21.5 hours in the car + 3 people +1 goldfish = a long 2 days

We made it! My mom and Dean made it to town Saturday, Dec 18th. Right after I got home from my last day at the aquarium, they met me at the apartment and off to Mississippi we went! We headed over there to give the girls and Laura their gifts. This wouldn't be so important if I had never seen the girls open their christmas gifts. Mailing christmas gifts just isn't the same. Pait and Kay loved their gifts, so it was completely worth rushing over there :) Well after that, we drove back and packed the car before heading back to the hotel where we repacked the car haha. So happy that part of it is done! The next morning, after packing up Sharky in a bag pumped full of Oxygen and a cooler, I had to say goodbye to everyone at the aquarium. We all stalled... I can't wait to go back and visit :) Then we headed to the Coffee Pot Restaurant in the Quarter. Dean had a crawfish, shrimp, catfish omlette (yuck!) And off we went, "like a herd of turtles in a windstorm" (as Dean says). It took us a total of 21 1/2 hours to get home with a stop for supper and COUNTLESS stops for gas and to use the restroom. We finally made it home at 7:30am Monday morning. My mom and I stayed up and ran to the store to get necessities for Sharky's new tank. He now has an all-equiped aquarium with beautiful, fake plants haha I was so happy he made it in the first place! so after getting the things, we had to set it all up. So pretty much, my mom and I didn't nap until after 1 in the afternoon. Last night, we all went out for my dad's birthday. Happy Birthday, Dad! Love you! Today, Dean and I finished our Christmas shopping, and he was off to Michigan tonight. I fly out there on the 28th. Should be good! I have to meet the whole family though... nervous about that! haha well as for me the next days include unpacking and applying for jobs! I may miss NOLA but getting to hold my nephew last night made it all worth it :) I am so happy to be with my family and near my friends for the holidays!

My last NOLA weekend

"I haven't a clue how my story will end, but that's all right. When you set out on a journey and night covers the road, that's when you discover the stars."
~Nancy Willard~

This weekend was a great weekend. Yesterday, Mary and I went to the Audubon Zoo! It had been 5 years since I had been there last. As they say here, that was "before Katrina." They only have 2 forms of time, "Before Katrina" and "After Katrina." The zoo was beautiful and empty, because it was chilly out. Afterwards, we went and had the best burger in NOLA at the Harbor restaurant. Even got a chai tea down here, no worries wasn't as good as Babb's in Fargo.
Today, I stayed home since I had an interview. And I have another one on Wednesday! It's too bad that they are across the country from one another. I wish I had an inkling of how things will turn out. If I don't get either of those, I will keep applying while working.
The motto above comes to mind each time I get ready to move. And now that it gets closer, I keep reminding myself that with each move the more I gain.
As much as I hate leaving, I am looking forward to seeing my family. I had to start packing today.........
Well better get back to applying!

Are we sure it's December? Only one week left?!

Hello All!
Can't believe for the life of me that it's already December eleventh! Where has the time gone? As of 3pm today, I have been on my last weekend here. No worries I am making the most of it and headed to the Audubon Zoo tomorrow! And Monday hopefully I will make it to insectarium. Well since I last wrote, not too much has happened lol I have been really focusing on job apps like I have been the whole time here. I have a couple of nibbles, so let us hope and pray. I have changed my resume and cover letter so many times something HAS to work! But anyways... Work here is going very well! I have gotten to touch Emma and Buck's paws! I will surely miss them terribly. Emma's birthday is this tuesday on December, 14! She will be 13! no worries, in captivity, sea otters grow to be in their 20's. Well for her birthday celebration, I made two awesome ice cakes for her :) I put one together that was a "Castle by the Sea" theme. I had a castle with towers topped with flower ice cubes with crab claws coming out of them. This castle sat on a sunflower to look like cliffs and the sea was orange with fish ice cubes and normal ice cubes for coral reefs :D I'm really proud of it! Each item (except the small ice cubes) had clam feet or crab claws frozen in them and dyed different colors using food coloring. My second cake was a purple car driving on grass along a river. It had a flower for luggage and rubber ducky ice cubes on the river and under the bridge. The cake was also decorated with palm trees, shirts, flip flops, and sun ice cubes. I'm proud of this one too! It's to symbolize Emma and her travels with Buck to Monterey Bay Aq during Hurricane Katrina. Each cake has two main layers before the decorations I just described. Today she got the castle cake for her first day of celebration. It took her about 2 seconds to pull the castle cake into the water. She will get the car cake tomorrow. There's video of me explaining each cake that was posted on my facebook wall that I videotaped for the aquarium. Can't believe only 5 more work days here. Everyone has been so amazingly nice and appreciative. I am going to miss everyone so much!! Not to mention Buck and Emma!!! I get attached so easily; it just gets harder and harder to leave places. I calculated it and this is my 4th or 5th place I have lived this year. I am looking forward to going home since I miss my family dearly. I have seen them on webcam, but I bet Vinnie is so big by now! I am excited. And I'm sure after Christmas sadness will set in. Hope they don't forget me :/
As far as everything else...Thursday night was more than interesting! It was 80's night at One-Eyed Jacks :D they even had dancers on the stage dancing very seriously haha They were all decked out in 80's gear and each had about 4 moves total haha Sarah and Dee were on a mission to make Friday hard for me if you get what I am sayin. They succeeded. It was rough, but I did it. I hungout with Sarah last night, and we saw Social Network at a small, cute theatre on Prytania. It was a ton of fun! So enjoying my last bit here :) Hope you are enjoying winter so far!
V

17 days to go?!

17 days to go already. Hard to believe that it's already December! I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss home. With it now being Christmas season and all, I'm looking forward to spending the holidays with my family. Thanksgiving was amazing. If I haven't made it clear yet, I LOVE spending time with my nieces and sister. I can't get enough of it. I wish MN wasn't 20 hours away... Dean came to visit as I had mentioned earlier. So when we went for Thanksgiving, we went the day before and took the girls to Tangled, lunch, the beach and the park :D It was a blast! Paityn (4) asked me the next day if I had had fun. I told her it was the most perfect day :) Thanksgiving was good. Spent it at my sister-in-law's extended family's celebration. It was so nice of them to allow us to eat with them! After we ate, we watched the Saints almost lose (darn! ha). Black Friday... oofta.... my sister dragged me to go shopping at 3 in the AM! The line was so incredibly long for Target!!! We went to Target, Wal-mart, and then the mall. 8 hours of shopping was enough for me haha On the way back to NOLA that day, Dean and I stopped and went to the NASA space center. We toured and got to see rockets and spacesuits. They had fun gizmos to play with. One in particular were the "glove boxes," where you put your hands in these gloves that are attached to the box. While your hands are in the box, you have to build legos and imagine what the astronauts have to do so that things don't float away.
The rest of Dean's visit was very good. He was here for 8 days. We went down to the French Quarter for an entire day, where we took a horse-drawn carriage and got a famous hurricane drink. I made sure he got beignets of course. We went on a riverboat ride also to the battlefield. it was a little chilly that day but the boat was a lot of fun! We also saw Harry P. with a lot of ppl from the aquarium here. We cooked together and went shopping a little bit. We even got daiquiris from a drive thru daiquiri place! We got a 44 ounce daiquiri that was a mixture of 190, hurricane and sex on the beach along with 3 jello shots! They get away with that since they didn't place the straw into the cup haha It's one of those things you gotta do once haha A lot of our time was spent just hanging out. We have never had 8 days in a row to hangout, so it was different. It was nice though.
The Aquarium is still great. I got the last behaviors to do with Emma, so that's great! Buck is still handsome lol And Sharky is learning to play football! hahaha I feel foolish teaching a fish to play football, but why not? ;) Muffy stepped up on my hand 2x in a row on command!! We are making headway except for her nipping at me yesterday haha
Well til next time :)

It's Thanksgiving time!

Hola! Bonjour!
I've been busy since I last blogged. So here we go ;).... the weekend of the 12th was so much fun! I was invited to the wedding reception of a girl who works at the aquarium. She is so nice! I feel really special to be the only intern invited :) She had gotten married in MS a few weeks before. Afterwards, we had a great afterparty!! woot woot! I got to see what the dance clubs here are like. They're smaller but are a blast! The next day, I got to try-out for the Wheel of Fortune (twice) and went to the Po-boy Festival. This festival is all about the sandwiches they have here called Po-boys. Po-boys were originally invented in the French Quarter and sold to the cab drivers (poor boys... hence Po-boys). They are huge sandwiches that these days sell for $4-9 but back in the day sold for 5 cents. They are delicious. Most po-boys are seafood but some are roast beef or pigs cheek etc. I went with Mary, the jellyfish intern, and we tried the garlic-stuffed roast beef, soft-shell crab (yuck!) and pigs cheek. The roast beef was delicious. And we ended it with a made-to-order crepe with strawberries and nutella mmm mmm mmm... This past week was great! Thursday was above all other thursdays as being the best day here EVER. Not only did I get to tour the ACRES (research facility by the Audubon Soc.) AND get to take an ALL DAY BOAT RIDE TO RELEASE TURTLES(!!!!!!)AND I got to meet the Stranding Coordinator BUT I SAW WILD DOLPHINS!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was truly a dream come true!!!! Other than that a normal week last week, getting resumes sent out. no word yet. Dean came on Saturday evening. His plane was held up an hour on the runway in Minneapolis, but he finally got here :)We went to the new Harry Potter, which was AMAZING! then Sunday we took it easy. He took me out for breakfast, and then we got groceries. Monday, I took him and we toured the entire French Quarter and showed him the aquarium. He even got to watch me train Buck :) I gave him a tour of the aquarium even though it was closed. Priviledges of working for free hahahahaha I will miss most everyone here.... It's a good and bad feeling. Sad to leave, but I'll be happy to see snow again as weird as it sounds! I think he enjoyed the Quarter. There's so much to see! We got to even take a carriage ride <3 We had a fun tour guide, and the mule's name was Cadillac. Not gonna lie, when she asked if anyone wanted to feed the mule a treat, I was the first to jump at it ;D hehe We even got some shopping done! Tomorrow, he and I head to MS for Thanksgiving! We are gonna take the girls out to the new Tangled movie and then celebrate T-giving with my sis and her fam. And Friday is well... Black. Friday. Shopping oh. boy. We will be in Target at 4 am. wow. I'll let ya know how THAT goes! haha well 'til next time...

Utterly Otters

Hard to believe it's already November eleventh! Today was a pretty good day, best day yet this week. I'm working on "toy" with Buck and Emma. So far so good. Can't wait for next week when I get to put "basket" with "toy" and they put the toy in the basket! I'm excited :) Buck and Emma make me smile. Emma is sweetheart. She holds her paws up to her mouth almost as if she was "nervous." Buck is so spunky it's admirable. Hard to think they have the bite of a black bear. Today I helped the asst. curator again, and I love helping her since she has a whole new perspective. Still training Muffy, the cockatoo. Today she bit me to see my reaction. it was more of a placing of her beak on my finger and looking at me. She sort of had the "What are ya gonna do?" look haha. So I walked away, but yesterday she stepped up onto my hand! So slow but sure :) Sharky, the goldfish is doing swimmingly :) he's onto the large tunnel since he is fully trained on the hoop and sm. tunnel. It's kind of funny how when I sit in my chair (next to the tank) he's at the corner of the tank staring at me. haha I'd love to take him home. Well I suppose that's all for today. I won in cribbage against Paul. Dean comes to New Orleans in 9 days! Can't wait to spend Thanksgiving with my nieces in the South :D Miss you all! scheduled 10:15:00 PM by veckhoff Delete

Week 5 Fall Fling Time!

Hello Everyone~
Ya know the whole "make the most of it" idea? I am living it to the fullest here in NOLA :) Tonight was the Fall Fling for volunteers, to which the whole Husbandry Dept. was invited. Jamie, John, Dee, Sarah and Eleanor and I all went to, and it was an absolute blast!! I got paid $6 to start the electric slide. No one was dancing! what was I to do? haha but dance! it was a blast. Once again, I got recognized as "the 40-hour intern" and got free drink tickets because of it. As it turns out, interns here only work 1-2 days a week. I also had one of the volunteers come up to me and ask me to dance. This man had to be in his 70's and danced jitterbug-ish/two-step. after we danced, which he giggled the whole way through, he gave me a debloom!! it says "Cajun Dancer" on it. If you've ever been to Mardi Gras, the deblooms are the coins the krewes throw. So that was tonight in a nutshell :) Lots of drunk people and a lot of fun haha
Work this week has been good. I have gotten to do quite a few more things with the animals! I can do directionals now, which means I point to where I want them to go and tell them to "go" or "come." I also get to tell them to grab a toy. It's so much fun! Yesterday, Jamie, Noel and I went to the AAC,the audubon stranding center. They have 35 turtles still there from the oil spill, 2 bottlenose dolphins, and about 6 nurse sharks. It's just angering to see all of these animals affected, and this is after they released 32 turtles a couple of weeks ago. I know that dolphins are 150% what I'd like to work with. It was a dream to even see a wild dolphin!!!! But the best part was I got to throw one of them some fish! It was aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! My ultimate dream is to see a dolphin in the wild though! That's next :) Well Noel is gone for the weekend, so it's my time to get things done!
p.s. my new addiction are beignets haha mmmmm

Halloween in New Orleans... WOW

Hola mis amigos!
Not much happened over the weekend. I applied for a job and worked on my resume and cover letter until I was utterly confused and indecisive ha Not my most favorite thing to do but it's one of those "have to" things :) Halloween was a success!! I was a fairy :) More like a gladiator fairy with my band that went around my forehead haha My dress had a glittery bra portion with the same design as the headband and a pink and purple dress. I had figured out my make-up the night before and boy was it big and bold! After Noel and I took like 3 hours to get ready, we were on our way to meet the other aquarium people. Well getting there was quite an adventure!! Let's just sum it up in *small french quarter streets *HUNDREDS of drunk people *Sirens of an ambulance * and us stuck in a small car too close to the ambulance to get the patient in because of the people. So Noel decided to try to pass by the ambulance.... She drives a very tiny car. However, we ended up scraping on the ambulance's bumper and locals offering to lift the car up to straighten us out to drive away. WOW, ONLY IN NEW ORLEANS! HAHA We finally made it to meeting the people and we all walked to Frenchmens Street. that was an adventure in itself! People were EVERYWHERE. John, an aquarist, was dressed up as the 8th dwarf, Tranny dwarf :) Lmao. His mid-section was showing and he was wearing stockings with bows he sewed on himself (he made it known ;]) hahahaha Dee, an aquarist, was dressed as Napoleon Bonepart with a "helping hand...." ha Then john had a couple of friends there dressed as Buffy and Ms. Famous. David, penguin guy, showed up as a pirate wench LMFAO showing everyone his "blue pubes" that was actually a clown wig shoved in fake underwear hahahaha it was by far the best costume haha and his bf was a bullrider. Lindsay, Lifesupport, was the girl from the Jets that was blackmailing Favre. and a couple of people from the Aq. I don't know where emo and 80's girl. Oh and Noel was Snooki. Those were the people I was with, but there were so many people there! THOUSANDS!! At least 2,000 people filling the street! there were flash mobs and raves in the street with a portable club on a cart lol it was amazing. It was pimped up with a fog machine and a torch on top. It had a fire extinguisher at least! haha
We were out til about 1:20 and it was awesome! No worries I was not tipsy lol

The Aquarium went well today. Sharky (goldfish) went through the short tunnel today and Muffy (the cockatoo) didn't try to attack me today lol. Plus, Buck and Emma paid great attention today! So alright, tomorrow's another day. Let's hope it goes well.

Hope all of you are well! Thank you for being such great friends! You all mean so much to me and have stuck by me. You guys are the best!
<3 Nessa

Mississippi Weekend

Hey Hey!
Well it's another week in the deep south... the weekend went great!! I had the most fun playing with my nieces and seeing my sister and her family. My sister and Holly picked me up on saturday morning and we drove the hour and a half to Ocean Springs, MS (next to Biloxi. I sure love it down there! Everything about it is comforting, could be that I've been down there a lot :)Laura, the girls and I spent the day hanging out, and we even carved pumpkins!!!!! That was something I really wanted to do with the girls. Thanks to dean for mentioning it, it happened! Laura and I got the chance to talk a lot on saturday night, which was very nice to get to do. Sunday was fun. We went to church, watched the saints lose, and I spent the day playing with the girls <3 we played restaurant, house, witches (I was Sleepy Witch), princesses on adventures, and sidewalk chalk! I'm not gonna lie- that was the best day ever. I loved getting to help the girls get something to drink, say goodnight to them etc. Sunday night, Laura, Holly and I went and watched the Vikes almost win and went GHOST HUNTING. hahaha it was a blast! Holly got an app on her htc that allowed us to "radar" for them. Does it work? Idk but we had just got done talking about "Dave" when the next moment the thing said "David." It was way creepy! We went to a graveyard where there are 13 curves in the road going in and 12 going out. Weird? definately! So that was our excitement, and the next day them and Pait brought me back to NOLA.
Yesterday was a good day. I am allowed to do the "hop" behavior with the sea otters, beginning with this week!! This was a big step. It shows that my relationship with them is good enough to ask them to do a behavior, being sure that I will give them reinforcement when they are done.
Today was much of the same. Tonight there was a party for Adopt an Animal. People come, and the aquarists/trainers convince the public to adopt! I looked up jobs, since I technically wasn't working. Let's all keep our fingers crossed. Eventually something will click. Just know it!
Well it's another day tomorrow... oofta.
p.s. good news is we have plans for Halloween!! I'm going to be a fairy, and all of us from the aquarium are going out together :)

Tomorrow is Friday

Last weekend was a blast! On Sunday, Noel and I walked around about 2/3 of the french quarter, and it was so much fun! I got to see so many sights. We went into the oldest cathedral still practicing in the US. It is called St. Louis Cathedral, after King Louis XVI. It wasn't as large inside as I anticipated but very beautiful. I also got my cards read on the street by Janessa. She was right on! the good news is that in my future I will have accomplished many projects and looking to the horizon for more. So I'm taking this as, accomplishments career-wise. The French Quarter is the neatest place to walk around!! We went down Bourbon Street and had a daqairi! Bourbon street is crazy even on a sunday! We saw a beautiful square outside of the cathedral across the street from the river. The square is Jackson Square with a huge fountain. It reminds me of Spain. Right across the street from the square we watched a great hip hop crew perform. That night we went to a ghost tour and heard a lot of history and some spooky stories. Did you know? Restaurants here set-up a "ghost table." Each night they put out wine and bread for the ghosts of the building. The one we saw was in Muriel's, a fancy restaurant in the quarter. The table was in the back of what used to be a slave cell, where many perished. The restaurant that occupied the building before them had the cell as the entrance to the place. The visitors complained about stomach aches and pains. Since the Muriel's changed the point in which people enter the place, no one has complained of these pains. :) Then there is a hotel in the quarter, which is rumored to be haunted by children of the Great Fire. A couple spent their honeymoon there. When they got home, there was an extra picture on their film. It was a picture of the couple... sleeping! It had been taken from above. oooohhh ;) There were many stories, but those are a couple of the stories. I'd love to adventure down there more.
As far as work, nothing new. Sharky, the goldfish, went through his hoop all on his own today without bait :) Yay Sharky!! I'm supposed to train Muffy, the cockatoo, also. I'm looking forward to this, but so far she isn't so into it lol The clicker scared her.
Well tomorrow is friday thank god. I'm headed to Mississippi at 7:30 am on Saturday!! I'm excited! I should be putting pictures on facebook soon.... Miss you all

It's Friday

Hello, hello~
Well yesterday and today were exciting! Besides feeding Buck and Emma, I was able to run both of the stingray feedings on both days! This means helping little kids and some adults feed cow-nose stingrays silverside fish. Some of the aquarists hate it, but it's a blast! The curator asked me to feed her large exhibit both days also. I felt special :) It's a ton of fun. I feed eels, a turtle named Treme, and fish in her exhibit. I also was able to helpout with both penguin feeds yesterday! The last two days were the best yet.
This weekend we have big plans for a ghost tour on sunday and touring the French Quarter. Should be good! They sell Hurricanes right before the tour, buy one get one :/ uh-oh haha I don't know if we'll do that or not, but it's tempting. I am looking forward to having the adventure.....

2nd week

This week has been sort of busy, sort of not. I am working 6 days this week, so halfway through. Monday, not too much happened. Noel and I were the only otter people at the aquarium. We set up some amazing enrichment for Buck and Emma! Noel made a "kelp monster" out of a small garbage can and carwash straps cut into kelp shapes. I put up a black tub and filled it with ice along with making a "cave" out of a garbage can and ice. They had fun! I later put a lady bug pool filled with ice into the upper pool with a hoola hoop attached to it. Emma LOVED it; she managed to stuff the pool and hoop under the deck of the pool it. It was hilarious to watch her do this!! Yesterday, I was able to see the stingray feeds, where children feed them. It was a lot of fun! I watched how Tom and Kristine did them; so now I may do them. Hope they ask me to soon!! It was sort of an off day, but today was better. I got to work with power tools!!! I think I made my dad proud :) I had to connect a broom handle and brush with a screw. I drilled the handle and brush all by myself :) I would have gotten to actually finish screwing them together, but I got offered to sit in with the penguins again!! it was so much fun! I've gotten to sit in there three times now. Other than that, the evenings aren't too exciting during the week. I made corn on the cob for the first time tonight, and it turned out wonderfully. I've just hanging out and getting things done. This weekend we are planning on going on a ghost tour (YAY!!!) and adventuring the french quarter. Looking forward to it! Well til next time...

My first NOLA weekend

So not much else happened the rest of the week (7&8), just a whole lot of nailing down what I had been taught. Although, I believe it was the 7th that I was asked if I'd like to sit in with the black-footed and rockhopper penguins!!! I was excited! And I hope Tom (the keeper)asks me agian if I could help out, I loved it :) I love marine mammals, but penguins are fun too :) Except for the biting aspect of it ha ha ha. Oh yes, a funny part of the internship is that I am training a goldfish. I had to look at the supervisor to make sure she was serious. His name is Sharkie, and already last week I had him going through a hoop, literally. LOL He will do great things :) The weekend was good. I was super bored on Saturday, so I cleaned the entire place. At least it's clean right? But then last night, Noel and I found Pat O'Briens in the French Quarter to get a hurricane. WOW they are very large!! and have a ton of rum with some vodka and a little juice (mostly for coloring hahaha! halfway through and I would have been good stopping lol No worries, I got a very large glass of water :) On the way to the car, we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was a smaller one but clean-cut and nice. The ones in Madrid and Paris were larger than this one, but the St. Louis Hard Rock was smaller. The food was delicious! On our way to the bar we saw living statues, people selling art on the street, a tarot card lady, and even street musicians!!! it was culture shock! It was so cool!!! The souvenir shops and gelato shops were open very late, even the Urban Outfitters. I feel I could spend days in the French Quarter just looking at everything!!
Today, Noel and I adventured to the bigger mall here. We found Beignets!!! They were de-li-cious!!!!!!!! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Good thing I can't just go across the street and get them. They come in orders of 3 for only $2.14, so super cheap and ooh so good... haha they were square-shaped with mountains of powdered sugar and hot :) I found my new favorite endulgence haha And finally got my smoothie from the Smoothie King. I was craving a smoothie for a week haha Other than that the mall had a cool little train for lil kids to ride for Halloween. It was called the Goblin Express. The Great Pumpkin was there for little kids to get their picture taken. I guess the G.P. grew legs and wears overalls?? Mia drew me a "We Love Nessa" picture and my mom sent me a picture of her sitting by it <3 it made my day! I also got an adorable picture of Vinnie, smiling after he woke up from his nap today. I miss my family and friends DEARLY. And a bonus of today is that THE SAINTS FOOTBALL TEAM LOST TO ARIZONA!!! WOOOOOO
That's all for today... 'Til next time.

Day 2

Day 2 was a good one, a little long but good. Today was Dive Day so we had to "tend" to the supervisor who was diving to clean. it was a little hectic, but I think I showed them I can do things on my own already. tomorrow is day 3 so day by day I'll get used to everything and prove myself. Made a nummy supper, which after feeding buck and Emma, was my only excitment of the day. I did get to skype with Dean today though and got to Skype with Katie the other day :) Miss everyone but Ionly have until shortly before Christmas to adventure and make the most of NOLA. so I'll try to make the most of it! ttys

First Day!

Today I started at the aquarium. There was a lot to hear about and a lot to learn, just like when beginning at any new place. The supervisor is really nice as well as my roommate who is a trainer there. The otters are so intelligent and graceful :) I really enjoyed today. I got to feed them already! I was so suprised, and pleased! It was the second feeding of the day and then two more. Soon I'll learn the ropes I'm sure. But the day definately flew by. well hope tomorrow goes as well as today
And tonight, I saw Glee for the first time tonight. Interesting show. I'll have to watch again next week. I made supper tonight, raspberry chicken and veggies :) mmmm I'm proud of myself hahahaha yay for me!

New Orleans, Louisiana

Well everyone, I've been in New Orleans as of the 1st! After working all night at the zoo and hanging out with the dolphins, I drove the hour and a half back home to shower and jump in our car for a 20 hour drive down here. We got in at around 6:50am, and I met my roommate, Noel who is super nice. So then we hauled all of my things inside and set it all up. So all moved in and up all day and night, what to do? Go to the aquarium of course! We had lunch and headed over to the aquarium. And of course, with me driving, we got lost haha even with a gps!! well the gps wanted us to take a ferry across the canal to the aquarium. We decided we didn't want to do that, and proceeded to get extremely lost in a bad part of town (yikes!). We finally made it out and to the aquarium. It's a nice place! It's Right along the water and two levels; the only thing is it's downtown which is busy all the time it seems. We went in just in time for the otter talk and saw Buck and Emma. They are 4 1/2 feet long and about 60 lbs. Buck was sleeping just under the water's surface, letting is air bubbles out very slowly haha he was so mischievious! I got to meet the curator and supervisor too. I'm the only otter intern. Sounds like I'll be able to learn so much here and get involved in multiple areas of th aquarium! They have a beautiful tunnel section with many many stingrays that looked like montereys and had specials sections for frogs, sea horses, river life, etc. That was pretty much friday in nutshell.
Yesterday, we traveled over to D'Iberville, Mississippi to have lunch with my sister, Laura, and my nieces, Paityn (4) and Kayleigh (6). The girls have grown so much! They are sweethearts. Kayleigh even asked me to pick her up from school one of these days since she thinks NO is right next door. But to me, an hour and a half is right next door haha! So I really am hoping to be able to do that! Laura seemed very well :) and Pait Pait is very smart and loves to draw. We went to a beach afterwards. Nothing like putting your toes in the sand! At the hotel tonight, the power went out and saw what looked like an explosion outside our window. Flashes of that creepy hotel movie popped in my head haha I guess it was a transformer?
Well that's all for tonight ttys

Must Be a Miracle

I have good news to report today!! My grandpa is officially breathing on his own and talking!!! I titled this entry "Must Be a Miracle" because with everything that was going on with him nearly all of it was bad news. For him to talk and breathe on his own is an achievement! His lung infection is healed, and both lungs are working :) Thank you for the prayers!!
As far as zoo news, the dolphins are great! The girls are in the back pools as we wait for the calf to be born, which could be any day!!! fingers crossed!

Now-a-days

Hola Mis Amigos
So to keep you all updated: life's been a lil crazy lately... as my last entry mentioned, I finished at omaha. After finishing there, I went to Fargo and VERY much so enjoyed my short time there!! I was able to see a whole bunch of people. I just wish that I could of seen everyone. So far at the Minnesota Zoo, it is going very well!! I love watching the dolphins, so this is perfect!!! Still looking for a full-time job so no change on that front. So if you hear of any, let me know! Dean is 10 hours away in the far west North Dakota. At the end of the summer, I will have seen him 3 times over the summer. But as far as everything else, my grandpa is in critical care. So far he has deteriorating kidneys, a shocked lung (breathing with one lung right now), heart damage, swollen from fluid build-up, and an intestinal infection. This is all because of a surgery to fix an artery near the kidneys, where they had to slow them down and then start them up again. If anyone prays, please send them his way. Our family appreciates it!
<3 fingers crossed

To close one door opens another

Well I successfully finished my internship in Omaha. I am amazed at how much I learned! I feel like I'm full of knowledge :) I also found out that I love mammals almost as much as marine mammals. The Dome crew was awesome. I got to play softball with them and go out to eat and they were just great to get to know. I was sad to leave but I got to celebrate with a bunch of people before I left. Once I got home, I headed directly to a bridal shower and then a grad party. The next morn I headed straight to Fargo, which is where I'm at now. I have gotten to see SO many people! It's like I never left :D It's been amazing! Tomorrow I meet with HR at the MN Zoo so I may start my temporary job as a naturalist observational aide :) I'm looking forward to it so much! well till later

Dome time

hey everyone,
Sorry again. Things are incne with 3 jobs!! 82 hours a week gets to be a bit much. So after I left the Jungle I went to the much anticipated penguins. they were so amazing!!! I sure did like Macaroni, the lone macaroni penguin and Casanova, a rockhopper. I felt loved by them :) Scrubbing poop wasn't even that bad! We did that for 2 1/2 hours a day with thin overalls on. I have plenty of scars from them but they were worth it!!! I have on on my forearm from Brain, a gentoo penguin. One day he popped out of the water at me 2x going for my poop scrubbing brushes. And the 3rd time he came up we came from behind. He bit me then went right back the water- stinker!! lol But when he popped back up, into the hallway he went til we were done. It hurts a little when you get bitten. but I got used to it :)
Now I'm in the Desert Dome. The kookaburra and the aardvarks are my favorite ones so far. At the dome, they have mostly desert animals. Then in the basement is the Kingdoms of the Night, which has all nocturnal animals. It's way cool. I love feeding the beavers. Except today I was too slow getting over the fence and I thought Torpedo was going to go for my shoe lol scary though really. she's huge! The bats are the only part that I absolutely dislike. But I am getting over my fear of the , I don't really have a choice lol My goal is to go into the Swamp bat exhibit that has 1000 bats in it = terrifying!!!!!!!!! Anyways, I am the only intern there now. I scrub a lot but it makes the time go by faster. Today at lunch we played softball and I am the newest member of the team! As a sub, but I still feel very priviledged.
well til next time...
miss you all
Nessa

George of the Jungle

Howdy Ho Neighbor! These days I am part of the jungle. So far within the last 2 1/2 weeks I have moved rock 4x, shoveled mud, hauled muck and sprayed more poop on myself than I would have ever wished. I have even had my hair pulled. I've had kids pull my hair more than I can count but dang- monkeys can pull super hard! I get to see tapirs everyday and found out that they have slow heartbeats. I also found out that gibbons really do feel as soft as they look!! Next week I am with the penguins!! : ) Back to the aquarium yay!! That's pretty much the story from the jungle. I have a LOT to learn yet!! hopefully they will teach me just what I'm looking for... even though I don't even quite know what that is. haha
Otherwise, I did finally get paying jobs... 2 even!! Been working out everyday and trying to focus on my career path. Yikes! Hope everything works out!
'til next time....

GOT TO DIVE AMAZON!!

Hi :P
What a week! It's always awesome when your hardwork pays off... and you get to DIVE in the Amazon exhibit!!! I'll admit I was nervous. I am sure you be too if you knew that a sting from the stingrays in there could kill you. We went in there to capture guppies. Gave them to the Desert Dome for the animals there. The huge Pacu stayed to the other side of the exhibit with the other fish once they knew that we were in there. The monkeys pooped a couple of times it was like precipitation haha The exhibit is water on the bottom with trees and branches and lots of vines around for the monkeys to hangout on. We gave them jello today that I made here at the intern house last night. The monkeys loved the strawberry jello! :) The only problem is that I ended up scrubbing it off of everything later on lol but it was worth it! I have truly learned SO much!! I won't forget this place :) I begin in the Jungle monday. It'll be an Adventure.... monkeys, fish, reptiles, and a cat! well 'til next time

Already February

Hey Team :)
I'm sorry about the time in between posts. I'll work on getting better Kels ;) So it's the night of Tuesday, the 2nd of February, already. I am currently almost halfway done with my last week in Aquarium Fish. Sad!! I have learned so much about how things are set-up and why. I learned how a protein skimmer works- genius and smells horrid haha I can take water measurements on my own. The other day I was trying to get lettuce out of an exhibit for Teddy, the Turtle, so I could give him new lettuce. When I was having some difficulty getting the weight and lettuce out of the water, he swam over to me and was looking between me and the lettuce/weight like "Hello? What is the problem here?" hahaha It made me laugh. I'm kind of attached to that turtle :) Not that I mind haha Today I thought one of the squirrel monkeys was going to try to escape, but I told her " uh no. you aren't " lol I told her maybe she should jump back on the tree and she did haha!! She listens well. I'm trying to think of a name for her though, instead of Thing 1 (best I could do without a real name lol). I LOVE enrichment!! Being on the fish side and realizing how much harder it is to enrich a fish, I realize how much I miss enriching the dolphins. But we are working on some enrichment for the monkeys.... ;) Hope it works!!! Next week I'm in the Jungle. The jungle has primates, arapiama (an amazonian fish), hippos, tapirs, and a clouded leopard!! And so much more! I love my marine life though. Only one more scuba class til I am set until the spring when I need to get my open water dive done-- Can't wait!!!!! Still looking for a second job.... Talk to you soon,
V

So I'm in Omaha....

Hey~
So I'm about 3 weeks into my internship. It's been flying by! Everyday I do something new like feeding the turtles on my own to just being told to prep the shark food and not needing to be told how to do it :) Yesterday, I got to do a necropsy!!!! It was on a slimmy, silver dollar fish from the Amazon. It was gross but really cool at the same time :) Today I got the morning duties to myself and the other intern. Feeding Teddy, the turtle, is so much fun. Teddy is so sweet. I'm trying to think of enrichment for the squirrel monkeys. I'm still looking for a paying job.... I need to find one soon. Well until next time....

It's been a week..

Sorry it's been so long. What a week! Wednesday I moved to Omaha in a snowstorm that was the cause of many problems. Today was the first day that I got to park in the driveway of the house. I'm living in the intern house which is very interesting lol There are many things let here from interns past, including a sombrero that has been here for at least 5 years hahaha It's an old house, blue, and I have room #3. It's pink! Right up my alley :) The girls here are wonderful! Alicia and I have been getting to know each other yay! The zoo is huge. wow. I can't wait for it to get warm enough for me to walk around the entire thing!! I have started off in Aquarium Fish and Inverts. The first couple of days were okay. But today was fun. I got to feed the spider monkeys, moon jellies, and the fish of the huge shark reef. I was excited!! I got to take all of the water data for the tanks by myself proudly ;) Also got to give the monkeys raisins. They're cute! Last weekend, Dean and I went to Tana's wedding. She made the most beautiful bride!!!!!!!! Ash and I handed out programs. The reception was a blast. She is currently in Mexico chillin'. Jealous :) Well that's about it for that week. Otherwise, ttys. Miss you guys!!

Tomorrow's the Day

Hi again :)
So my things are packed, how weird! We are leaving about 4pm tomorrow. I'm excited to see my aunt and uncle, and I'm very happy that my parents are going with me to get me moved in. I almost feel like a freshman again haha I've gotten to see all of my nieces while I've been home, so I am very thankful! <3 I love those lil girls!!!!!!! I'll be in Omaha for three days and then I'll be making a stop at home before going to Tana's WEDDING!!!! It'll be a good time :) I'm very happy for her and Shane! Well that's about all I've got for today....
Nessa
p.s. Brenna, I hope you are having the time of your life in the Bahamas!!