Onward & Upward

H'ok, so it's been a crazy two weeks, lemme tell ya. First off, I had an amazing time in Florida, saving the sea turtles. I'm gonna do a series of separate posts about that, I'll just backlog the dates for when they actually happened, so look for updates from Aug. 14 to Aug. 23.

As for today.. the day was slightly amazing. First, I woke up around 8 and did some cleaning and such, then went out to Trevor's and we hung out for a while at the water. He even made us a picnic. I pretty much have the best cousin ever. I bought him some sex wax for his jet ski, but I forgot to bring it today. That sounds wildly inappropriate... but it's not. Anyhoo, I got home around 12:30 and hung out with my mom for a bit/cleaned the house & Yukon. I also did a shit load of laundry today. I have to get ready for school, meaning pack up my car and clothing, tomorrow before I leave. That's gonna be crazy, as I intend on leaving in the morning around 10.

This afternoon, I made a birthday cake for the rents & I, as our birthdays all fall within the next week. T'was delicious. Then for dinner, Coop and I went out to Mongolian BBQ. We had a crazy fun night, it was just good hanging out before we go our separate ways. We also stopped at Jill & Jen's so I could say goodbye real quick the the favorite aunts. Phillip was there too, so that was cool. I have to get to the Nana's tomorrow morning before I leave for school. Anyhoo, Coop came back to my house for a little bit, then we had to say goodbye. It was a lot different from last year, as we only hung out a little bit at the end of last summer, this summer we were inseperable. It was sad, but I didn't cry! Yeah, I'm awesome, I know. Now I'm laying in bed trying to put off sleep for a little longer. It's not gonna work, I must sleep and I must sleep NOW.

Oh, here's a sweet picture that I took in Florida:

That's a baby loggerhead turtle :)

Florida, Day 6

Well, this morning, I apparently opened my eyes & stretched when someone "woke" me up, but in reality, I was still sleeping. You see, I do this thing where I sleep with my eyes open. Freaky. Someone took a picture & I'll upload it once I get a copy, apparently it's pretty funny. Today was a pretty quick day, we found 11 turtles and then went to Juno Marinelife Center. We got a tour of the new facility, which is very impressive indeed. After Juno, we went to this lighthouse, which was scary, if I do say so myself.

But that may be because I like neither heights, nor rickety stairs. The view from the top was pretty sweet though. In this pic, the little outdoor patio thing at that restaurant is where the video for Jimmy Buffet's "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere" was taped:


Oh, and one more awesome thing from the Lighthouse place was this tree outside, called the Banyon Tree:


Oh oh oh! Another sweet thing I got to do today was interpret French. There was a lady walking the beach and she was curious about what we were doing & she was from France. She came up to the group & started speaking French & I responded... the entire group balked for a second. It was sweet. Had to be the first time I spoke French in almost a year, so of course I sucked, but it was cool.

Florida, Day 5

This morning, just like every other damn morning, we woke up @ 5:15 and were at the beach by 6:30. We found 4 disoriented baby turtles before we even got up to the shoreline, then we had the most amazing discovery, a Leatherback nest. Leatherbacks are by far the most endangered of the species that we were dealing with. They had laid less than ten nests on that stretch of beach, as opposed to the hundreds of Loggerhead & Green nests. As soon as we found that nest, we knew something was wrong though, none of the turtles were moving. We did find three alive, but the nest hatched when it was hot out & they were exposed to the sun for too long. :(. Sidenote on Leatherbacks, they are soooo big when they mature, one was found on the coast of Maine & it was the size of a Volkswagon Beetle.
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Here's the Leatherback turtle nest that died, but 3 of those turtes made it & we took them over to the Juno Marinelife Center.

After lunch @ MacArthur, the guys from the Florida Parks Service took us on a boat ride on the Intercoastal Water Way to get to Munyon Island to pick up trash. Unfortunately, the tide was too low, so we had to go on a pontoon ride for almost an hour. Damn. ;). We saw some amazing stuff, primarily a family of wild bottlenose dolphins. It was flippin' sweet. We also saw some famous stuff, like Kate Winslett's house and Tiger Wood's yacht. Here's a sign that was to be taken completely seriously:


I think that's pretty much amazing. Here's another photo, I stole this one from Katie:

That one was more amazing though. Riding around on that pontoon was so much fun & being with the group like that, just hanging out, was a lot of fun. I'll post another picture of the whole group on the pontoon, as I think I can only put 3 on each post. After the awesome boat ride, we went to Munyon Island and picked up trash for about 20 minutes and I saw real hermet crabs... they were huge. I think they were in conch shells, it was so cool... and kinda scary.

After MacArthur, we went back to the church and showered & hung out, then we got to go to Debbie's for dinner. She's an amazing cook, it was delicious. We also got our shirts, which wre beautiful, with little Leatherbacks on them. I got one for my mom too. We got back to the church after eleven, had reflection, then went to bed. AWESOME day.

Florida, Day 4

Today we got up around five... this seems like a trend, does it not? Anyhoo, we went to the beach but had to wait until about 7 to go out, as there was a small storm over the water. We found one nest when we got there & there was only one hatchling in it, so that's a good sign. Quite soon after we found that nest, we found a nest that was on the verge of emerging, so we waited & helped them along, there were 91 in that nest alone, it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. After the emergence, we took a swim break. After that, we found another nest with a few turtles left in it and a family came up to talk to us, curious as to what we were doing. One of the cooler things on this trip was that Katie & I were able to answer all of the family's questions.

Click To Play
After we got done @ the beach, we went to Juno Marine Life Center and had lunch. We got a mediocre tour of the place, but they thought we were coming on another day, which I don't believe, so there wasn't much work for us to do. I did get to clean out a Kemp's Ridley tank. That was flippin' sweet. Then we went inside with the rest of our group and incured the wrath of Jessica, the girl that worked there. She was a bitch. Then we went outside to collect some trash off the beach. Ironically, I found a piece of wood with a rusty nail in it... and I wanted to hit her in the face with it. But I didn't. But I wanted to. We had a very short day, we were back @ the church by 2:45, so we showered and ate dinner. Ashley got the genuis idea to play mafia, which no one else knew how to play except me, so we pretty much got everyone hooked on it. The hardest part is narrating and not being able to think of interesting ways to die.

Florida, Day 3

This is the first morning on the beach, we had to get up at an awesome 5:15 in the morning. That's shitty if I do say so myself. But somehow we all managed and it was a pretty sweet day. We were on the beach by six am and we met Debbie Sobel, the turtle lady. She seems super passionate about her turtles. Anyways, we found a nest with about 8 live turtles in it that were left behind from the night before and made sure that they got into the water alright.

(Ashley, Liz, Kristen, Mandy, Melissa... ? unknown person's arm)
I'm pretty sure that that's not my hand holding the turtle. Anyways, we got to have a few swim breaks along the 2.5 miles that we walked, which was pretty cool, as I haven't been in the ocean for years. We also found a few nests that were laid the night before by both Green & Leatherback turtles. That was pretty sweet, as the turtles tracks are plainly visible from the shore.

Around lunchtime, we went to MacArthur State Park and ate our lunches, followed by the cleaning up of exotic plants. We were supposed to be going to Munyon Island to clean up these plants, but the weather was not boat permitting. These plants looked like carrots, but they were stringy like coconuts. So not really anything like carrots. We also watched a film on MacArthur State Park, but everyone was pretty much dead and fell asleep during it. After that, we went to the church & showered, then a few of us went to the store to get random stuff. I had to get a new satchel to carry on the beach, as my old one kinda ripped right in half.

Florida, Day 2

This morning I drove from 2 am til' six. Atlanta is sweet when there's no one awake, otherwise is slightly shady. I'm pretty sure I slept for a good few hours after my driving shift. We got to the First Presbyterian Church around 4 in the afternoon, so 11 of us somehow managed to shower after being awake for about 25 minutes. Needless to say there were a few naps. We hung around the church campus for a few hours, then went to a Pizzeria for dinner... not good times. Well, the pizza was okay, but they gave us dirty silverware. And they had the Spanish channel on... muted. But it was fun to try and read lips in Spanish, our table made up some flippin' sweet story lines.

Florida, Day 1

I got to Mt. Pleasant around 1:00 pm and went to have lunch with the Philf. The Alt. Summer Break group assembled & we left around 2:30. I wound up in a van with Melissa, Katie, Shelley, Liz & Nick. I'm pretty sure our van was SILENT for a good few hours, I read some of my book then fell asleep to my mp3 player. I drive at 2:00am, right through Atlanta, Georgia. I get to stop somewhere around 6 in the mornin'.

Holler....

Currently listening to: Panic! At The Disco
Currently reading: In Silence: Growing Up Hearing In A Deaf World by Ruth Sidransky

So, tomorrow I'm leaving for Florida. Woot. Saving the seaturtles is just a day away. I'm pumped. Sadly, this trip brings my summer to its end, as I'll be coming home from Florida on Wednesday the 23 & leaving for school on either Thursday or Friday. :( So as much as I've been looking forward to it, I've not been, because that means no more summer. Here's a sweet pic with my girls:

Pretty sure that's the last time we got to hang out, just the four of us, for the summer. But it was a nice, relaxed night & it was fun b/c thats what we do. See... all we need is for Coop to go to CMU & we'd be set ;). Oh, and one of my legs is more tan than the other, see if you can spot it. Ten points to anyone who can. And no, I'm not trying to grab anything naughty in the pic.

I'm about halfway packed for school, I'm taking about 1/3 the stuff I did last year, so it should be sweet. Hopefully the new roommates will be cool.

So, today I went shopping with the mum in the morning, got a refridgerator, then came home & packed a little, then I don't what for a little. Around 5, Coop came over & watched me pack, then I went out to Coldstone w/ Scotty boy. I think he's gonna come visit me around Labor Day. Woot! I love that kid. Tomorrow I'm going to go shopping early in the mornin', then I'm off to CMU. Maybe I'll see Phil & Dave for a little bit before I leave for Florida. Maybe.

Ok, I'm off to bed. I'll be back online to post about the Alt. Break on Wednesday or Thursday! Laters.

Vicodin strikes.

Ok, so I'm loving this pattern of taking vicodin, then going to sleep. There are a few awkward consequences to it though, my fore arms fall asleep and I partially lose the abliity to hear, but otherwise, I'm good. I had a really good experience at the oral surgeon today, I took an oral sedative, then when I got there, they put me on some nitrous oxide. They put the IV in and it didn't even hurt, I think I was asleep before they even gave me the sleep drugs, as they were using it as a port for putting in other drugs first. And my male nurse was cute. I definitely slept until about 5:30 today, then Cat came over for a visit & ended up eating Mac & Cheese with me. Damn family size boxes are ridiculous. Oh, and apparently I was signing this morning while I was higher than an kite on my drugs, after the surgury. I'm sweet. I've been up for a few hours, so I think I'm gonna go to bed pretty soon. Woot.

I'm sweating like its my job

H'ok, so... It is super hot out today. End of story. I'm laying in bed, sweating for no reason. Amazing. I think I'm gonna go sleep in the sunporch. The last few days have been okay, nothing too exciting that I can think of. I did pass out while trying to watch Super Troopers for the second time.

Oh and Steph got into a fight with a swan. I took video... Because I'm a bad lifeguard... Don't show this to my boss... I'm warning you.

So... I've worked this out in my head, my next 3 weeks are super effed up. Friday I get my wisdom teeth removed. That means I'm out of commission for the weekend. I was supposed to go to CMU on Wednesday, but I'm not. The following weekend I leave for Florida and come back the Monday after that, which is the 21st I think. Then I go back to school around the 24th. Hmm. I wanna go back, but I'm almost enjoying hanging out w/ my friends @ home.

Okkkk... I'm gonna go to bed now, I have to get a front end alignment tomorrow... Laters.