Florida Wildlife Hospital

I had my first shift volunteering for the Florida Wildlife Hospital today. A lot of the things they do are very similar to the Four Lakes Wildlife Center where I volunteered in Madison but then they have things like tortoises and pelicans. I spent most of the shift feeding baby song birds including a woodpecker, mocking birds, blue jays, grackles, and some other birds. One of the birds had mites which I discovered by the wonderful creepy crawly sensation on my arm. Lots of fun on the first day. I also got to feed the pelicans which was awesome and amusing. I saw adorable little possums, a baby sand hill crane, and a baby red shouldered hawk. Afterwards I went to Devin’s and we made shishkabobs for dinner.

Art fair

Mom and I went to the art fair this the morning. It was a really nice art fair where there was actually art instead of a bunch of arts and crafts and there were a lot of different artists. One of my favorites was this guy who had fantastic underwater photography. Mom really liked one of the artists who used shells in her stained glass. Mom doesn’t envy them having to sit out for two days in the Florida heat. We tried to go to Devin’s restaurant for lunch however my GPS said that it was in the wrong place so we went to a place that served all organic food called the Jungle instead. It was really nice and they had waterfalls and fish tanks inside. Turns out they are hiring servers now so I dropped off my application. Then we spent a good deal of time at the beach which is always nice. It was pretty breezy and so I didn’t go surfing.

Mom came to visit

Mom came to visit me for the weekend (yay!). Yesterday I picked her up from the Orlando airport and on the way home we stopped at the Florida Wildlife Hospital and Mom attended an orientation session with me so that I can start volunteering there. I’m really excited about learning to take care of Florida animals like tortoises and pelicans. For dinner we picked a random restaurant on A1A, Enigma. It had really nice décor, a fish tank, and vegetarian food. On the way out we stopped and browsed jewelry tables that had been set up for a ladies night out event. I found a necklace that I liked so Mom bought the necklace for me for my birthday and also got the matching bracelet so we can have a mother daughter jewelry set. Then we headed to the beach.
Today we headed to the beach first thing in the morning and we searched for shells. After that we went to the Brevard Zoo. Mom got me a membership, which is the other part of my birthday present, so that I can go whenever I want for free. They have a really nice zoo, and since Florida has warm weather, the entire zoo is outside. We went kayaking through Africa and we got to feed nectar to the birds. My favorite animal was probably the bats. After to zoo we stopped by FIT so that I could check on my admission status and to check out the campus. The person there said that they were going to be reviewing applications in the upcoming week so hopefully I will be hearing from them soon.

Shooting stars

Devin and I went to Melbourne Beach late tonight to watch the Lyrid meteor shower. We both saw shooting stars and I made a wish on the one I saw (but I can’t tell you what it is). This is the only time I have headed out for a meteor shower and I’ve actually seen a shooting star. Normally it’s cloudy, or not dark enough, or I just haven’t seen one. Awesome night.

Kidney stones suck

Last night Devin took me and Grant (his puppy) to the Pizza Gallery and Grill which is the restaurant where he works. We sat out on the patio which has a lovely view and I had the Vegetarian Eggplant Stack which was incredibly yummy. I think just about every server came out and said hi to us. They also have a really neat fish tank inside with two types of puffers, an eel, and other nifty fish. Unfortunately, I got very ill afterwards (not from the food) so I headed home early and spent the night doubled over in pain on my bathroom floor. The next day Devin came over to watch a movie since we didn’t get to the night before and he brought me pop and crackers since I wasn’t feeling well. Again, I started feeling really ill so he took me to the emergency room. He even got me the hookup so I was seen as soon as I got there. They gave me drugs and did and ultrasound and a CAT scan. Turns out I had a kidney stone which they gave me pain meds for until I passed it. Kidney stones suck.

Surfing and sleeping

I don't have a lot to write about from this last week; I spent 7:30 to 5:30 everyday babysitting Kaden for which I will receive $100 (my first Florida income). Today I relaxed by, you guessed it, heading out to the beach. There waves were great (the surf report said 4 to 6 feet) if you are a surfer that has any idea what you are doing but were pretty brutal for me. I got tossed around in the waves quite a bit, enough that several people commented on how brave I was for going out. Don’t worry, I surf (or fall of my board) in an area with lifeguards. I recovered from my rough surf experience with a nap on the beach and then I searched the sand for shells.

Beaches and bars

I spent the day babysitting Kaden. Afterwards I hung out with Anthony at Paradise Beach until it started raining. He is also 24 and also moved to Florida from the Midwest. Later that night I met up with Devin and we went to the Getaway Martini Bar to see a live band play. The band's name was Rock Foundation and they were pretty good but not really my style. Still, it's always nice to see people really jamming no matter what kind of music. We had a very interesting conversation about rocks because we're awesome like that.

Yes Man

I went over to Devin’s for dinner today. He made Mac n Cheese which of course is one of my favorites. I brought over some Bacardi and fruit juice and we chilled while watching Yes Man. Normally I’m not a big Jim Carry fan (other than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) but this movie was awesome. I laughed the whole way through, although, the old lady thing may have permanently scarred me. I would highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it. And I have a new favorite quote which I stole from the movie: “The world's a playground. You know that when you are a kid, but somewhere along the way everyone forgets it.”

My first surfboard!!!

Happy Easter!!! It turns out that my Surf Festival CF card was ok and it was a different card that was corrupt so now I have my surf pictures (yay) but I don’t remember what pictures I had on the other card. I stopped by the Surf Festival while I was in the area dropping off job applications, however, there were absolutely no waves so no one was surfing. On the way home from Cocoa Beach I bought my first surfboard. Her name is Lola and she is a 6' 8" NSP Surf Betty.
Devin invited me to Easter dinner with his family since all of my family is very far away (I miss you all very much). I made cupcakes with bunny marshmallows and at Devin’s house I helped (a tiny, tiny bit) to make chocolate cookies and they turned out amazing. All of dinner was very, very yummy.

Easter Surf Festival

I spent the entire day at Ron Jon's Easter Surf Festival today and it was awesome. When I first got there they were finishing up paddleboard races. Then they had the men’s professional longboarding. The waves were only so-so but the surfers did a great job of catching them. I took my camera and the telephoto lens and took lots and lots of pictures. Unfortunately, it seems that the UF Card I used corrupted because technology hates me and so I only have the pictures I took after I filled up the first 2GB card. There were a couple of good ones of surfers hanging five. If you were wondering what the Easter bunny does before he hides eggs, he goes surfing (pictures of which were also on the corrupt CF card).
At noon they had a world championship stunt pilot flying and he did all of the crazy things where it looks like the plane is falling out of the sky and he made shapes with his exhaust.
I walked around to all of the vendors sponsoring the event and I got a tote bag from Geico, a Ron Jon Frisbee, and a bottle of suntan lotion from Banana Boat. I also got an “official” event posters signed by a bunch of surfers and an autographed photo of Ryan Helm. Since I’ve never really followed professional surfing I have no idea who any of these people are but it was a lot of fun anyways.

My first fish

I caught my first Florida fish today! Colby and I went to the river by the wildlife preserve in Merritt Island and fished from off shore using live shrimp for bait. I spent some time taking pictures of lizards on shore, pelicans in the water, and all the other nifty things around. We also saw manatees (yay). My fish was probably only twice the size of the shrimp I was using to catch it but I was very proud. I think he said it was a red snapper. Colby didn’t catch any fish but he caught a fishing pole. I feel inspired to start looking for whatever happened to my old tackle box.

More beaches and job hunting

I spent another lovely morning on the beach and for once I had some company. I met Michael (another new friend off of Craigslist) at Lori Wilson Park and we hung out at the beach. Today was really windy because there is a cold front coming in (supposed to get all the way down to the 60’s - *gasp*) and I now have sand all over my books, phone, and everything else that was in my beach bag. We still went swimming even though it was windy and I lost my sunglasses to a big wave and then found them when I stepped on them. We went to Coconuts for lunch which is a fun, tiki themed restaurant that has a patio overlooking the beach. After lunch I returned home for some more job hunting.

I love board games

Kame (my roommate) and I went out tonight and visited a couple of coffee houses. First we went to East Coast Coffee and Tea which she had a coupon for. There was a guy playing acoustic guitar and singing there; he was pretty good. Then we ventured off to the House of Joe which is across the causeway. They have a game shelf so we played Battleship which was fun. I can never say “no” to a good board game. When we got back home we played another game that I can’t remember the name of but you have a board that is a grid and a bunch of tetris shaped pieces and your goal is to get all of your pieces down and not let your opponent get theirs down.

Picnic and frisbee

I hung out with Colby again and this time we met at Ron Jons. We had a picnic on the beach where we were only minimally harassed by seagulls and then tossed the Frisbee around for the afternoon. I hadn’t brought a bathing suit since I wasn’t planning on going swimming which of course was a mistake because I always want to go swimming, especially after getting all hot and sweaty running after a Frisbee, so I jumped in with my jeans and tank top on and now I believe Colby thinks I’m crazy. Anyways it was a lot of fun but I still miss my Midwest friends.