I have changed a lot since my last entry....I'm at work so I can't type much, but to begin I got married went on a honeymoon bought a brand new 08 Toyota Rav4 and my hubby and i are hous eshopping this weekend.....details to follow....

mood: working

Last night after Wes and I went to his company Christmas party he proposed!! Yeah!!! It wasreally sweet and hegave me a beautiful ring!! So save Dec. 1, 2007 on your calendar becausewe are getting married!!!

And Mal.....if you read this....don't tell your Mom wewant to surprise her and haven't gotten ahole of her yet!

*edited* you all know i mean ahold of her....turds!

mood: giddy

So you guys haven't heard much from me lately. So much timespentsorting out the fishies and the other critters at work. I love my job, i get to do such cool and crazy things with a crew of five people who are so great to work with. First there is Peter the tool, we fight like brother and sister cuz my favorite pasttime is to give him shit about everything, but really he is cool in his own weird-assway. Then comes Darrell, by far the quietest one on our crew but he has got some hilarious stories once you get him talking, not to mention he is so strong sometimes i seriously think he doesn't need anyone's help to lift the damn heavy baskets all night. Then comes Laura, the quiet conservative one who totally has a crush on Peter, I'm thinking of trying to hook here up with a friend of mine if we can get her to go to a bar with us, she is really sweet and thoughtful too! Then comes Allison who is goofy as all hell and has a story for anything including chocolate pudding. She's a sweetie too! She looked after Bamf and Merlin when I came home for Thanksgiving.Her boyfriend Aaron is great fun too he is working on his Chemistry PhD at John Hopkins. Then last but not least is Anita, whose sarcasm and humor goes well with mine. She hilarious to work with and it seems like most of my insane work stories start out "so this one time Anita and I were at Wagner..." I hope she and her boyfriend Steve stay together he seems to be a good guy and makes her happy. We all get together and play poker from time to time and we're planning an outing for sometime in the next couple weeks to a good bar to celebrate the holiday season. Hopefully I can invite Craig along when we go. He called mewhen I was at the Power Plant the other night and I haven't gotten to callhim back just yet.

Wes and I have a pretty good social life out here. We go out with Mark and Heather a lot and like i said previously it's always fun to play poker with the work crew. I do kinda miss the big parties with everyone back home though. It's weird to suddenly be such a responsible career kid out here and go home and feel like you are too stuffy for your friends. I still like to hang out and have the occasional beer but I like to play poker or strategy games and have that be the point of theevening, not getting obliterated. I'm getting old I guess. Wes and I are talking about where to buy a house and starting the plans to get married (tentatively set for December 1, 2007) and talking about when we want to start having kids. I know he still means to surprise me with a ring and proposal like tradition even though i have been nervous that that is a curse in the past. Wes is different so it will be okay. I miss how it used to be with Nate and Ash and Josh Love, everyone we used to party with. I don't think any of them will visit out here in maryland except for joosh with jinnia and potentially larry. It's sad to feel like a chapter of your life may be closing withoutyour permission. I think the distance started to go when the ex went gay on me and brokeme for awhile. it's hard to build yourself back up without the apology and closure but i'm a tough buff powderpuff as wes says and i think things turned out fine in the end. though a nice hand written SINCERE apology would always be excepted because i think if he really did it for real it may help him to to realize what his actions do to people. but fat chance of that happening!

It Christmas season again and i have no idea what to get my person i drew for our family exchange. I need to finish my christmas shopping soon. It makes me feel like a slacker if i do it last minute. Wes' presents are bought and good go. Last night when i called wes from the plant, he was at a mall he wouldn't specify buying christmas gifts he wouldn't talk about so i guess he's got his shopping underway.

before i go i have to say happy 23rd to the Jenga Jam!!!! She's my only sinister. and your present will be in the mail today i hope!

mood: groggy music: Bamf and Merlin with the running rips...

Revving up for another late night Wagner shift. Things have been normal since we got back from The funeral almost three week ago now i think. I'm kinda bummed we missed Coey T's birthday party cuz i would have loved to see him and Ash and Nate again. I lso miss Larry and Joosh and Josh Love would have been fun to talk to. Otherwise...I'm so glad I don't have to deal with some of the drama I used to have to deal with. It's amazing where I was a year ago. On Oct 20th last year i went to Athens to visit a friend and ended up here. No Ryan to lie to me no Kim & Barry to dread seeing. I am a little scared of Larry Miller, he's intimidating!! But I have come out on top. I guess Karma does exist.

I turn 25 a week from Friday!! It will be weird becuase it is the first time i have been out of Ohio for my birthday.

As much as I enjoy living here in Maryland, I miss people from Ohio a lot. It's nice to have Heather and Mark here. But the Nate's, Ash, Coen, Joosh, Larry, Love, Zak and some other characters are far away.

Oh well, time to get geared up.....

mood: bouncy music: I write sins not tragedies - Panic! at the disco

At 10 am i was already 19.5 hours into my wokr week and i didn't even start till 2:30pm on monday. To top it off I have two more shifts at around 14 hours and i am sick.

Wes is still in Ohio and he and Mal seem to think their Na-Na doesn't have more than about 48 hours or so from the way things have been going. I am going home on Friday morning to be there with him. and thankfully Heather is going to stop in to check on Bamf and Merlin.

Otherwise nothing but goofy tales of giant american eels in little baskets and almost getting pulled over by the coast guard...but i'm not in the mood right now so maybe later....

mood: sick

Last week was tiring as usual but we had a little extra excitement. On Thursday when I was at Wagner, due to the relatively dry conditions we have had, we had buckets and buckets of dead jellyfish coming up in our impingement baskets. Just masses of jelly stinking like you would not believe!! I have a strong stomach and I almost ralphed a couple times. Yuck!!
Saturday night was good, Wes and I went out to Hops microbrewery for dinner and then went and saw Pirates of the Carribean 2 which was really good. It was very sweet to go out on a date with my Scootie.
This coming weekend we have a four day weekend due to labor day on monday and having friday off. Wes's dad Larry is coming down on Saturday I believe, and Dave asked me today at work if wes and I wanted to come over and have burgers and I could meet Pat. (Pat is wes's mom's Cousin and Dave whom I work with is Pat's Husband). Soudns like it should go well, other than Larry asked wes yet again if he is ready to meet Chris and we have both agreed I think that we aren't until we are home. Not ready to just invite her into our home.

Anyhoot even if you don't have myspace you shoudl make a stop at my page for a funny picture of Bamf and a cute one of Wes and I. http://www.myspace.com/echidnabuddhapopple

mood: chipper music: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Phenomena

It was amazing how powerful film can be at times...The things a picture on a screen can say...it was gruesome...and i know everyone else has seen it but me....but i have to say damn and end with the best quote in the movie....stollen of imdb reference to the film...

Danny Vinyard: So I guess this is where I tell you what I learned - my conclusion, right? Well, my conclusion is: Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time. It's just not worth it. Derek says it's always good to end a paper with a quote. He says someone else has already said it best. So if you can't top it, steal from them and go out strong. So I picked a guy I thought you'd like. 'We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.'

mood: thoughtful

I want to go downstairs and punch my neighbors......they have been playing music all day so loud my floor is vibrating and i haven't gotten to sleep yet. I worked all night last night dammit!!! I deserve some sleep!! These are the same neighbors who have a saw on their balcony they use and they also hammer shit at weird hours of the night!! I hate them....I wanna kick them so bad!!


**17:03- I went down to get the mail and the people are listening to old school Madonna (think Vogue) and Paula Abdul. That is what is causing my brain to hurt.

mood: angry

So Saturday Heather Wes and I drove to Frederick and waited in line for hours to get close to the stage at the Bob Dylan concert. It was pretty sweet to see a living legend perform like that. Heather is a huge Bob fan so she was goofy all night.
Sunday morning we got up and bought furniture! We each have a computer desk now and we have a real bed as well!!! So the air mattress vacancy is official now!! Merlin started hiding under the bed before we even had it all put together! Silly kitty
Well, gotta finish getting ready for work. Be on the Jaws boat at the nuclear plant again tonight. Hopefully this crappy headache goes away soon. I haven't gotten anything accomplished today because of it.
Later!

mood: chipper

...off to the nuclear plant tonight working one of my 3:30pm-2:30pm kinda shifts.....fun for all huh?

mood: devious

I have not fixed my sleep schedule yet.....my midnight to noon yesterday got cancelled because the pump was down at the plant. But, has been rescheduled for tonight. Blah....so i had to go into the office for a few hours this morning to get things done and now i should eat lunch and try to get some more sleep. Anyhoot......anyone wanna come visit?? Wes and I are getting a bed on Friday the 18th so we have a rather comfy self inflating air mattress spot opening up. Let me know kids!! I promise I'll shower so i don't smell like fish!!

mood: bouncy music: AFI - Summer Shudder

So last night was my first night outside the baffle wall at Calvert Cliff Nuclear Power plant on Chesapeake Bay. It was awesome it was 18.25 hours of my work week too!! I was on a marine construction boat (think very jaws like boat) and it thunderstormed. We watched the lightning for a long time off in the distance before it got to us. It was absolutely beautiful. There were some tricky parts to it though. Like when the wind blew us around and our anchor came loose and we hit the baffle wall (oops)!!! We were all catching a 45 minute nap and didn't know until we felt the thud. It was ridiculously hard to get the boat out and anchor set after that. We ended up running 5 minutes behind on our next sample but that's not too bad. The coolest part of the whole night was trying to sample when the boat is crashing 3-6 foot waves ( don't worry mom, we're required to wear life vests and are in swimming distance of shore, also the tide pushes toward shore right there at night) we were hanging on to anything welded to the boat and trying to get the entrainment hose bungeed down. The rest of the night went pretty smooth until the hose tried to collapse on itself when i went out to move it by myself. I was positioned so it couldn't pull me over so i wasn't really scared. The only problem was after i finally fought it and got it set the hose was still acting up and as i walked away it rocketed a bungee cord out into the bay. So i had to wake up Peter to help me move the extremely heavy 28ft long hose of water that is about 8in in diameter back into position to put a new bungee on. It was awesome. I have never been so tired ever though. But it's cool cuz i love my job. well, gonna go be comatose til wes gets home from work around 6pm. Later!!

mood: exhausted music: AFI-miss murder

So wes and I are here in Maryland. It's really sweet except for missing friends back home.
Last night I worked my first 16 hr day at EA. Anita and I were at Wagner power plant. It was long and hot and such, I even got snap by a few Blue Crabs, but at least when I went home I felt like I did something important! Mom is coming in this evening with the kitties so we will be a whole family again! Yeah! Bamf is doing fine after being de-clawed. Otherwise nothing new to report.

mood: cheerful

May 10, 2006

In the last few days a lot has happened. After the rescue of our boat on the second our two days off followed on Wednesday and Thursday. Then on Friday came Cinco De Mayo, but we call it roof day. When we got to the bird blind that day we found that the roof had blown off during the high winds that had resulted in our rescue and boat problems earlier in the week. There are a few reasons why we can’t go without a roof. First off the birds can see us when they fly over, it doesn’t disturb all of them, but it agitates some of them. Second if you have birds flying around some may mistakenly land inside the blind or poop on us. One sure a hell pooped on me after we were in the blind for only a couple minutes. And the most important reason to us is that it leaves us in blaring direct sunlight for the rest of the summer. So, what to do. That day we stood out as long as we could stand, because wouldn’t you know it the weather would be surprisingly 80 and sunny that day. I got sunburn on my right side where the sun hit more directly and the rest of me got tan on my arms and face. So that evening we ventured out to find ourselves a roof somewhere in Moses Lake. We ended up at Home Depot buying a tarp and clothesline rope. The next day ended up being to windy for us to do anything about the tarp room and we didn’t stay out long for fear of getting stuck at the island again. So we came back in and went out to the café here at Mar Don and got hamburgers and a pitcher of beer. The next day we got our roof on. We found wire in our cabin that suited my idea better than we could have thought. The problem with putting a tarp roof on the blind is that we have to do it from the inside without the birds seeing us so that it wouldn’t scare them away from their nest and cause their eggs to become gull snacks. So I took wire and made what amounted to four crude needles with electrical tape to hold them together. We threaded these through our window and carefully not needing to stick our hands out. We curved the wire over tied the end of rope through the eye of the needle and pulled it around and back inside where we could tie it down. We McGuyvered (sp?) that shit good! Our roof is still there a few days later despite some more wind and rain so we are quite happy with ourselves and Deb and I think it may just last all summer. Yeah!! So after we secured ourselves a covering things got down to business and we have now distinguished 30 nests many of which have an egg, we’ve even seen two in nest seven. We unfortunately have had two gulls steal away tern eggs though. The gulls are so annoying mean and gross. They shit all over the windows of the blind have crazy noisy sex at all times right in front of it. The males throw-up for their mate all the time and they fight each other and every tern trying to hand off a fish to its mate. Gulls are so annoying!!!! But alas nothing we can do about them. We think though we have identified our other most recent problem maker as a mink. It started a week ago when we found mammalian footprints in the tunnel leading up into the blind. This week we have found the shell of a recently eaten goose egg as well a lot of feathers in the tunnel as well. We think our mink is up to no good and we home that this doesn’t spell disaster for our colony, but only time will tell.
I have received a lot of mail from home recently. Of course I got the bills I needed to write checks for from my mom and the package Scootie sent me with one of his shirts in it as well as a jump drive of pictures from home. Since then though I have received another letter from Scootie, a card from Meredith Roudebush, and a card and prints of pictures from St. Patrick’s Day in Athens from Heather and Mark “Live Bees”. Also my first paycheck has arrived and I was surprised at how much it was. I wish I could get paid this much all year round. Too bad this one is only till July 15th. But before I go further thanks to Mere and Heather and Mark for making it a little easier knowing that you guys haven’t forgotten about me. I know no one else is likely to have forgotten, but hey that’s cause I’m too crazy to forget right?? J
Mallorie graduated from Ashland this past weekend and right now is somewhere in the Dominican Republic doing good work as always. I hope it all goes well down there and she has a good time, but then again doesn’t she always?? Wes will be done with Athens soon. I can only hope he’ll soon get confirmation of a job offer and we can start planning out where to go from there. He is of course aiming for this area, the Pacific Northwest but I told him to consider anything that sounds good cause I could live just about anywhere.
I am going to warn you that here is where the normal just telling of events ends and I get a bit mushy and weird for a bit so you can stop reading if you like but I’m going to continue writing for just a bit. I’ve been out here with Deb for the most part working for close to a month now. But the weekends are two days when I am out here all alone with no TV, Internet or person to keep me company. I have read about 10 or so books including a very good one called Windhaven by Lisa Tuttle and George RR Martin I believe. Today I finished The Neverending Story by Michael Ende. But in all this time I have been doing a lot of thinking too. About how I got to this place in my life, about people I miss or have been angry with in the past. About those I have loved or still love to this day. It’s kind of staggering what you let yourself forget about in the course of being to busy for it. I have thought a lot about Wes too. I’ve thought about the events that brought us together. The Lancelot and Gwenhywfar conversation we had and the eventual spontaneous visit in Athens that included a lovely evening walk through rain clouds. I have though about first private or otherwise sensitive moments that have happened since. I tend to remember the morning I woke up to being told I was loved after a fun weekend with friends. I mostly though just remember that he is till there on the other end of a phone line or a mail route waiting for me to come home. I think of all that and wonder, how. I feel really lucky to have met someone I can be such close friends to, but also sweetly I love with. He is a really amazing guy in ways I never would have guessed in all the years I knew him before now. I guess you could say I am one of the luckiest people ever. Despite knowing how lucky I have it and how happy I will be with him for the remainder of this life should he also wish to keep it that way, I also still remember my past and wonder if they are happy are they “fixed” and did I do more harm then good? I hope that it’s more positive than I think it is. I realize I am not perfect, no one is. But I wonder if I could have been different. But then would I still have this wonderful future I see sitting in front of me. In the last year I have somehow finally managed to learn I can pretty much handle it all in time. I guess this is what leads me to home that maybe everyone else hits that point where they realize ‘ah, thus is life’ and can move forward in a way they never thought they could. I think I have figured that the key for me all along was to not forget all the crap that came before but to look at all the experienced people before me and just say ‘but that is how it is’ and just quit freaking out over it.
Though I may start to feel this way and feel more or less healed of past issues, I know I will still freak-out over things in the future at the moment, but that the time that passes will hopefully allow me to remember to just let it be. I apologize if this sounds like a bunch of crazy talk or something like it but I really just felt like talking to no one and everyone all at the same time.
Hopefully in all this my happily ever after has just begun.


May 11, 2006

Well, and industrious day today. To the Laundromat, picked up film that was developed and went grocery shopping before coming back for my evening run and dinner of Ramen, Busch, and whole fruit sorbet for dessert. Finished Krakauer’s Into Thin Air last night so I have been playing spider solitaire and doing puzzles to slow down the rapid rate at which I am going through my stash of books. 60 some days until I come back to Ohio. I’m starting to get nervous about what I am going to do. If Wes gets a job soon good I stay with Frank-Orth and maybe go on another field research thing. If his job is elsewhere, I guess I go there and frantically look for a job to cover the bills. I can’t stay here by my lonesome and wait for him to get a job here if he doesn’t have one by the end of July. Not enough money, and no guarantee yet of another research job anyway.
Lots to think about and not a whole lot we can do about it.
This evening while I was running a new group of people came in and I noticed that had 4-wheelers on a trailer behind their RV. I didn’t think much about it until about an hour ago they decided to keep running the buggers around the camper thus being loud and annoying. I looked out one time and she had her especially ugly Chihuahua riding on her lap. They also kept staring in the windows of my camper at me while I was making dinner, I vaguely entertained the notion of yanking my running shorts down the next time they drove by, but I don’t have the nerve to do so. I have a feeling I may want to strangle them shortly. Fortunately the strictly enforced quiet time begins at 10pm so they will be silenced for certain by the time I go to bed. I don’t mind 4-wheelers, but take it out in the fields somewhere and not around the single lane roads through the camping area!!!!! I think the people in tents just down the hill from me were getting a tad bit peeved too.
Any hoot, back in the blind tomorrow after two lonely as usual days off. Thank God! Something to do!

May 12, 2006

Short day in the blind once again due to more high winds. We came back and washed all the mildewy crap from our boat in the bathtub, I went running and now I am going to go eat dinner after I post this on the internet. Oh well, not much else to say. Later.

mood: sore

April 19, 2006

Today is the first day off from work I have had. Granted I just started two days ago on Monday. I am all by myself in our camper. I managed to hack out a piece on the Gettysburg battlefield today and send it off to Dr. Kerrigan, but haven’t really had enough Internet time otherwise. So this is being written in word to later be transferred to Livejournal. I like my new job, it’s a little chilly but I really don’t mind sitting out there watching birds. Hopefully it turns into something a little more long term, but time can only tell on that one.
The only real downside to the whole thing so far is being so far away from everyone. I am 2600 or so miles away from my love, my family and my friends. I really am starting to miss Athens and hanging out with Heather, Mark, Nate and of course my Wes. So far the thing I miss most is not being able to easily talk to anyone. I miss my cats too. Hopefully Bamf and Merlin will forgive me in the end for leaving.
Despite all the missing and loneliness it really is cool and a great experience for me. I’m sure things will get easier as the days progress and we get closer to summer and more activity on our little island. Hopefully also, Wes will be able to come out here in June or he and my parents will visit.
I have read a good bit so far. Maybe I will finish my stash before time is up. Right now I am reading a series by Terry Goodkind called The Sword of Truth. I am only on the second book, Stone of Tears, but it is pretty good. Otherwise nothing interesting to say.

April 28, 2006

So our birds came back after being freaked out by the people who sank their boat. Lots more bird sex to watch today!!! Anyhoot, it’s kinda funny to sit and watch fisherman in their boats staring at you with their binoculars and they can’t see you looking back at them.
Yesterday Deb and I went for a run and we stopped off in the park to see Great Horned Owl chicks. They are huge but look really fuzzy. Then we goofed off and played on the playground before heading back to the car to come “home”.
I got my first piece of mail from the Scootie today. He sent me his polar fleece shirt that smelled like him, Eddie Izzard’s Dress to Kill, a letter, and a jump drive with pictures on it from our trip and of Coey T.
Otherwise today, probably go for another run this evening and watch Eddie Izzard before going to sleep. Until I remember to do this again TTFN.

May 2, 2006

So, I have a May Day story for you in two parts. The first part actually happened on the first, the second part happened today. So, yesterday we went out to the blind to watch the birds and it was kinda windy but not bad when we started out. About and hour and a half later though it got so windy we decided we should leave before it got too windy to row our boat out to where we could put down the motor. But unfortunately it had already gotten to strong. We did try for a bit to push the boat out and jump in but we kept getting washed back up on shore because the wind was so strong. We found out later the wind was going about 35-45 mph. So we called the resort and Levi came out in his boat and rescued us off the south side of the island. It was one of those cool bass boats that go really fast and we were airborne jumping through the huge waves. This is a reservoir, but the waves were so big it looked like it was part of the ocean. So we called it a day after that and came back to the camper to chill out and sleep.
The second part is what we did today. We headed out at 8 am down to the dock, which was wrecked and had huge gaps in it from the crazy weather. Levi lent us a rental boat because he was too busy repairing the docks to take us out himself. We headed out to the island to find our little Whaler #2 half full of water and muck. It wasn’t damaged but had filled up from the waves crashing it into the beach. An oar and pfd floated out but had stayed stuck on the beach because of the wind direction. So everything was there but floating around in the boat and such and covered in gas that had leaked out overnight. It took us about an hour to bail the boat out with two milk cartons and a small hand pump. We had to use our hands to shovel out the sand and mud and branches. We got it almost completely back to normal. Got everything back into the boat and rowed out to see if we could get the motor working. Lucky for us it worked fine, so Deb gave me a crash course in how to operate the boat and we headed back to the beach. We now had two boats and two people, so I had to drive a boat! I’ve never done it before in my life so of course I was nervous. But, I didn’t do to bad, we pushed me off I rowed out and got the motor down and started all by myself and then proceeded to take it back in to the dock. I did really well I guess for not knowing what I was doing. I didn’t sink it or anything, but I did drive kind of slow.
So now I am sitting back at the trailer. Deb went back to Seattle since we have the next two days off, and I am stuck out here in the resort area by myself. I’ll probably go for a run later and such but until then I have no clue how to kill all this time by myself. I hope someone will come out and visit me in the coming weeks. If not, I guess I’ll get a lot of reading done. Till I sit at my laptop again…..TTFN!

mood: accomplished

For the next three months I'm going to be living in a state park in Eastern Washington state. I'll be studying Caspian Terns and their predation effects on an endangered species of salmon......aka sitting in a bird blind observing.
it should be pretty easy once i get out there and get adjusted. i'm going to warn everyone up front that internet access will be touch and go so you can leave e-mails and such but don't expect super quick replies....
i'm technically now an employee of Frank-Orth and associates but the job is for NOAA which is part of the federal government.....
Wes and i are driving out wednesday morning and he is flying back sunday morning from sea-tac international....i'm so scared about all of this cuz it's a huge change and i'm so far away from everyone but i know it should all be ok and in the end the only real worry i should have is coming back to a merlin cat who worried so much he went bald.....but i'm sure he'll be fine.....
it's going to be interesting......
i'm tentatively heading back after July 15th....until then....e-mail.....cell phone....and mailing address you can get from wes or my mom....

well....ttfn....gotta get some sleep.....get up...get fingerprinted....grocery shop and get ready to go!!
wish me luck!!

mood: nervous

I got the Job!!!
I leave for Seattle, WA on Wednesday morning!!!
I will be gone until the middle of July!!!
OH my God!!!!

location: Athens, OH mood: crazy