I'm a Bum!

Didn't get the Westminster job. Awe shucks. That's ok, I didn't want it anyways. Seriously. In 3 days I will be happily homeless and unemployed. In good news, looks like I may have an advisor AND a project at Montana State for the fall! I mean, I can be admitted for Jan, but won't have funding until August. I'm excited. I'd like to live in CO just because well it's awesome, and I have a lot of friends here... but I'll take Montana any day! Maria may also go to MSU, and Brent said he's probably going to move back, so I'll have some rockin' people to hang out with still.

Umm people suck. Just because we are in the last week together and may never see eachother again, seems to bring out a totally rotten selfish side of some people. I'll be happy to get away from one specific person. Too much bloody drama!

I felt terrible this morning, so I went home sick and then got a haircut = all better now. So I think Fri or Sat I'm going to take off for Montana to talk to my potential advisor, then maybe just truck along the northern states, thru da' U.P., then back down to Noville. That, or I may just visit BRIAN in Seattle, park my car there, and take refuge in Alaska for a while. I don't have anything going on, why not?! ;)

Next week and it's over

I had the forestry interview today. Let me back up... I got called about the Westminster forestry job, took their exam, passed, then had the interview today. Went well... should know by the end of this week if they liked me. If so, then looks like I'll be moving to Boulder, have about 1-2 weeks to find a place to live, go back to MI and pick up my scheiss, then start working again. Craziness! Don't really want to do that, actually hoping for a few other things:

Waiting to hear from Colorado State and Montana State for grad school in January. Probably can't do it without funding... and probably won't get funding. My other hope is that I might get a seasonal job here for the winter (probably wont happen) on the fire/fuels crew, or this one day a week with benefits air monitoring job. Not crossing my fingers...

Last option, is to enjoy the love of unemployment. I want to stay out here, and I think I can live off of unemployment for a few weeks without worrying... so hopefully by november I will have returned from either A. my roadtrip up california, up thru oregon and washington, across to montana and down wyoming, back to CO or B. up north in michigan. too much! can't figure out what to do. but it's all good.

had a great weekend, went out on the wild and crazy town (sarcasm) of estes park and raged at their finest (not) bars all night, played shuffle puck and foosball (poorly). went out to eat at cavanaugh's, did some running, yadda yadda yadda. good times had by all! oh, and remember my "world class runner" friend? He went to that world race in Alaska this past weekend and did AMAZING - 2nd for the US, and umm 22nd or something overall. Which is unbelieveable. Hats off to Bill!

that's all that's new with me. now it's dinner time!

Go Lions!

I had an interesting weekend. One night I went to Jeremy's for a bonfire and met his crazy boondocks friend. This dude was a character, all I remember is his thick 'bama accent and some story about a butt-raping swamp donkey. Go figure. Had a boy hit on me that I haven't talked to all summer. It was funny and all together bizarre... stayed up til 5 am.

Went to Westminster to check out my potential employment site. It was like a hilly version of southeast Michigan. While I was out there I picked up another Incubus CD that I am currently listening to. It's pretty good, but I definitely like Morningview and  Make Yourself more. Neil is hooking me up with Fungus Among Us. Apparently I really like incubus. ;) Coincidentally, they had a sweet incubus t-shirt half price - $8!! Very cool.

Saturday was Scott's b-day, so a bunch of us took him out for pizza. Unfortunately, Neil was having a party in Fort Collins that night, so I had to take off after dinner and make the hour drive down. I was a bit intimidated because I knew NOBODY there besides Neil, but everybody was chill and good to talk to. Some people started doing things that I have no interest in, so I went to sleep to avoid them. ;) In the morning, Neil had to work early so he left, and I was there alone with people I didn't know. This is when the real fun began!

I decide to try and sneak out thru the back door to avoid dealing with people i didnt know, and it figures they are sitting on the back porch. These two guys are all tanked up still (6:30 am!) and need a ride home. this one guy, who owns his own landscape company, asks what i'm doing with myself. i tell him about restoration ecology, and he just lets loose about how HUGE that is! I need to be entreprenurial and start a business with him and Neil, apparently, and once Neil and I "talk about it and form a business plan in restoration ecology" then he will float some money and go in as business partners... it was the funniest thing i've seen and heard all summer!! and since he was yapping so much, he kept giving me wrong directions and made me turn around 3-4 times. Finally got to his house and he just kept shaking my hand! i had to drive away to get him to stop. ;)

West Nile Madness!

I had West Nile! And lived to tell the story!

So I think I wrote on here how I hadn't been feeling well, and got that nasty rash. My friends know two people with the exact same symptoms as myself, and they actually got tested for West Nile, and they both had it.  Everyone agrees that Cynthia, myself, and Neil all had it, since we all pretty much had the same symptoms. Neil and I got it at the same time, which is appropriate because we had been working together for two weeks, plus we went bouldering in Fort Collins, where the occurance of WN is really high. How neat! I'm very tempted to go back to the doctor, yell at them, and tell them they don't know anything. "Ummm, maybe it's a contact rash from the thistle." Even I knew that was wrong!!!

In other news, still haven't heard a peep out of my "potential" advisors for grad school, and I'm getting mad at them. But yelling at them would not help me get in, so I just have to suck it up and kiss more professor bootie. On the good side, I got a call to interview for the forestry position with the city of Westminster (outside Denver), and I think I might have a pretty good chance of getting it! I guess you get $1,000 bonus if you learn how to speak this crazy vietnamese language, i think i'm going to have a hard time communicating with the workers if that is the case. ;)  Wish me luck, cuz that's the only lead I have so far in any direction!!

Grad school...jobs... ???!!!

Well I haven't updated in a while, because I've been trying to figure out to do with my life. I am working in Rocky for 4 more weeks, and then... it's over. Odd to think about. I just spent half a year here, and then it's just over. I have to move out of my apartment no more than 3 days after my last day of work, which means October 5th I need to have Focus packed up, with a destination in mind. Here's the new deal:

Applied for a winter fire position here at Rocky. Probably won't get it, since I don't have my Red Card (fire training) and a gazillion people are applying, but it doesn't hurt to try. The job I guess is pretty hard, and cold, doing fuel reduction all winter, but I would get a lot of training so I could maybe be on a real fire crew next summer.

Decided to seriously pursue the grad school thing for January. My friend Maria told me about Montana State's masters program in Land Rehabilitation, and I really like it! Trying to make connections with professors there but not getting far. So I'm applying to Montana State, and also U of Michigan again for the Landscape Architecture program. I am also tyring to get a late application in to Colorado State for restoration ecology, but we'll see if they let me. Sortof considering Minnesota, or maybe Univ. of Colorado, but probably not for this spring. I am not crossing my fingers for this spring though, so I continue the job hunt!

Job hunting mostly in Colorado, not much going on in Michigan in the way of enviro jobs. I started half-assed looking at apartments in Boulder and Fort Collins, since I think I'm going to stay out here if Montana or maybe Michigan grad school doesn't work. I really want to learn how to snowboard so I figure Colorado is the place to be. ;)

This weekend: Scott's birthday, so we are going to party of course. Working overtime Friday, probably hang out with Neil, maybe start bouldering again? It's hard to have fun when you are frantically trying to figure out your life!!