It's late, very late, for a recap of 2018. But better late than never, so here we go!!
2018 Recap
January
-Began a new 365 project, One Second Everyday, and it was such a breath of fresh air in comparison to my 365 photo projects. Essentially, if I'm taking videos I don't often worry about how they're set up, if the lighting is okay, if the subject is interesting. It's just a video of something random I'm doing that day, and then it's super easy to clip one second from these moments. It's an amazing way to document your year (now having seen my entire four minute video from 2018), and I highly recommend it.
-The beginning of 2018 contained a LOT of bitterness toward work. Basically I was feeling under appreciated and overworked, while others seemed to get promotions, perks, and new fun duties left and right. I know those particular instances came with their own sets of issues, but in the moment I was irate.
-A cold front came in and our newly dubbed "Wildlife Rescue" center (AKA Second Chances) got an influx of 1,000 sea turtles, stunned by the chilly waters and unable to move. Some of those new duties for particular employees included getting to help with the onslaught of sea turtles. It left a lot of us in the dust, covering for those that went to help with the turtles. One day I decided I'd had enough of feeling envious and I offered to volunteer with Wildlife Rescue on my day off. My boss pulled me aside and almost didn't let me go, something I would have fought TREMENDOUSLY and also would have cemented my resolve to leave (I was on the edge). She told me I would HAVE to be paid for my work with the sea turtles (not sure why), which is the reason she didn't want me doing it, but overtime had been approved for all parties so I was able to come in early on my Saturday to help out with some of the turtles.
-Which is where the good news comes in: I GOT TO RELEASE SEA TURTLES! I would have been happy just helping clean, prep diets, and doing some intake (I even got to send one turtle down a homemade waterslide into the holding tank, which was AMAZING), but we got the word that the park rangers were ready for a release and suddenly there were long lines of people stationed at the sides of the turtle pool, ready to load them into their own banana boxes in an enormous truck. Divers in the pool would grab turtles and then hoist them on top of their heads, stretching them towards people kneeling at the sides. These individuals would belly flop the turtles gently onto the wooden decks, and then another person would grab the turtle's shell above the neck and one near the tail. Some of those suckers were heavyyy, and they flailed helplessly as we passed them down conveyer belts of people toward the truck. We had to pin their flippers to their sides to prevent any breakages, which is easier said than done when the 50 lb animal in question is acting like it's at a daytime rave. It took two hours before the turtles were all loaded into the truck, stacked in towel-lined cardboard towers, and our entire group took off for the beach. I was giddy to be coming along, and some of my good friends were there to share in the experience. When we reached the beach, it was freezing, and I was already covered in turtle pee. As I stood shivering in the weak sunlight, our CEO gave me his coat to wear as we started unloading turtles from the truck. There were volunteers dressed in wetsuits plunging into the cold sea to release the turtles that many people were handing the creatures off to, but I stood at the edge of the tide with my turtle and tentatively asked if I could plunge into the ocean myself. The volunteers looked at me like I was crazy because it was so cold, but they probably didn't realize that this was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity for me. They nodded, and I joyfully frolicked into the waves with my little turtle friend, going just deep enough that I could gently slide her into the water and watch her fly away from me. It was MAGICAL.
-Started working Kimani in shows!! Very exciting to do something entirely new, as I've never worked with bigs cats before!
-Played a TON of Breath of the Wild on the Switch, I was (and still am) OBSESSED.
-A new duck joined the Wildflight fam! We got a new redhead duck and named him Cecil to go with our Simpsons theme.
February
-Introduced the sun conures to the aviary and it was...chaotic. They looked GORGEOUS but their background of being hand-reared and allowed to perch on our heads made for tiny rainbow MONSTERS. They landed on people constantly, pulling out hair, nibbling on ears, and people were the worst about it. They allowed all of these negative behaviors, giggling and taking selfies, while we urged them to please swat the birds off when they landed (not violently or anything, literally just a zamboni-like scraping). We feared someone would eventually snatch one and steal it away, effectively gaining themselves $300 in the process (birds are expensive). We eventually had to pull the conures due to people not heeding our warnings and rules and allowing the birds to land on them, as well as a few other reasons that got them adopted out to two of our aviculturists. All's well that ends well.
-We had our first baby green heron hatch, "Duckie" (as she was the spawn of Spike and Petri). She was so cuteeee and like a little velociraptor.
-Went to my first crawfish boil! Maybe I AM turning into a southerner...no...no NEVER.
-Started playing (NERD ALERT) Dungeons and Dragons. IT'S REALLY FUN!! It took me a second to understand how to play (AKA stop making up my own story and instead ask to perform actions, allowing the DM to create the story since it's, you know, their job) but once I got it we had so much fun. My character is a tiny forest gnome named Fenna who thinks that she's a dragonborne bad bitch. She was found abandoned in a forest and brought to live with a dragonborne clan, where she was watched over by her loving village and extremely protective older brother (a lightning dragon). Suddenly, after an eventful and exhausting day at the fair (involving a goblin attack, a corrupt ringmaster, and a pissed-off actual dragon), her brother went missing. She searched for him in a village raided by dark elves, one of whom she essentially castrated, before being captured and brought to the Underdark. Shenanigans ensued, including hijinx involving magical swords, smashing mummified remains against walls in an attempt to weaken a wraith, looting dead bodies like it's going out of style, adorable mushroom children, setting larders on fire to escape jail, getting smacked into cave walls by rocktopuses, annoying the shit out of the only dark elf in your party, and gaining a Blink Dog companion named Feldspar. Basically, I'm a full-blown geek now.
-The most exciting thing that happened in February was MY SURPRISE TRIP TO VISIT MEGAN! Months prior, I messaged her friend and co-worker to ask if he thought it would be possible to book me a spot on their Minnesota Avian Adventure tour. He ecstatically said YES and I spent the next several months giddily counting down the days until I flew to Iowa to board a bus at the crack of dawn. I had to turn down a phone call from Megan the night before the trip, lying that I was about to see a movie while I lay on my hotel bed about thirty minutes away from where she was at that moment. The next morning was a bit of a shitshow as I attempted to hail a taxi and an Uber in a desperate attempt to get to the bus as fat snowflakes fell from the sky. I stationed myself in the front seat of the bus, right behind Matt and Toni (her friends and co-leaders of the trip), and we chatted excitedly for the next half hour as we approached Megan's pickup point. Matt headed outside to greet her, as well as the other patrons, and I stared creepily at Megan through the bus window. It was almost like she could sense me, because at one point she looked up and made eye contact. I ducked my head and she looked away; the windows were tinted, anyway. As she started to climb the bus stairs, Toni filmed the ordeal as Megan said, "Hi Toni!", looked at me, stared, and then SCREAMED. She started crying and we embraced - it was AMAZING. The rest of the trip was awesome too: finally seeing a SNOWY OWL (life list! and the last of my winter owl checklist), swimming in a rooftop pool in -20 degree weather with DJ ROOFTOP (a drunken wisconsin(?) man playing tunes from his iPod), making s'mores by the side of a frozen lake, visiting our old ACNW stomping grounds and seeing friends/family alike (both animals and humans), getting FITGER'S (wild rice and apricot wheat beer YUM), celebrating Galentines Day in Des Moines with sculpture parks, zombie burger bars, and shopping, and freezing my tail off since I'm a wussy Texan now. It was an awesome surprise trip - they are my CRACK NOW.
-While in Des Moines, I got word from my boss that our abstracts for two behaviors we had trained to improve our animals' welfare had been accepted to ABMA and we were presenting them both at the conference in April. It was exciting, but also I felt sick with anxiety. Because that's who I am.
March
-Ate ramen for the first time. It...was a spiritual experience.
-Went to the downtown St. Patrick's Day block party and had the best time with a huge group of people. GREEN BEER FOREVERRRR.
-Basically all of March was spent either working on our scientific papers or presentations for applying eye medication voluntarily to our Harris Hawk, Mavvy, or teaching Sonora to file her own nails. It was TOUGH to remember how to write a scientific paper after so many years, but also fun! You can take the girl out of the research, but you can't take the research out of the girl (...what)! I will say there were many frustrating late nights and rewrites and nagging others to do their parts, but the final products were something to be proud of.
April
-After working for countless hours on our projects, ABMA finally arrived. AJ, Sean, and I all piled in the car and headed for San Antonio after work with the intention of spending the night at AJ's house so we could get up early and join in for Zoo Day at the San Antonio Zoo. I spilled coffee on my favorite shirt, met some new peeps and joined up with old friends, saw some awesome training sessions, went behind the scenes in the crane building where they paired them up and bred them (and where we got to pet a BATELEUR EAGLE AHHHH) and the incubation nursery where we were able to see their baby Black Palm Cockatoos (oh my heart), and we topped the day off with venturing down to different areas of our fancy hotel to mingle - the hot tub where I deeply regretted not bringing a bathing suit, the fire pit where I sat with a gin and tonic from the bar, and finally the Hospitality Suite in my llama jim jams where we sat with free beer and nodded along to people's diatribes until deciding it was pretty late and we had to present the next day (damn you, responsibility demon!!) We were set to present late in the afternoon, with a presentation about putting feral kittens in blanket burritos in between the two (I'm not joking). The first one was me and AJ talking about Sonora's nail behavior. I felt like I was about to PASS. OUT. I have NEVER been so anxious to speak in front of people in my entire life. However, as soon as we were up there, I felt absolutely fine. I was back in my element. The anxiety leading up to that point had been knee-buckling, but at the podium I felt completely confident and even cracked a few jokes that went over well (specifically referring to her nail-filing device as an enormous cigarette). AJ took the first half and I did the second, as well as took questions from the audience (which I feel like I didn't answer so well, especially when I made eye-contact with someone shaking her head, but WHATEVER we were done!) Sean and mine's presentation about Maverick was next, twenty minutes later, and I took the lead on this one. Sean did well at the beginning but then sort of...floundered and went off on a bizarre tangent, but WE WERE FINALLY DONE. There was also an amazing moment where someone who was clearly not a bird trainer asked about using reusable zip-ties for telemetry considering the "waste" of it (which I agree with). I explained to her about our usual bewitt and fish-hook situation, but that Maverick never was transferred over to this style. Immediately a ton of bird trainers in the room came to our defense, saying the reusable zip-ties don't work and that we were totally fine, to which the questioner blushed immensely. The COOLEST PART is as soon as we were done with our presentations there was a break, and immediately DOZENS of people lined up at our table to ask us questions at our table. It was like we were celebrities at a panel at ComicCon; I almost felt famous. People were disappointed to learn we were leaving that night (and I was also disappointed, honestly), so we exchanged email addresses and took our leave after the last presentations. I wanted to stick around the hang out at the Riverwalk, but my fellow compatriots were both crabby and over it (which I didn't understand, how could they not feel immense relief and happiness at being done with it all? Also a sense of pride considering we did well!), so we left for Corpus. It was a FANTASTIC experience and I'm very excited to hopefully continue training innovative behaviors that can be presented at future animal behavior conferences!
-As if ABMA wasn't enough, Andie asked me to come with her to a dog training workshop she was hosting in South Padre Island at the end of the month. She wanted me to come as an assistant/handler so she could bring Koda, allowing him time to train and learn the concepts the others were going to go over. I happily obliged, and headed out over my weekend to South Padre. Prior to this trip, I decided to download my very first PODCAST to see if it would help me suffer less through the long-ass drive to and from the island (music is great, but I get bored of it about an hour in, and my one book on tape was not enrapturing me). It turned out to be my NEW OBSESSION. I remained attentive and interested for the entirety of the drive, arriving at the hotel and meeting up with the other attendees of the workshop. It turned out to be half workshop and half retreat - we spent a day in the classroom going over concepts and doing hands-on training with our dogs, and then half the day taking a sandcastle building class (you heard me) and going zip-lining. For dinner we went to a dog-friendly place so we could bring the pups and that night I went on a long beach walk where I sort of got lost (but not for long!). It was kind of eye-opening for me about my personality type and how I strive so hard to be perfect, yet I really have no self-confidence. While playing the training game people who didn't have a CLUE about training berated me for what they perceived as "way too many" marks toward the finalized behavior. Even though I KNOW it's much better to do this than too large of steps so you can fall back on the latest approximation, I still second-guessed myself and felt upset. I finally broke down when someone teased me too much about Koda's inability to sense his back paws. Andie reminded me that I have a tendency to try too much and bite off more than I can chew, but she also told me I was an amazing trainer and not to forget it. It really helped me out, and I spent the rest of the retreat feeling better about my skills, as well as better about allowing water to roll of a duck's back (as it were). The last activity was my favorite - we went Stand-up Paddleboarding! It was SO FUN!! I could managed balancing okay when it was just me, but as soon as Koda and I were both on the board he flipped us. Panicking, he attempted to get "above water" by scrambling up my body, essentially drowning me. After several tries of using my entire body strength to shove his trembling, soaking wet butt onto the board, we managed to get him out of the water. I swam to a nearby floating dock and used their ladder - I was out of energy to even attempt pulling myself out. He stuck to Andie's board after that. After that we went to the South Padre Island Birding Center (one of my favorites) and I scolded myself for forgetting my binoculars as tons of warblers flitted in and out of the bushes on either side of the boardwalk. Ultimately, a very good (if mentally and somewhat physically) exhausting trip!
-As mentioned above, I discovered PODCASTS - specifically My Favorite Murder. Oh my GOD I'm in love with it, I listen to it on commutes, while cleaning animal enclosures, while doing chores, while taking showers...basically all the time. I know there are plenty more awesome podcasts out there, but for now I'm happy staying sexy and not getting murdered while I catch up on MFM.
-Remember how I used to play Pool all the time last year and spent way too much money? Well this year (at least at the beginning)we did regular Poker nights instead, which was much kinder to my wallet as buy in was only $5. There was always queso and some other form of snack, and I learned several different types of Poker that I usually always lost at. But that's okay, it was still fun.
-Wildflight got a Southern Ground Hornbill! She's on "permanent loan" from the National Aviary (doesn't that basically make her ours?) and we were warned that she was insanely aggressive. Wilson said we could handle it (but I asked, did we want to?) and thus we gained a new potential show bird. She was very sweet at first, allowing us in with her and staying on her perch like a perfect angel, but one day while cleaning her enclosure she suddenly snapped and began viciously attacking me, stabbing and biting my legs and leaving me with several scars. I ended the session the best I could and ran out of the mew sobbing. I spent a couple of minutes with tears flowing and then wrote an email to her lead trainer explaining the situation and saying we'd gotten too complacent, we needed to be more careful. Turns out Sahara has a pattern of doing well, doing well, and then suddenly breaking down and exhibiting extreme aggression...spoiler alert: she's still not officially in show (but getting there).
-Considering my unhappiness at work, I started looking seriously for jobs elsewhere. Upon making this decision, what looked like the perfect position opened up at a company I've been obsessed with for awhile. I immediately applied and she contacted me just a couple days later, asking to set up an interview. From that interview (which was two hours long because we had such a good time talking about birds), we moved onto a second interview (which was also almost as long for the same reason). Finally, she invited me to come out for an in-person interview. I was sick with longing - I wanted it so much. But there were also huge issues - barely any money, no insurance whatsoever (a huge loss), no paid sick days, and barely any vacation. She stressed that it was a beginning company and she hoped to make it better as time went on, but there were some non-compromisable things. If the pay had even been a bit more so I could at least AFFORD third party insurance, I may have tried making it work. Thus, I had to turn her down even though it KILLED ME. I felt incredibly depressed afterwards, and watched as the trainer she did end up hiring quit just two months later...
May
-I was upset about my job hunt, but that didn't stop me from going to the beach constantly! There were a lot of beach days that ended at Scuttlebutt's happy hour - prompting me to start enjoying wings more (turns out there are a lot more flavors than just HOT like my family always got).
-Since I had a new addiction to surprise visits, I decided to do something I've always wanted to do - surprise Mam for Mother's Day. I collaborated with Dad and flew in the Friday before Mother's Day, arriving in the early afternoon while Mam was at work. It was also for a somewhat accidental duel purpose, my parents just happened to have adopted a yorkie-maltese puppy just a week prior. I DIED when I saw him, Clancy Banjo, and immediately fell in love. I spent most of the day loving on the puppies (Winston included, of course, my original baby boy) before Gabe, Dad, and I all hopped in the car to head to a nearby favorite restaurant where we were meeting Mam after work. I hid upstairs in the loft after explaining our situation to the waiter, and Dad and Gabe sat at the bar with a card they'd gotten Mom. Inside it said, "We know you already got a puppy for Mother's Day, but we thought you'd like one more accessory..." Mam couldn't figure out what it was. Gabe followed her upstairs, filming her as she wondered out loud what it could be - then she stopped dead at the sight of me. Her hands flew to her mouth and she burst into tears, sobbing as I got up to hug her. IT WAS THE BESTTTTT. I FEED OFF THEIR TEARS!! In a loving way. Turns out she'd invited a co-worker to hang out since she was of course not aware that I was in town, so we all got appetizers and drinks and talked extensively before going home and playing with the puppies some more. The weekend was crazy rainy, so there was a lot of downtime and drinking, but it was so fun to see Mam and the new puppy. I'm glad I went.
-On a whim, I applied to another facility where I knew the curator. It was an animal training position, so I thought it would at least be good practice for interviewing, and the location was relatively where I wanted to end up. I got an interview and then a second interview where I was invited to fly out to see them. I thought about it - I wanted to give them a real chance considering that I was feeling very tentative about it for a multitude of reasons, and I couldn't know what my true feelings were regarding the facility unless I went there. So using my OWN money and resources, I booked a trip to "visit my grandparents" (who live just two hours away from the facility). The visit was very fun, I explored the town with my Opa and spent that evening drinking gin and tonics in the hot tub, then the next day I barely made it in time for the interview to get a tour and then literally a FULL EIGHT HOUR DAY of interacting with the animals. On the one hand, it was so much fun. I got to snuggle with a beaver, interact with their Crested Caracara (who loved me), do behaviors with their skunk, hold their tegu and do an informal education session, and I got pictures with their two foxes (my favorites, probably). I also was able to work with their barn owl and red fox, who they said sometimes don't even respond to the "real" trainers. Basically, I fucking killed it. It took so much insight and tons of pros and cons list on the plane ride home to realize it ultimately wasn't for me - they wouldn't hire me as a senior trainer, the town wasn't what I was looking for, certain worries about personality conflicts...it just wasn't for me. However, when I tried to turn down the position, certain parties BLEW UP AT ME. It was one of the worst experiences of my life. I felt forced to take another "24 hours" to consider the position, though at this point I was even more resolutely pointing towards NOT taking it, and when I called back it luckily went to voicemail. It wasn't left there, though, as the curator called me back with the rest of the team on speaker phone demanding for me to tell them why I was refusing the position. At this point, distraught and emotionally broken, my friends persuaded me to write an email. I was NOT being the unprofessional one in the situation and am totally within my rights to visit a facility and tell them no if it's not for me. In hindsight, they were probably dealing with a lot of stress and just ended up displacing on me, but still not appropriate. I sent a strongly worded email, she sent one back, and it was over. I'm glad I went for those amazing animal interactions and the pictures I'll cherish forever, but damn. A bright point of the trip was spending time with my beloved Oma and Opa (Oma was in the best mood I'd seen her in in YEARS) and I showed them a hummingbird nest on their balcony. Ultimately, it was an experience that probably made me stronger and made me realize that they aren't just interviewing me, I'm interviewing them. And the exchange at this facility made me realize I dodged a bullet.
June
-Since I wasn't getting anywhere with the job search and my lease was up, I resolved to have the best, most awesome summer EVER and resigned myself to making the best of everything. There was one more job interview with a HIGHLY respectable facility that would honestly be my DREAM, but that also did not work out. So many disappointments in such a short amount of time, as well as some actual trauma and anxiety from past events - I was feeling pretty down. So I drowned it all in watermelon margaritas, scary movie nights, trips to the beach, swimming in lukewarm pools with canned drinks, playing beer pong, crafting, stand-up paddle boarding with dogs again, and plenty of beach bonfires.
-There was also PRIDE to be excited for! Dylan was on the board at the time, so I went to the events to support him and of course the cause as I'm a dedicated ally. Andrea came down from Galveston and we partied it up at multiple events.
-I finally got my own sparkly koozie bedazzled with a unicorn to hold said canned drinks in said lukewarm pools.
-One of the trainers in our department announced that she'd gotten a position back home at the Denver Zoo and tearfully told us she'd be leaving in a couple of weeks. I was stunned, jealous, and also so happy for her. It was almost like fate telling me that it was good I wasn't leaving yet, though we suffered immensely upon her leaving us and we still haven't hired for that position...so fun.
July
-Went to an awesome 4th of July party where we played beer pong, played with sparklers, threw knives at balloons, had a water balloon fight, and some dickhead poured an entire cooler of ice water on us. It was SO MUCH FUNNN.
-Went to Paramore FO FWEE and got front section "seats" (it was a standing concert at Concrete Street). I know a couple of Paramore songs and thought it would be fun, but it was actually SO FUN. It was freaking phenomenal, she puts on a WONDERFUL show. I also ended up getting pretty drunk, meeting up with friends randomly in the bathroom and then ushering them to the bar for shots (why Autumn, why). It was AMAZING.
-Despite our horrendous loss the previous year, our curator insisted that we once again play Kickball for Zookeeper Appreciation Week. Despite the fact that none of us wanted to do it. And we we're feeling very appreciated. ANYWAYS, we let in more people this time so it wasn't just us against Fish and Herp, this time we played an initial round against Dive (filled with ridiculously over competitive people) and then the winner would play against F/H. The best was when I was lamenting this and asked, "What if we lose the first game?" and someone looked at me and said, "Or even worse, what if we win?" Luckily, and also predictably, we lost quite badly. We only got to play Outfield, like, once. Practice was a LOT more fun because people were less crazy and we actually had fun playing the game.
-Got puppaccinos for my dog friends for the first time. It was super fun!
-Went to a baby sea turtle release! I hadn't been to once since 2014 and Andrea had never been to one so we got up at the crack of dawn to watch the tiny sand covered oreos make their way to the ocean.
-Watched Over the Garden Wall for the first time - I LOVED IT!! I can't believe it's taken me this long to see it!
-I almostttt broke my ankle while trying to catch a baby mot-mot that got out of its enclosure and slipping, my ankle folding IN HALF as I went DOWN like a sack of bricks. Our intern screamed as I went down, and we both realized we stupidly had no radio or phones to call for help. Luckily, I was fine.
-I GOT MY CAMERA LENS FINALLY. You may remember that back in 2017 I tried to purchase a new camera lens that was stolen from my front porch. Despite attempting to go through appropriate venues (the postal office, the police), and after even DELIVERING THE CRAIGSLIST POST OF THE MOFO WHO STOLE MY LENS, they did nothing. Which means next time I'm enacting vigilante justice. ANYWAYS, I finally got my beloved lens and it was magical.
August
-Went to the beach house for the first time in a couple years, which is definitively one of THE most magical places in the world. It was amazing!! We did all our favorite things - tons of walks on the beach at all hours of the day to see the light shining on the waves with different intensities and multiple shades of pink, gold, robin's egg blue, and silver as the sun rose and set over the water, observing sea otters crunching on crabs at the pier and taking 10,000 pictures (that was me specifically), eating fresh sourdough at Dorn's in Morro Bay and seeing MORE sea otters (I can't get enough), having a spectacular fight over the last piece of said sourdough and then forcing everyone to say something they loved about everyone else at dinner that night as we ate on the patio in the darkness with the sea mist hanging thick around us, we saw the raw power of waves breaking against the jetty next to Morro Rock and made false cairns surrounding the pebbled beach, we celebrated my birthday at the Monterey Bay Aquarium where I got to visit with my favorite albatross, Makana, and saw her sister Alika, as well as their new red-footed booty and gushed with their avian curator about birds, I saw my Oma and Opa and Aunt and Uncle and ate gourmet cupcakes before driving back through Old Creek Road AKA Werewolf Wind and quickly deciding that it wasn't worth getting murdered to look at the stars as a mysterious white van pulled up beside us, went boogie boarding, saw elephant seals for the first time (they're HUGE and magnificent!), swung on a swing from a giant tree overlooking the ocean near a lighthouse (the hill the old tree was purveyor of dropped sharply into the sea, making it seem like you were about to swing into the ocean), kayaked with pacific bottlenose dolphins and their calves in the bay (fucking MAGICAL EXPERIENCE!! I must write more about this later because it was so amazing), and went to Montana de Oro to hike and go dune jumping. All in all, a FANTASTIC vacation that I was able to shoot with my new lens.
-Went to Austin for Erin's bachelorette party, where we drank adult capri suns at bars made from old banks, partied at rooftop bars, and tubed our usual river complete with chicken strips, watermelon, plenty of drinks, and our new monogrammed hats.
-Held Chico the baby two-toed sloth!!
-Won big at Disney Trivia! We were second the entire time until the very end, where we were tied with our neighbors. We sent up AJ as our tie-breaker, who fucking nailed it, and thus our team WON. We got a collective pot of around $250 as well as SUPREME HONOR. There was also a costume contest in the middle of the tournament where myself (dressed as Russel from Up) and someone dressed as the matchmaker from Mulan, were in a tie to get the most applause from the bar. With the combined efforts of our team and James and Mike at a separate table (literally JUMPING up and down to make noise), I won that, too. My costume contest prowess is NO JOKE.
September
-The biggest event in September was the Beer Olympics where Sierra and I represented Team Germany and placed 3rd in Flip Cup. We also spent hours making our own costumes, which I was pretty proud of! Winter Games will be here soon, and we're ready.
-Went to the Bird Mart and bought 10,000 things for the birds.
-Went to a bunch of bonfires.
-Got my own intern!
-SAW AN APLOMADO FALCONNNN!!! James and Cat went out earlier in the day and told us that they'd seen one, so I immediately set off in search. Along the way I ended up seeing Wilson, who was also searching, so we both made the journey together and FOUND HIMMM. I don't have a great telephoto lens yet (my new one is a great in-betweener but not quite telephoto), so I only got a far away photo of him. But he was magnificent.
(once again, September is potentially the most BORING month...)
October
-Decided I wanted to create a real Halloween show, and became the Halloween NAZI. I forced people to make decorations, we changed the soundtrack, wrote new scripts, and trained new behaviors to create am awesome show that I was really proud of. It was, dare I say, GLORIOUS.
-Experienced something new at a sleepover that was HILARIOUS and so, so fun. I'll just say I forgot how to walk and leave it at that.
-Went to a Harry Potter party where I dressed as Luna Lovegood! People actually wanted to take photos of me! I made my costume myself so I was very proud of it; all the other Lunas had STORE-BOUGHT spectrespecs, but I made mine by painting a pair of throwaway sunglasses with cardboard attached to it so like I was legit. I made it a little ways in the costume contest but ultimately lost as "Tall Luna" to Bellatrix Lestrange, who uncharacteristically gave me a huge hug and said, "You're my favorite, sorry I locked you up in the dungeon." BAHAHAHA
-Went to ANOTHER Harry Potter party where I also dressed up as Luna (since it was, you know, already made) and was sorted into a house via cupcake - I got Ravenclaw which was good considering I was Luna.
-Participated in my fourth Big Day. We saw 102 species, technically breaking my old record! No lifers for me, but as I'd seen an Aplomado just a couple weeks prior I was okay with it. We were the Nut-Hatch Chili Peppers.
-Judged a male beauty pageant at the local college. Our ex-intern asked Sean and myself to do it and it was insane. Thank GOD Sean came with me because the other judge, a professor at the college, was WILDLY inappropriate. During her segment to read off the questions, the contestants were supposed to give her their best pickup line. She would coquettishly ask how they would seduce her, cooing at them and LITERALLY COMPLIMENTING THEIR BODIES. SO UNCOMFORTABLE. The most memorable line was when she said, "I see you're studying to become a doctor, so you must know a lot about the woman's body. What would you teach me?" AND IT WAS HORRIFIC. Sean and I just stared at each other and SCREAMED with our eyes. It was insanity.
-Was a bridesmaid in Erin's wedding in Dallas! It was a weekend filled with last-minute crafting, maybe some face masks and "giggle candy" in the hotel room, line-dancing, sitting in fancy clawfoot bathtubs with mimosas in hand, watching people you love marrying people they love, and bonding strongly with the cutest photographer couple EVER (and forcing them to take a photo of the wedding dress with a spider).
-Visited Laura in WISCONSIN!! Not a surprise trip this time (since she's a full-time vet student), but oh it was so fun and fall-like!! The colors on the trees were unreal; there are actually SEASONS in the midwest! We went to the clydesdale show and watched competitive cart-pulling, we visited a pumpkin patch where we got hot apple cider, obtained pumpkins, squelched in the mud and made our way through a corn maze, and took a hayride through the forest. We also went to FREAKFEST, a giant Halloween party in downtown Madison complete with live bands and thousands of costumed people. Laura and I pulled together patronus costumes very quickly to wear and I was SUPER PROUD of the all the glitter we managed to stick to our body (including literal glitter masks we applied around our eyes for an hour). It was so fucking fun to hang out with Laura again and hang out in a college town, especially during my favorite season!
-On actual Halloween we went to a drama-filled Halloween party and then went downtown for a bar crawl, myself dressed as a Patronus again (my antlers bit the dust in the uber ride home). All in all, a very successful October!
November
-Started replaying Windwaker - what a WONDERFUL GAME. Seriously one of my favorites. I named myself Bitch which made for hilarious results.
-Got new baby gators from Louisiana.
-Ripley started flying to glove! After a YEAR of working with him, he finally started to trust me and sit on my glove for small increments of time. Hopefully we can get him in show at some point this next year.
-Went to a potluck Friendsgiving where we watched British Baking Show the entire time and played Scattegories. I made cheesy mashed potatoes that definitely didn't turn out as well as they have in the past - they were a bit too...wet. Maybe too much sour cream?
-Had yet ANOTHER HARRY POTTER PARTY where I was once again Luna. This one had a Triwizard Beer Pong Tournament, a Photo Booth wall (that I helped make props for), and a FIGHT toward the end of it where someone's boyfriend got stupidly drunk and racist when some friends of Sarah's turned up and I honestly was afraid for a second about what he would do. Luckily he went home after we assured him that Ubers were coming to pick every single one of us up.
(I legit don't have any photos from November...)
December
-Decorated sugar cookies shaped like woodland animals, typical Christmas items, and bats.
-Had our Wildflight Christmas party at Wilson's where we were gifted with rainboots filled with candy and socks (mine and otters and unicorn mermaids on them!) We also had the most dramatic white elephant exchange ever, so we most certainly won't be doing that again.
-We got Something Silky to play at Shelby's House for Sarah's going away. They played music to Planet Earth and it was FANTASTIC! We then finished the night by playing Rage Cage.
-Went to San Antonio for a day spent at Sea World (where we got to see orca training sessions!) and then Phantom of the Opera! I don't think I'll ever suggest something like that again because it was INTENSE to go from Seaward to downtown San Antonio for a play where everyone else was dressed to the nines and we were just casually in jeans and sweaters BUT it was a fun-filled day for sure!
-Went to the TSA Christmas Party at Railroad in my new BB-8 sweater that beeped and booped when I pressed a button.
-Went home for the holidays and got to play with the puppies, made everyone tote bags, went tubing in the mountains, hung out with the besties, saw my mom be a BADASS and get her first tattoo with no outward signs of pain whatsoever, had a technically white Christmas, drank wassail, and ultimately enjoyed hanging out with family (despite a few emotional mishaps).
-Celebrated New Years by going to Erin's for a quiet night in. We drank champagne and watched The Greatest Showman which HOW HAD I NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE?! IT WAS SO GOOD. I'm obsessed with the soundtrack!!! We played with sparklers at midnight and then called it a night - for being so low-key, I still think it was a great way to introduce 2019! The Noisy Plume, who I adore, likened it to sliding into a pair of well-worn jeans, "easy going and soft". I love that, and it's okay to do so once in awhile. Sometimes wolves must rest.
A year filled with ups and downs, good times and bad, basically life in general. It was honestly a pretty wonderful year regarding new experiences, even if some ended up NOT bringing me joy (thanks Marie Kwondo). I can't believe I've remained in Texas this long, but I've been able to make it a pretty damn good time, if I do say so myself. I've also learned some pretty invaluable things about goals and setting them - for one thing, a goal is not some wishy washy, "I'll do better about eating this year". That's easy to not accomplish!! What does it actually mean?? So instead, "I'll only drink soda once a week" or "I'll eat a vegetable every day" are new goals I'm trying out. I DO want to focus on my health this year, and I'm doing so through the use of apps and really trying to break bad habits of eating whatever I want. I'm drinking more water and less soda (and I don't really crave it that much, honestly), and I'm trying not to drink at home when I'm just by myself chilling (but that's harder). Another major goal I have is I want to travel solo at least once this year. I was just looking into Puerto Rico...cheap and safe, or so I've been told. I'll have to do more research - but I'm excited!!
I don't know at all what this year has in store for me. There have been no job prospects on the horizon, but at this point last year there weren't really any either. So here's to maintaining hope, to remaining positive, to conquering goals, even if they're hard, and to creating some vision of the future that doesn't send me spiraling into a state of complete panic.
(If I were a more organized person, I would have limited the number of photos between months to ensure that there was a nice even number of pictures that were all appropriately and consistently sized...but that's not me)
I've done yearly recaps for the past several years! 2017 . 2016 . 2015 . 2014
