memoirs of a lamington

I hope my bank account fattens out here pretty soon, I need to figure some stuff out. Sometimes I wish I was a kid again and getting up, going to school, and coming home again was all I really ever had to think about.

I love living in a hick town:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/zip/657288664.html

I asked the Zebra,
are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy days?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on and on and on he went.

I’ll never ask a zebra about stripes...again.

Ever since I returned this year from my travels in Australia and Borneo I have not known what direction to pursue next. I want to go to Africa, I have been thinking of joining the peace corps, I want to go back to Australia but I also want to stay here a while longer and spend more time with all of my friends and family that I really missed while I was away. It's always nice to have choices in life but sometimes having too many choices is just as exchausting and overwhelming as having none. I felt like I was standing at a 10-pronged fork in the road and we all know that I get lost a lot and that I don't like it when that happens! I decided that since I didn't have the money to run off anywhere anytime soon anyway, I would just keep working in Washington and stay on the look out for new jobs or opportunities that may come along.

In that time I had a bunch of close calls on awesome jobs and a bunch of close calls on opportunities for love and nothing was panning out .. and I was growing more and more frustrated. I decided to focus on creating a demo real for wildlife show hosting and I am so excited because we are going to begin the filming for that project this weekend. Hopefully we can accomplish everything we need, filming-wise, within the weekend and can then just work on the editing and voiceover stuff later. Then we will work on promoting it later-still. I also just got a new job as a server at a nice restaraunt inside the Silverdale Beach Hotel (used to be the red lion) and I also have started seeing someone which is going really well and we both make each other very happy. I'm starting to feel like I will blink and realize I was just daydreaming this whole time. I hope this really is the start of good times and not just a fluke.

Hi Folks!
In a couple of weeks I am going to be doing a taped interview with the head rehabilitator for the West Sound Wildlife shelter in Bainbridge Island. This isn't a job interview or anything .. I will be interviewing them and touring the facility as a segment for the wildlife show piolet. It is a sort of weird situation because I am so familiar with this type of work that all the things I would want to ask them are really nerdy (what brand of mammal milk replacer do you use, etc. .. lol!). So .. I would like to know what YOU guys would be interested in hearing about. They take in all kinds of wildlife and they rehabilitate them and if possible, release them .. it's the american version of the stuff I did in Australia.

All I want is a hot man with a hot motorcycle to ride to a hot place far far away

Teri Irwin is so PNW, it's awesome.

I just watched the original parent trap for like the 500th time. I've always loved this movie, all my life. As a child I loved watching it for Hayley Mills and because I've always loved romances but now I just love watching the dynamic between the two parents in the film. I know it's a kids movie but some of the acting is just amazing and awesome. I always loved Maureen O'hara .. she seems just like someone who would be in my family, a strong, beautiful, funny red headded woman. Whenever I watch the movie I think about how grandma Eileen would hvae been wearing the same kinds of things and seeing the world as it looked in this movie. That's one thing I do often when I see old people - try to imagine how they would have dressed and what the world would have been like when they were in their heyday.

Today Maureen O'hara is 88. It's crazy to think about that .. and sad to think that such a legend will someday, someday soon probably, leave the earth. I don't really beleive in the concept of 'death'. I think death is just the other side of life and isn't really an end to much of anything but still, it's amazing that someone with such a massive life force like Maureen O'hara could actually die. I realize that I am only 24 and that, technically that is still young, but I am extremely aware of the fact that life is already starting to wizz by. This time last year, I was living in Borneo .. how could that have been a whole year ago?? It feels like I was just there .. JUST there. I feel like I am going to wake up tomorrow and be 97 .. wondering where my life went.

I have seen a lot of death lately and it has been making me rethink a lot of things that are going on for me. I have cut off contact with all of the bizarre chaotic male relationships I was in the middle of .. it's just not worth it. I've realized that I have a whole different set of standards for what I look for in friends to what I look for in boyfriends or flingthings or whatever you want to call them. I let guys get away with murder! It's time I look for qualities in a man that I would look for in an awesome guy friend .. just doesn't make sense not to. I've decided it's not worth sacrificing my state of mind (and self respect) just to be a cool laidback girlfriend. It's amazing how the simplest realizations take the longest to figure out! I also am about to put in my two weeks notice at work. We havn't been getting hours and I'm fed up with all the promises of our management. It's time I have a little self respect there too and find a job that it is more worthy of my time.

Two words: BURNING MAN!

Is there anyone local who wants a GIANT plastic grocery bag full of candy bars? I already ate all the stuff I like but it's all still good.

Such a shame to throw away perfectly tasty chocolate.

YAAAAAAAAAAYYY! The sun finally came out!! I am thinking the past week or wind, rain, hail, sleet, and snow was just the final mucus plug we needed to pass to get to the good stuff! horrrrrayyyyyy!! Here's to hoping the niceness sticks around a while, I'm am so over the cold .. SO over it.

Hi Everyone,
I have recently come to find out that the Australian government is hoping to cull 80% of the kangaroos living in the part of Australia where I was living last year. They are fearful that the population has grown too large to support itself and that the animals are starving and damaging the ecosystem. However, their panel of experts did not include anyone who had ever worked intimately with kangaroos and so they could not, for sure, attest that the animals were indeed in danger.

Before moving to Australia for a year, I spent four weeks in Canberra collecting data for my senior thesis at UW on kangaroo joeys of the ACT and NSW. We were looking to see if acetometaphin is safe to admister to young kangaroos, as many wildlife rehabilitation organizations around Australia operate at a grassroots level and do not have access to (expensive) and hard to come by vet meds. It sadens me to think that many of the animals we studied will likely be killed in this cull. For the record, my personal stance is that, if in fact the animals are indeed starving to death as a result of too many animals living in this drought-ridden terretory and that they are, in fact, irrevocably damaging the land, then I am in favor or culling or, if possible, relocation. I am hoping, however, that the Australian government acts responsibly here and will bring on a panel of experts who can tell them if this is actually happening or not. I also am hoping they will determine if they need to make such a drastic cull of 80% of animals.

Below is an email I was sent from the president of Wildcare, the organization I did my research in accordance with, and a link to a website which further outlines this situation. On the website you will find an online petition.

Thanks Guys!
Carly xox

HI everyone,

A couple of weeks ago I sent you an email asking for your support to help save the lives of the kangaroos that are to be killed at the Belconnen Naval Transmitter Station here in Canberra. To date we have been fighting vigorously day and night to stop this needless slaughter of perfectly healthy animals. We have sent off many letters to many politcians and organisations. We have done radio interviews, tv interviews, run newspaper articles and have a website and petition page. If you havent already looked at the website or signed the petition, please, read the website, look at the photos there and then proceed onto signing. We are now working at a Federal level to try and have this stopped. It seems the only money or interest taken in kangaroos is when they are dead.
This will only take a couple of minutes of your time and the more people that make the effort to write and sign the more of a chance we have. Read through the petition and look at some of the comments from people all over the world. If this slaughter is allowed to go ahead here, it opens the can for it to happen anywhere and anytime for no reason other than political pride.

You can send letters to

STANHOPE@act.gov.au
peter.garrett.mp@aph.gov.au
rspca@rspca-act.org.au
Bob.Debus.MP@aph.gov.au
maxine.cooper@act.gov.au
senator.bob.brown@aph.gov.au
nick.warner@defence.gov.au
hamish.mcnulty@act.gov.au

The website for the Canberra kangaroos is: www.canberraroos.com
follow the prompts to the petition site.

I think my face is lopsided. One eye is slightly lower than the other and the same is true for my ears which makes wearing glasses tricky. Since childhood, I have always, instinctively tilted my head to the side in pictures. I have read that this is a libra trait but maybe it's because subconsciously I've always known that the tilted head makes my lopsided face look less weird.

hmmmmmmmmm

Does anyone know how to get temp work in Kitsap County? I applied at that place in Bremerton by the Burger King but they have never got me any work. I need cash but don't want to get locked into anything long term.

It's early spring, daffodills are in full bloom in everyone's backyard, and it's been snowing for hours .. what's wrong with this picture!! It's been so cold for so long, will I ever be able to wear a tshirt again?!?! ahhhhh

I finally just now, in March, opened up a tin of hot chocolate mix that my friend Maya got me for Christmas. It's super tasty and has chillies and cinammon in it to be like the stuff the Azteks drank (except with waaaaaaaay more sugar!). I just noticed that on the back of the tin it says "In Mayan tradition, a bride and groom would sip cacao from a golden goblet to secure their vows." HOLY CRAP that's the best wedding tradition ever! I want to get married now just so I can do that! My mom is already on the hunt for a golden goblet, haha

Life lately has been peaceful and eventful, a nice combination. I have been up to a few interesting things. I went out to the jamestown tribal center in Sequim the other day to try to track down some leads on finding a totem pole carver to feature in my wildlife demo film. I skipped past their admin buildings and went into the tribal gallery and asked the woman in there if she knew of any carvers. She pointed me to a warehouse next door and suggested I pop my head in .. I did and what do you know, there was a guy sitting in there with his dog, surrounded by four totem poles in the works! Apparently there are people in there every day just carving away. Too cool. I also got the card of their lead carver who I will call in a couple of days to try to book an interview with for the film. I also met with Jason, the camera guy, and set a date to do the filming next month. I'm pretty nervous because I am not comfortable in front of a camera but mostly I'm just excited and releived that it is actually going to happen. I don't expect amazing things to just immediately fall in my lap as a result of the project but I won't get anywhere if I don't at least dip a toe in the water, right?

I'm still looking at going to LA soon to try to do the venice beach henna thing. Paula (lotushenna) from HT is down there already trying to build up a reputation on the beach so hopefully soon there will be business enough for us both. It definately would be nice to spend some time in the California sunshine (even if that means also spending some time in the California smog .. can't win 'em all I guess, lol). I need to wait a little while though to see if I would actually make money by going down there. I need cash in a bad way! work has been sloooooooooow.

In the slowness, though, I have been working on some personal challenges of mine through ritual. I did a small spring equinox ritual last night and it was wonderful. I didn't worry about casting a circle or any of the fluff people have told me to do before which never really felt right .. I just did what felt right for me. I have done other small ceremonies before in the past but never just really went out there and did one that made sense to me and never before have I felt such power in it. In the past few days I have started to see changes in my life, changes I asked for, and it's extremely encouraging.

I may do another ritual tonight on the theme of releasing the hurt from past loves in my life. That for me is the biggest challenge these days, and not just these days, but for several years, actually .. I have a lot of work to do in that area but without releasing those anchors I don't think I will ever be able to fully move forward and the time has come.

Has anybody tried the pho place in Bremerton that used to be Wendys? The online menu looks gross but I'm craving pho like a mo fo.

uhhh, I'm so sick of my sitch. Our old general manager at work told us we'd be up to our elbows in work by now. Of course as soon as he told us this he resigned for a higher paying job .. bastard. I went almost a month without getting scheduled for a single shift and even now, the work is sparce. I hate when you put your trust in people and they turn out to be dirty liars. I am getting my henna biz back into swing so I can just depend on myself for money from now on. I just ordered new business cards (from moo! I'm can't wait to get them), a new flashy portfolio, I updated my website and backed it up, aunt Nora helped me make a huge leopard print sign for festivals, and I am about to go to Kinkos to pick up my new design books. I went through all my books and took out my favorite pages of each and am having them bound into three identical books that I bring to events and leave everything else at home. There's a possibility of me getting hired at the San Diego wild animal park to do henna this summer and I'm also looking at vending at Venice Beach in LA or else just a San Diego beach somewhere. I need to figure something out.

I had a great time in San Francisco! Myself and the rest of the HennaTribe Board got together for our annual meeting. It was mostly business although several of us stuck around for a day or two after our sessions to hang out and check out the city. We stayed in the Mission, a funky, somewhat gentrified, Mexican neighborhood and ventured a little into the Castro as well which is the hub of the gay scene. It was so great seeing everyone, I'd be happy to go back any time!