Isthmus MEL

I finally shrugged off the foulness of working at the job I'm currently at and decided to take the leap and apply for other jobs that truly appealed to me, i.e. were more MEL-like in aspect.  Well, it paid off, I got one!

You are now "looking at" (per se) the new Education and Outreach Director at Safe Haven Zoo.  It is an Americorps program, which means I'll be living in an RV, living off of food stamps and earning less than $800/mo, but you know what?  I don't care.  I want this.  I am perfectly willing to make sacrifices in life so that I can have a better and more fulfilled one later.  I am so excited for this.  Finally, a job that I may actually enjoy and feel good about!

Here is the link to the Safe Haven Zoo: http://www.safehavenwildlife.com/index.html.
It is in Imlay, NV (pop. 200).  The nearest town, i.e. Wal-Mart and McDonalds is more than 40mi away (Winnemuca, pop. 8,000).  Dood, this rocks!  Finally, no more big city, open space, mountains, desert!

So, here is my new mailing address:
Nevada Outdoor School
655 Anderson St.
Winnemucca, NV 89445

My term starts 1 June.  So I'll be leaving DC the last week of May, driving to MN to see the parents and then off to the great wide open spaces.  So this means, some of you shall be receiving requests from me if I can spend a night as I road trip it Westward. :-)

Apparently this has been the longest stint of me not entering something in here.  Wow, more the 2 months.  Impressive.  I could say that life is awesome or some such stuff.  Well, it's not terrible, but not AWEsome either.  It simply is and it is not bad.  Pretty good most days.

Quick update, I'll add more later:

• Camped/hiked/backpacked at Shenandoah National Park this past weekend.  Was soooooo cool.  I'm just itching to get back on the trail.  Camped off the AT.  Saw a black bear....while I was peeing.  It's always great to be caught with your pants down when a 600lb+ animal lumbers by.
• Have a bf.  Still trying to process that.  Not sure if it is a good or bad thing.  Stay posted.
• Seemed to have got myself caught up in the Warhammer 40K thing.  I blame my roommate.  But painting and playing them are certainly entertaining.  I am a tyranid girl myself.
• Parents are basically unemployed.  I wish i had more money to send to them, but for now my stimulus check and % of paycheck each month will have to do.  Don't even get me started on the "can't add parents as dependents on health insurance" thing.  Pisses me off beyond recall.
• Taking classes: General graduate level biochemistry @GWU, and basic calculus @ the local community college.  Really really like biochem.  Will probably take the 2nd half next semester.  Should seriously start planning about grad school.

And that's all I can think of for now.  Stay tuned.

Jumped on the Netflix bandwagon. Cut cable.  Comcast can blow my ass for all eternity and then some for all I care. Thank you free cable on internet.
Anyway, back to my point-

Leave a message with you fav movie or most recommended movies and I will get them and watch them. DO IT NOW! And then I can tell you how dumb you are and how your movie selection sucks.  Or at the very least snicker in your presence.


So yeah. that's it.  What are you waiting for?
Oh yeah, watch this, it's fantastic: Dr. Horrible's sing-along blog

Oh yes indeedy. I finally went on a vacation. Yes, all by myself.  My first REAL vacation.  Went down to good ol' Daytona Beach, FL to hang out with my pals browntreesnake and cair_anam.  But really, and don't tell them, it was all about their dogs.  Human interaction was just an added benefit, haha!

•  

I also moved (again).  Here is my new address:



Anyway, here are pics of the new apartment and random shots from my vacation.

• In other news, I got a promotion today which involves a tiny raise.  But money is money, and I need it desperately.
• I've all but basically given up on men.  They either all suck, are not worth it, or just all suck.  Yep.  Not that I'm bitter or anything.  No one out there is dateable that I've found.  You know how guys complain about being the "nice guy" and getting shafted, well, it goes both ways.  I will ALWAYS be The Friend, granted, a good kickass really close friend, but a friend nonetheless.  It is here to stay, forever.  Here's to be a spinstress for a very long time.
• I had a duathlon in the OBX this past weekend.  Supposed to be a triathlon, but the swim was changed to a 5k run instead.  It sucked.  Since we started out running together, and i'm a pokey ass, I clearly started and ended at the end, haha.  And note to the wise, running a 10k with a blood sugar of 50 mg/dL really sucks.  I camped in my car the night before the race. Ha, here's to saving money!  At least I parked near the water and could hear the waves lapping ashore all night and look out my windows and see the starry sky.  It was beautiful.
• I got my first speeding ticket this week.  Apparently going 79 in a 55 is not a good idea and worth $160.  Booo.  But c'mon people, I just NEED to go fast.  I cannot explain it any other way than it feels good.  Feels right. Seriously, going slow hurts, not physically per se, but somewhere in me, it hurts.  Maybe I'm just racing away from life...and failing.

The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years, 1953-2002

I got this list from the Sci Fi Book Club website

Shit, it's already 2008. Another year gone, just like that. I may even hazard to say that it was the most forgettable and wasted year of my life.  Wow, I need to seriously figure out my life here soon, otherwise I'll become some unfulfilled Philip K Dick-like automatron miserable in life and going through the motions but no longer involved. Ha!

Anyway, 2007 in summary:

Jan- Yay for New Year & NYC
Feb- Schmoochy pant's b-day party (woo motorboating!)
Mar- umm, saw my first NHL game?
Apr- boys and their dicks fucking suck...boys that deny their sexuality are evil and losers and need to not make me suffer as well in their lost-ness (not that I'm bitter or anything...)
May- ummmm...shit  couldn't have been too exciting, i don't remember anything except signing up for my 1st tri.
June- MN wedding!
July- i'm damn good looking and in the peak fitness of my life!
Aug- Chicago Tri & getting hit by a car
Sept- 1st longterm relationship ends (thank god) & camping with ponies
Oct- Halloween in DC! It's all about the ravishing boots and 1970s disco club group dancing through Levantes....and Cara & Dave's wedding!!!
Nov- The best night to get free drinks is immediately before Thanksgiving.  Seriously, go eat at a restaurant with a bar & say you're not doing anything for the holidays...the drinks will flow.
Dec- MEL discovers she is a burgeoning slut, and loves it *cough MN roadtrip cough*

I'll use cut-tags to spare all of you the girthy length of this post.







Ok, pizza has arrived.  Time to become fat and drink good Belgian beer.  Happy New Year everyone!

Thank you Kiery for enlightening me to the wonders known as "Charlie the Unicorn".

In my attempt to spread of the word and wisdom of Charlie, here is the video on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus
You must watch it and discover magical Candy Mountain!

I finally got my dress today for the wedding.  Yay, now I just have to remember not to eat until the wedding and try not to breathe, haha.  Regardless, I really like it.  And I cannot wait to see everyone, it's been far too long.  The real world sucks, I miss my friends.



Chris and I broke up about 2 weeks ago.  It was my choice, though, the more I think about it, the more I think I was mistaken.  Hmmm, I really suck at this whole relationship shit.  My schedule is so full these days, I don't have time for a relationship.  At least we still talk daily, and a very friendly with one another and still do things together (when time permits me).  Poor guy, I keep dragging him along with my indecision.

I had a sprint tri this past weekend at Lake Anna State Park.  I didn't wear a wetsuit since the water was so warm (heated by a nuclear power plant, haha).  It took me 1h37m.  My next race is a 10k in two weekends.  I need to take time out to train and not work myself so hard to the point of exhaustion.  I miss working out.

I took Chris to the Renn Faire this weekend.  He had never been to one before, and I had never been to one outside of MN.  It was fantastic and the weather was perfect.  We watched a few shows, laughed lots and glorified in all the yummy food.  Chris described it as an elitist fair since the food was so good and rednecks were nere to be found.  He had never seen the game where you throw a ball to hit a button to dunk someone in a tank of water (drench the wench), nor had he ever done/seen the mallet-hitting game in which you try to get the thingy all the way up the pole thing to ding the bell.  Needless to say, sports/active activities are not his thing.  He did more than terribly, but at least it was funny to watch.

I splurged and got my hair done in some fancy braided thing.  I really like it a lot.  Afterwards we went to Sandy Point State Park, which is where the Bay bridge is.  I went swimming in the Chesapeake while Chris biked.  On the way to the park I got a ticket, which turned into a citation and then fine for not presenting registration (shit, I have no idea what it looks like, so I gave him the wrong papers, hahaha).  Blah.

I have nothing else interesting to share.  Life goes on, class starts this week, woo!
I got the official race pics from my tri, but since they are pro, I cannot C&P them here.  Alas, this is the website.

This past weekend I completed my first Olympic distance triathlon at the Accenture Chicago triathlon.  And it was amazing!  I am hooked!  I want more!  Once I get pics, I'll post the nice ones.


I am quite happy with them for my first ever triathlon.  I know if i work on running and transition, I can make it under 3h.  Besides, I signed up for another Olympic tri in three weeks, hahaha!

I have now discovered a goal I truly want to accomplish sometime in my life.  One I feel rather passionately about and look forward to the process of reaching it.



In other news, I am sorry that I could not make it to Cara's wonderful womanly parties this past weekend.  Instead of boozing and partying it up, I was swimming in Chesapeake Bay and biking and running through Annapolis, haha.   After this coming weekend, my life will be a bit more free with no more tris (sorta, I signed myself up for some more this year, haha).  According to my little countdown, there are 4d21h until my triathlon on Sunday.

Good news: went to the orthopaedic doc, says I am a-ok to do my triathlon.  Woo!  Only severe bruising on skin and bone on my knee, but it'll heal.  My bike is fixed, too, so I can continue training.  Only 2 weeks till my tri, eee, I'm so excited.  I got my wetsuit and we had open water training last weekend in a lake in them.  It was wonderful!  I LOVED it!  A friend and I are now contemplating doing a half ironman next spring, oooo.

I've raised $3,228 or so.  Damn right, I'm gonna make it to $4,000.  Even better, they extended the deadline for 3 more months to raise the money.  Yay! (If you want to contribute, please let me know, I'll send you the link.)

I think I've finally decided what I want to do with my life.  It took me a while to find my true passion and doing what makes me happiest.  I've looked up grad programs and the requirements to enter them.  I am hoping that by next fall or the spring term I can enter the program.  I know this means quitting the job I currently have, which bores me to death, but has fantastic benefits, pay and work environment.  But one must take risks in life in order to get ahead and be happy.  I am willing to take those risks.  I want to be happy.

I really do not have anything much to update on or have interesting to say.

Earlier this week my sister and i went to basketball ref camp in Richmond to learn how to do 3-man and better improve our current skills.  Team Barkalow was a hit.  There were many chauvinistic asshats there.  Some of them we put in their place. Bastards.  Just to spite them, I'd like to become a college ref.  I even managed to get in a swim in the morning.

I drove Chris to the airport yesterday.  He is home in Greece for a month.  I miss him already.  I'm a dork, I know.  I'm also mighty bored.  I had a dream our last night together that I met his mom and she did not like me at all.  I have had that dream before.  I think his mom intimidates me.

I had Zoo training today.  I practised presenting the stingray/flooded forest exhibit.  Soon I shall be an expert on the Amazon rain forest.  I cannot wait.  I am going to sign up for classes at GWU for the fall, woo!

Update on my fundraising: $1,415 ($2,585 remaining).  Days remaining until I will owe my life (and my wallet) to LLS- Aug 14.  Ugh.

I have arrived at a conundrum, and it sucks.



I am so frustrated right now.  How do people get so much money fundraising?!?!  I hate money and wish I was rich.  Better yet, I wish I was rich AND not a diabetic.

Ok, so i am beginning to be quite the slacker at updating this.  Oh well.

Last night Chris and I went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Kennedy Ctr.  It was great.  After the play, we were singing the songs for the rest of the night.  Since it is tradition to dress up more than casually for plays, I saw Chris in nice clothes for the first time.  Wow.  I could not stop staring at him.  He dresses better than I do (which I guess is not saying a helluva lot, but still...) and looks hotter than hot (haha). 



I feel like being lazy, watching tv, curling up and eating some good queso dip with yummy nachos.

So my Mom came to visit a week-and-a-half ago.  It was actually a very good visit, no fighting or teeth-gritting at all.  She had a conference in town and stayed with my sis and i.  Her stay also happened to occur during Joe's (my sis's bf) 40th bday.  And if any of you have been reading my lj, you know Joe likes to drink in excess.  My sis threw him a surprise party, his dad flew in from Sacramento, CA to surprise him.  It was interesting.  The best part was when we had a bad storm and the power went out and my sis and Joe got in a MASSIVE fight.  Oh boy, good times, yeah.

Mommy met Chris.  They both got along very well and liked each other.  Woohoo!

I am so tired.  Tri training is kicking my ass.  But i really do enjoy it, though I admittedly am slacking somewhat and not training every day as i should be.  I bike about 80 miles a week, run less than I should and swim a couple times a week.  oh well.  i need sleep.  blah.  at least i am getting into shape and losing weight.

So i had an interview on Friday for a volunteer position at the National Zoo to be an exhibit interpreter for the Amazonia exhibit.  He liked me so much that he told me I got the position, even before interviewing everyone, woo!

I saw POTC III, it was awful.  I do not recommend it to anyone.  This weekend there was a bike race in town.  Chris and I watched it for a little while.  It was awesome how many bikes there were everywhere, not in the race, but ppl who came to watch or eat in town (Clarendon).  I loved it.  Biking rocks!  Last weekend was Roll of Thunder, which is when 100s of 1000s of motorcycles are in town for POWs/MIA/vet stuff.  They had a parade of cycles downtown near the memorials.  Chris and I watched, but after 1.5h of motorcycles, we were too hot and went to lunch, haha!

ah yes, so I have begun teaching myself Greek.  It is rather frustrating not being able to find a decent workbook to use (or any at all).  Thankfully Chris is overly patient with my (numerous) mistakes and (endless) questions.

My knowledge consists of simple sentences:
Poia einai ayth;  H adelch moy. (Who is she?  My sister)
Ti einai ayto;  Einai ena to kainoyrio biblio (what is that?  It is a new book)