myself, and took me to the Santa Cruz boardwalk on dime night. We wrote in our journals together, I painted her pictures and she made me waffles with bananas and whipped cream. She sat on the beach and read while I played in the ocean for hours. She laughed at all my jokes and encouraged me to pursue my dreams. She is an amazing human being and I'm so happy I got to see her this weekend.
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Farmers Markets! I love them, but unfortunately they are restricted to summer in these here snowy parts. In California, however, they are abundant all year round. Claire and I hit one on Saturday morning and chatted with well-known booth attendants as she purchased cherry tomatoes, I snapped pictures of flowers and herbs, we both bought seed-coated breadsticks, and then played with dogs brought by the humane society.
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Free books! Since Claire works at a book store, she often gets advanced copies of books that have not yet been proof-read, so although they are overflowing with possible spelling errors, they are still FREE! She loaded me up with four books for my ride home. I finished one, but am still trying to finish my book club book (which is tomorrow!)
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Breakfast sandwiches, OH DEAR SWEET LORD BREAKFAST SANDWICHES! I love breakfast sandwiches. So. Much. They are especially prevalent in my mind right now because it's sort of a tradition of mine to get a breakfast sandwich whenever I'm at the airport. So I was able to get TWO this time because I had two early morning flights! My favorite are loaded with bacon and cheese, light on the eggs (fluffy and scrambled or in a fluffy patty vs. an omelette), and with some sort of delicious bread.
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Punching Moon Jellyfish. They have no brain, and thus no pain sensory systems. They aimlessly drift around their round tanks, bumping into the clear plexiglass sides and each other. To thump one on its head and feel it ricocheting down is pretty satisfying. But if you are into the gentler side of things, simply stroking their cool jelly heads is also pretty amazing (p.s. under-developed stinging organs, so no pain for you, either!)
This weekend was absolutely AMAZING. I had to fly out to San Jose for a job interview, which (though I stressed majorly about it and only got three hours of sleep the night before) went super well. I feel incredibly confident about it and I loved their collection of education animals! I also was able to visit Claire, visit the aquarium, eat lots of delicious food and drink milkshakes, buy a bird-laden scarf, hang out with my aunt and uncle, read books, and soak in the sea-side air. I also took tons of photos (naturally) which I aim to upload with the next three days. That's my goal. Because I need to stop taking photos and doing nothing with them!
This week has in store volunteering for the Cancer Wellness House, January Book Club, work, and hopefully more new things this weekend! Once again, I ended up doing tons of new things this past weekend, which include: riding in a taxi, doing my first in-person grown-up interview, figuring out a major train transit system by myself, and watched a sunfish being fed. We'll see what this next weekend has in store.
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