Goodbye Flip Flops, Hello Boots

Heya,
Surprised I'm writing already? Heck I'm surprised myself. lol There isn't a ton to catch up on in the last two weeks. It snowed a good 6 inches last night. That was a surprise to go out into! Wish I had windows that overlooked the street, so I could have an idea of how bad it is. ha My windows face a building.
Bella and I are still in Minot. I am more than ready to move. Just sent an app to California. I'm so ready to have a job I love. Met with the director of the zoo today. Yeah another ten months to 18 months before they might be getting animals back. Does that sound like an eternity or is it just me? But anyways, sending out apps as fast as I can. Thanksgiving will be good, so I can spend some time with the family.... I miss them so much. Vinnie I saying words already. Feels like yesterday he was born. I've been away for far too long. Only nine days til I go home! It'd be great if it were only 8! haha And then it's Christmas! Already listening to the music and watching the movies for background noise. Just don't know what I want for Christmas!! jeesh who has that problem ever??
Well I suppose that's pretty much it for now. Hope you all are warm and safe.
Love mucha siempre (always)

Sonrie en los tiempos malos y buenos...

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
Hope you are all well! As always, where has time gone? So much to update you all on, where to begin?! Well first and foremost, the water has receeded! The town is once again dry and has been thoroughly stripped down. The amount of debris that came from the flood area was remarkable and took forever to clean up! Still today you can find random things on the curbs. Things are moving MUCH slower at the zoo than anticipated. From the sounds of it FEMA has been quite difficult to work with. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten to help clean up the grassy areas of the zoo yet unlike I was promised. Doesn't look like us, zookeepers, will be helping with the clean up much at all.
Today, Maya, my toucan I have been training, was transported to Delaware. :( I know it's for the best, so she can stay warm this winter. They'll be keeping the North Zoo at around 50 degrees, which is WAY too cold for a toucan who needs it around 70. So she got shipped off to a training facility. I hope they're impressed with her! She targets, is patient for varied reinforcement, and comes when you say "here"!!!! That is HUGE for her and I!! I gave her as many kisses and hugs as I could yesterday. We even took pictures....




It was extremely hard to let this precious bird to leave. Correction: it was so very, very difficult to leave this smart, beautiful bird. I sort of took a deep breath and left. Hope to see her again someday!

Other than that, I am working working at the ice arena now for my main job. I drive the zamboni on my own these days without any difficulties. They trust me with it HA I hardly see the workers that gave me a hard time before, and next week I am gonna have a skating party to actually put working at the arena to a benefit. I can have people skate for free after hours. I just have to zamboni. So next time one of you is in town... ;)
As for Space Aliens, I am soon to become a Team Leader to be on my way to being manager. Too bad I'm not satisfied staying at a restaurant.
I sent out two more applications tonight. Last week, I traveled to Miami, Florida of all places for a swim test with the Miami Seaquarium!!!! The test didn't go so hot. My front stroke wasn't as strong as they wanted. This was embarassing, but I have the experience and now know what to expect. I saved my trip though and had a blast (even though I was by myself). I was more than nervous going to miami on my own, not to mention renting a car, getting the hotel room, finding my way around, and finding places to eat. I had such a good time! Hey, for the 2nd year in a row, I got to wear shorts in October! How amazing! Not to mention, I got to see an ORCA, MANATEES, and use my spanish more than my english :D You guys can't even imagine how excited I was to actually get to use my spanish!! And may I add, I did quite well at it :) Heck, to even check out of the hotel, I had to use my spanish. Such a cute old man :) hehehe All in all, miami didn't go as planned at all. But I'm so happy I went. I proved to myself I could go on a trip by myself completely, and I needed to leave Minot. No matter how bad of a morning I had, I swear when I stepped on the beach the water took my worries away just like the sand at my feet.... It felt good ;) Even made a friend from Cuba! haha His name was Rodrigo. he has my e-mail so we will see if he writes me. lol
NDSU homecoming was an absolute blast. Kristi had her baby shower (which she had her baby on Halloween!!). The Bison stomped all over our opponents, and I got to see my friends again. I am so happy to have gotten to see my friends, who I miss all the time. Wish we could all live together again.


I'm already listening to christmas music. haha I love it! Even have my grinch pajama pants on ;) Good thing Corey likes Christmas music since he is staying at my apt cause of his nose surgery. Poor guy had a deviated septum. I'm in charge of his meds-lmao is that smart? haha just kidding. The guy has to put up with me for a week.
Anyways, I'm so excited for Thanksgiving! 19 days and counting til I go home!! WOOOOT!
Well folks it's super late here, so I will try to write soon.
Call anytime, any of you,
Love,
Nessa

It's Been a Summer! Happy 8th Birthday, Mia!

Hey All,
It's been too long. These days it's been crazy, but I'm makin time to let ya know what's up! Well all summer we have kept the zoo animals that we hadn't found temporary homes for up at the warehouse still. No worries, they get the best care imaginable. Unfortunately winter is fast approaching (Gen chem freshman year Dr. Jacobson anyone?? haha). Therefore we need to get the birds out of the warehouse and off to a temporarily new home. The warehouse does have heat, but the birds need to be at a higher temp than the rest of the collection. In the end, we will have mostly North American animals who are used to chilly temps. I have been training Maya, the female toucan, for almost two weeks. She's doing great! I'm so proud of her! She targetted yesterday and today. With a target, you can do anything! I'm excited :)
Unfortunately my only time at the zoo anymore is training Maya, as of last week I had to start at the ice arena. It's extremely hard and depressing not to be with the animals all the time. Some people have told me they know how it feels, but I imagine they don't. The ice arena staff isn't exactly saying, "bienvenidos" and welcoming me in. The two ladies I met are pretty nice compared to two of the guys. Let's just say I would prefer not to hear anymore of "Oh I Broke a Nail, the Day's Over" jokes. Hopefully I'll gain some respect from them soon, or it's gonna be one long ( and I mean loooonnnng winter). Have no fear, I have been keeping my eyes out and applying! Of course it sure would help if the postal service would make sure that it makes it to the right zip code. Oy vey... lol One good thing aobut the ice arena is I get to skate for free and get to meet hockey players haha (they stink SO bad after practice! haha)
Other than work, life's been pretty busy. My parents surprised me for my birthday!! It was seriously the best gift I've ever gotten. The fall weather always makes me homesick, so it was amazing to see them! They drove 11 hours just to surprise me for my birthday and spend the weekend with me!! For the nights, I spent going out with my girls from the zoo and the next night went out with people from Space Aliens, my 2nd job. My parents are amazing and told me to go out because it was planned already. It was a great weekend!
Today is Amelia's birthday! She turned 8 today already. Jeez does it make me feel old! haha I wish I could have been there. The weekend before Mitch and Amy got married, so I had to decide. I will make it home for Mia's birthday next year :) I love that little girl so much! Her and that brother of hers are adorable! Vinnie is walking now and says, "uh-oh." I feel like a mom, I'm so proud. LOL
Yesterday was Minot State University's homecoming (the Beavers?!). They had a Keg and Eggs party at one of the clubs at 8am yesterday. Oh my god was it crazy! I went just to see. Curiousity got the best of me, and my friend invited me to go of course. She had a very drunken day she said lol. I left at noon, and they were all still hitting it hard! Next weekend is NDSU homecoming. These beavers need to see how it's done! haha
Well that's all for today. Perhaps tomorrow (yes tomorrow), I'll be able to write some more.
Nessa

Mother Nature, you are so mean....

Hi Everyone,
What a whirlwind of a month!! I'm sure most of you have heard about the Minot flood. Mouse River Flood Fight 2011 is what they are calling it. Most important things to note are 1) I am safe, 2) my apartment is not in an evacuation zone, 3) the animals are safe, and 4) I still have a job.
Things started a month ago. We had been hearing about a possible flood, but was usual, no one was really taking it serious. Well Memorial Day was chaotic with us getting 5 inches of rain that day. The Ground hornbill shelter in their exhibit was flooding. The kookaburras were soaked. They all got pulled inside in the pouring rain so they didn't get sick. The golf carts were even stalling out in the water, there was so much. I didn't think anything of it.
The next day we all got called in for a mandatory meeting... or so I thought. I got there, and I learned we had to evacuate the zoo. Now this evacuation was to evacuate the animals to either a place they could be "safe" on zoo grounds or to a warehouse north of town (which has been dubbed the "North Zoo"). At this point, the river isn't supposed to crest any higher than the infamous '69 flood. So 90% of our animals are removed from the zoo completely. The animals to stay were the primates since they could climb high enough in their outside exhibits, reptiles, lamb, dik diks, and outreach animals (which would be moved the next day to NZ). Over the day and night, the giraffes, bears, cats, bison and bongos are shipped off to other zoos. It took a total of 20 hours to get everything moved. I was there for 18 hours. I didn't leave until 5:45am the next morning,it was a long long day. The reason we shipped them is because it was impossible to keep giraffes in the warehouse and gravely unsafe to keep cats (we have lions, tigers, snow/amur leopards) and bears (3 of them) in pens meant for cattle from the fair grounds. Our original plan was to evacuate to the fair grounds until we learned they were to go under too.
So for three weeks half of the crew worked up at NZ and half at the Main Zoo (MZ). Things were looking up. The river seemed to go down, and we were hoping to go back to the zoo soon. Then Monday happened. The park director told us that we had to get out... NOW. so the last 10% of the animals were evacuated to the NZ along with everything they could grab from pictures to toys to rakes that were left behind to mop buckets etc. Every announcement on the radio seemed to estimate the river higher and higher. Remember how the river wasn't supposed to surpass the '69 flood levels? Now it was predicted to go 5 feet higher than '69 and 7 feet higher than 1881. Keep in mind the city has totally gone into hysteria at this point. People are buying out the water bottles.... National Guard, who has been here since the beginning, is getting at least 400 more soldiers to help and are directing all major intersections.... The evacuation zones are now mandatory evacuations.... People have until 10 pm on thursday to get out. Well that soon changed to 6pm... So then comes wednesday- people are hauling butt to get out. All the time knowing that if the sirens go off it means that the water has breached the dikes. 1pm Wednesday, they went off. People really couldn't believe it.
Thursday comes when Mitch (co-worker) and I brought the penguins to Como Zoo. They were getting too stressed, it needed to happen. They had a good ride and were happy to see a big pool when they got there. They will be on exhibit after their quarantine period. You should go and see those gorgeous faces! :)There are 13 of them!
While we were gone, the National Guard closed down part of Broadway, our main road to go North-South. Now people have to drive on the bypass, which takes 2 hours on average to drive. This on a normal base takes maybe 10 min. As of Saturday, our water is contaminated they thinkr so all water is to be boiled before using. NOW as of today, Monday, water lines have broken in town. So now we are under an emergency water conservation order. The joke amungst the zoo is we are waiting for the volcano and earthquake. ha. ha.

THANK YOU EVERYONE for all of your texts and calls to make sure I am ok!! Many of you offered me a place to stay, which I would have taken up on if I didn't have to be here for the animals.

But all in all... the animals are ok as am I. The water is still one block away from my apartment downtown. The water is receeding as of today. So fingers crossed it goes away asap!

The zoo is pretty much closed indefinately. After the water goes away, then there is clean-up. So far my job is safe. It's just sad and stressful.
You're all welcome to call! During evacuation of the zoo, I didn't have time really to talk and explain, but I do now!

Love you all,
Nessa

P.S.

So.... I forgot to mention one more thing. Dean got a job here in Minot! He is liking it so far. We are living together and experiencing the whole where-to-put-all-this-stuff thing. haha

p.s.s. I realize I had said that not much happened since I had blogged... HAHA that wasn't totally true I guess! It just feels like it lol

Have a great day!

Why Hello There!

Hola mis amigos,
Where to begin? Not too much has happened since I last blogged. The zoo is still going well. The summer has fully arrived and all of the birds outside besides Zeus, the toucan. Maia, the other toucan, was picking on him, and his body temp was down a bit. He's doing much better now :) The kookaburras weren't going to go outside until we cleared the third section of black and white ruffed lemur exhibit for them. The lemurs have two sections to themselves and connected by a tunnel above the walkway. The kooks have a super awesome laugh that I think everyone should hear. There was a kookaburra in Omaha in the Desert Dome that was always laughing while I cleaned in there everyday. Loved it! The kooks are in the area of the zoo with the bears are there and the primates along with the BIG cats. Most of the sounds of the zoo come from this area of the zoo. The penguins are doing great! Last week, I got to go to a middle school with Squirt, the penguin in the picture in my last blog post. It was very fun! Squirt kept walking towards me, looking like "Dude, these people are staring at me!" lol I can honestly say that was my first presentation I've done smelling like flamingos! Ok so I should say smelling like flamingo poo mixed with the smell of their food. It smells like bad chef boyardee! Yuck! I hold my breath when I have to go in and get their dishes haha
Today I saw that besides having 2 families of canada geese and their gosling that we have a mama Mallard and 12 chicks!! It made me smile and made the day a little better. We found one day about two weeks ago that we had 2 baby crested geckos! So we have lots of babies in our area. It's just a day brightener to see them all :)Jeri, a tortoise of ours, laid eyes the other day. It was very interesting to see her dig her hole before laying her eggs. It seriously took her all morning and most of the afternoon to dig her hole. Without an incubator, the eggs won't hatch since they take 200 days to incubate. That would be winter here-sad.
Besides all the birds being outside, which is awesome, I can fully do giraffes and helped bring the wolves in one evening. That was a scary ordeal! There were two of us keepers trying to bring them in and having a wolf look at you in the eyes is a little creepy. We got them in ok though. OH! And the other day, I got to help walk a reindeer named Rosie! That was very cool. I had no idea that they shed so much. It was her first time out with the public, letting them pet her. She did wonderfully! Other than that, always gaining more responsibility. That's about all for the zoo.
Aliens is going very well. I have been making good tips. Most of all I've had two families talk to the managers to tell them how well I had done :) One family was the other night, on friday. Simple table too! It's always a great feeling to hear that. The mgr just told them to do the phone survey, and he messaged all of the other managers to tell them :) And I got a free butterfinger shake out of the deal haha The other family was right before Easter, the day before to be exact. Being as it was my first holiday here, I was a little sad to not be going home. They were so much fun to wait on! Well they told the mgr too the same thing and told me how it's great to see someone who loves their job. It was the end of the night after a long day. They gave me a $20 tip, and it meant the world. This isn't the most I've made from a table but with such sweet people, it was awesome. Even made me tear up a bit!
Other than Work and WoRk, things are pretty well. I am SO excited to go home on the 11th and to go to Ashley Graham and Jon Ekerholm's wedding on the 12th! Hoping to see Clare in the cities too. Most of all, excited to see the fam!! Amelia drew me pictures and wrote me notes. I'm excited to get those in the mail. It's hard explaining to a 7 yr. old why their aunt isn't always around like she used to be. She's a trooper and boy is she excited when I do get to see her! Last time I was home (for a day and a half in April), I went and picked her up from school. She was so EXCITED! I was equally excited though too ;) That time at home was so much fun. We don't have to do much to have fun. I spent good time with my parents, my brother and his family. Vincent hadn't changed too much thank goodness! He will be walking soon though. I am excited for him but sad I won't be there to see him take his first steps. He's a cutie pie hehe :D My mom is crochetting a beautiful afghan for me. Today she even planted a cutting of my Great Great Grandmother's plant for me to have. How many people can say they have anything from their Great Great Grandma let alone something alive?? I think it's pretty darn awesome :D
Bella is still doing great. Not sure what I'd do without her. I got her this cat toy that has a bird filled with catnip and feathers on it that stands on a spring. On top of it all, the bird chirps. She loves it! haha you'll hear chirping every now and then while she's attacking it. haha I got two new fish, Shary III and Chuck (Dean named him haha). Today, Chuck caught on he had to tap the feeding pole. yay! Training will begin soon then!

Well guys, uffda! That's so much! haha
Until next time....
Nessa

Crazy, Boring Times

Well it's me again... I'm still here in Minot. Well as far as the zoo goes, I am fully trained in my "area" of the zoo. I am now equiped to care for the zoo's collections of reptiles and birds. On a daily basis, I am bit, struck at, and have a ground hornbill fly at my head, which I've learned to use a bucket as a shield and to cover my face. The joke at Space Aliens, which I work a few nights a week at, is to ask if I got bit by anything that day HAHA The best one I had was that I got bit in the palm by a toucan! I was trying to put Maia's toy in her bucket again lol She wasn't a fan of me in her pen ha. But being there isn't always painful, I have a lot of rewarding moments too. This is Squirt. His mate is Jeanne, and he is a handsome African black-footed penguin!

Being here is okay so far, but I do miss home very much so. Vinnie is going to be crawling very, very soon. Hearing about it isn't the same as seeing him do it. He is army crawling these days I hear. Only two weeks and I get to go home. Wish it was tomorrow.
Minot is definately not Fargo. I miss my friends more and more. I am thankful I have one friend here, but trying to make more. It's hard. At least, I am not too far from Fargo. Last weekend, I got to go to Fargo for Ashley's bachelorette party. It was so much fun! I had to miss the actualy party since they had a brunch for her. So instead, I took Ashley, her sister and Kristi to the Bowler and the Gastro Pub. It was a blast! good times :)
Well that's really all I have for today. Call Anytime.