weekend updates

Oh hey Internet world, what's going on? It's been a week since I last (sort of) updated, and even though I don't really have any new pictures to share or anything, I still have been living it up in the world of south Texas!

My training with Nacho, our Red-Legged Seriema, is going really well! Aside from some particular errors (don't get me started), she is going into her crate immediately upon opening the door (her cue), and she stays in there calmly. She is having issues leaving immediately because she thinks, "Hey, I'm being reinforced in the crate!", but we're working on that. Next up is to try carrying her. SO EXCITING (this is my dream).



I learned one of my favorite people in my department is leaving for a different position :( She's going to still be at the aquarium, which I'm happy about, but it will still be different without her. A little harder (again, don't get me started). But I'll make it. This is what I want to do, I won't be run off so easily. Anyway, because she's leaving I might be able to start working with her animal she was training, Mr. Wendel the Southern Tamandua!



Southern Tamanduas have HUGE claws on their front paws for ripping open the earth to find ants and other social insects, but also to protect themselves if they feel threatened. Sooo I need him to get used to my scent first before I really start working with him, so he won't try to attack me, but so far it's been good. I've been taking him on walks with his trainer and feeding him juice to associate my smell with something positive, and he's never acted defensively when I've been near him, even when I touch his little nose! So cuuuuteeeee!!!

My other training DREAMS are to train our Eurasian Eagle Owl to be in shows again (he wads in shows ONCE), so I can handle him and basically be in love because I have always wanted to work with a Eurasian. Also to work with our Crested Cara-Cara because he is beautiful and adorable and makes little grunts.

I'm FINALLY done petsitting for my coworker so it's been nice to just hang out at my own house with my own birds instead of another couple of slightly crazy animals. Though I did get to have some fun times, like going on birding walks (where I saw Scissor-Tailed Flycatchers and Purple Gallinules!) with Argos and cuddling the cats.





So that was fun, but I know that having a dog at this point in time is definitely not for me. An important lesson to learn.

In the past week, I've been to an amazing 80s cover band called The Spazmatics which was SO FUN! Like, SO FUN. I went with my friend Roxie and we stood right up front, swooned when the singers looked at us, and I sang and danced to EVERY. SONG.



Since we were so close, we made eye contact with the band OFTEN and sometimes they sang to us!

I went to trivia night at one of my favorite bars and we advanced from 11th place to 7th! YAY!! One of the categories was all about rabbits in honor of Easter and we KILLED IT. Get several animal people together and their intensity is overwhelming as soon as trivia stops talking about geography and starts asking the important questions, like, "what is the word for an animal that is active at dawn and dusk?" We all FREAKED. OUT. Also when answers were being read, we basically barked and howled for every correct answer we got.

We went to Whiskey River again and some guys taught me how to dance! With the twirls and everything! I'll become a two-stepper, yet. My favorite part of Whiskey River is learning line dances. I've learned a couple and I feel almost like a real Texan now. Whiskey River, while semi-weird, is still pretty great due to its cheap drinks. Actually, most of Corpus has cheap drinks!

Tonight I had movie night with Elise and Laura, which was super nice. I love going out, but it's also amazing to be able to just chill with peeps in comfy clothes and eat candy in front of the TV.

Tomorrow we are throwing an ORPHAN EASTER party!! A bunch of us who don't have family here are bringing food items to Stewie's house and are going to feast, chill in the hot tub, play volleyball, and have an awesome Easter Sunday.

Now time for bed; I'm supes tired. Nighty night, fireflies.

10 Things I Love Monday...again

Oh no, I haven't even written a post since last Monday when I wrote my last list! AGH! Oh well, I've been busy. Let's get this show rolling.

1)



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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.

2)



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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.

3)





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.

4)







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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!

5)






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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.

6)



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.

7)



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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.

8)



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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!)

9)



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.

10)



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.

weekend update with Otter (in pictures)

This weekend has been really laid back.

I took pictures of the garden



























One of our trees grows fuzzy red things



They're really soft. I'm not sure what they are

I made multiple brownies in a mug (with ice-cream!)



My dad and brother smoked cigars











I went to the farmers market again with my fam and saw an adorable puppy that I wanted to adopt SO BAD. His name was Oscar (more pics of the farmers market to come soon)



Also ate the most amazing pizza and drank lemonade from my favorite stand



I spent a lot of my weekend going through my stuff, decided what to pack/donate/throw away. This was my favorite pair of shorts since I was in JR. HIGH. There are holes in the butt and they are worn around the waist-band. It is their time to go.



But I'm sill sad about it :(

I practiced taking pictures of light and the dust floating in front of my window





And here are some miscellaneous pictures





This weekend was nice. I woke up in a panic on Saturday morning thinking that I was supposed to be at the daycare. Then we went to the farmers market, I went to Nostalgia to play cards with Maddie (under the premise of "studying"), I went to the grocery store with my mam, and then spent the night going through my stuff and cleaning my room. Sunday was spent working at the daycare, napping (oh the glorious nap that I took), then cleaning my room and going through the photo boxes my mom dug out of the closet for me. I so far have five stacks of pictures I want to scan into the computer, even though it will take me seven years to do it. Part of me just wants to take it somewhere to do it for me, so I need to research that (and see if it costs lots of moolah).

Time for bed.

weekend update with Otter

These have been some busy, productive, and fun past couple of days. I went to the Senior Sendoff on Thursday night because I was desperate to win Disneyland day passes that you could win if you pre-registered for the event. It was a dinner/speaker event with really crappy food and no booze, BUT I did make some new friends (to sit with, since I knew NO ONE THERE. I seriously know no graduating seniors that are not bio students. Welcome to the U of U) and the punch was pretty good. I did not win the Disneyland passes, unfortunately, but I did end up winning a super comfortable U sweatshirt and a hilarious Huntsman Center (aka the giant boob) figurine. So in the end, worth it. Also I finally talked to the career center and got signed up for their job-finding and resume writing services due to the dinner, so it sort of forced me to continue planning my future.

Friday night I went to the Benefit El Salvador silent auction at the 15th St. Gallery. It was a super fun event that Lisa was volunteering at, whom I adore and hadn't seen in forever. Natal came with me, and we were soon joined by Gabi and Bree. Basically the evening was spent being fancy with our wine and beer, eating delicious food and desserts, and perusing the items for sale. Natal and I bid on a year's worth of Color Me Mine painting, but were outbidded, unfortunately. At one point I asked the guy at the bar to give me their classiest beer and they gave me an Ipa, a semi-locally brewed beer from the Moab Brewery. So I learned about a new beer, got drunk, ate bananas and chocolate, talked to a lot of friendly peeps, got to see my franz, and was fancy. Then I ended up going home early instead of going out with everyone to watch Candyman and go to bed. WOO!

Saturday was spent making graduation announcements (or at least writing on them, since I don't have the prints of the pictures I'm putting in them yet), playing Starfox Adventures (which my brother bought for me at an independent gaming shop, yay!), drawing bird pokemon, trading a Seel to my HeartGold game to train, doing bird care, and ultimately just relaxing (except for the bird care part). OH MAN I forgot how fun Starfox is! I love the dinosaurs. Except for parts of it make me want to MURDER SOMEONE and I'm still not good at them, like the racing part at the beginning when you're trying to save Tricky. My brother did it for me after I failed four times in a row.



Goddamnit, Tricky

Today was spent trying to go to a play I need to attend for my online drama class, but the Internet LIED to me and so I ended up at a completely locked theater. So instead I did bird care and just played more Starfox Adventures all day (completely logical) until my friend's birthday party at the park! It was a surprise birthday party so we all yelled, "SURPRISE!" when she was still 200 feet away and then we awkwardly waited for her to actually arrive at the designated party site. I got to see Coopers Hawks and Brewer's Blackbirds, we played frisbee (Ale's dad is a BEAST at frisbee), ate cookout foods, got into a cake fight, played kickball, and I hung out with this guy who has the same dslr I'm pretty sure I'm going to get for graduation (fingers crossed) so I asked him for photography tips. I was originally only going to stay for an hour and then head to a play I have to attend for class, but I ended up staying until sunset, which is when apparently a bunch of little kids infiltrate the park without any adult supervision. At one point I wondered aloud what they were doing here and if they were wild and the guy who was with us was like, "They're ours now" so I tried to lure them in with soda. Aka not really because that's creepy. I just pretended to. To be funny.

After park shenanigans, I watched 20/20 with my mom while I did homework (on time this time, since I keep forgetting to do my online homework on sunday night) and revised a short story I wanted to submit for a creative writing contest (which I submitted half an hour ago, woo!) and then I watched The Simpsons forever. The end.

And that was my weekend!

The best picture from this weekend (also one of the only ones) is this picture of graffiti I took near the theater. It reminds me of in Super Mario Sunshine where you can spray a graffiti O or an X somewhere and a blue coin will pop out of its counterpart on the other side of the island.



(I tried to find a picture of it in the game but failed so I GUESS YOU'RE JUST GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE MY WORD FOR IT)

sunday night survey

It's Sunday night and I've spent the day cleaning my birds' cages, doing bird care, weighing vials for the experiment, and studying conservation biology. Though I only got about half of the stuff done I meant to (though the bird cage thing was an additive that was, admittedly, desperately needed).

1: What do you put on hotdogs?
Cheddar cheese! I dislike most condiments, so if I get it from a street vendor or something I take it plain, and if made at home I snuggle slices of cheddar cheese next to the dog in its bun.

2: Do you say “anticlimatic” or “anticlimactic”?
Anti-climactic. Because otherwise you would be refusing the existence of an atmosphere.

3: Do you check flyers before grocery shopping?
Ha! No, I just go to the store and buy extras if there happens to be a sale. For instance, 10 for $10 Annie's white cheddar mac n cheese? ALL 10 BABY.

4: Blue, black, or some other colour pen ink?
Blue-ink pens make me irrationally irritated. I prefer black, liquid ink pens.

5: Do you use your parking brake?
Awwww yeeeah! I don't trust the whole first gear brake business.

6: Look to your left. How many framed pictures are on the wall?
I have two paper-framed pictures, but the rest are just free-floating snapshots or prints or drawings people have done for me.

7: Do you know how to play chess?
Yes! My dad is a huge chess nerd (or at least he used to be), so one of the first things he taught me was how to play chess. He wanted me to play competitively and bought me a book on strategies, but I dodged that bullet.

8: How often do you clean the interior of your car?
Never. I really need to though. It's disgusting.

9: Do you ever read the last few pages first?
NEVER! Even though sometimes I want to know DESPERATELY how the book ends, my self control (which is practically non-existent) somehow wins in the end.

10: Ever fallen in the shower?
I've had close calls where I slip in bathtubs that don't have grips on the bottom.

11: On a scale of 1-10, how likely are you to swear at other drivers?
9.5. Pretty damn likely.

12: What’s the worst thing you’ve ever called someone you care about?
When I was little, I used to call my mom a bitch in my diary to make myself feel better when she did things that made me angry. However, one day I left my diary out and my dad read it. He argued that I left it open to that page (so maybe I subconsciously wanted attention) and I argued that I did NOT and that he read my personal property, and in the end I felt really terrible about ever calling my mom a bitch. So never again.

13: Do you have a Snuggie?
I WISH.

14: Are you allergic to anything?
I'm allergic to pineapple, fall leaves, and horned lizards.

15: Do you have any TV shows on DVD?
We have a lot of seasons of The Simpsons, some Futurama and Spongebob, all of Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, Invader Zim, and maybe some others I can't think of at the moment.

16: How many times do you hit the snooze button before finally getting out of bed?
Honestly, probably four. I'm trying to decrease it down to two or three so that I can spend more time grooming myself before school.

17: Ever driven away in anger?
I did once when I lived by myself. One night while visiting my parents my dad and I got into a huge fight and I just got in my car and drove to the end of the street while screaming and crying. Then I couldn't do it, so I turned around and went back to the house to apologize and everything was fine.

18: What’s your favourite freezie colour?
PINK OTTERPOPPPP!

19: Are you a vegetarian?
No. I tried to be once but it didn't work out.

20: Do you have a garbage receptacle beside you? What’s on top?
I have a green trash receptacle that says ERROR on it for some unknown reason. Nothing is really on top of it.

21: Do you cross out your mistakes or erase/whiteout them?
Erase if I'm writing in pencil, but scribble out if I'm writing in pen or marker.

22: Ever torn something up that you instantly knew was too important for such treatment?
Nah, I've never let anger get that far while I was holding something like that.

23: Do you think that things will get better?
Yes! I am confident that they will, though things are not particularly bad right now (knock on wood)

24: Do you have an unpopular opinion? What is it?
I guess I have unpopular opinions to conservative republicans, since I support women being able to make their own choices about their own bodies, I support equality for everyone, I support a non-capitalistic society, and I EXTREMELY support conservation.

25: What’s your favourite quote?
I have several favorite quotes. I particularly like "ADVENTURE IS OUT THERE!" :)

26: Did you/are you going to go to prom?
I went to prom with a bunch of my franz. I can most definitely say that our prom was amazing (because Maddeh was our prom queen and she wore the pinkest, fluffiest, CUPCAKIEST DRESS you have ever seen).

27: What’s the most physically painful thing you’ve ever experienced?
Getting stitches in my ear with no painkillers or anything after I'd fallen down a cliff when I was in first grade.

28: What’s the most emotionally/mentally painful thing you’ve ever experienced?
Falling in love and realizing that he didn't love me back.

29: Have you ever legitimately saved a person’s life?
Nooo, once when I was little I was convinced I'd saved my brother's life because I pulled him in on his boogie board as the tide was pulling him out (plus he was freaking out).

30: What’s your favourite book genre?
Good question! I like all sorts of books, though I am more inclined to read something if it's spooky or creepy or mysterious at all.

31: Did you like “Gigli”? Be honest.
I didn't know what it was until I googled it two seconds ago. It sounds like an...interesting movie premise.

32: Have you ever walked out of a movie at the theatre?
No, what a waste of money. STICK IT OUT MAN! Plus my favorite thing ever is to make fun of movies, so I can usually have fun no matter how terrible a movie is.

33: Do you peek between your fingers during the scary scenes?
Yeah, haha. Well, sometimes. When I watched The Ring with my friend in 8th grade (which was the most scarring movie I've ever watched), I closed my eyes during the parts where she'd climb out of the TV screen and didn't peek at all because I was so scared.

34: What was your reaction to Tatum getting killed whilst stuck in the pet door in Scream?
I was pretty disappointed by it because I liked Tatum. Even though her name is stupid.

35: Do dogs like you?
Dogs love meeee.

36: Would you say that you project an air of authority?
Nope. Not at all.

37: Do people listen when you speak?
Unfortunately, not very often. Something about me must prompt people to talk over me. I was the listener for so long and have just barely started wanting to talk during conversations a couple of years ago, so maybe that's the reason why.

38: How are your elbows? Are they okay?
The feel pretty great, thanks! A little dry I guess.

39: What is one thing that you do exceptionally well? Be honest.
I think I'm pretty good at empathizing with people. I can usually tell what someone is feeling or thinking by their actions and aura.

40: Do you use torrents?
I honestly can't really figure them out, so I mostly use mediafire to download the occasional song.

41: When was the last time you paid for music?
I bought the songs from the pilot episode of SMASH.

42: Are you addicted to technology?
Probably. I can't be off my laptop for longer than a couple of hours or my energy levels start to DEPLETE.

43: Pick a person (you don’t need to give their name). How do you feel about them? Be as honest as you can get yourself to be.
I don't mean to be repetitive, but I did love you. And knowing that you didn't feel that way about me really hurt and continued to hurt for far too long. I'm trying my best to get over you (for real this time), but it's a hard road. I still think I love you, but I'm trying to make it easier. Especially since I'm leaving.

44: Do you check your computer’s dictionary for the definition of words you’d otherwise feel confident about using during in-person interactions? Just to be sure?
Sometimes when I'm in conversation with a person I know really knows the meanings of different words and who would judge me otherwise (hahaha).

45: How heavily to you rely on spellcheck and autocorrect?
Autocorrect sometimes plays heavily into my texting, especially since touchscreen eludes my finger-skills (and also when I'm drunk), and spellcheck is good for when I'm typing fast. I'm good speller though.

46: Have you ever gotten into an argument on the internet? Did you win?
I got into an argument just last night! On facebook there was a whole post talking about the hunting of wolves from helicopters and it got into a debate about the ethics of eliminating keystone species like wolves from the environment. And then a bunch of people ended up backing me up and the guy stopped responding, so I consider that a victory!

47: Do you pause movies/TV shows if you have to go to the bathroom or the kitchen, or do you just let them keep playing?
I pause them if I haven't seen them before, but if I have then I usually let them play.

48: If you use a regular alarm clock, do you have it set to music or that obnoxious beeping?
MUSIC! I can't STAND alarm clock beeping. If an alarm goes off in a show or something and I hear it, I automatically feel like punching something. Also I hate it when I'm sleeping over at a friend's house or am somewhere where I can hear someone's alarm clock going off and they don't wake up and TURN IT OFF. It makes me want to murder someone.

49: Peter Pan?
...yes?

50: How often do you fall up the stairs?
Quite a bit. I miss steps a lot for some reason.

51: Do you pronounce “anti” as ant-eye or ant-ee? (Example: “That scene was very anticlimactic.”)
Usually ant-eye.

52: Do you pronounce “via” as vee-uh or vie-uh? (Example: “We can get there via Tremont Street.”)
Vee-uh. I have never heard someone pronounce it vie-uh. Do people actually do that?

53: How often do you forget to close your parentheses?
Only when I'm writing sometimes. I remember when I'm typing (because I can see them more easily).

peekturs from the weekend

I'm spending Mardi Gras studying biochem, ugh. Also I go back to work tomorrow. Here's hoping everything's going to be okay.