365 days 141-150

141/365


Our facility has a staff party at the opening minor league baseball game of the season every year with free food and drinks. This year we enjoyed the game for about an hour before the skies opened up and a downpour of epic proportions was dumped on us. We all screeched and ran for shelter, ducking into the walk-in pantry for some protection against the wind. I was tipsy and irritated, feeling trapped and bored as I restlessly paced throughout co-workers. I finally asked the stadium employees for some trash bags and told Dylan that we were braving the storm to slog to a bar down the road where some of our friends were gathered. He complained bitterly as we pulled on our trash bag ponchos, but both of us were in awe as we ventured out into the storm. We had to ford small rivers that soaked through Dylan's shoes and completely inundated my own flip flops (I almost took them off). Our trash bags helped keep our electronics dry, but did little else as lightning split the sky repetitively above us. We finally made it to the bar and waited for the storm to die down before heading home.



142/365


Even though cities are probably not the best environment for most horses, I still enjoy seeing a well-decorated horse-drawn carriage.3



143/365


With Elise's wedding coming up I knew I needed a wedding gift, so I donated to her honeymoon fund and started a scrapbook for her and her husband-to-be. I love the look of the scrapbook (I'm a sucker for gold foil). This shot was hard to make happen.



144/365


Bagel breakfasts are the best breakfasts.



145/365

I flew to California for Elise's wedding weekend - we were at a beautiful ranch property just an hour or so away from Yosemite. It was absolutely gorgeous, with a scenic lake overlook, a flower and vegetable garden, and a dove loft.


146/365

The aforementioned flower garden, where we took many of our bridal party photos a couple of days later.





147/365

Before more guests showed up, the core crew of ladies (aka the bridesmaids) wandered off into the flower garden when we weren't needed and swung from the limbs of a gnarled old tree with a thick trunk. We could also be found cuddling with the ranch golden retrievers, who were absolutely darling!





148/365

We got in early for a REASON! There's nothing I love more than a good lake day! We all drank beers and floated in the water with Brady, one of the goldens, hanging lazily onto the floaties with us (or otherwise hunting for minnows in the shallows). Earth barked at us from shore while other dogs belly-flopped off the dock. The enormous lake trampoline was hard to actually jump on, but it worked well as a giant party boat. We kayaked up the small tributaries feeding into the lake, watching red-winged blackbirds flitting through the reeds while listening to "Just Beyond the Riverbed". When it was time for the rehearsal dinner, I had to catch a ride with Laura as she canoed back to shore, considering I'd floated to the far end of the lake while sipping a Landshark. It was a GLORIOUS day.







149/365

Elise's wedding day!!! I did get a few photos of the bride and her groom, but honestly they paled in comparison to what the actual wedding photographer captured. I instead focused my lens on the smaller details - the pouring of champagne into personalized glasses made for us by one of the bridesmaids, new and old friends (my loves), sweet puppy faces, and DANCING! So many dancing photos! It was a beautiful wedding with beautiful souls.


150/365

On our last day at the ranch, we woke up incredibly early to spend time down at the lake with Laura. We sat on the dock with cups of coffee, early morning mist clinging to the lake, and nuzzled Brady as we said our goodbyes. I had seen Laura just a week prior to the wedding, but this was a more permanent farewell. We hugged one another and quickly wiped tears from our eyes as she left for the airport. Drea and I did the same a couple of hours later after one last beer in the terminal at Fresno Airport.

365 days 126-140

126/365


I was driving to Sunset Park for my usual after-work run when I saw this little rooster by the side of the road. I slowed down, curious as to what brought this tiny guy out so far away from any houses or farmland, and watched as he foraged for bugs near the ditch. I took some photos and sent them to people as a joke, like, "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and other similar queries, and someone responded back saying that the rooster had been abandoned there for days :( I immediately attempted to catch him, though unfortunately he was far too fast. After my run I drove back and attempted to catch him again to no avail. When I went back the next day he was gone - I'm hoping someone picked him up and he's living on a farm somewhere, safe and sound.



127/365


Sometimes hanging out with your roommate in the vet lab while she looks at x-rays is what makes you feel better.






128/365


Someone brought a little hummingbird that was having troubles flying into our facility, so as I waited for Second Chances to come pick him up I took some photos. HE WAS SO CUTE!!



129/365


Two words: Marshmallow. Nose.



130/365


A HUUUGE perk about having weekends off is that I was FINALLY able to go to the biannual bird mart!! It's an event where there are hundreds of bird toys, stands, cages, accessories, and even BABY BIRDS for sale!! This was one of the literal PILES of baby birds that people could fawn over - kept in a small container together for warmth.





131/365


Laura's last week in Texas :( She loves to rollerblade, though sometimes doing so with Chunk takes a dangerous turn. Especially when I excitedly call Chunk to me from down the block...



132/365


Bouquets of flowers saturated with sunlight♥



133/365


Wharf Dawg!! This is one of the shrimp boat strays who hangs out in the marina near the shrimpers, who throw his dirty pillow (featured next to him in this photo; not a euphemism for something) for him over and over again and who give him seafood scraps every night. We threw his pillow for him a couple of times before heading out.



134/365


Another night outside, drinking out of sorrow and celebration because Laura was moving onto better things, but so much sadness to see her go.



135/365


Chunk makes such a beautiful lion!



136/365


We went to Surf Club for pint night as one of our last hurrahs. Scarecrow People, a fun band that mostly covers 80s and 90s music, asked for volunteers for Don't Fear the Reaper and of course Laura gave it all she got with the cowbell.



137/365


Laura wanted a Trolls themed going away party (aka neon colors and glitter), so we obliged. Our house Flip Cup team reigned supreme one last time at our Matagorda mansion (seriously, we are unbeatable), so many people came by to say goodbye to Laura, we played Kings Cup (where we realized that both Taylor and I were WASTED because Taylor could not get the rules of the game and I had the dirtiest feet of any feral child ever), we took off our shirts in the park and streaked across it in the moonlight, we smoked cigarettes on the curb and I flashed everyone (whoops), and I woke up the next morning supremely hungover with an entire bottle of glitter and burs in my hair (from rolling around in the park). Diana very eloquently put it like this, "It's like you guys all living together was a TV show and that going away party was the series finale."




138/365


I suffered through a day of work while incredibly hungover to come home to the house just utterly trashed from our party. We ignored it, however, and went to dinner as a family before returning home to play with sparklers and do light paintings. In the end, we all worked together to clean up the remnants of our last great party.



139/365


Laura left super early, at like 5 AM, and it was hard. We were each other's people. At the time, I was mostly just tired and was able to go back to bed fairly easily. But at work I was sluggish and apathetic; if someone mentioned Laura I teared up a bit. Everyone who hates seeing anyone show any bit of emotion avoided me at all costs. When work let out, I started to cry. I sobbed, not wanting to return home to an empty house without Chunk or Laura. Sean saw me bawling in my car and immediately went into brother mode, cradling me as I cried and offering a night of video games and pizza. Which is exactly what we did, and it was super nice. But none of that was about this picture, this photo I guess is one of the bright spots that happened during the day.





140/365


As a part of his "make Autumn happy again" campaign, Sean mentioned that he and his girlfriend had extra tickets to Move Live in San Antonio on Saturday. I was PSYCHED - I adore Julianne and Derek Hough (Julianne is my main bitch, though), and was so ready to see them dance onstage! We got to San Antonio early enough to walk along the riverwalk for a bit, go to Dick's Last Resort for some drinks and rudeness, and then cram Subway sandwiches before finding our seats. The performances were AMAZING, I'm so glad I was able to go! They are both so talented, and my favorite dance was definitely the giant fan dance by Julianne to "The Greatest" by SIA. The original plan was to all share a hotel room that night and hang out in San Antonio before heading home the next day, however it turned out I had switched weekends with someone so had to actually work on Sunday. Thus, Stacey and I headed home at 11 PM and arrived in Corpus around 1 AM, six short hours before I had to wake up. I had sweet dreams of dancing and singing and was still brimming with smiles the next day at work.

365 days 75-85

75/365


Labradors are definitely water dogs, as evident in the not-so-tiny Riley. She ADORES water in all shapes and forms - digging in her water bowl, making a gigantic mess attempting to drink said water, and leaping into her kiddie pool are some of her favorite hobbies.



76/365


Happy St. Patrick's Day!! One of my semi-traditions is giving holiday-appropriate props to creatures and taking photos of them, so enjoy Kogi being the cutest green bean with his shamrock!



77/365


Dylan and I went to the beach after dinner and saw this enormous kite zipping around in the wind. It was like a giant dragon swooping over the ocean.



78/365


We had a cookout at Raf and Lyia's house to celebrate a beautiful spring evening. We ate burgers on the patio and then sat inside with the windows wide open to drink Moscato and carnation pink wine coolers while their dog, Raja, peeked in on us to see how we were doing.





79/365


I caught this little lizard friend in the theater and took a couple of glamor shots before letting him go (if I see a lizard, I can't just not try to catch it).



80/365


Sunset walks at Sunset Lake.



81/365


We've had a myriad of animals in our bathtub (like our spiny soft-shell turtle from last summer), so it wasn't really a surprise to me when I overheard Laura speaking to someone on the phone about keeping a great-blue heron at our house overnight. I quickly asked her how much time we had before our new temporary roommate arrived and, thankfully, it was enough time for the speediest shower of my life.



82/365


Riley is obsessed with Chunk's huge rawhide bone, so she steals it on a regular basis.



83/365


Corpus Christi is the birthplace of Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, a well-known tejano singer in the hispanic community. Everyone is OBSESSED with Selena here, and just a couple of years ago they created a festival to honor her called the Fiesta de la Flor. I've never been (considering the most I know about Selena is what I gleaned from the movie featuring J-Lo that I watched in Spanish every year of my life from grades 7-11), but this year one of my co-workers won free tickets as well as free drink tickets. I can't say no to free alcohol and an adventure, so we headed to Selenafest to check it out. It was like a tiny convention where everyone was dressed as Selena or bore shirts/jewelry with her name and face. Little girls wore bustiers and rhinestone jumpsuits, there were tons of taco food trucks, and the most interesting installment of all was a silent disco - essentially a DJ spinning tracks you can only hear if you wear headphones. It was a little disconcerting to see a glowing mass of people wearing blinking red headphones migrating in a slow circle, singing Selena songs at the top of their voices in unison as they listened to the music that was silent to us. The DJ was ferociously spinning his beats (dropping his beats?), a screen with colorful Selena-inspired graphics dominating the space behind him, but nothing could be heard except for the joyful crowd. SO BIZARRE. I wanted to join in on the experience, so we made our way into the pit and joined the mass of people slowly making their way in the circle, singing to Selena. However, now we could HEAR said songs! We participated for a couple of circuits around the circle and then headed out. Now I can safely say I've experience Fiesta de la Flor (and I probably don't have to go back. As one of my friends so delicately said, "well it's not like she's doing anything new so it probably won't change much year to year...").



84/365


I attended a friend's wedding shower at a small wine bar called Glow. It was aesthetically adorable, there was free sangria, and I got a beach towel as a shower gift.



85/365


On Sundays I like to hang out in coffee shops and "work". This involves editing photos, making blog posts, writing in my journal, and working on other artistic projects that I've given myself. It helps me get out of the house and do the things I enjoy that stimulate my mind vs. watching Gossip Girl in a stupor all day (which I ALSO enjoy, it just doesn't stimulate my mind as much).

NEI ADVENTURES

In December I was able to attend the Natural Encounters Inc. contemporary animal training workshop. It. Was. Magical.



I spent the week learning from some of the best trainers and behavioral modification experts in the field, broadening my mind and expectations, and making progress with hands-on application in training green (non-experienced) baby macaws. I also ate a ton of delicious food and everyday at promptly 5 PM we had a wrap-up wine and cheese discussion.










We were split into teams where we could work one-on-one with our team lead (a senior trainer at the facility), as well as the other trainers running the workshop (like non-TV's Steve Martin and my favorite person ever Susan Friedman). In our flight we had baby macaws named after Firefly and beer (two of my favorite things!). I ended up working with both Serenity, a blue and gold macaw, and Miller, a scarlet macaw. Our tasks involved training a wave, a spin, putting each on cue, chaining them together, training a backwards spin, chaining that one instead with a different cue - there was a lot to accomplish in a small amount of time. I had serious breakthroughs and serious breakDOWNS (there were tears at one point due to comparison between myself and others). In reality, it was an important lesson to learn - although the learner is not wrong, sometimes antecedent arrangement does not make for a good training session.

For instance.



Little Miss Serenity.

We were using specifically peanuts for training, and after a couple of reps of waving she would decide she was done and fly into the rafters to hang out with her friends. It was frustrating, especially when I was only halfway done training the wave and everyone else was ahead. Antecedent arrangement-wise, we learned that if we put all her friends away in the smaller enclosures within the flight, she was less tempted to join them. We then discovered she didn't care for peanuts, but LOVED walnuts! In fact, one of her trainers thanked me in discovering this since they had also been having issues with her attention span. With these arrangements in place, we were able to have slightly longer, more successful sessions. I didn't end up doing everything on our list of tasks, but when asked if I was confident that I could train these behaviors I said YES! Because I know I could, especially if I had the time and perfect antecedent arrangements. It was a good learning experience.





Toward the end of the week, we were able to choose showcase behaviors that we could train to present to the rest of the class. I wanted a mini obstacle course, but ended up narrowing it down to a ramp behavior with a spin on top and then a flight to the hand near the end. Someone else wanted to chain sending her parrot to a perch, to wave, and then fly to another perch, another wanted to train a retrieve behavior, and the last team member wanted to train a circuit flight (one I was very interested in since I've wanted to train a circuit flight with Kogi since forever). It was amazing to see the different training styles and how each goal could be accomplished in so many different ways.







This little blue and gold's name was Vera *snicker*







This was Tesla, a blue-throated macaw. They're incredibly endangered and NEI has a fantastic breeding program for them - in fact, a couple of very late chicks hatched while we were there!




A great green macaw named Selva (another endangered species)




Miller the scarlet macaw




















This course literally changed my life. It will change how you think about animals, their learning processes, and the way you train. I HIGHLY recommend it as an animal trainer if you have the money, time, or interest (and you don't even have to be a bird trainer, in fact I was in the minority!)


Plus you get to play and see lots of cute birds.