Adventures

With the help of Christin (scottique), I successfully released five raccoons this past weekend! Video forthcoming. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty darn proud (of myself and the raccoons). It's been a crazy summer and it was such an incredible feeling to release them out into the wild and watch them start their new life. I vaccinated them, taught them how to catch live food, set out a feeding station for them (with dog food) until they get used to the surroundings, and released them on the most perfect 450 acres imaginable.

I've still got four raccoons in the GIANT habitat that Dustin and I finished building. Check out photos of the raccoon habitat here. The remaining raccoons are enjoying themselves. Three of them will be ready to be released in a couple of weeks, while the last one, Rowdy, is going to stay with me over the winter. He's the one that was imprinted, and I'm hoping that by keeping him until the spring, when he sexually matures, he'll wild up a bit. He needs a companion in there this winter, but I don't want to hold any of my guys back, so I'm stealing taking a spring-releasable raccoon from another rehabber in order to give Rowdy a friend. I have a lot of pictures and video that I need to upload/resize/post. Hopefully I'll get a spare moment to do that soon.

It just dawned on me that Dustin and I are leaving on Sunday to go to Boston for six days. He's got a training session Tuesday - Friday, so we're flying up on Sunday, wandering around Boston on Monday, and while he's in training for the rest of the week, I'll be working from the hotel room (that sounds dirtier than I meant it to be). It's a good way to see a new city without having to pay for all of it, considering his job pays for his flight, hotel room, and gives him food money. Hoorah. It's been so far in the back of my mind, though, that it just crept up on me - I have no idea what we should do while up there. So, I ask you, dear flist - what should we do while we're in Boston?

Also, this means that my 26th birthday is on Sunday, the day after Talk Like A Pirate day (and the day after we supposedly have a barn concert, though the guy hasn't been very good on the communication front). I'm quite looking forward to being 26. I figured it's something I've never tried before, so I might as well go into it with an open mind. Who knows what the next year will bring!

My family should buy stock in Eastside Hospital.

My mom created a Facebook profile for our dog, Cody. (This is laughable in and of itself, especially when you look at his favorite books, movies, and music. Y'all should friend him, btw.) Anyhow, Mom went outside to take pictures of Cody for his Facebook and she stepped in a hole. She pulled her leg out, realized her foot was at an odd angle, and called Dad (who was on the back porch) to come help her. So Dad, 2.5 weeks post-knee surgery, hobbled over, helped her into the car, and took her to the hospital.

Mom's ankle is broken. She's at Eastside on some good drugs and will have surgery tomorrow to fix it. She'll be there for a couple of days, probably. Dad called to tell us. Mom seems to be doing okay- she's drugged up and is finding the humor in the situation that both her AND Dad will be on crutches for awhile. They're amused (and so are we) that she was *just* there 2 1/2 weeks ago for Dad's knee replacement surgery and now she's having surgery to fix her broken ankle. Dad said that she was having sympathy pains from his knee surgery and then took it a bit too far. Ha ha.

Thankfully, Dad's emergency response includes grabbing the digital camera and they've already snapped photos of her foot twisted at the wrong angle and will continue to document as much of this as possible through the lens of a camera. I'll post any cool photos when they send them to me (or when I go over there next weekend for Easter).

In other news, I'm back from Jacksonville. I'll do a photo-update on that later. It was a great trip, though- chasingangie05 and I hung out most of the weekend, AND I got to meet thejoysofjess for the first time! So cool!

Congratulations to Amy, who got offered and accepted a book publishing deal with Harper Collins for her young adult novel, AS YOU WISH!

After over 10 years of writing, countless years spent editing and reshaping her novels, and searching for an agent for two years, she found an agent this spring who was excited to represent her. The agent sent out her novel to several publishing companies a few weeks ago and the response has been amazing! Amy had the opportunity to choose between several huge publishing companies that offered her great deals, in both monetary value and marketing. She chose to go with Harper Collins and they're going to do so much for her! I'm so excited. I remember editing one of her novels in our tenth grade math class- she'd edit one page, then pass it back to me. And now look at how far she's gotten!

(For any of you still wondering, this is what my previous squee was about. I just had to wait until it had become official!)

chasingangie05 rocks my world. She makes me giggle with her late night phone calls!

For Thanksgiving, Dustin and I went down to visit his family in North Florida. The last time we visited Lake City was over Labor Day, so this was the first visit since our engagement and of course everyone wanted to hear about it, see pictures, and see the ring.

He drove to Atlanta on Tuesday night and we left for Florida late Wednesday morning. The traffic was horrendous - we were in stop and go traffic for nearly two hours just south of Atlanta. Ugh. Once we got down to Macon, the drive went much better, and we ended up in Lake City after 6.5 hours (normally it takes 4.5 hours) of driving. I was quite relieved when we finally got to Granny's house and we could unpack and just get out of the truck for a bit. That night, we went out to dinner with Kevin and Kristen. It was so nice to see them and hang out again. I only wish we all lived closer to each other so we could hang out more often! Dustin officially asked Kevin to be his best man (awwww). Then we went home and talked to Granny for awhile before going to bed.

On Thursday, we woke up and went to Thanksgiving lunch at Aunt Sue's house to see his mother's side of the family. There was so much food! In my family gatherings, everyone is instructed what to bring, so all the dishes and food groups are covered. In Dustin's family, everyone makes what they wants, so you never know what you'll be eating until you get there. It's crazy, but cool, too. Anyhow, the food was delicious and there was much eating to be had. I stepped a way for a few minutes to call my family and wish them a happy Thanksgiving and request that a slice of peanut butter pie is saved for me. After lunch, we went back to Granny's and hung out there for awhile, sitting and talking with her. I worked on my senior paper for a bit before Dustin and I decided to go to WalMart to pick up some Christmas gifts before the Black Friday rush and see RENT! RENT was amazing. I was quite impressed. I wasn't too fond of the dream sequence part of Tango Maureen, the scene for "Take Me or Leave Me," and Roger's trip to Santa Fe reminded me too much of a 90's Michael Bolton music video. But other than those small things, the movie was incredible. I cried at a few parts, and despite the fact that I dragged Dustin to see it with me, he enjoyed it and actually cried a few times, too! If I had any doubt that we shouldn't get married, him crying over RENT sealed the deal. He's the one for me. ;-)

On Friday, we went to lunch with Dustin's father, Wayne, and his girlfriend, Molly. Dustin's sister, her boyfriend, and his cute five year old daughter came along, too. It was nice to see them again and get to talk to Wayne and Molly, even if I didn't have much to contribute to the conversation. It's a little difficult to join the conversation when they're catching up on how the town has changed, who's living where now, who's doing what, etc. But it was still very nice, and I hope we can get together with them next time we're in town! That afternoon, Dustin and I were planning on taking Granny to Gainesville to visit Aunt Sharon in the hospital (gallstone trouble), but Sharon was tired and wasn't in the mood for visitors, so alas, no trip to Gainesville. Instead, we met up with Kevin and Kristen again and ate dinner with them before they went back to Gainesville for the UF/FSU game on Saturday.

On Saturday, Dustin and I went to Lisa's wedding! On the long drive there, I worked on my senior paper a bit more, although it was hard to write a paper with a laptop on my lap and a book that Dustin was holding up so I could copy quotes out of it! The wedding was so pretty. The retirement community where the wedding was held was nice. The weather cooperated for her pictures, luckily. There were a bunch of older people there, presumably members of the retirement facility where Lisa works. Dustin saw a bunch of old friends from high school, although being the anti-social butterfly that he is, he didn't really go and talk to them. Anyhow, it was a lovely wedding, and I wish them many, many years of a happy marriage! After the wedding, Dustin and I went to his fraternal grandmother's house, to visit the rest of that side of the family. There were 10 of us gathered in the small den, but it was nice to see everyone. His grandmother seems to be doing much better than the last time we saw her. She had a stroke a while back (nearly a year ago, I think?) and since then, it's been hard for her to comprehend things occasionally. But when we were there, she immediately recognized me, said "Hi Elizabeth" and asked to see the ring (and then exclaimed "What a big diamond!" tee hee), and continued to be quite alert through our nearly one and a half hour visit. So that was nice. Afterwards, we went to Wayne's house 'cause I wanted to see the pig, Sarah, that they've had ever since Dustin was a freshman in high school. The pig is so freakin' huge! Apparently, she used to be sweet, but she's not so much anymore. I still want a pet pig, though. It'd be great! Then we went back to Granny's house and helped her decorate her Christmas tree and do other chores for her around the house.

On Sunday, we left early in hopes of beating the rush hour traffic back to Atlanta. While the drive back was shorter than the drive down, we still hit some traffic around Atlanta and Macon. But it wasn't so bad. We went to my house, hung out with my parents and talked to them about wedding stuff, and then went over to the farm to eat dinner with my family. Then we came back home, watched the Simpsons, and went to bed!

It was such a nice trip. I really wish I had had more opportunities to work on my senior paper, but it seemed every time I tried to sit down and write more on it, Granny would want to talk and I'd get sidetracked and talk to her for awhile, instead. I wish there was some way to spend Thanksgiving with both his family and my family, because there were some points where I just missed being with my dysfunctional family. Although his dysfunctional family made me feel right at home. :-)

My parents came by school yesterday on their way home from work to give me a giant present. They told me it's a "Party in a Box" and I wasn't allowed to open it (or the cake) until today, my birthday. I didn't want to open it without Christin (scottiegirlc) around, though, so I patiently waited until this evening.

Christin and I went out to dinner for my birthday, and then we came back, opened the "Party in a Box" in the Inman lobby, and had a party! Casey tworedmaryjanes, Liz missemerald, Adrienne adriennefriend, Mel delamancha, and Jimmy came to play, too. It was wonderful.
The pics behind the cut are from tonite's fun. I swear, we weren't drunk.

( Pics under here )

Thanks for the postcard, Matt mbstone99 (and Cris leo_the_lop)! When I checked my mailbox today I was so excited to see I had real mail. And I can't WAIT to see those bat pictures! Who ever thought there'd be a bat exhibit at an aquarium...

I had the most lovely chat with Steve tonight. It was grand.

I'll be tired as hell tomorrow in class, but it was worth it. Yea for wonderful friends. :-)

Things are finally starting to look up.

Mari rocks my world. *group hug*

I was looking through old e-mails for ASC's posting policy e-mail (because, you know, we have profs that send out political e-mails to the entire campus...dumb idea) and found some from last year's black cat mascot drama. These made me giggle:

My incoherent, exhausted room mate suggests "Tinkerbell can
rot in hell," to write on shirts, buttons and stuff. She keeps chanting
it. from Chantal

Hey, at the end of Peter Pan doesn't everyone clap to bring Tinkerbell back to life?
I think I want a button that says, "Do you see me clapping?" from Lindsay Cronk

(I still have my shirt that says that, too!)

It's brilliant! I keep thinking...
Hi, my name is (what?)
Hi, my name is (who?)
My name is tink-atink-a DUMB ASS MASCOT!
from Sara Guinn

And this year, they changed their mascot, thank God. The tinkerbell thing was so lame. Besides, the 007 theme is great and they definitly needed to take advantage of that. :-) Yea sophomores!

*this has been randomness brought to you by the letters T and A and the numbers 3 and 42.