arccos x = arcsin 1/2 ..... What????

Yes, I know I haven't posted in a LONG time.... Yes, I know last time I posted there were some pretty big cliff hangers about moving and a job and all that hooplah.... No, I don't want to talk about that now. (But I promise I'll post about it later.)

What I do want to talk about is some pretty serious hardcore frustration I'm having with school.
My math class is SO hard. SSSSOOOOOO hard. I've been doing well in the class up to this point. I have a great grade (A), but it has been VERY HARD from the beginning. Like really really hard!!!!

This trigonometry stuff might as well be in Greek. Seriously. And it's getting a LOT LOT harder. I have 2 quizzes and a final left and I feel so lost. And it takes up SSSSOOOO much of my time just to try and get a handle on it.... I know this all might seem like excessive emphasis, but I promise, it's not. (To exemplify how difficult this is for me, this is the second time I've taken this class. I've already failed once. It has taken all my effort and energy to pull it together this time around)

I've always said I love school, but these past couple of semesters have been ROUGH! And I know it's only going to get worse. With the level of classes I'm at now, and working full time, I can barely fit in two classes. (Because things like trigonometry and microbiology take a lot more time and energy than the anthropology and art history I was taking a few semesters ago. At least for me)

It is going to take me forever to finish at this rate. FOREVER!!!!!!!!! And I've always said that I'm ok with taking a long time to finish school because my happiness now is important to me too. I'd rather take 2 classes at a time and not be stressed than to overload myself and have a panic attack.... but the thing is, it turns out 2 classes ARE stressing me out. Immensely... because they are HARD!!!!! And I'm not even done with my math classes for my degree. I still have calculus and statistics coming up.... plus some pretty heavy science classes.

At this rate it will be about 5 more years before I have a Bachelor's. And I am stressed EVERY DAY trying to fit in work and studying... and it's only going to get WORSE? Seriously!?!?! (Yes, seriously)

I want to find a way to not work so that I can go to school full time and finish in 2 and a half years. That would be VERY stressful too, but at least it would only be 2 and a half years of stress instead of FIVE... I don't think I am going to be able to do that though.

I have to have a job. I have to get this degree. I will not give up on this.... I can't do it this way anymore. It is NOT working.

I think I might cry. This is SO hard.

Pictures, Panic, and a Plan.

Pictures first :) From my trip to Utah.

So much fun!!! :)

Ok.... now the panic part....

Everyone already knows my husband and I are planning to move soon, but we didn't really know how soon it would be. Well, we got a letter that our house goes to auction on Nov. 23rd... which feels so soon to me! It's a little stressful. A little bit of a panic. It's also kind of nice to know exactly what time frame we're dealing with here though.

The bad thing is that we're still unemployed. I mean, Seby has a job but he works so few hours and makes so little money, we might as well both not have jobs. And I THOUGHT things were going to be looking at least a little up, because I was supposed to start working on Monday, but as my most recent post states that was not to be.

So.... Here's the plan:

We've been thinking about the possibility of moving to another state because we have to move anyway. It's kind of like what the heck, what do we really have holding us here anyway. And it would be nice to have a change. I'm sure we would come back to Arizona eventually. Positive, actually. But for now, maybe we would find more options available to us somewhere else. And seriously, what the heck, time for a mini adventure!!

I convinced my husband that moving to Utah might be a viable option. I know this probably sounds like it's coming out of no where, but I love Utah. Always have. And ever since my Dad moved there (because of the economy, fyi. He and his wife were in a similar situation in Florida as Seby and I are, so they moved to Utah for more job options and cheaper housing) I've been thinking it should be something to consider.

Seby and I came to an agreement. He had a job interview recently that he still feels confident about. And he wants to give Arizona a real good effort before throwing in the towel here. So we're going to continue to hold out for that job, and continue to look for others for one month. If by October 1st we don't have better jobs, we're going to start thinking about what we need to do to move to Utah.

So I guess this is only sort of a plan. Because we do have to be out of our house before Nov. 23rd, and we need money to move regardless of where we go. Especially if we decide to move to another state... which we may or may not do. Oct. 1st is decision day on that. I'm not sure how it will all work out. We still have to think about how school will fit into the whole thing too, which might be a little tricky.

I guess we'll just have to see! I'll keep everybody posted!

So irritated!

I was supposed to start a new job today. Not a great job, but an ok one... At least it's a job! And it's actually a job I would have loved. It just didn't pay that great... but any pay is better than nothing!

This job has been lined up for a month. I got an e-mail last night, at 9pm, minutes after walking in the door from a 12 hour drive home from Utah, saying "Sorry for not calling. I couldn't remember if you were supposed to start tomorrow and I lost your number. My business partner and I decided we can't afford to hire you. Please don't come in tomorrow." ... from the owner of the place I was supposed to work. (It ended in a pleasant way. The owner of this business is actually a very pleasant person and I'm purposefully not saying much about the business because I'm not here to bad mouth anyone or cause any kind of negative business repercussion for this place. I would never want to do that. I'm just expressing my frustration for my personal situation regarding the matter)

Seriously!? Who does that!? The day before a person is supposed to start! You couldn't remember what day I was supposed to start? And you lost my number? It is definitely on a resume, that I definitely sent you. And definitely offered to give you a hard copy of when we met for an interview. Ugh! .... SO unprofessional! ... And now I'm back to square one. With no job!!! (Well, I kind of have this other thing in the works. But I'm not counting that until it pays... which it may or may not)

And I screwed myself, because I quit a job as a server at a restaurant to pursue other better more consistent higher paying things.... Turns out there is nothing better! Ha! I seriously underestimated how few jobs are available! I also quit another job that was horrible... but it paid! Again, underestimated how few jobs are available. I said to myself "no big. I'm going crazy here and I know I can find something else in no time" ... Yeah right!

THIS IS SO IRRITATING!!!!

It feels so out of character for me to get so riled up. I feel like I can't leave it on that note. I'm far too upbeat for my own good. I can't even end one blog post about a totally crappy thing that happened to me on a bad note. lol. Whatever.... this is where that favorite saying of mine comes in.... I guess it's just not that serious.

So here's something fun to end with: My awesome trip to Utah! I love Utah... I know that's not exactly the most popular opinion to hold, but whatever. I've always loved it. And I had a GREAT time!

I haven't put the pictures on my computer yet... I'll do that soonish and do a longer post all about my great trip to Utah (although I think most of the people that read this blog will know about my trip already because most of the people that read this blog live in Utah! Haha)

For now the idea of the mountains will have to be a cheery enough note to end on :)

***Actually, at the last minute I've decided to end on a different note. I'm sitting in bed with my laptop writing this post. It's pretty late, but my husband and I are night owls. Most of the lights are on in the house. The TV is on in the living room. My husband came in here just to sit next to me for a minute. He was talking to me and playing around... and minutes later he's passed out. This boy can fall asleep so easily! In any situation. Hilarious. I don't know how he does that! He's totally passed out... snoring and all. Silly boy ***

My opinion on Facebook

Drum roll, please.

I know you all have been dying to hear me elaborate on my facebook/myspace opinion. (Ok, maybe nobody cares, but I'm going to pretend you are all dying to hear my opinion, because isn't the ability to pretend everyone cares one of the greatest joys of blogging, after all?) (Another note: I said facebook/myspace, but is myspace even "in" anymore? I was never "in" on this one, but I'm starting to get the feeling that myspace is so last year!)

I just read a couple of posts on a blog that a friend of mine turned me onto, motherhooduncensored (I know, I'm not a mother. It's still interesting to read. Mostly I read things my friends talk about to learn more about my friends. An easy way to be involved in peoples lives is to take the time to look into the things they are into) Ok, so back to facebook. The author of Motherhood Uncensored recently went through a little drama with her husband because he was talking to someone he should not have been talking to on facebook. And everyone has been there, right! Maybe not with your husband, but with someone in your life. Or you've had someone you know ask to be your friend, but this person is someone that you don't really want to have too close to your life, and you don't feel like you can say no to them being your friend because you have no real reason to, but then once you say ok you feel like you should censor what you say on your page a little because you don't want this person to know so much about your life. Or someone from your past finds you that you would really rather not be found by. Or you find someone from your past that you wish you hadn't found because dealing with whatever let them go from your life was just way to hard the first time around! And you can't keep people in your life forever. Sometimes it's best to just let people go.

I've known SO many people that get into fights either on or about myspace or facebook. And maybe these people are just immature. Maybe I should just say I can be more mature than that, but drama has a way of sucking people in. It's just so much easier to say "Screw it, I'm not on facebook"

I think, really, what it boils down to is that I'm a bit of a control freak. I feel like being on facebook gives up a little bit of the control I have over my life, specifically who I do and do not want to be found by. And yes, I know, you can make yourself non searchable. But then what's the point? I do just fine keeping up with the friends I have in other ways. Like by phone. Or e-mail. And plus, if I do that then I still have the problem of people that I'm kind of sort of acquainted with asking me if I'm on facebook. And what am I going to say them, "yes, but I made myself unsearchable because I don't want to be found by certain people. You happen to be one of them"?

And yes, I realize I'm blogging about wanting to keep my life somewhat private. Ironic, considering how public blogging is! But not that many people I know blog. And no one ever says to me "Do you have a blog?" putting me in that uncomfortable position of weighing out whether or not I want that person to actually read my blog! And ex-boyfriends and ex-roommates and ex whoevers never search blogger to nose around into peoples lives! I mean, I don't know, I guess they might, but you rarely hear about blogger drama. You hear about facebook drama all the time! Anyway, if anyone who knows me finds me on blogger now, they'll probably think twice about making contact after reading this post! lol. Like "Wow, am I one of those people who she would prefer to not be found by?" Haha.

This is a big rant for such a tiny thing. I know. And I've tried to get over it. I actually did go to create a facebook account, but then it made me go through all this crap of asking if I wanted to "find my friends" and it could "look through my e-mail account to locate people I would likely know". I panicked and chickened out. It's all just too public for me!

Don't get me wrong here. I mean to say nothing negative about the author of Mother Uncensored. She even talks about all of this herself, saying some people should just be left in the past. And I don't judge people who are on facebook and love it. Go, do, be happy. It's all fabulous. But I just can't do it. Plus I'm a social networking retard anyway! I can barely figure out how the whole thing works! I'm just now getting the hang of this blogging thing. And how easy is that!

The only time I've ever wished I was on facebook was when Aubrey was trying to find me. Because here is a person I DID want to be found by. But the thing is, the people that really matter will find you if it that's important. There's other ways... like through a good old fashioned letter! :)

It's ok, you can call me neurotic after reading this. Like I said, I know this is a BIG rant for such a tiny (and immensely popular) thing. I think in my first post I mentioned that I don't do myspace or facebook, and said you can ask about it if you want but it's really not that serious... well apparently, from the length of this post, this time it IS that serious! Haha.

Camping

An update and some pics:

Seby's birthday was this month (on the 9th) and this boy LOVES to fish. I mean really LOVES to fish! So for his birthday we decided to go camping in Northern Arizona, at a place called Ashurst Lake outside of Flagstaff. We went the weekend of the 17th (even though his birthday was earlier this month, that's when we could fit the trip in) It was a lot of fun. A couple of our friends, Chris and Brandon (who also LOVE to fish), came with us. We just hung out by the lake all weekend... An escape from the heat! The weather was super nice. It's so much farther north and such higher elevation than Phoenix, it was nice and cool with a light breeze all weekend. It was actually on the verge of stormy. It was overcast pretty much all weekend, and drizzled a little here and there. It was nice. We had a ton of fun ... and caught a ton of fish! Seven trout to be exact, two of which were caught by me :) The guys were kind of making fun of me though because I don't like to bait my hook, or touch the fish, and definitely would not want to gut the fish (ew!) I really just like the casting out and reeling in part, which I am good enough at to catch two fish! Haha. I get bored of fishing way faster than the guys do though. So I fished a little the first day, then spent the rest of the weekend reading and enjoying the scenery :)

Here are some pictures from the trip (fyi, they're totally in the wrong order but I'm too lazy to fix it)

That's me with the first fish I caught. (It's hard to tell, but I'm holding it pretty far away from me!)

Husband, fishin'

Me with my second fish. Brandon was kind enough to hold it for a photo opp because I didn't want to touch it.

See???? :)

Setting up camp

Brandon

By the lake (see those storm clouds!)

A picture of the lake.

Chris, just chillin'

Smile! :)

Brandon with a fish.

Seby getting ready to fish (and very excited about it)

Ok, a note about the hat. lol. I know it looks ridiculous, but us super pasty white girls gotta protect ourselves from the sun! It's ok, you can make fun of me for it. Being made fun of is certainly better than getting skin cancer!

Setting up the tent (I usually do that, but I somehow talked husband into doing it this time! Yay)

A picture of me taking a picture of Chris taking a picture of me. Haha. (Yes, that was a very childish moment)

Almost to the lake! :) Look at that big smile on his face. This boy LOVES to fish!

And that was our mini vacation! (kind of backwards, but whatever, you get it) I need to put some pictures up here sometime of me looking normal. Like not camping or vacationing on the beach, 'cause that's pretty much all I've posted here so far! I promise, I'm not always doing some crazy outdoor thing! I do look normal and somewhat pretty sometimes :)

Summer... Ick

Ok, quick little note here. I know it's so cliche to talk about the weather in the summer when you live in Arizona because that's all anyone talks about in the summer in Arizona, but seriously, it is HOT. It's seriously impossible to ignore. So in the spirit of being cliche, I must say it is 10:00 at night, my hubby just went to do a late night trash run (what a good husband). He left the door open for about like half a second and I noticed how miserably HOT it is! 99 degrees right now, at 10pm. High of 108 earlier today. Ick! Who builds a city in the middle of the desert anyway? Seriously people.



Guess that's sunny Arizona for ya. At least it's pretty!... I still cant imagine that should have been enough to make people build a city here though! And all of us that live in Arizona say that EVERY SINGLE YEAR... I won't be so cliche to go on and say "I hate it here... even though I'm totally here by choice and if I really hated it that much I could have left years ago, but instead I decided to stay and complain about it every day" because that's the other thing people say here all the time (well, the "I hate it here" at least... that last bit was slight mockery on my part)... ok, whatever, back to the pretty part. We'll try to end on a good note here :) It's HOT... but pretty!

No title... I'm bad at titles

And I'm bad at blogging...

I'm tired, so this might not make tons of sense because I don't think I'll give the whole backstory of how I came to this thought... but whatever. I'm thinking about it, and I cant sleep until I get it out (drives me nutz that my head works that way!)

I'm bad at this blogging thing... and its irritating me a little. So I was thinking about why that is, and I know why. It's because my relationships with people are always one-on-one... always! I've never had a "group" of friends. I always get together with friends one-on-one. Coffee, lunch. Catching up for hours at my house or there's. Thats why I've never gotten into myspace, or facebook, or blogging, but I do great with e-mail. And it's not like I share a different part of myself with each person, because I thought about that. I don't hide things, I tell everyone in my life the same stuff.

I guess it's just that I taylor my conversations with people to them specifically.

So what's the point? Nothing really, I guess. Except I cant help but feel like I'm missing out on something. Because one-on-one friendships are great, but I only have the energy to maintain a handful of those. If I kept in contact with everyone I ever cared about in that way I would go crazy. So what happens? People fall through the cracks, because I just cant maintain that many friendships in such a personal way, and I can't bring myself to change the way I am with people. I've had tons of really close friends I've lost track of... and it makes me feel like maybe I've been a bad friend, but I dont know how to be different. The people who have remained in my life know me really well on a personal level. And I didn't think I was a private person, but I dont know, I guess I kind of am.

Blogging is such an efficient way to keep tons of people involved in your life... and I totally suck at it! What the heck!

I dont even know if that expressed my thought fully... Probably didn't, because again, I struggle to put my feelings out there in one public burst. Whatever. I guess that's it for now.

Blah.

Much needed updates...

So apparently I'm not so good at this blogging thing because I keep forgetting to actually blog! Here's the latest updates from my world....

New job is going good (thank goodness!) I just got out of training a couple of days ago, but so far I actually like it. I was a little worried that it would feel like the days were going by really slow, but it's actually kind of the opposite. My days fly by, I get off early so I can spend the evenings with my hubby (when he's not working a night shift) and I'm off on the weekends to do whatever I want. LOVE it! Really, I think the schedule alone is almost enough to make me willing to deal with anything... luckily I'm not really feeling like there's much to "deal" with. I think I like it. (Yay!... New jobs can be so nerve racking)

Other than that, there's actually not a whole lot going. My mom is out of town this week, so my husband and I are watching her cat. The week before that my sister was out of town, so I watched her dog. The week before that, my aunt and uncle were out of town so we watched their dog. And the week before that, our friend Chris was out of town so we fed his fish. Lol. We're apparently the official pet-sitters recently. I'll laugh so hard if someone comes to us next week asking us to watch a turtle or something. Funny thing is though, after saying just recently that I'm not a big fan of pets, I actually fell completely in love with the dogs I've watched recently.

This is Turk, my aunt Becky and uncle Bob's dog...




Sweetie pie. He made me and my husband want to get a dog! It might be tough to find one that would be ok in our small space though :( Turk did really great here, but he's not a typical doggy. He's so calm. I swear he's like half cat or something! Anyway, we might go to the animal shelter and see if we can find one that would fit with our life... we'll see about that. Probably won't happen right away. But you know there will be a post with pictures the second that does happen!

Speaking of animals... a few Liberty Wildlife Updates. I've started volunteering there on Sundays now because of my new work schedule. Which I'm actually really happy about. I love Sunday mornings. Such a great day.

The Pelican was finally shipped to his new home :) They actually weren't able to take him to SeaWorld after all, so he ended up at Birmingham Zoo in Alabama. It's so sad he can't live in the wild anymore. Poor guy has had a tough time recently, and some really bad injuries! But he's got a good home now.

This is him, all packed up for shipping!...

At the airport (not the most typical cargo)...

His new habitat... pretty nice, I must say!...

They named him Perry :) I actually kind of love it that the animals at Liberty don't get names unless they are officially deemed unreleasable. For weeks he was just Pelican... now he's Perry. Have a happy life Perry!

Another Liberty update. Just have to share because I LOVE these pictures. Owls are so funny looking. Especially the babies.

Baby Screech Owls that came in this week...

For the record, these guys came in because the tree their momma had built a nest for them in got trimmed. This happens ALL the time. Springtime is baby bird season... not the time to trim your trees people! It displaces/injures/kills lots of babies that would totally make it otherwise (and not bother anyone one bit)

Let's see... what else... I've been wanting to share some pictures of me and my hubby, but I don't have them on my computer :( Boo... I guess I'll get those uploaded sometime soon and do a posting with that...

So for now I think that's it. My life is always the same! Barely anything new ever happens... things are always pretty calm in my world. Gotta love that :)

Actually, one more thing... this part is mostly just for Aubrey. Not sure anyone else reading will care about this... My hubby and I had to cancel our trip to Utah that was tentatively planned for right about now :( (Cannot even tell you how upset I am about that one!!!!!!!) New job and everything, I just couldn't get the time off (or get the money together) ... Yes, I was on the verge of tears when this decision was made. I am so so SO very upset!... But, we decided we're going to just push the trip back to August (Hopefully! The deciding factor is always money) We were supposed to be going for a family reunion, which won't be happening in August unfortunately, but I still want to take my husband to where I grew up... and visit my dear friend and her beautiful family!... He's way way into camping and fishing and I know he would love some of the camping spots up there. So anyway, that's our plan. Aubrey, I'll keep you posted. You'll be so preggers by then, but if I'm able to make it up there you're finding time to hang out with me anyway!! :) Hope it all works out! I miss you and want to see you so much! *Muah!*

Just what's on my mind today....

This post is actually a little random (and a little long). It's going to be about two totally separate topics, but it's what's on my mind this afternoon, and as previously mentioned this blog is really about nothing overall. So whatever, we're just going to go with the randomness.... here's what's up....

I just got back from Liberty this morning. I'll probably post a lot about this place, at least for a while because I've only been volunteering there for a couple of months. It's still new and exciting to me. Here's what I was thinking about this morning: I never knew I was an animal person until recently. Really. Until about a couple of years ago, I would actually have said "I'm not really an animal person" and the reason is I'm not big on domesticated animals. I've never really liked cats or dogs. And I still don't, actually. But as it turns out I LOVE wild animals. This kind of snuck up on me and has come as a little bit of a surprise. A little backstory (because this is what brought me to voluteering with animals): about a year ago I was doing that thing that most students do, switching majors a million times, doing my general studies but not really knowing what the heck I was going to do with it. Then one night, super late at night, I was at home with my hubby watching an animal show on PBS. It was about penguins, and it showed animal researchers that had been on a long research study with this one particular colony of penguins. They were tagging them and talking about what they've learned about this species throughout their studies. I was so into this show and I started to realize how often I watch those types of shows and how much I really love learning about animal behavior, so I thought, what the heck. I'll major in biology, emphasis is zoology, and even if I don't work in that field, a biology degree will hopefully be pretty marketable. At least I'll enjoy what I'm studying. So then (more recently) I start volunteering at Liberty and find that besides my husband and family, these animals are like the best thing in my world. I really am truly an animal lover. Who knew!? (I'm thinking as time goes on I'll learn to love cats and dogs more too, even though I'm not crazy about them right now) ... you know, as kids we learn and grow so so much but we don't really realize that's what's going on. I've really found that as I get older I enjoy the fact that I'm learning and growing but I have the self awareness to step back and say "wow, I know more about myself and my world today than I did yesterday"... and I'm still so young. I hope that feeling never goes away. I never want to feel like I know all there is to know, even when it comes to just knowing me. Who I am and what I like (which I know will change with time)... So anyway, point of this whole story is that here I am, self described "not an animal person" and it turns out I actually am... I probably always loved animals I just didn't really know it. Weird thing to not realize about yourself, but whatever. It is what it is.

And here's the second part of this post (totally not related to the above topic, at all)

One of the classes I'm taking right now is world mythology and I was reading something in my textbook the other day that I find really interesting and worth sharing. So this is an exact excerpt from this textbook, "World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide" Edited by Roy Willis (Talking about Hawaiian mythology)

"The Hawaiian year was marked by the alteration of the ritual cycles of the god Ku and the god Lono... It has been suggested by some scholars that the Lono myth was behind the death of the English navigator Captain James Cook, who was the first European to visit the Hawaiian islands. Cook arrived off the islands in November 1778, just as Lono's circuit was due to begin, and circumnavigated Hawaii island in a clockwise direction. The Hawaiians assumed that this year Lono had come in person, and when Cook came ashore at Kealakekua he was immediately escorted to the main temple of Lono. Cook went along with his hosts' efforts to teach him certain ritual responses, unaware that they represented the words of Lono and confirmed the belief that he was the god. When Lono was due to 'die' and depart from Kahiki, the chiefs were reassured when Cook expressed that his departure was imminent. However, shortly after leaving, Cook decided to return to Kealakekua to repair one of his ships. He arrived on February 11, 1779, to find the Hawaiians first bewildered, then angry and abusive, because Lono was supposed to be dead. One hundred chiefs, all anxious to ensure that their god died as he should do, killed 'Lono' with the iron daggers that he had given them just a few months earlier."

I'm not really sure what to take from this story, but I find it really compelling for some reason. That is like the ultimate case of misunderstanding. I want to learn more about this. This is only one little clip from one textbook, and it kind of sounds like this might be a controversial theory so I don't think I can take it as total truth, but I'd like to know more about it. I want to find out where the evidence for this theory comes from. I'll do more research about it so you might see updates on this at some later date... when I learn things that I think are interesting I tend to want to share them. The good thing about this format of sharing is that if you don't think it's interesting you don't have to read it :) ... Anyway, if anyone has anything to add to this or knows more about it, let me know. I'd be interested to hear other points of view on it or reactions to this odd little story.

Ok. That's it. Just what's on my mind today :)

Updates...

I guess this blogging thing only works if I actually blog! lol. So ok, here's what's going on these days...

I got a new job, for one. I'm excited, and a little nervous. It's with a company that's contracted by BMW to do customer service on loans and leases. So basically it's a phone job, inbound customer service for BMW. Good company, good pay, good hours... but WAY different from what I do now. I'm worried about being bored. But whatever. I'll tough through it even if it is boring. At least I'll be able to pay my bills! And the schedule will work great with school.

I was looking over my transcripts and everything for school this past week. Seeing what classes I've done so far and what I have left. I'm only 6 classes away from my associates degree which makes me so so happy... not that an associates degree is going to do anything for me, but it is a mile marker. I still have a long way to go overall... at least I can kind of see a light at the end of the tunnel.

My hubby is looking for a new job this week too. It will be kind of crazy for us to both be switching jobs at the same time, but I think it will be a good thing.

And last but not least, I'm totally sicky right now. Which blows. I hope this goes away before I start my new job next week. I have a totally week immune system. When I get sick it lasts FOREVER! So on that note, I'm cutting this blog short and going to take a nap... :(

This is a totally boring post. I really don't feel up to attempting to be at all entertaining right now, but I did feel the need to post some updates. So whatever, it is what it is. Short, to the point. More some other time!

Wild World

(Hogan the owl and one of her foster babies)

So I just got back from liberty wildlife. One of my favorite places in the world. I figure that makes it a good day to blog about it (and tell that baby owl story)

Liberty is a wildlife sanctuary in Scottsdale, Arizona. They rescue injured animals found in the city, rehabilitate them, and re-release them into the wild. They also focus on educating the public on how to interact with nature without harming it and without it harming us, especially when it comes to wild animals. In the cases of animals they rescue, sometimes they can't be re-released because of permanent injuries that won't heal, or because they are improperly imprinted (look that up, it's interesting), so Liberty gives them a lifetime home. They do tours with some of those animals, taking them around to teach people about their species. Liberty rescues all types of animals, but mostly birds. So on Fridays I go there and do daily care: feeding birds, cleaning cages, filling out feeding logs and monitoring behavior for anything odd. Kinda dirty work, but I love it.

This is Hogan....

She's a great horned owl, and a foster mommy. She came in with a wing injury, but it never healed so she is unreleasable. She wouldn't survive in the wild. Instead, she lives at Liberty. She's very nurturing. When we get great horned owl babies in that need a mommy to teach them how to be an owl, we put them in with Hogan and she takes to them like they were her very own. And she cares for A LOT of babies! She has 8 right now, but in the past she's cared for way more than that. And she's totally crazy protective of all of them. I think it's neat.

These are a few of her babies....

(Not a super great picture. It was taken through the slats in the cage. I don't go in Hogan's cage. Don't mess with momma, for sure! You can only see 3 of the 8 in this picture because of the angle, but they're all in there)

This is Sequoia....

She's a Harris hawk foster mommy. (Also crazy protective. Another picture taken from the slats in her cage. Look at those crazy eyes! Who wants to mess with that! ... she is beautiful though)

Sequoia doesn't take to babies that aren't her own quite as well as Hogan. Right now, she doesn't even have a baby with her, she has an egg... and unfertilized egg... She layed it herself, because it's springtime and that's her nature, but there's no male to fertilize it. Even so, she doesn't know that. She's been sitting on it like it's going to hatch someday. So what happens with Sequoia is, when an injured harris hawk baby comes in, liberty volunteers will switch the egg for the baby. Sequoia thinks her egg hatched, baby doesn't know the difference, and he has a new momma to teach him how to be a harris hawk... So crazy! But what a good thing she's doing for those babies, even if she thinks they are hers. She can't live in the wild, but she is still helping her species. So neat.

Another interesting Liberty story... This is a pelican....

The poor guy blew in from California. Literally! He got caught in a bad wind storm, blown east, ended up totally disoriented at the first lake he found. Tempe town lake... a tiny man made lake in the middle of the city! Not a good home for a pelican... so he came to Liberty, but he has a severe wing injury. He'll never fly again. We're taking care of him until he recovers a little. He has a home waiting for him at SeaWorld in San Diego, as soon as he's ready to be shipped there. Poor sweetheart is so out of his element :(

Anyway, this is my life on Fridays. I love all these guys so much.

Some thinks to check out

http://www.libertywildlife.org/

http://www.libertywildlife.blogspot.com/

Wow, I'm starting a blog.

Ok, so here I am, a blogger... which is really crazy to me and probably will be to a lot of people that know me. I've never really been that blogger type... until now, I suppose.

A little back story: My dear friend Aubrey is a blogger. And she loves it (from what I know). Aubrey and I were best buddies in 5th and 6th grade, and then I moved far far away. Somehow, we managed to stay best buddies all the way through high school through letters, e-mails, Internet chat, and visits back and forth. And then we lost touch. This girl has got the biggest heart of anyone I know. She searched me out and didn't find me on myspace or facebook because I don't do that social networking thing (you can ask me about that if you really want, but as I say it's really not that serious. I just haven't gotten into it. Maybe I will... blog first. One step at a time) So anyway, she sent me a last ditch effort good old fashioned letter and we've reconnected through that. We did the whole "what's been going on for the last six years thing" and attempted to get each other caught up, which I think we did a pretty good job of. In her first e-mail she gave me a link to her blog. I've been able to check that blog from time to time, keep updated on her life events, check out pictures... and it's been totally one sided! Here I am with nothing... and no time to keep in touch with people! So the result is even when I'm in the loop with other people, they're totally out of the loop with me. Yes, my dear friend Aubrey, you have inspired me to start a blog. And you may end up being the only person that reads it, if you even do, but whatever. The fun thing about a blog is I can just pretend like people care even if they don't. I'll never know. Haha... I guess that is unless people decide to leave really mean comments. Please don't do that. Go easy on me :)

So here's the other reason for this blog: I tend to get really caught up in my own thoughts. And I have a wonderful husband that is generally really good at letting me rant and get stuff out, but the poor boy, I talk his ear off all the time! And it's not like anything I think or have to say is all that important, it's just that when I'm thinking about stuff and don't get it out of my head it drives me nuts. Seriously, this problem causes insomnia. And if it's something that upsets me and I don't get it out in some way, it will find it's way out through my eyeballs (that's right, I'm a crier). So in the past I've kept a journal, but I haven't been on top of that lately. And now I figure, what the heck, why not put it on the Internet. lol.

I tell you all this to set the tone here. This blog is about nothing. And I'm a rambler so all my posts are going to sound... well, about like this one. Ramblish.

A few things about my life you might hear about...


My dear husband. Cutie. Love you babe! ~Muah!~

(A picture from our honeymoon in Mexico, October 2008)


School... fun, interesting, life enriching and educational. All of that.... and stressful! I feel like I'm going to be a college student FOREVER!


Liberty Wildlife... I volunteer there once a week. It's a wildlife sanctuary in Scottsdale, AZ. I promise I'll post more about that some other day, but I'm not going to go into what they do today. I'm a zoology major so I volunteer at this center to build my resume and give me some experience in wildlife research. Plus I love the animals there... mostly the owls, which I know freak a lot of people out. I love them though.

(Great horned owl babies. They all have a foster mommy. It's a sweet story. I'll tell it later this week sometime. I love them)

And then I'm sure you'll hear about work and a lot of other random whatnots. I'm currently a restaurant server, but it sucks. Inconsistent hours, no money. Plus hubby is a server too and we end up on opposite schedules a lot, which sucks... blah.

So that's it. This is my new blog... I'm actually a little excited about it, but I feel like I should be embarrassed of that excitement. Whatever, I'm just going to own it. That's right. This is me.

A blogger... :)