The Full Monty

This post may not seem relevant to the bulk of you who follow my blog, but upon hearing the suggestion followed by the AH-MAZING name that was coined by one Emily Bishop, I decided a post must be made! 

Below you will find many, and I mean many, photos of Monty the dog. Enjoy! 

**DISCLAIMER**

If you don't care about Monty the dog (and have no soul...) you should stop reading now. It's seriously all dog from here down. 

Jamie, logging those dog love hours. 

This is Freeland. Monty is his dog. Oh and the boat is actually Monty's, he's just letting us use it. 

She just loves that dog!

So majestic. 

He's barking orders at us!

That's a cover photo waiting to happen. 

Ohmygoodnesslookhowcuteheis!!

Check out that blue tongue!

It's blue because he licked the color off his nose. True story! (Not really though....)

D'aw...

Always the center of attention. Smh

Happy pup!

Hey look! It's me! I have so much dog love to give!

That looks comfy...knot. 

Checking the sail and whatnot. 

Loungin', you know, like a gangsta do. 

Uh oh, he's serious now guys. Where the heck did the put his bone?!?

He's got a fun side too! 

Whup, he's back in business. Gotta make sure we don't get boarded by pirates!

I can't get over that tongue, so cool!!

Smiling pup again! 

Hope's loving the dog too! He's so lovable!!

This guy knows how to take a photo!

He was sniffing for crab leftovers whilst waiting for the boat. Silly dog!

He sure loves his hugs! 

I would like to credit Hope Goodrich for taking all of these photos. Amazing job Hope!

So I'm in the works of writing a huge post about this past Saturday when we went sailing and swimming do don't give up on me yet! 

I'm also planning one about all my class/shipmates so you can get to know them too! 

Oh! And I'll be writing another about an in-depth look at my classes so y'all will know exactly what the heck I'm doing over here. Peace!

Sailing, Swimming and Sun: Why last Saturday was one of the best days ever

**DISCLAIMER**

This post is very picture heavy so if it loads slowly, that's why. 

As the title proclaims, this past Saturday was one of the best days so far of my adventure on the east coast. 

The day started out with a lovely B house (-2 + Farley from C house) bike ride down to Woods Hole, MA to have breakfast at Coffee Obsession (because Pie in the Sky was packed!). The ride is easy enough and it was just beautiful outside: hot, sunny and just enough wind to keep you cool. 

The boys posing for a picture mid-breakfast. From left to right: Daniel, Freeland & Farley 

Daniel decided to read us all a story and Keven was extremely interested!

Daniel being a gentleman letting me use his umbrella, I don't know why everyone found this so funny...

After breakfast we walked around town, browsing the local shops and visiting all the gift shops we could find. Farley was in search of a cribbage board but was not fruitful in his quest. 

After a few hours in the town we decided to head back so we could go swimming when someone coined the idea of going sailing and swimming! It was decided and we left for the dock; except for Farley who went to Martha's Vineyard instead. 

About a half hour later we got to the docks and before too long we were on the water. Again we were on Freeland's Cape Cod Cat Boat sailing on Waquoit Bay.

Below are just some of the pictures from our outing. So. Much. Fun. 

We eventually parked the boat at Washburn Island and headed towards the marsh down the way. 

We did a little crab hunting, cute little buggers!

We went back to the boat and swam around a bit which then led to a rousing game of chicken followed by some handstand contests and finished up with the best water game, Marco Polo. 

Although I am here for academic reasons, it doesn't hurt to let loose and have a little fun every now and again. Saturday September 14th was one of those days and I'm so glad we were able to create those wonderful memories and bond in such an amazing way. 

Again I would like to give photo credit to Hope Goodrich. Thanks a lot Hopey-Hope!

 

Maps and Mosquitos

Dear all, 

There are two things I would have loved to have been warned about in regards to the east coast. One, the Mosquitos and two, the humidity. 

I have more mosquito bites than I care to count; on my legs, arms and most unfortunately on my upper right breast. Now that may be a little TM,I but it's seriously the worst. It's almost as bad as the two on my new tattoo...fucking Mosquitos. I hate them so much...

As for the humidity, it's not always present, but when it is, it's terrible. I am not used to sweating all the time and it just makes me feel so fat! I know everyone else is sweating too, but my body issues just exacerbate everything. 

Of course, things haven't been all bad. In fact, other than those things mentioned above, everything has been wonderful. I do miss my hubby and pups, but I am so excited to be learning nautical science to prepare me for my voyage! I took some pictures to show you all what piloting and plotting courses looks likes, I think it's pretty cool but I'll let you decide. 

An up close picture along with the tools of the trade. 

This map is huge, this is probably half of it...Again, this picture shows tools and my pencil (another important tool).

Our Captain and a classmate (Freeland) standing in front of our model ship discussing specs and whatnot. 

The model of our ship. I'm so excited!

A few close up pictures. I'll make sure to take pictures of the real thing as well in October when I board! 

Dorm Living at its Finest

Being married has its positive attributes, but unless you go to the same school as your spouse (which isn't true for me) you don't really get to experience college life in all its glory. For example, I've never lived in a dorm and I've never been to a college party which means making friends hasn't been easy for me. Sure I'll  make a few each term, but as soon as we don't have class together our friendship usually dissipates. It's sad, and I wish it weren't true, but I'm never too broken up about it mostly because of the fact that I have a family waiting for me at home. The companionship I have with my husband is usually all I need, but it's always nice to have friends. 

So far at SEA I've made about 18 friends, my entire class. They're all so great and we really do get along quite well. I know we'll do just fine crammed onto a 134' boat. 

We're entering our second week (1/6 of the way done!) and everyone is gearing up for our exam this Friday. You might think that's a little fast to already be having an exam but you're basically taking three classes in 6 weeks, so things move pretty quick. 

Everyone around here is hard at work, including these two, Emily (left) and Jamie (right) who (I think) are reviewing for their first exam. 

These two boys aren't excluded from the work-doing either. Well, Daniel (foreground) may be working on his own stuff but Keven (background) is reading one of our many assigned books. 

Everyone is pretty serious about their work; they know that if they fall behind now they'll be lost once on ship. I like that a lot about this group. No one wants to slack and that's something you don't find regularly in college students. 

All in all I'm enjoying myself tremendously. I did get a little sad today though when Skyping my husband, Gonzalo, because I miss my pups and they're looking pretty sad lately...I'm just hoping that they're alright and I just have to take comfort in the fact that he's loving them a little bit extra for me. 

The First Day of Class

I hate to say it, but it's harder writing a post when nothing's gone wrong. 

But really, today was lovely. I got up at 7:30, which gave me a good hour to get ready and eat breakfast. It's also nice living right next to class, I've never experienced this before but I'm loving having literally no commute. 

My first class was Nautical Science and it seems the most daunting, maybe just due to the fact that it's taught by our Captain and I don't want to look like a complete moron. I don't know...we got our first assignment and it's a doozy. We have to use our ship route to figure out a whole bunch of questions, it's going to be tough for sure. 

Next was Ocean Science in Public Policy and we basically talked about plastic pollution in the oceans. Our instructor, Erin also debunked a few myths for the class, which I already knew and was hoping they'd dispel. It was, by far, my favorite. I got so giddy knowing that in six short weeks I was going to be out on the open ocean performing research I had been talking about since 2009. But I also got sort of shocked because its just so different here. Things that I'm used to in Oregon just don't happen here, like watershed councils; some people didn't even know what those were! So weird to me...

Last was oceanography. I don't know how much I'll like this class as I've taken a bunch of oceanography classes before but it's never a bad thing to review. On the plus side our instructor is a hoot. He is absolutely ridiculous and the whole class loves him. He's definitely not afraid to share his opinion, especially when it comes to the gov'ment. 

After morning classes we have an hour and a half for lunch. It was so nice out today, not muggy like its been but pretty warm and a cool breeze every now and again. 

Once lunch was done we headed into Woods Hole, MA for a little field trip. 

These are just some pictures of the little park we were at. If you know Massachusetts at all then you might recognize Martha's Vineyard in the distance. 

Nothing too special, but the view is one of those, "you had to be there" sort of things. 

We then stopped at WHOI or the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute where this man showed us a behind the scenes look at a few impressive marine machines

. This picture shows the original Alvin sphere where four scientists would sit when conducting dives in the submersible. 

This is just another cool looking submersible, more sporty and can only go to about 1000 meters. 

And this, is the submersible Director James Cameron used to reach the bottom of the Marianas Trench. This was most impressive to me, gotta give props to James Cameron for being so flipping cool. I love his movies and I love his work for the oceans as well. Much love Jimmy. 

Then it was off to Walmart for some much needed school supplies followed by some delicious stir-fry for dinner and now studying in the student lounge with some others. 

I am pooped though, and I'm kind of regretting not having more time off between work and this but oh well, I'll survive. It will just take some time to get into the swing of things. 

I wanted to also say thanks to everyone who's been reading this blog and keeping up to date on my adventures. It means a lot to me, so keep on reading! Sorry these end up being so gosh darn long too...I'll work on it. Oh! and thanks for the comments too! 

This is why yesterday was one of the worst days of my entire life:

If you read my last post about flying you'll know that yesterday wasn't as spectacular as I had expected. Well let me tell you, when the plane landed in Boston, it didn't get better. 

As I said in my last post, out of the 36 hours I was awake yesterday, I only managed to sleep for 2 of those. Add to that the fact that I ate shitty Denny's fries and a single clif bar all day and you'll start to understand why my first day in Boston was as terrible as it was. 

I do want to preface this post by saying how extremely grateful I am that I made it here to Boston safe and sound with (almost) all my luggage. 

I say almost because I lost two of my quick dry towels which were affixed to the outside of my bag. I am lucky they were the little ones for my hair and noy the big one for my body but I was still pretty bummed. After waiting at baggage claim for about 30 minutes (and being unsuccessful), I decided to try and figure out this whole sleep problem. 

Airports you have never been to are the worst. Especially when you are sleep deprived and on edge. After a bit of searching I found the hotel reservations desk. I was quoted $170 per night for a single room so I gave up on the hotel idea and switched to the idea of staying at a hostel. There was one nearby-ish but it required me taking three buses and I just could not figure it out. I tried on three separate occasions to find the bus I was supposed to be on without any luck. I finally asked someone and he helped a bit, but in the end I wouldn't be thanking him. 

I took the silver line to south station where transit attendants were yelling out information regarding detours. I finally made it to streetside and decided to consult google maps for further directions. I was now only 0.9 miles away and so I decided to walk as the bus directions were very confusing for my wacked out mind. 

My luggage consists of a shoulder strap purse and a 40 pound stuff sack without appropriate handles, of which I blame myself entirely. Let's just say that by the end of the night, and this morning as well, my shoulders are extremely bruised. 

I walked that entire ~mile with that pack and, in the course of waking, asked two cab drivers for a ride. At one point I was 0.6 miles away and he wanted to charge $10. I told him I only had $5 and he refused, driving off while cursing at me. 

I won't tell you at which points in the day I was forced to tears because it was almost non-stop.

I got to the hostel after walking for about a half hour, getting lost twice, losing my specially bought ship anchor earrings (both, ridiculous right?) and starting to feel woozy from being completely out of energy. 

The attendant was the first sympathetic person I had met in Boston and he checked me in promptly. I went up to my room with the intent of passing the fuck out, but instead I cleaned myself up (aka, cleaning the sweat off of myself, I was drenched), got into pajamas and then laid down. However I didn't relax for two minutes before remembering I still had to print my bus ticket for tomorrow (today). 

I then encountered a second nice person in Boston (although, she wasn't from Boston but w/e). I complained about the wifi and then asked her if she knew the password. She said she didn't but that she had a hotspot if I wanted to share. I did. Badly. In the end, I printed my ticket, skyped Gonzalo and played calming pandora music to lull myself to sleep. And now, after waking up peacefully at 6:30 I am happy to say that the worst is over. I know how to get back to the airport for my bus, I have had breakfast and I am ready for an amazing day. Wish me luck everyone. 

Flying: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

I haven't been on an airplane since I was about 8 and let me tell you, it's no picnic. I was very much excited to fly, even with all of my change-overs and whatnot; but come departure day I was a complete mess. I knew I would be emotionally drained, crying my eyes out and wishing I didn't want to go while being super excited at the same time. What I didn't expect (and enjoy) was the physical sickness I felt almost the entire trip. 

I got up at 9am on Sunday morning, with the plan of spending the entire day with my husband and pups. I did just that and it was so lovely. Honestly, I really enjoyed my last weekend with my family so very much. But I found myself not eating, and just not feeling hungry, which is really weird for me. I mean, I eat a lot, and I am usually a stress eater so I was very surprised at myself for not feeling hungry. 

But, I went about my day, making sure I was packed and snuggling like there was no tomorrow, because, well, there wasn't. My dad volunteered to drive me to the airport and we left Dallas at 2am so we could grab a bite before my flight, haha, I rhymed. He chose Denny's...it was an awful idea, made more awful by the fact that I had already drank two Starbucks double espresso drinks, but what else is open at 3am?? I felt like shit, so I had some sprite to settle my stomach and some french fries; and by sprite, I mean soda water because their machine was broken and they didn't know it...yeah, Go Denny's. I shouldn't have eaten anything to be honest with you. It was not one of my best ideas. 

I got to the airport and got on my plane without a hitch, was surprised me, but was amazing all the same. 

The takeoff, however, was anything but. The feeling of lifting off the ground, the change in pressure and the frightening feeling of being totally helpless almost made me puke right then and there. I seriously think flying is going to make me more sick than sailing, haha! The hour and 45 minute flight to San Francisco was absolutely terrible. My seat mates were nice enough, an obese father with his fat little boy (whom he fed two donuts to for breakfast) didn't bother me and paid no mind to the tears steaming down my face. But my stomach was in knots the entire flight, I was nauseous and jittery, and tired as fuck considering I had been up for 22 hours straight. 

You can imagine just how terrified I was for my next flight to Boston, a 6 hour flight and I was expecting the worst. 

I managed to use the bathroom before we took off, the one on the plane which made me feel like a fatty because I couldn't even spread my legs open enough to do my business. I can't even imagine anyone bigger than me using those things, absolutely ridiculous. Anyway...

I felt SO much better after going potty, my stomach was finally settling down. Now, I needed to sleep. After staying motionless on the Tarmac for 30 fucking minutes because some dipshits were changing seats and couldn't figure their shit out, we finally took off. I experienced none of the terror and sick that I felt on the flight previous, it was lovely. Well, as lovely as it could be. I folded up my sweater and did my best to get comfortable. Note to self: next time, being a god damn pillow. Jesus. 

I slept for just under 2 hours, that is, I have slept for 2 out of the 27 hours I have now been awake. I'm going to try and sleep some more, but we'll see if I can. I have a feeling sleeping will be an issue for me on this trip, which is weird because I'm usually such a good (and deep) sleeper. 

Ah well, a small price to pay for a once in a lifetime opportunity. 

I am sorry to whine so much, but today hasn't exactly been peachy. I know it will

Improve and I hope you can hang on for the good stuff. 

If anyone's got tips for me to make flying more enjoyable I would appreciate any and all help. When I fly back I have three change overs, so it's going to be rough. 

I look forward to your comments. 

Bittersweet Departure

Yesterday was my last day as a temp with ODOT and I have to admit, I will miss it more than I had ever expected. When I first started this job I was only financially interested but as the weeks passed I found myself caring more and more about my coworkers and the customers I helped. I started looking at procedures to see if there was a way I could streamline them or make them easier for future temps to understand. And on my last day I did what I could to finish up any projects I had started. All in all I consider myself a part of the ODOT Procurement Office team now and I would love, more than anything, to come back to work when I get back from my trip in November.

I have to talk about my last day though, because I never felt so appreciated as I did at any job I've ever had before. I went to work that day with the goal of finishing up my projects, cleaning my desk and eating the salad I brought. I was making progress until my coworker, Lynn, came into the front office and invited Katie (the other temp in the front office, and my dear friend) and I out to lunch at Olive Garden (later decided). Needless to say, it was delicious! And of course, I ate way too much. But isn't that the point of the unlimited soup, salad and breadstick lunch??

When we got back it was quiet for about an hour, we were just cleaning, joking around and reminiscing a bit. That is, until we got an email from Mary about cake in the break room. Below is the picture of the cakes they got for us, professional cakes! Also pictured is the little gift bag and card we each got. Not pictured are the other cards they got for us with a $15 gift certificate to Regal Cinemas!

I wasn't expecting this at all. Even though the office was half empty and we were only temps, it was overwhelming to see just how much they appreciated all the work we had done in our short time with ODOT. 

So there you have it. My last day was amazing. I got my all projects done, I had a super delicious lunch and then finished it off with some cake. 

Even though I am thrilled to begin my adventure with SEA Semester I am sad to leave my family and the summer job which turned into so much more. 

I will do all that I can to come back to work in November and hopefully there's work and a place for me at the ODOT Procurement Office.

And the first tears have been shed.

With my upcoming departure it was only a matter of time before the flow of tears started. However, they were good tears and it was really nice to lay in bed as a family and just cry for a bit. I don't know how I am going to handle these next few months alone but that thought will comfort me during those lonely nights when I just can't sleep. 

I will admit that I am very excited to be going on this trip and I feel privileged to be a part of this amazing program. Seeing as how I haven't been on in a few months I'll fill you in. 

From September to November I will be participating in SEA Semester. Basically I spend six weeks in Massachusetts and then I spend six weeks sailing from there to the Virgin Islands while performing research I developed while in land. I plan on researching the effects of plastic ingestion by fishes and seeing if it has any adverse effects or if they in fact ingest plastic at all! So as sad as I'm going to be at night I will be plenty busy during the day.

I plan on keeping this blog up to date with what I'm doing and I guess I'm starting today. So more tomorrow! 

This is what's going to keep me going today. I will actively make this day better than yesterday. 

I don't know why but for some reason yesterday sucked! Hard! The bright spot was scheduling my next tattoo. I'm so excited!! It's going to look amazing and I cannot wait! 

I'm going on my jog again today and I know I can do it. It's going to be hard but it will be cooler today and I'll have more energy so the five minute straight jog will be no problem at all! I hope...haha!