you do WHAT?

It's hard for me to explain what I do at my new job, since I don't actually start until Tuesday. And my first day of work involves driving 2 hrs to Grand Rapids for a soil erosion convention, dressed all business-bitch style and setting up a display for what we do. Does anyone else think it's funny that I have to explain what we do, when I'm not even totally sure what we do? It shouldn't be that bad. Lots of hottie contractors and landscapers to flirt with. Hee hee. So here is the official "job description":

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This position will involve supervising the native seed farm and all aspects of seed and plant sales, plant propagation and any general nursery operations. Office tasks will include answering the phone, taking orders, providing estimates, spreadsheet development, report writing, and other general office tasks. This position may supervise volunteers and/or work crews on the farm and installations.

This position will also serve as an assistant ecological consultant regarding ecosystem restoration and management, natural stormwater management and treatment, natural features inventory, native species specifications, plant installation, soil bioengineering, wetland consultation, bird & mammal survey, endangered & threatened species analysis, conservation easements, grant application, and other natural solutions.

The minimum of a Bachelor's Degree is required for this position in: Botany, Ecology, Horticulture, Wildlife Biology/Habitat, Natural Resource, Plant Science, or related field. General horticultural, gardening, or farming skills are highly desirable for this position. Applicant must have excellent technical writing skills, competent knowledge of the Windows 2000 and Windows XP operating systems and excellent abilities in all Microsoft Office Professional products (Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, FrontPage, etc). Applicant must have some experience with reading and interpreting a variety of map formats: soils, topographical, aerial photos, NWI, and MIRIS.

Applicants should be highly motivated and possess good teamwork competence, good written and oral communication skills, ability to work with a diversity of people, self-motivated, and ability to work with minimal supervision. This position is physically demanding and may require outside work in all seasons. You must have a valid Michigan driver's license and reliable transportation (mileage will be compensated for work related travel).

Experience desired in: Nursery operations: propagating native plants and nursery maintenance; General Farming: driving tractor, harvesting and planting, IPM training; or Landscaping: planning, installation and maintenance, or Habitat Restoration: harvesting and planting native seed and plants, invasive species control, and prescribed burning; or Ecological Consulting: native plant identification, natural features identification, wetland delineation, literature and field research.

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As you can see, it sounds very intense. Somehow, I am very qualified for this job. Guess being a jack-of-all-trades has finally paid off; who'd of thought that it would be a GOOD thing to do everything from electroshocking fish, digging up exotic plants, driving tractors, mowing turf, collecting seeds, and selling blinds and wallpaper, while possessing wildland firefighter certification and a pesticide applicator's license? What can I say, I'm a curious person. :)

Stupid Gonzaga had to go and lose like that yesterday. At least the Wings were wholloping LA when I went to bed last night. We tried to go to Planet Rock and go climbing, but they were so busy! Try again today or Monday I suppose. We had decided NOT to head north for skiing... guess what. They are getting a bit of new snow and it's great skiing conditions tomorrow. Unfortunately, Steve has an appointment tomorrow so we can't go. Ugh. I am never going to learn how to snowboard or ski!

Brackets!

I've never been a huge basketball fan; however, I love brackets. And I usually end up doing surprisingly well because I don't really have any expectations for any of the teams. I  mean, I know who is supposed to be really good, but the rest of them is just A. looking at how they are seeded B. dumb luck and C. personal bias against a state or a school. Example: if I don't know what school the abbreviations stand for, or if I've never heard of the school, I don't pick them. Why? I figure that if they were that good, I would have heard the name before. Also, I hate Texas. I did pick Texas to win, but usually I always pick against them.

Know the best part? I am absolutely rockin' the brackets this year.

As of right now, I was only wrong on 5 teams, and this first round is nearly over! I think that's pretty bloody good, especially since I didn't expect any of those teams that I got wrong to actually go on to the next round.

My final four? Gonzaga, Wake Forest, Miss St. and UConn. Miss St. takes all against Gonzaga.

If I don't like bball, why do I bother? Well, it makes me like bball temporarily. Everywhere I go, there is a game on; when I become personally concerned with the outcome, suddenly it's that much more exciting.

so much for the road trip...

Feeling Grumpy

Well, Steve and I were supposed to go on a road trip down south this weekend. So much for that.

First, it was cancelled because frankly, it's hard to be "just friends" sometimes and Steve wasn't comfortable with it. But he got over it, and we called the trip back on yesterday. We had been planning on leaving Thursday night, but we hadn't even decided where to go! Originally I wanted to go somewhere warm -  Northern Florida, Carolina coast, even the Ozarks. I wanted to hire a climbing guide so I could finally try climbing with ropes instead of bouldering all the time, but can't afford it.  I did, however, find out that you can go rafting/kayaking on the Chattooga nearly year-round. Need to remember that in the future!  Then we were just going to do some long day-hikes a little bit closer; maybe Mammoth Caves in KY, Shenandoah in VA or something within 10 hrs.  Alas, the weather was not on our side: Friday wouldn't be that warm, and Saturday it is supposed to rain nearly everywhere in the southeast.

Fine. I'm resourceful... so I thought dogsledding would be cool. The weather would be fine for it in Minnesota, northern MI, or even Ontario, Canada. But reservations are needed, and that doesn't work for my "spontaneous adventure" lack-of-planning. Fine again. We'll just suck it up and go up north, and learn how to snowboard. Well, this week was excellent - plenty of new snow up north. But then I find out that it will be 45 degrees this weekend, and that sounds like it might make for some sloppy-wet skiing. The lady at Crystal Mountain said people don't seem to mind, but I'm not driving 5 hrs to find that it's melted. Yuck. So here I am, sitting in my bedroom on my last unemployed Friday, writing about my failed trip.

It's not all lost, though. I think today I'm going to drive out to Pinckney and go for a nice wet muddy hike, and this evening we're going to try some climbing at Planet Rock. A disappointing end to my freedom, but I'm not dishing out money to drive south and get rained on. It's going to be 55 degrees and rainy here on Saturday, and my parents are out of town. "Party!" Ha ha yeah right.

So not looking forward to the new job... Bad vibes. My gut instinct is almost always right; still hoping to get the zoo job. I did write my possible advisor today at Montana State to see if there is any funding yet. Wouldn't that just be funny? I get all these full-time career job offers, and then funding comes through. How do you say no to free grad-school and project funding?? Especially when the project might involve studying ecological restoration in Yellowstone geothermal sites?

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According to Tickle, I will be married by Saturday, August 18, 2007. Yikes.  Guess I'd better meet a boy who can put up with me pretty soon. ;)

Stout!

Before I go to sleep, stinking of cigarettes, bar food, and beer, I thought I'd jot down a quick recap of things to remember from St. Patty's Day, 2004 at Stout Pub in Brighton:

- The screaming towel dispenser - "waaaaaooOOOOOOO!" Do it again! Do it again!

- Jason Bigg's twin prowling for some fresh meat

- The strange little lephrichan dancing in the rafters and throwing golden coins!

- Walking the gauntlet of hungry boys (men??) on the way to the bathroom

- D-Cup club recruits members in the ladies room! Show your membership proudly!

- Beer monkey and his air-guitar-god friend waiting for us like sharks! Trapped in the corner and peeking to see if the coast was clear!!

- Having to reject a hat not once, not twice, but three times from moussed-up beer monkey, while Heather learns that the lephrichan throws "pure milk chocolate treasure!!" from goon #2 (he even bit it to prove his point!)

- Trying to escape beer monkey while some stealthy dude tries to snatch me up! Steve, we need a dick-deterrent!

- Donna receiving the very same hat that beer monkey gave to me - and THEN he takes it back from her! "But it's my hat!" It's made of PLASTIC! GET OVER IT, BEER MONKEY! (And Donna looked so Cabaret! What a shame.)

- Heather's ass-shakin' sex kitten strut attracting boys from far and wide! Stop that wigglin'!

- I still don't see why Kirk thought the waitress was hot. According to Heather, she didn't "have anything to grab on to!"

- What did that strange man with the credit card say to me, and why was his arm around my back? What did you say? Everyone knows I take cash only. ;)

- Bizarr-o Denny's (Lil Chef) asking if I wanted my bagels buttered along with the cream cheese?? Has this ever happened to anyone before?

- Eating in the Clue Room, with scary girls in thepictures staring at Donna. Who would be the first to die if this were a horror movie?

Oh, and I still love the look of amazement and awe when men come up to me and my Guinness and exclaim "how can you drink that? wow!" yeah, that's right boys. watch and learn.

Just a glimpse of my evening before I go to sleep and forget it all. Thanks for a great night guys! But I still didn't get a @#%$# Guinness shirt, or even a Jameson shirt! Ebay, here I come...

last week of federally funded freedom

One week left until I jump back into the rat race of actually working for money. God bless America, unemployment has gotta be one of the silliest things I have ever taken advantage of in our government. Paid for doing nothing. Not to say I didn't earn that money - I sent out so many bloody resumes and sat in front of this computer, endlessly clicking to find a job... I really do want to work. It got so boring, and I couldn't really afford to travel as much as I wanted, and I just felt like my life was so pointless! I'm still a bit apprehensive about taking this job - in the long run, I think I could be very successful and make lots of $$, but then again, I really would love to work for the zoo. Anyone who knows me knows I belong at the zoo (har har har), but I wouldn't make as much money long-term and there isn't as much room for moving up. Assuming I get offered the job, of course. ;)

I experimented with my first-ever "tan in a bottle". I never realized just how pale I am! It didn't turn out significantly darker, so I'm thinking I'll try again. Then with Heather's help, hopefully I'll get some ridiculous picture on here with what I bought in Chicago. <wink> And no, I promise it has nothing to do with a 2 foot long dildo.

Went out and got Mark Mowers autograph last night. He's relatively new and not really in the spotlight, so I was the ONLY one there! Dorky little me walks in with 3 pucks (not all for me! i swear!) and it was just so bizarre getting the autograph of someone my age. Autographs are goofy anyway, but hey it was fun I guess. I shook his hand and some dude working there joked around and said I was going to throw the wet pucks into the bag and ruin them, and Mark laughed and said "Naw, she wouldn't do that!" Giggle giggle goes the Lisa. HA! I didn't really flirt, but if I wanted to hang around and chat, it would have been the perfect time. He's not really my type anyway - too blonde and clean-cut. I like my men dark and scruffy. ;)

Any ideas for my St. Patty's day? All I know is that this year, if those Guinness girls come back and don't give me a shirt, I'm taking it off their back. My goodness, my Guinness!