I liiive! Kinda. :P I've been feeling really crappy this week, and I'm still trying to figure it all out. A couple of weeks ago, I more or less gave up caffeine, thinking that's what's been giving me headaches (I noticed that my headaches tended to come right after drinking a pop or coffee or something). I also started chugging bottles of water like crazy to help fight off dehydration and all. It worked for a few days, but now I'm getting headaches every afternoon, sometimes accompanied by dizziness. I've gone to bed really early a couple of times this week. I'm starting to wonder if it's an eye issue, though. Both my parents have glasses, but neither my brother or I ever needed them. But I'm finding that I have trouble with headaches when I'm focused on something like the computer screen or a drawing or a book or whatnot. And the dizziness comes if I'm scrolling a lot on the computer screen, or looking back and forth a lot and switching pencils or markers or whatever while I'm drawing. I don't feel like my eyesight is bad - everything looks fine to me - but I wonder if I'm getting the headaches because my eyes are straining to make a correction to a problem I'm not even aware of. Grr.

Anyways, as I mentioned, I did some drawing this week. I really wanna learn my Prisma markers well, so I played with that. Man, those are cool. I looked around online for techniques with those, and played with it a bit. It's very reminiscent of watercolor painting, but with markers. I have no idea where the inspiration came from, but I did this little doodle. I had to get creative with colors, because those markers are hella expensive and I only have a set of 24. As such, I have no grey. Yay, creative coloring!

On to the good stuff! Wolf Center yesterday morning - I played around with pulling weeds in the garden again, then did some office work. And while I was eating lunch, a tapping sound on the sliding glass door scared the crap outta me. I turned around, and there was a roadrunner pecking at the glass. I ran into him several more times, startling him once and causing him to make a FUNKY clicking noise that is apparently their alarm call. Too cool!

Got home and had a message from the place I interviewed last week, saying they needed to get some information from me. But of course, when I called back today, they'd had a power outage so everyone had gone home. Doh!

But the freakin' coolest thing this week? ( Kirsten goes to Grad Nite at Disneyland! Woooo! )

ASLFLMSDKLDKLMSFFDLDLDF! ZOMG Jack Sparrow meet and greets coming to Disneyland!! *dies* Is it too early to claim dibs on first in line? :P

I was looking over the PotC premiere guest list posted over at Mice Chat... is it sad that I'd be more excited to see X. Atencio than anyone else? /Disney geek Not that I'll probably go anyways - the park is going to be insane that day.

Wolf Center meeting Wednesday... got the big rattlesnake lesson (they appear up there quite often) and the rundown of fire protocol as we head into fire season. They've had two major fires (Cedar and Pines) hit the center in the last 4 years, and there's lots of brush/fuel up there this year that we've been clearing. Julian already got its first fire this year a few months ago. Went up for my usual shift yesterday... just a little quickie day, out by 2. I worked on clearing the path around the building, because it's gotten completely overgrown. I got it like 1/3 done in about 4 hours of work. Stupid ragweed. That crap is hard to pull out of a hard-packed trail. Anyways, I went to lie down at about 6 in the evening... and didn't get up again til 9:30 this morning. Yaaaay, 14+ hours of sleep!

Interview this afternoon at a big biomedical research facility... I think it went well! Just playing the waiting game again.

Didn't have time to respond to all the "Sunday" (SPOILERS!!!) posts in everyone's LJ, 'cause EVERYONE is talking about it. :P So for those who don't read the Sparky thread on GW, here's my thoughts... ( Spoilers for SGA season three! )

So they made me use the PHONE at the Wolf Center yesterday. :P It's no secret that I'm terrified of the phone. Hell, I get scared making calls on my own phone, much less a business call for another facility. It's no secret there, either, and I get my share of good-natured teasing for it. :P But I was working on a project with someone, and I was urged to be the one to make the call. I survived! Yaaaaay! Did mostly office work, and a little bit of chaperoning a group of kids. We made a trek into town in the afternoon to check out a bed and breakfast, and that place was GORGEOUS.

For some reason, since yesterday afternoon I've been feeling really weird/sick. It came on while I was riding in the truck back to the Wolf Center from the trip off-property, when I felt kinda light-headed. I thought maybe it was just my motion sickness being oversensitive (or the quadruple mocha I bought at the coffee shop in town), but it stuck around long after I left for the day. I actually ended up crawling into bed by 6 pm, although I got up periodically after that, checked email til I felt really icky again, then went back to bed (and stayed there after about 10). It was bad enough, though, that I felt nauseous just laying there in bed. Grr. I tried everything I could think of - water because maybe I was dehydrated, food because maybe I just had low blood sugar (memories of one Really Long Night in Orlando remind me of just how nauseous I get if I don't eat when I feel hungry), Sudafed because maybe it was a sinus/ear issue... no cigar, anything I tried. And it certainly wasn't exhaustion - I tossed and turned in bed until amost 3 in the morning. :/

So I slept til about 10:30 this morning, then got up and still felt sick (although marginally better) so I watched cartoons. Dude, the Disney Channel is showing the old Timon and Pumbaa cartoons again! WOO! Saw an ad for Cars, and realized that came out today, so I ran out to see that one.

Cars gets two thumbs up from me! LOVED it! It felt different to me than some of Pixar's past efforts. It felt much more drama-oriented, although it did have its comedic moments. But that was a good thing - I found myself forgetting that they were cars, and really getting emotionally involved in the story. Mater = teh AWESOME. I could have done without one rather predictable Larry the Cable Guy line, but it was blink-and-you'll-miss-it, so I'll live. And OMG, the credits practically had me rolling in the aisles! The short ("One Man Band") is a pretty good one, too. Overall - I DEFINITELY reccommend people check this one out! Pixar wins again!

Feeling a bit better now, although I still get waves of dizziness every so often. My best guess is that it's a mild bug or something, it was just odd that it came on SO suddenly.

My feeling sick was mitigated, however, by MORE promo pics... ( Cut, because I can't help but repost these pics and am jumping on the LJ drooling bandwagon! )

Someone forgot to tell the weather that there's a JUNE between May and July. We went from upper 60's to mid-80s REALLY fast. Yesterday it almost hit 90 in the city even. For those of you who weren't playing in my LJ last summer to see my ramblings/whining: I have no A/C. I rely on open windows and a box fan - which I have yet to get out for the summer. I should do that today. *glares at the fish now occupying the fan's old spot, and the rearranging job coming up*

( Wolf Center fun! )

( Bambi II review! )

I am so about to keel over and fall asleep. I wore myself out today! Was up at the crack of dawn to head up to the Wolf Center. I was super-productive! Helped stuff and label a bunch of envelopes for an event, chaperoned a huge group of hyper kids out by the enclosures (to quote Dr. Grant from Jurassic Park: "you want one of those?!"), and then did work outside. I had a blast, 'cause I learned a lot today. Learned exactly what all has to be scrubbed down in the freezer shed, learned how to check the fly traps, and learned how to use the equipment with two-stroke motors. I also wandered around and checked all the water troughs, which was nice 'cause I'd get splattered with water when I filled them, and that felt damn good. :P It was 85+ out there today, which isn't too bad except for the fact that we have to wear jeans and hiking boots in the enclosures while we're working. Long pants + hiking boots + desert + manual labor + 4,000-ft altitude = HOT AND TIRED. We spent the afternoon clearing brush from the enclosures, as we're getting into fire season. Definitely wore me out! They're doing some big project outside Saturday (weed-killing? I don't recall now) and they needed help so I'm going in EAAAAARLY Saturday morning, then I'll just stick around and help out all day until the volunteer appreciation BBQ that evening.

Stopped to go grocery shopping on the way home, now that I have a fridge again! I broke my "no grocery shopping on an empty stomach" rule, and subsequently spent a lot. :P I think I must have been in a fruit/veggie mood, 'cause I got apples and blackberries and strawberries and baby carrots and orange juice.

I finally got grades back today! Took me long enough to see something as happy as this:

Conservation Biology	BIOL	364	001	A
Biol 364 Lab	BIOL	364	001	A
Senior Seminar	BIOL	495	001	A

WOO! ...okay, so it's only 5 credits. Whatever. My semester GPA is still 4.0. :P

Also spent last night working on my Atlantis jacket. OMG, I know, the world is coming to an end! I finished the cuffs... and then decided I didn't like how I did the collar and took it off and will be redoing that part. You see why these things take me so long to finish? :P I've been pinning the zipper in place so I can sew it on, then I'll put the collar back on... and then I'm DONE! Unless I find something else that annoys me that I need to redo. :P

( Book meme yoinked from tjh102... )

Once again, I just gotta say that my wolvies are So Damn Pretty. I even got to spend a good long time today watching them. It was just me and the manager all day. And first thing when I got there, she asks if I want to start leading some of the private tours. WHEE! She was actually gonna have me do two tours today, but I asked to shadow her on them and see how they played out (I've never seen how the 2-3 person tours run) so I tagged along for those. But it meant I got to spend a couple of hours just wolf-watching and soaking up more information! Kinda scary to think that from now on, I can be turned loose on the tours. Bwahahaha! They're really relaxed, though, when it's only a few people. More like just starting out addressing general information, and then chatting about the wolves than any sort of presentation. I also played runner, driving back and forth over the half-mile, really bumpy dirt road escorting the guests in and out... and in the process saw a mule deer! Too cute! Damn, it must have been brave - it was stotting away from the wolf pens.

I also got to play around with writing up a curriculum. Apparently a group of Girl Scouts is coming, and they were looking for lessons and activities that met the requirements for their Wildlife badge. So I got a photocopy of the activity requirements, and started writing up what needed to be done in a lesson to help then achieve that so that the Wolf Center can actually make a specific program tailored to the Scouts. It was fun! I got to be creative and all. Whee!

During the downtime between tours, we also got into a great discussion about large predators in suburban neighborhoods. Having grown up in a neighborhood that had coyotes (who doesn't have those?), black bears, and cougars nearby, I've grown up with the "don't push them out, just learn to be aware of your surroundings and act appropriately" sort of attitude. I tend to get really frustrated when residents in an area scream for the removal of animals that move in. I think most of those people really just don't understand the biological concepts involved as to why they SHOULDN'T pull out every predator they spot, and unfortunately the wildlife pays for that mistake. So it was wonderful to spend the afternoon talking with someone who's well-versed in predator biology who understands exactly what's going on. Predators are love, people! Ask the Kaibab deer if you don't believe me.

Anyways, my copy of Wicked FINALLY arrived in the mail yesterday! YAY! I actually got an e-mail from the lady I bought it from (Amazon third-party seller, 'cause it was cheaper), who apologized profusely and said that Amazon hadn't sent the notification e-mail to her. I can understand that, I've had similar stuff happen to me. She upgraded the shipping for me for free to get it here fast, and the proceeds from the book are going to the SPCA anyways. It's all good.

I'm loving the book. It's quite different than the show, but in a good way. I keep thinking that the jump from book to show is similar to Disney's treatment of darker stuff like The Hunchback of Notre Dame (which, coincidentally, also had lyrics by Stephen Schwartz). Really fun to read, and I love the book's protrayal of Elphie. Her snark makes me happy. :P

( 8th grade meme! )

I really should be looking for more sources for my Santee Habitat Conservation Plan paper, but I think I'll go read more instead. ;)

I just felt the need to show off my new icon. Beware the snarky giraffe!

Wicked tickets go on sale here in San Diego on tomorrow! *bounces around in a happy little circle* Think I'm gonna dig into my pockets for that one, because I don't want tickets to sell out before I have a chance to save up money. I'm still unsure where I'll be then, but I figure if I do end up outside San Diego by that point (end of July) I can probably find someone to buy it from me. Still bummed that my copy of the book hasn't arrived yet. Grrrrr! I wanna read it! I have an mp3 of the audio book, but that's nowhere near as fun as holding a book and reading it.

Anyways, since I'm out of reading material, I picked up a book at the campus library this week on the politics of whaling. I know the moral and scientific arguments, but my knowledge of the politics that surround it is woefully inadequate. So I decided to be suitably geeky and read it for fun. That makes up for not being able to afford to re-up my Society for Marine Mammalogy membership and the subsequent lack of geeky whale reading material.

Had a somewhat lazy day at the Wolf Center today. I pretty much did computer work. Since it was barely above 40 degrees up in Julian, I was happy to stay inside! :P Played around with a mailing list database. They bought a bulk address list from a company last fall in an attempt to spread the word about the facility, and of course that means we get a stack of replies asking to be removed from the list, so I entered all those addresses into a database. And can I give a big thank you to the people who wrote entire essays on the slip about why they hated us and wolves? They made an otherwise-tedious job a lot more amusing. I especially liked the one that called us "tree huggers that need to get real jobs" and the one that called us hypocrites because we "allowed the wolves to burn to death in the wildfires in Julian" in 2003 (they knew it because the news told them so!) and that we should have just opened the pens and let them run free instead. That one REALLY made me laugh, because not a single one of our animals was lost in that fire. In fact, staff and volunteers stayed on property throughout the ordeal, digging ditches and watering down the brush and doing what they could to stave off the fire, and in the end stopped it just short of the pens. *insert Fark "I work for" joke here* Also, to whomever it was that lives on "Lois Ln.," you also made my day! I couldn't type that without giggling.

So here's my links for the day that amused me:
Coyote attacks in WA. I went to that elementary school for a year! There's definitely a lot of coyotes in the area, that's nothing new. This is the first time I've heard of anyone ever getting bit by one, though. Can't say I'm entirely surprised - they're probably starting to get VERY habituated to people as that area grows rapidly.
The mysterious boom story in San Diego continues. At least they have a lead as to what it was now. And a distinct lack of anything better to report on, apparently. (Not that I'm complaining - I'm curious)

There was a cool one about killer whales in Monterey Bay, too, but I'm bitter 'cause I can't get the video of them attacking the gray whale to work. :(

( This entry brought to you by the letter 'R'... )

So, news on the job front, finally! I got a call back from the place up in LA. Unfortunately, they needed someone who could start sooner so they couldn't hire me. But apparently they REALLY liked me, and already talked to another company about me! This one's up near Oceanside, and does the same sorts of stuff - he highly reccommended it, and works with them a lot. Yaaaaay! So they referred me there and I called and left a message. *crosses fingers*

Wolf Center was fun today! The weather is GORGEOUS, so I spent the morning outside fixing up the garden there. Also did a bit of membership database maintenance, and helped pick out the pictures that are going on the walls in the main education room. Ended up leaving pretty early, 'cause the staff headed out early today.

The maintenance guy came while I was today to replace my tub drain, which had been the problem. So I go in to look, and my tub totally confuses me now. I have no idea how to plug it, like to take a bath! LOL Not that I really ever do anyways, I just laugh because I'm confused by my own bathtub. Also, there was a scrubby pad and a pot sitting there. The scrubby pad I get, 'cause they were working with plumbing and all. But the pot left me scratching my head. So now you see the picture: me, stading in my own bathroom, confused as to how to use my own bathtub and wondering why one of my pots is sitting next to it. Hilarity!

I think I'm actually gonna get around to updating my DeviantArt page today. GO ME! Even have a new print to add - not that they sell much, but whatever. :P I wanna clean out some of the old junk from my gallery there that I don't like anymore. Hmm.

Also, the 10.5 sequel is coming soon. My beer is ready and waiting for the requisite drinking game! :P *high fives the WDWMagic people that participated in the last one*

So yeah, funny story... totally forgot that Easter Break started today (I remembered we get Monday off, at least!) and I got up and drove all the way to school and did a *headdesk* - or rather, *headsteeringwheel* - when I saw the place was a ghost town. So I consoled myself with an Icee on the way home. :P

I finally got back to the Wolf Center yesterday! Kind of a lazy, easy day. I pretty much just hung around the office. Played with Gemma (she's getting so big!), made new membership cards, then got to play in Photoshop. They wanted the logo fixed on the brochure, so that the background of the clipart was transparent. Yay for getting to play in Photoshop all morning! :D I also helped keep a big group of kids corralled when they went out to watch the wolves. Wolvies were very shy, though. One of the puppies was out, and a couple of others were somewhat visible... other than that, they were nowhere to be seen. And is it sad that I am so proud of coming home with a very mud-splattered car after battling the deep mud on the road into the facility? Seriously, my car looks like I went offroading. I even had mud splattered all over the windshield and the roof of the car.

I also saw this come across SciFi Wire yesterday, and I made me start squeeing! I've been waiting years for this movie series! Rumors about it have been flying for a few years now. It's finally really happening! If you haven't read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman, I highly reccommend it. I read it in high school and was hooked on it. Amazing fantasy story that really sucks you in. And if you look deeper, it has very serious messages to it: it's a fascinating commentary on organized religion and some of the evils that have been perpetrated in its name. Read it for the fantasy, read it for the deeper meaning, whatever... just read it. :) I wanna read it again now... unfortunately, my copies are back in Seattle. *cries*

Today's eau-de-Wolf-Center? Paint and beef.

Got up there around 9:30. The Puddle Jumper lived up to its name and plowed through the mud puddles covering the road up there. Thank god for traction control! It took a lot of careful steering and slipping and sliding in the mud, but my trusty Puddle Jumper got me there. I was surprised at how much snow was left! There was a lot of it still around. In fact, driving past Lake Cuyamaca.. WOW. Just gorgeous. The whole area and all the hills were covered in snow... you'd never even know it was in Southern California. Turns out that the Wolf Center got FOUR FEET of snow in the storms over the last couple of weeks. They were snowed in for over a week. Daaaaaamn. They were almost literally swimming through the snow in some spots, with drifts six feet deep.

Anyways, they didn't really have anything to do when I first got there, so I sat in the office and played with Gemma the puppy again. Man, she's getting big fast! I sat around for almost two hours before we finally started doing something. Feeding time!

We had a TON of 1-lb beef chunks for the wolves... unfortunately, they were all individually-wrapped. So we spent like two hours sitting around and unwrapping all of them. My fingers now smell like beef, and I can't get it out no matter how many times I wash my hands. It's all up under my fingernails, too, and staining my jeans. :P

Once we finally finished feeding out for everyone, we headed back inside. The main education room was being repainted, so we got to work painting. It was fun! We repainted the ceiling, and touched up some older stuff and taped off parts of the walls for painting tomorrow. Then we realized it was 6 pm, so I decided to head out. Smelling like beef and paint.

Waiting for me when I got home? A ROCKIN' message on my phone - my resume and cover letter were received, and they want to set up an interview for next week. EEEEEEEE! Gonna call back tomorrow and get it set up! :D 'Course, it means driving waaaaaaaaaaay up towards Pasadena next week. Should be worth it, though! :D

And once again, I have spent WAY too much time in Photoshop when I should be sleeping...
( 'Cause I was curious what Lizzie would actually look like with glasses... )

Spring Break! Spring Break! Yaaaaay! My Spring Break actually started yesterday morning, 'cause my prof decided to cancel class on Friday (so people travelling could get a head start or some excuse like that). So I get an extra-long Spring Break this year!

Wolf Center day today. I had a blast! First thing in the morning we had a big tour group of homeschool students. I hung around, watched the presentation, and helped herd people. And I moved the truck, which scared the crap outta me. :P The manager asks "have you ever driven the truck before?" Me: "Um... I've never driven anything bigger than a small SUV." Her: "Ah, it's easy. The keys are in the ignition, can you move it to the parking lot for me?" Me: "Okay." You must understand, this is a BIG, heavy-duty pickup truck. It has been used on occasion to haul a horse carcass (for wolfy food) in the back. It's big. :P Her: "Oh, it's kind of in a weird spot, so you'll have to back down the road and try to turn around." Me: "O_O" So after spending like five minutes just trying to find the parking brake and how to put it in drive, I finally figured it out. And I did it! Woo! I conquered the big truck!

This huge storm from Alaska has been making its way down the coast this week, and it's headed all the way to San Diego this weekend. They're predicting several inches of snow above 2000 ft, and the Wolf Center is above 4000 ft. So this afternoon was all about battening down the hatches. We brought in some wood for the fireplace. And even though poo cleaning day is usually Saturdays, we decided to do it all today just in case there was lots of snow and everything got buried. So instead of the 5-ish people who usually do it on Saturdays, me and the manager did the whole thing ourselves. And it was frikkin' freezing. The wind was blowing like crazy today. Even before we finished the first enclosure, we decided that we'd have to go inside and get knit caps before we did the ones on the windy east side of the ridge. I swear, it took my fingers two hours to regain feeling after we were done! Isn't animal care so glamorous? ;) Still, my Alaskan "puppy" admirer was back. *giggle* He's so cute, all curious and following us around. One of the Mexican girls (the alpha female) has gotten brave, too - she followed us around the enclosure the whole time, sneaking within a few feet of us before running off and returning moments later.

After that, we decided to drive into town and go to the coffee shop and pick up some feed. I got myself a quadruple shot mocha. Ooooooh, lordy, that's a jolt. ;) Sooo good, though. When we stopped at the feed store, the keys got locked in the truck. DOH! The wonderful thing about a tiny, rural town like Julian though is that everyone knows each other pretty well, so we walked over to the grocery store and the owner (a friend) lent us his car so we could get back to the Center and get the spare set of keys. :P

I hung around for awhile after that and did a bit of data entry, then headed out to beat the incoming rain. Man, that drive is gorgeous. Lake Cuyamaca had low fog hanging just over the surface, the hills clouded in... I generally hate long drives, but that's one that I don't mind because it's just so freakin' pretty.

Bring on the rain!

OMG, I had insane amounts of fun at the Wolf Center today! When I got there, the manager was just getting ready to go on a run to pick up a couple of goats. See, the area around the Wolf Center is really rural - mostly farmers and ranchers. Whenever one of their animals passes away, they call the Center and as long as the deceased animal fits certain health restrictions, we go pick it up so we can feed it to the animals. So I tagged along on the trip out to pick up a couple of goats. We got back, and had no room in the freezers so we went ahead and fed them straight to the wolves. Oh, man, the boys ripped into theirs. They were very excited. :P Unfortunately, the girls got a smaller, frozen one, so they had to wait for it to thaw.

Just as I'd gotten a machete and was gonna go whack at some mustard grass overgrowth, we got a call from another rancher saying he had a dead goat, too. So off we went to get that one! OMG, that place was AWESOME. He had a few hundred goats, and there were TONS of kids (goat kids, not human kids) that he was bottle-feeding. As a result, they were like puppies. We got out of the truck, and a dozen of them started bleating and came running over for attention. So freakin' cute! We petted them and played with them for ages. It was about feeding time for them, so he asked if we wanted to stick around and help feed. So he made some formula and we got to feed all the baby goats! EEE! So cute! Eventually we got what we had gone there for and headed back to the Wolf Center and fed it to the boys, too (there's way more males than females). They're so cute when they're fed. I won't go into the gory details, though. :P

So now I totally smell like goat, but it was so worth it.

( Review of Lilo and Stitch 2! )

And because I think a lot of us need to hear something like this today:
"Ohana means family. Family means no one gets left behind. Or forgotten."

I smell like doggy. Heehee! Gemma (the 12-week-old puppy) was back today at the Wolf Center, bouncing around and climbing on me while I tried to work. While I was working in the office, I was sitting on the floor while I cut inserts and put them into brochures. Gemma came bounding in and jumped all over me and licked my chin. She's such a cutie, but she's a total attention whore. She also liked to tug and chew on my shirt sleeves, pant legs, hiking boots, and occasionally my hand. And when she accidentally figured out the zipper on my fleece pullover, there was no end to the hilarity. :P In between picking up Gemma and trying to move her out of my lap, I somehow managed to get work done!

The girls (remember our little Mexican jumping beans? :P) were out running around when I got there. Oh lordy, they're so pretty. I also shadowed the manager while she did an education program and tour for junior high kids, so I can learn how the programs work. One of our wolves was howling today - yay! The males and females are separated right now because the females are in heat and we don't want pups this year. So one of the males was standing at the fence, staring at the females and howling. He just wanted some booty! ;) I absolutely LOVE that sound, though. So hauntingly beautiful. If anyone comes across a nature CD of wolf howls, let me know! :D

There was some patchy snow up there, too! That made me so happy. It was pretty much confined to the shade and north-facing slopes (since they don't get sun) but it was still cool to see.

And 'cause I've been reading Atlantis fanfic all evening, here's a few recs:
So Serious It's short. Just read it. :P
Tease That ending - squeeee!
Marshmallow as Metaphor The Sparky cuteness is overwhelming! XD

Can I just say that having three days in a row off is all kinds of hawesome? Yeah. My Conservation Bio prof should take more days off.

Got back to the Wolf Center today, finally! It's weird, going on a weekday - so quiet! One of the staff had brought her new 12-week-old puppy ("Gemma") and she was OMFGCUTE! Seriously. We spent like half the day just playing with Gemma. Just did a lot of data entry, adding people to our mailing list database who've donated. And then we got fresh blueberries. YUM. At lunch, we went over to town (seriously, this place is so out in the boonies that everyone really does say they're headed to town) and I was treated to Subway. More food! Yay! She laughed at me for never having seen "downtown" Julian before, so I got a walking tour of that whole area - two blocks. W00t! After we got back, I went through a bunch of photos to help pick out the ones they're gonna put on magnets. Got my new schedule for this semester squared away - I'll probably be going up there on Thursdays now, and just helping out with whatever needs doing. Next Thursday they've got a private tour for a bunch of middle schoolers, so I'll be tagging along with them so I can start learning how to give tours/presentations and such. I had, however, forgotten how bitter I get when I'm stuck behind a bus along the 79. Yes, that road is super-windy and has cliffs. Yes, the speed limit is 40. Yes, I will curse at you and tailgate you if you drive 20 the whole way (even along the straight parts) and never pull off to the side and let the huge lineup of cars behind you pass. You, sir, are an asshat.

Anyways, I'd forgotten how much I love it there - it's very laid back, and everyone is just awesome. Having volunteered in larger animal places before (The Seattle Aquarium, PAWS), the difference here is striking - everyone pitches in and does everything, and if there's something you wanna learn to do there (within reason) you just say so and they'll teach you. There's no waiting lists or different departments or anything like that. It's just come and pitch in wherever help is needed and have fun. And it's clear that they're thrilled to have each and every volunteer there. Not that other places aren't, but elsewhere it feels like, "Yeah, you're a volunteer, that's awesome, thanks, but when you leave there's a waiting list 20 miles long to replace you." The Wolf Center is just happy to have you whenever you're able to come by, be it weekly or as needed or whatever, and it's usually a stay-as-long-as-fits-your-schedule deal. Yaaaaay for relaxed places!

I stopped at the grocery store on the way home, which means I'm pigging out now. But they had strawberries for under $1/lb! WOO! Yes, spring is coming! And it's also Easter candy season! I stocked up on Cadbury's eggs and SweetTarts jellybeans.

My cold just keeps getting ickier. I've got a runny nose now, although the sore throat is getting better. The runny nose is just annoying, though. And it gets stuffed up when I try to sleep, which is also annoying.

And I uploaded a new avatar (well, newly uplaoded, anyways - I made it months ago) 'cause Brother Bear rocks, and retarded!bear was teh funneh.

*ProcrastinateProcrastinateProcrastinateProcrastinate*

Yeah. Four papers and a presentation to write for tomorrow. Don' wanna work on it! So I'm watching the Chargers fall apart instead. Second half curse! However, the Seahawks... BWAHAHAHAHA! Still a quarter to go, but since the score is already 38-3, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say 11-2, BABY!!!!!!!

Spent the day at the Wolf Center again yesterday! They had their big members party today, so we really cleaned a lot out. But we can see the counter in the lab again! Woo! And I got to sit in crates with a bottle of 10:1 bleach for an hour, scrubbing out the crates that our Mexican wolves were shipped to us in. Good times!

Procrastinated last night, too. I spent a lot of time doodling. Maybe I'll post doodles later...

I gotta give a swift kick in the arse, though, to whomever is in charge of Atlantis syndication airing schedules. They aired The Storm last week, and this week they're going back to Rising! Bastards! At least Grace Under Pressure airs tomorrow in the Great White North. Hooray for Carter!!!

One day left of classes! HOORAY!

*gpes back to procrastinating*

I'm soooo about to head for bed for a nap. *passes out*

'Nother wolf center day today! Finished off my hours required for class (worked 9-3) at least! With the fence in the new enclusure fixed (they still jump occasionally, but let them... they're not going anywhere :P) things have finally quieted down a bit. Worked with my professor all morning, cleaning out the main Alaskan and Mexican pack enclosures. 'Twas fun! One of the Alaskan "puppies" (we call them the puppies, but really, they're getting huge now, only a little smaller than the adults) was really curious. And fearless. :P He came right over to watch me rake poo. Sat there about five feet away and just watched. :P One of the adults was pretty curious, too, but a little less obvious about it. :P

Over in the Mexican enclosure, the girls are settling in well. They were all out and curious today - no more of that hide-in-the-bushes-for-3-hours deal! One of them was watching us closely when we went in, standing about ten feet away and just watching. For a long time. LOL

Did a bit of odds-and-ends stuff - helped put new meat into the freezers and get out what they needed for tonight's feed. Spent some time just standing around and chatting. During the public program, I sat in the office and helped file/alphabetize stuff and put address labels on envelopes and such.

It was super-windy today, though. 20-30 mph winds. It's not so bad down by the house, but once you get up to the top of the Alaskan enclosure (which is on a high ridge) some of the gusts were pretty bad. Felt like I was gonna get knocked over! LOL Made it really cold, too. I was at least prepared for the cold - had a jacket over a sweatshirt over a long-sleeve t-shirt, plus gloves. Still nippy, though. We all huddled around the space heater when we came back inside after cleaning enclosures.

I've gotten like nooo sleep lately, though. Thanksgiving I slept in late, but other than that, it's late-to-bed, early-to-rise. And lots of work in between. Still have two papers and an article to read for Monday, and two papers for Tuesday. And then I can relax.

No, for reals this time.

I mean it!

Whatever. I'm going to take a nap. :P

I learned my lesson today: wear sunscreen to the Wolf Center.

...okay, so like usual, that lesson will probably stick in my mind for only a week. But still.

On the way there, got to pass a burning building in La Mesa. That was nifty, in a twisted sort of way. Huge smoke plumes in the air. Holy 2003 flashbacks, Batman!

Got there at 9 am as usual, and headed out to see the new wolves. SO. FREAKIN. PRETTY. They're absolutely gorgeous. Reddish-brown, grey, and black coats. I got my spot along the fence, sat down, and happily began my watch. They were out looking around for about the first twenty minutes, then ducked into the brush for a nap. I didn't see them again for three hours.

THESE were the troublemaker wolves?!

So I sat there for three hours, waiting for them to come back out. It was SO relaxing. Sittin' on my butt, leaning back against the fence, sun bathing. :D Like I said, I should have worn sunscreen. :P I could SO easily have fallen asleep out there, it was so relaxing. It was quiet - there was construction at the north end of the enclosure, but it was only a couple of guys installing extra wire at the top of the fence, so they really weren't loud at all. I realized that raven wingbeats are surprisingly loud. I learned that you can't build a teepee out of pieces of straw on the ground. I listened to the classic hawk screech from some hawk nearby. I also just sat and listened to the wide variety of vocalizations of the Alaskan pack in the enclosure behind me, and eventually made up stories that went along with the sounds. That was a bit too much fun. :P But they make such a great variety! There's the generic canine stuff: growls, snarls and yelps (usually coming from fights between two females - literally a bitchfight! ;)), whines... but they also make some incredibly adorable unique sounds. I'd love to get a CD of wolf vocalizations, if there is such a thing. So pretty.

Dr. Moriarty came by at one point and laughed and said I should have brought my textbook to get some reading for class done while I wait. (13 chapters on the next test! Sadist.) He also wanted to give his camera to me so I could take photos of the wolves for him while he worked on other stuff... unfortunately, they weren't anywhere to be seen! :P

I also had a good laugh listening to the manager totally ream one of the neighbors out. It was pretty breezy, so they thought it'd be a great day to parasail. Well, the geniuses decided to parasail 20 feet over the enclosures! If I didn't know wolves were so shy, I'd give them an honorary Darwin Award. Morans.

Wolvies finally came back out! Yay! The manager and I were watching the first girl to appear, the darker one. She was really watchful, so we were guessing that she might be the dominant one (since they're so new, we're still figuring out the social hierarchy). Finally, it was time to shift them into the subenclosure so they could do construction work on the main enclosure. Me and one other girl played spotter, while the others went inside to herd the girls over. Of course, that got them all riled up, and I finally got to see this infamous jumping. And HOLY CRAP. They can JUMP. See, the fences on the enslocure are chain-link. So they'll get a short running start, leap up, and basically "climb" up! The original fence was easily 10+ feet high. She jumped past the top of it. Luckily there was about 5 feet of added chicken wire at the top! As it turns out, the manager says that the Columbus Zoo (where they came from) had the "brilliant" idea to enrich them by putting their toys/food in trees. Which is dumb, because going up trees isn't natural wolf behavior! Naturally, that taught them to jump up there for it, and they brought their lovely jumping behavior with them. Thanks, Columbus! *headdesk*

Anyways, they finally settled down after about ten minutes or so, and their activity slowed down to nap time. Unfortunately, my new lookout post wasn't quite so comfy. I was sitting on Really Big Sticks. Those Really Big Sticks hurt. And it was getting later in the afternoon and the warm sun was going down. I sat there til 3:30 before the executive director came over to relieve me. I was soooo cold at that point, even bundled up. Doh!

Still, I really loved just sitting and watching them. They're so gorgeous! If you've never seen a picture of a Mexican Gray Wolf, go here. TEH PRETTIES!!111!1!!!1

And lastly:
Dear Old Lady Ahead of Me in Line at Taco Bell:
Please at least consider what you want to order before stepping up to the register, especially when the person behind you not only knows exactly what they want, but already has the exact change in hand. Kthxbye.

Another day down! Just a short one this time, 9-1. Got up there and found that there was a group of high schoolers there for the work project. So I tagged along with them and the manager. Lots more digging to do on the enlcosure-in-progress! We were digging up old ground wire, and reburying it deep enough that the wolves won't be able to get at it. Kim (the manager) found me a pair of gloves this time, though! Hooray! So my thumb isn't reblistered. Some of the high schoolers were annoying and sat around and did nothing while the rest of us shoveled like mad. They were annoying. There were some really hard workers in the group (two or three guys in particular) so that was cool.

My professor was there today, and at one point pulled me away. I got to go visit one of the wolves! Yay! We'd been talking about one wolf in class (Taiga) who had a growth on his neck and had been pulled from the pack for medical treatment. So my professor took me over to that enclosure to see him! It was nifty! :D Sadly, Taiga won't be able to go back to his pack - once they're pulled from the pack like that, they can't be put back in because they don't fit into the social hierarchy anymore. :( Ah, well, sounds like they might have another companion lined up for him.

Came home, and realized I'd forgotten to set the VCR for Storm of the Century like I was going to. DOH! I've never seen the first two hours of it. I keep starting it halfway through. I wanna see hot it STARTS! LOL It has Torri, so that automatically makes it cool. She disappears for a big chunk in the middle... hasn't gotten to the part where she comes back, though. If I recall, it's coming up soon. One thign I hate about this is the end, though. Somewhere in the depths of my LJ, I've ranted about it before. It goes on and on and on and on and it's a lame ending. Ah, well. It has Torri. Good enough.

I did it! I had my first day! And I had a total blast, too. I at least heard back from my prof in time to get the time and such (even though he didn't make it out there today, as he usually does). The drive wasn't so bad, only about an hour. I didn't know the 79 was that windy, though. Dang! It was like driving an obstacle course at 40 mph. LOL Very, very scenic, though! The only part that's really, really gonna suck in winter (from what I was told, the 79 is kept really clear) is going to be the last dirt road, once on Wolf Center property. I feel like I need a jeep to get through there! LOL It's really hilly, and has big bumps and trenches in it. Yeah. That'll suck after rain or snow. :P I managed to get there just after 9, so my guesstimate turned out to be almost right on.

I got a short tour of the grounds, and an introduction to the packs that they have on site. Background info, all that good stuff. The alpha male of the Alaskan Grey Wolf pack (Denali) came right down to check us out. Heehee! Went back inside and did the usual paperwork (signing my life away... ;)), then headed back outside to get right to work!

For most of the morning, I was helping another volunteer work on a new enclosure that's being redone for some wolves arriving next month. We were digging out at the edges of the fence, and laying ground wire (that basically extends the fence underground so they can't dig under it). Tiring work, but it was nice to just do something physical, and not mentally taxing. :P I only came away from it with one blister. Go me! ;) It was funny, though, 'cause we were working hard, and all of a sudden we yeard a few wolves nearby... we turned around, and the whole pack (Denali's) had gathered at the fenceline to watch us work! Then, as soon as the wolves realized we'd noticed them, they all ambled off. LOL!! It was funny, because neither of us heard them come up. Sneaky! :P

After a break, we cleaned up and set up for the tour, and I sat in on the Saturday afternoon tour group. I'd heard the before, because he'd given it when he came to the animal behavior lecture to talk to us. But there was some great video. We went outside after that to watch the animals for a bit. Stayed out there for a long while, and I just absorbed all the information that was given, listened to the guest questions, etc. Nice and relaxing!

Once everyone left, I was invited to stick around for the afternoon feeding. Yay! Helped take out all the chicken and beef and squid and fish and everything. I didn't go in to actually feed this time, but I did get to watch it all. The wolves are so cute - when people come into the enclosure, they scatter and race for the far corner. But you can see after the food is dumped, they'll sneak up slowly as people leave, and inch towards the food. :P After being there 8 hours (9-5) it was time to head home!

Now I smell like raw chicken, and that makes me happy.