I know it has been quite some time since I last updated. So much has happened in a month’s time, it is difficult to sum it all up concisely without blathering on and on. Oh well, here it goes.
I finished my job in PA on the 15th of August. I had a love/hate relationship with that job, but I am glad that I did it. I gained some great experience in banding birds, and I realize I still need a lot of practice picking birds out of mist nets. I was finally getting to a comfortable stage and then the number of birds we were banding dropped off considerably. I do, however, feel quite confident in my banding skills.
The one thing I am most grateful for is the opportunity to make some long lasting friends in Clarion. The people over at ‘The Creature Program’ are some of the most lovely, fun people I have ever met. It just sucks that they’re all the way on the other side of the country. While I went to PA for a job, it was the volunteer work I was a part of that made the whole thing worthwhile.
After the job was finished, I caught a ride with my co-worker to Chicago where I spent three days touring the city with a friend of mine from Wisconsin. I had a blast! There is so much going on in Chicago during the summertime. I could see myself spending at least a couple weeks there, enjoying all the free activities they have in Millennium Park and the other surrounding parks. I was amazed at how much they had going on in just one weekend. Free concerts practically every day, free dances, free exercise classes, even the zoo is free! Good thing too, because they charge you somewhere around $25 or more just to look out on the viewpoint at the Sears Tower (or is that Wallis now?). I did however; send some money on a ghost tour. I don’t think I’d do that again, it was a little disappointing even if we did get to see more of the city than we would have otherwise. I think our geocaching trips were far better in forcing us to see parts of the city we wouldn’t have gone. Anyway, I had a Chicago style hot dog, deep dish Chicago pizza, and tea at the Ritz. All was good.
Once we finished in Chicago, we drove up to the Northwoods of Wisconsin. I visited for a few days at the wildlife center I worked at last fall. It was great to see everyone…and I found I really missed it there. For some reason it felt real nice to get back to Wisconsin. I fed some squirrels, saw some animals, and ate sushi. Good times.
I flew back to Portland for a visit that lasted three weeks! Most of the time I spent with my biological (or I’ve taken to calling them the ‘bionics’) family. My bionic mother showed me how to bake pies and bread. I spent time with my siblings, doing various things like camping, and tea, and drinking beer. I also spent time at the beach with my bionic dad and his family. Matthew came down to Portland for a friend’s wedding and we both went crabbing with bionic mom and her husband. Between all of us, we caught 39 crabs! Needless to say a feast was had by all.
The wedding was nice. I think it was worth it just seeing Matthew in a tux! :-D And there are pictures, so it did happen! Ha!
Even though I had a month long vacation it really seemed to fly by. Now, I am in Dillingham working at the UAF campus here in what is deemed as Student Services. I actually like my job here. I couldn’t ask for better co-workers and I enjoy actually getting to help and converse with students. Dillingham is pretty. The leaves were all golden when I got in and now, with the wind starting to pick up and winter peeking its head around the corner, the trees are quickly losing their shape.
I think I am going to enjoy living by the bay. Already I’ve seen some amazing sunsets and when the sky is clear, the world seems to go on forever. I have been here just shy of two weeks, but I have a good feeling about the place. People seem friendly and genuine. It sure is a change of pace, but a good one indeed.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
आईटी हस बीन अव्हिले.
I know it has been some time since my last post. This post will be quick but I hope to have more up later this week. I have been in PA since early May and as it stands now, I only have 6 weeks left in the state. The job has been educational to say the least, but I'll get into more details on that later.
Clarion, PA is cute but mostly comatose. I have found an exotic pet rescue that I have been volunteering at after the work days are over. The people I have met there are fabulous and I hope to keep in touch with them all once I leave the state.
Sadly, I haven't been able to take pictures of my job; I left my camera charger and cable in Alaska. Figures.
I hope everyone is well and I will post more soon!
(For some reason my headings are being translated into some other language. Not sure how to fix that.)
Clarion, PA is cute but mostly comatose. I have found an exotic pet rescue that I have been volunteering at after the work days are over. The people I have met there are fabulous and I hope to keep in touch with them all once I leave the state.
Sadly, I haven't been able to take pictures of my job; I left my camera charger and cable in Alaska. Figures.
I hope everyone is well and I will post more soon!
(For some reason my headings are being translated into some other language. Not sure how to fix that.)
Sunday, April 5, 2009
लाइफ गोएस ओं
Life never ceases to amaze me. One month I am feeling utterly stagnant in my surroundings and the next I am poised on the edge of some amazing life changes. In the matter of a couple days Matthew and I both were offered jobs in our field. Next month we will be uprooting our life in Fairbanks and moving to our respective new adventures.
He will be moving to Dillingham, Alaska to be the Program Director for KDLG. This is a huge accomplishment for someone right out of college. Actually, he landed this job with a month an a half left in his undergrad career. Pretty amazing in my mind. I can't even express my pride in his accomplishments.
I, on the other hand, will be moving to Altoona, PA for the summer. I have been hired on to a field crew, studying grassland birds on reclaimed mining sites. Such a huge weight has been lifted from my soul, just knowing I will be finally working in my chosen field. I will be sure to update this page with pictures and stories of my summer adventures.
There is a plan in place for after my summer is over, but as plans wont to do, they can change. I will write more of those possibilities as they approach closer.
Take care my friends!
~Melissa
He will be moving to Dillingham, Alaska to be the Program Director for KDLG. This is a huge accomplishment for someone right out of college. Actually, he landed this job with a month an a half left in his undergrad career. Pretty amazing in my mind. I can't even express my pride in his accomplishments.
I, on the other hand, will be moving to Altoona, PA for the summer. I have been hired on to a field crew, studying grassland birds on reclaimed mining sites. Such a huge weight has been lifted from my soul, just knowing I will be finally working in my chosen field. I will be sure to update this page with pictures and stories of my summer adventures.
There is a plan in place for after my summer is over, but as plans wont to do, they can change. I will write more of those possibilities as they approach closer.
Take care my friends!
~Melissa
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
I'm a slacker who misses poking dead things
The year following such a remarkable one, to me, feels rather pathetic. At least so far this seems to be the case. I am biding my time in an office job, plunking away data entry in what to me seems like a pointless task. I am not made to sit behind a desk for 8 hours a day!
The end of winter is so close I can taste it. But mother nature likes to dangle that carrot just out of reach as long as possible. While we enjoyed some wonderful weeks of 20, even 30 (F) above, the weather has turned back to bitter negative 30s at night and warming to about 5 above during the day. And wind, something we so rarely experience in the interior, has been blasting through Fairbanks, chilling us to 50 below.
The thought of summer is the only thing that keeps me going. Yet I have to remind myself it could be worse. In 2007 during this time of year it was still a constant 20-30 below during the day. I was volunteering at Fish and Game and since the freezer was stocked full of all sorts of dead treasures (my favorite being a bag full of bird strikes, a random assortment of all things feathered), we were storing our frozen wolf carcasses outside in black garbage bags sealed tight.
While tedious, I seriously would take counting wolf lice over my desk job, hands down. Even though they were dead, I was working around the one animal I had always dreamed of working with. The wolves smelled like corn chips, or like 'fresh baked corn muffins' as Mark Doty describes the scent of his favored dog's ears in Dog Years. Sierra's smells much the same way on a good day.
I have been waiting, more than likely over anxiously, for a phone call from Ft. Wainwright. I applied for a forestry job there for the summer. A four day work week outside sounds like heaven to me right now. I attribute it to the current state of our economy, but all the jobs I've applied to thus far have had a huge pool of applicants. While I feel I have a fare amount of experience, the competition has been tough. My location may also be a large factor when applying to lower 48 jobs. It is frustrating for me, however to hear that I'm in a pool of 70+ other applicants for a low end technician job.
So I have been thinking of alternatives. The front runner currently is taking the training to become an observer on fishing boats. This entails recording data on what is caught in said fishing boats. The pay is great, the contracts are 90 days long, and all room and board are provided. Until I can get my debts paid, Peace Corps are on the back burner, but I think this job will be a quick way to get those debts handled.
I want to get back to Portland so bad, but with the job market I doubt I could stay afloat for very long (a curse upon you Oregon and your high unemployment rate!). At least with this observer job, I could take the months between contracts and live it up with family and friends for a little while. I'm hoping Matthew will find work back in the NW, but as it looks, he may just end up in some small fishing town in BFE, Alaska programing for small town radio stations. The foot in the door to public radio would be a huge score for him though. I hope it works out well.
I think I have let my ranting run its course. I promise you friends, family, random internet passerby, that I will try very hard to update this blog with some sort of regularity. Sadly I feel I have nothing too terribly exciting to share!
Though if you're lonely on a Tuesday night, hop online and listen to our (Matthew and myself) radio show (http://ksua.uaf.edu), Nerd Love at 6:30pm - 8:30pm AKST. It would be great to know you're listening! Miss and love you all.
~Melissa
The end of winter is so close I can taste it. But mother nature likes to dangle that carrot just out of reach as long as possible. While we enjoyed some wonderful weeks of 20, even 30 (F) above, the weather has turned back to bitter negative 30s at night and warming to about 5 above during the day. And wind, something we so rarely experience in the interior, has been blasting through Fairbanks, chilling us to 50 below.
The thought of summer is the only thing that keeps me going. Yet I have to remind myself it could be worse. In 2007 during this time of year it was still a constant 20-30 below during the day. I was volunteering at Fish and Game and since the freezer was stocked full of all sorts of dead treasures (my favorite being a bag full of bird strikes, a random assortment of all things feathered), we were storing our frozen wolf carcasses outside in black garbage bags sealed tight.
While tedious, I seriously would take counting wolf lice over my desk job, hands down. Even though they were dead, I was working around the one animal I had always dreamed of working with. The wolves smelled like corn chips, or like 'fresh baked corn muffins' as Mark Doty describes the scent of his favored dog's ears in Dog Years. Sierra's smells much the same way on a good day.
I have been waiting, more than likely over anxiously, for a phone call from Ft. Wainwright. I applied for a forestry job there for the summer. A four day work week outside sounds like heaven to me right now. I attribute it to the current state of our economy, but all the jobs I've applied to thus far have had a huge pool of applicants. While I feel I have a fare amount of experience, the competition has been tough. My location may also be a large factor when applying to lower 48 jobs. It is frustrating for me, however to hear that I'm in a pool of 70+ other applicants for a low end technician job.
So I have been thinking of alternatives. The front runner currently is taking the training to become an observer on fishing boats. This entails recording data on what is caught in said fishing boats. The pay is great, the contracts are 90 days long, and all room and board are provided. Until I can get my debts paid, Peace Corps are on the back burner, but I think this job will be a quick way to get those debts handled.
I want to get back to Portland so bad, but with the job market I doubt I could stay afloat for very long (a curse upon you Oregon and your high unemployment rate!). At least with this observer job, I could take the months between contracts and live it up with family and friends for a little while. I'm hoping Matthew will find work back in the NW, but as it looks, he may just end up in some small fishing town in BFE, Alaska programing for small town radio stations. The foot in the door to public radio would be a huge score for him though. I hope it works out well.
I think I have let my ranting run its course. I promise you friends, family, random internet passerby, that I will try very hard to update this blog with some sort of regularity. Sadly I feel I have nothing too terribly exciting to share!
Though if you're lonely on a Tuesday night, hop online and listen to our (Matthew and myself) radio show (http://ksua.uaf.edu), Nerd Love at 6:30pm - 8:30pm AKST. It would be great to know you're listening! Miss and love you all.
~Melissa
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
2008 in review
I think 2008 deserves a look back. For me this year has been pretty damn amazing to say the least. I have done more traveling this year than ever, and I think the separation from loved ones has also hit me the hardest in 2008.
So I suppose now is the time to share my year in review.
To start things off Matthew and I traveled to Portland to visit friends and family. I don't seem to have any pictures of that trip readily available, but we went crabbing at Waldport and had a generally good time of it. We even met a woman from Anchorage in a small dive of a bar on the coast. Figures.
March I successfully organized a Harry and the Potters concert at UAF! It was fun!
These kids eat a TON, in case you were wondering. It was really quite amazing to watch.
April was sad, we lost one of our cats, Sage, to two dogs roaming the neighborhood. R.I.P. Sage!
Fast forward to May. I graduated! It only took me three years of community college and five years of my life at the University, but I finally did it. Go me.
Instead of taking the walk of graduation, I went to Venezuela instead to spend two weeks with the greatest woman in the world, Carolyn. Here are some of my fav photos from the trip.
C* and me out swimming in the ocean in Santa Fe, Venezuela. I had my 26th birthday here.
Me snorkeling in teh ocean.
My favorite town we visited, Caripe, Venezuela.
After my trip to Venezuela, I stopped back in Portland to visit family. My dad was up from Arizona to have back surgery. Luckily everything went well and Mom and him made it back safely to AZ. <3
It was back to Fairbanks, Alaska for me where I worked the summer for the State. I archived rocks...go me!
After my summer job was done, I zoomed off to Wisconsin to intern at a wildlife rehab center. But before I made my way there, I had another stop off in Portland. This time I got to meet my biological family for the first time. This was absolutely amazing. I fell right into step with everyone and felt so comfortable!
Aren't they cute? ^_^ <3
I quickly zipped off to Wisconsin for two months. I had a great time learning the trade of wildlife rehab. It was stressful but rewarding work. I miss it all and everyone there very much.
This is Candy a resident corn snake.
Tube feeding an eagle...my least favorite job.
I miss the squirrels the most.
After my time in WI was done, I went back through Portland for a night and met up with my bio brothers. It was late and we were all really tired.
Then it was back to Alaska! Sadly I had to pretty quickly say goodbye to my great friend Nicole who got a job in Montana.
I got a job at the University. Matthew had a birthday! We did Christmas...and now it is the end of the year!
I am excited to see what 2009 has in store for us. 2008 has been pretty crazy to say the least. A toast to new and exciting adventures!
So I suppose now is the time to share my year in review.
To start things off Matthew and I traveled to Portland to visit friends and family. I don't seem to have any pictures of that trip readily available, but we went crabbing at Waldport and had a generally good time of it. We even met a woman from Anchorage in a small dive of a bar on the coast. Figures.
March I successfully organized a Harry and the Potters concert at UAF! It was fun!
These kids eat a TON, in case you were wondering. It was really quite amazing to watch.
April was sad, we lost one of our cats, Sage, to two dogs roaming the neighborhood. R.I.P. Sage!
Fast forward to May. I graduated! It only took me three years of community college and five years of my life at the University, but I finally did it. Go me.
Instead of taking the walk of graduation, I went to Venezuela instead to spend two weeks with the greatest woman in the world, Carolyn. Here are some of my fav photos from the trip.
C* and me out swimming in the ocean in Santa Fe, Venezuela. I had my 26th birthday here.
Me snorkeling in teh ocean.
My favorite town we visited, Caripe, Venezuela.
After my trip to Venezuela, I stopped back in Portland to visit family. My dad was up from Arizona to have back surgery. Luckily everything went well and Mom and him made it back safely to AZ. <3
It was back to Fairbanks, Alaska for me where I worked the summer for the State. I archived rocks...go me!
After my summer job was done, I zoomed off to Wisconsin to intern at a wildlife rehab center. But before I made my way there, I had another stop off in Portland. This time I got to meet my biological family for the first time. This was absolutely amazing. I fell right into step with everyone and felt so comfortable!
Aren't they cute? ^_^ <3
I quickly zipped off to Wisconsin for two months. I had a great time learning the trade of wildlife rehab. It was stressful but rewarding work. I miss it all and everyone there very much.
This is Candy a resident corn snake.
Tube feeding an eagle...my least favorite job.
I miss the squirrels the most.
After my time in WI was done, I went back through Portland for a night and met up with my bio brothers. It was late and we were all really tired.
Then it was back to Alaska! Sadly I had to pretty quickly say goodbye to my great friend Nicole who got a job in Montana.
I got a job at the University. Matthew had a birthday! We did Christmas...and now it is the end of the year!
I am excited to see what 2009 has in store for us. 2008 has been pretty crazy to say the least. A toast to new and exciting adventures!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Winter blues?
If you're feeling winter starting to drag just be glad you're not living in the interior of Alaska. The winter world of Fairbanks is a tough place to live.
Luckily I have a four day weekend coming up and I don't intend on leaving the house at all. I have a nice stash of tea to drink this weekend thanks to Sarah in Wisconsin so I should be staying quite warm.
Hopefully my car will start when the cold snap is over. ^_^
Luckily I have a four day weekend coming up and I don't intend on leaving the house at all. I have a nice stash of tea to drink this weekend thanks to Sarah in Wisconsin so I should be staying quite warm.
Hopefully my car will start when the cold snap is over. ^_^
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Happy Holidays!
Merry Christmas everyone! I love you and miss you all very much. I hope the season is filled with nothing but wonderful things.
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