Just the Way You Are

Today was my first day at the zoo in 5 months, and it was just as great as my first day a year ago.  Did some hoofstock, got to pet the rhino again, weighed the rhino (4537 pounds), and did it in below freezing weather.  And the baby zebra is gigantic now, like a normal sized zebra, it's crazy.  I remember last February being there during its first day of life.  Then I got traded off to giraffe where I cleaned the heated barn, and chipped ice in the yard so they wouldn't slip....apparently giraffes have died from slipping on ice.  After that, we went to bird run, where it was totally different, but the funny cockatiels that talk were still there.  Then we finished the day off by getting some branches for one of the giraffes and hanging it up in their stall.  Overall, a successful first day back.

And, an Alamo Bowl trip just happened too.  San Antonio's a pretty cool city, it would be more fun on a non-POA trip though since pretty much everything on the riverwalk is a bar or club at night, so I want to go back there sometime soon.  We played a gig on a boat, a gig in a bar, and a gig at a giant alumni party from a balcony above the party.  And we had tons of free time to roam the streets of San Antonio, it was just a cool trip.  But the 14 hour drive there and 17 hour drive back were not enjoyable.  Definitely fly there from Tucson next time.

It's been an interesting couple of months here, but I'm definitely ready to start my last semester of school ever, and to move on to the real world.  And only 40 days until pitchers and catchers report haha.  Tucson getting the Padres AAA team may mean season tickets for me to buy, but I guess that depends on if a job happens or not sometime in the near future.  A lot of uncertainty out there I guess.

If perfect's what your searchin for than just stay the same

Lying Eyes

So much to say....

Despite the football team falling to 7th in the Pac-10, we still get to go the second place bowl, which seems totally ridiculous to me.  Just another sweet gig this year that just fell into our laps.  And people are going to whine about the bus trip and whatnot, it's a different trip, to a different city, playing a different team, what's not to love about this?  We shouldn't even be in a bowl game since we're 7th, and we get this....so grateful.  And the way I found out, by Steve Sarkisian tweeting that UW was headed to San Diego, is exactly why I even have a twitter in the first place haha. for sports and more sports that espn simply can not give me.

Anyways, there's other stuff that happens before this though.  Finals are next week, which is lame, especially because I have two on Tuesday morning, after a Monday night band rehearsal...yuck.  Oh well.  And the Icecats game against ASU is next weekend, and people are coming to visit, it's gonna be quite the couple weeks down here in Tucson before heading back up to that white place called Flagstaff for Christmas.

And back to the original purpose of this silly blogging thing, I go back to the zoo two weeks from today!! :)  I'm so excited to be back there on a weekly basis, and to see what's changed over the last few months.  I'm glad I can go in once before Christmas just so I have an idea of what's going on there before being a regular again.

It's time to not let anything that anyone says bother me and just live life the way I want to, and not let them hold me back or ruin the experiences that are about to happen.

I thought by now you'd realize, there ain't no way to hide your lyin eyes

We Both Go Down Together

It's actually almost time to start making this thing about the zoo again!  I found out late last night, after what was yet another dreadful November 13th, that I will be working at the zoo again next semester :)  Not on hoofstock though, because they're combining it with elephant, but that's probably a good thing so I can become more diversified for when I have to find a real zoo job in 6 months

Yeah, 6 months....I graduate in exactly 6 MONTHS!!!  Class requirements met, paperwork sitting on my "desk" to fill out to get my diploma, everything is ready to go.  It was a very satisfying feeling to walk into my advisor's office, and she says, I need to give you graduation stuff.

I haven't posted on here in a while because nothing's really been going on.  Life is consumed by drumline, and this year has been extra stressful.  Playing with Calexico at Rialto on Day of the Dead was easily the coolest thing I've ever done in drumline....outside of the Holiday Bowl trip last year.  And since the Pac-10 is so ridiculously weird this year, the Holiday Bowl looks fairly likely again, which is perfectly fine with me :) But if we ended up in Vegas, and we played SDSU, I wouldn't even really know who to root for haha.  And the Aztecs definitely look better than us, especially since they almost won at #3 TCU last night.  Gronkowski just got his third TD of the game for the Pats against the Steelers too...I wish he was here.  The Oregon game would be 1 vs 2 I think if he were still around.

Last night, Lane Kiffin ran by me while I was on the field, and I thought to myself, how can so many people hate this guy?  There's just this vibe coming off of him that says that he's gotta be great at what he does, and given that I've only seen one game of his in person, and it was USC owning us in all facets of the game last night, I would say he's probably at least ok at coaching.  And that Matt Barkley guy...he's gonna be like Carson Palmer...good for a little while, then not good anymore haha

One month from tonight I get to see my friend who moved to Sacramento for the first time since she left in June.  Talking to her twice a week really helps life stay in check, and knowing that she'll be here in a month is such a relief.  I just want this month to go by fast.  One last football game in Arizona Stadium....except it's on a Thursday, which is kind of lame for a last home game, but I'll get over it.  And two presentations, two papers, and tons of tests until then.  Plus a possible assignment to preceptor a bio lab next semester...it's gonna be a long month, but hopefully positive

And while the seagulls are crying, we fall but our souls are flying

Bleeding Love

So, this weekend had the greatest September football game in the history of Arizona Stadium.  DOWN WITH THE HAWKEYES!!  Everything was great, the game, the drumline, the band in general....everything just went well.  It was a little stressful going into the game because one of the bass drummers wasn't there, but it all worked out in the end.

In other football news, the Bucs are 2-0!   A lot of people predicted that they would go 2-14 or worse, so this is another Padres situation for me, which is exciting, at least for now.

As for the Padres....ugh X a billion.  I almost can't watch Padre games anymore because it's just so stressful.  And Mat Latos on Friday....are you serious?  1.1 innings and 8 ER.....what happened?  Maybe this inning thing is real.  At least Chris Young is back and looking pretty good.  And Adrian is still clutch, but other than that, I'm just not sure at all.

In four weeks, I get to go to San Diego for a weekend for a lab credit, so I'm starting to get really excited about that.  Camping on the beach, boating, aquarium.  It should be incredible.  It's nice only having three classes this semester, especially after having six last semester....a lot of free time to just hang around and relax, which is awesome.

The next two weeks will be sweet, Pac-10 play starts, NL west coming down to the wire.  Should be exciting times here hopefully....

I don't care what they say, I'm in love with you

Boys of Summer

I haven't been on here all summer, and I'm not really sure why, so here's a quick recap.

The two muntjacs, the male rhino, and the old zebra mare all died this summer.  Easily four of my favorite animals at the zoo, so that was kind of rough.  The rhino may have been the worst though because I had to clean up after the destruction that happened to the yard after his passing.  I got to work with two new keepers, so hopefully that helps me out when I'm looking to get into the zoo business for real.  Otherwise, I just did pretty much the usual hoofstock stuff all summer at Reid Park.

I went to Florida for a week.  Two best days were the day we went to Animal Kingdom, and the day we went to Daytona for the NNS race.  Daytona International is just an incredible place to go, and on a race weekend, it was absolutely ridiculous.  A little disappointing still that Cup qualifying was rained out that day, but Junior winning the race in the Wrangler car definitely made up for it.

I got named drum captain of the drumline this year.  It feels good, but it was really stressful for a while, but now it's starting to be ok, and doing the little extra things is actually kind of nice because my class load is really light this semester.  I also became the marching percussion instructor at Desert View High School in Tucson.  That'll give me something else to do and will definitely fill up my Tuesday and Thursday nights.

And, last but certainly not least, the Padres still have the best record in the NL :) The Angels might be awful this year, but the Padres have made up for it.

So maybe I'll start doing this more, even though I'm not sure if I'll be at the zoo this semester, but drumline will probably be able to fill this up fairly easily, and baseball of course.

Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach.  I fell it in the air, summer's out of reach

Swing Life Away

Happy Easter everyone.  I still don't fully understand what Easter is, or what exactly happened and why Fat Tuesday, Ash Wednesday and Good Friday all exist, but I digress.  To me, the real holiday today is OPENING DAY FOR MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL!!!  Finally, it's here, and couldn't come at a better time for me.

Anyways, zoo's still going good.  Normal hoofstocky things the last two weeks for the most part.  I did get to do the tortoises all by myself last week, so I felt kind of legit when I was doing that.  I'm sad that it's almost over, but hopefully there will be a way to stay there for the summer at least.  I really do need the zoo in my life right now.  It keeps me going when school and personal stuff gets in the way.

In the kitchen I made tortoise and bird diets and did inventory and helped make a couple popsicles for the Easter festivities at the zoo.

In two Saturdays I'm going to be on a completely new area, so that's something exciting! :)  But that's about it for now.  I still enjoy petting rhinos, and picking up tortoises and watching zebras run around.

If love is a labor I'll slave til the end, I won't cross these streets until you hold my hand

Life After You

It's been a while, so here's a recap of the last few weeks.

Kitchen is still mainly tortoise diets and some bird diet stuff.  This week I went out and caught birds in the aviary, and the week before I went and cleaned the macaw night house, fed the otters and cleaned their pool, and cleaned the giraffe barn.  That was a nice change of pace, especially feeding the otters.

I've missed a couple hoofstock days, but the one day I was there, the male rhino was being fussy about taking his meds, and he rammed into the female rhino pretty hard.  That was crazy to see, since usually they're both really quiet and gentle.  The other stuff going on in the area was fairly normal, just cleaning and feeding and all that good stuff.

Went on the carnivore side one day since I have been missing all these Saturdays.  The muntjac is still my favorite animal on that side, even though we only go see her once, she's still the best.  Really funny and comes right up to you.  The tiger is still cool to be around, and I really need to figure out a project to do for him.  The pigs are neat, and so is the sun bear.  The sun bear is fun because she likes to get fed grapes.  I still really like the Muntjac though.

In other life news, baseball is back! After Sunday I will have been to 7 games in two weeks.  I love you baseball.  And school's crazy busy and crazy hard.  That's why I haven't really done this in a long time.  And I'm now 21.  That's pretty much the gist of the last month....

All that I'm after is a life full of laughter, as long as I'm laughing with you