New Friends and Good Food

Hello All!

So, I feel like there is not much to write about, but it's been awhile. Let's see..... Oh! Friday was my first day on crew. (or as Luke would like to say, on deck) ;) It was a verrrry long day, but it went fast! I am on harbor seal crew which means I work with all the tiny pups! They are ADORABLE!! Basically the whole day revolves around their feeding schedule. Because they are so little, they eat a lot! I learned how to tube feed a seal..which was kinda gross cuz I had to shove (gently) a tube down their esophagus and listen to them gag. Ew. Rach woulda loved that..hahaha. Anyway, it was really fun to feed the ones in "fish school." This means that we are basically teaching them to eat fish on their own. So I hold out the little herring and make it "swim" in the water and make sure the seal is tracking it and make them try to get it from me. It's pretty entertaining. But ya gotta watch your fingers! I think my least favorite part of the day was pen cleaning...yeah..those baby seals sure can leave big messes. Oh, and Friday just so happen to be the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony so we definitely had a crowd for every feeding. It was weird. I felt like I was in a zoo!

On Sunday I had to go to a rescue class as part of my training, taught by my boss Erin, to learn how to net and catch the animals in distress. It was hilarious. My boss and a volunteer, who I work with often (Lincoln), played the sea lions (seals don't really ever put up a fight,lol). And wow, did they go all out! They were pretty fiesty and we had to learn to net them, put them in the carriers while still in the net, and get the net out of the carrier. It was a lot harder that it looked! It was great though because we did it on the beach so we got a crowd of curious people thinking that we were rescuing animals when in fact it was my boss in the animal carrier. People were a tad confused when I human crawled out at the end,lol. Sunday was also frustrating. I felt like I was having kind of an "off" day. It was weird. Everything I was doing, I kept thinking..." I can do this better! Why am I not good today??" I think having the old interns around at work just really threw me off. I suppose I was just intimidated. Which doesn't take much with me. I just need to pray that this week goes better.

I had a really good day today though! It was the end of my "weekend" so to speak. I went to my friend Kelly's house for the afternoon and we just went shopping for a bit and hung out. She is SO sweet! Already talking about visiting me in Florida next year. She then gave me a stack of books to take home with me because I have been wanting to read more. It is so crazy creating a friendship so fast! It's just like we instantly clicked. After that my roommate Marielle took me to a free dinner at the Melting Pot! It was sooooo good! She works there and got employee of the month and got a coupon for dinner for 2. It was a very nice gesture...but ended up not being so free..ha. She got 2 different drinks which ended up totalling to be about $26. (plus she wanted to give the tip that it would have been for our normally $80 bill). So that totalled somewhere around $45. Oops. Sorry dad! lol. It was a really fun night though! Good bonding time. Then we got to talking about scuba diving and it made me REEEEALLY want to go for a dive! I miss it! I really hope I can dive before I leave here! They have great kelp forests over here, that i would loooove to see. But I bet it is uber expensive in cali too.

Tomorrow night I am going to the Wednesday night service at church with Kelly. I think some of us are going to go to the same coffee shop that we did last time to have a study afterwards. I am pretty excited about that. Also, Luke and I are ready crazy love together. I really like it so far! It just really puts things in perspective. We are so insignificant in this world! And yet we are so self-absorbed! Our life is like a flash to God. Not even. It's crazy to comprehend how short our life is in the span of eternity. And yet we so easily forget to live our lives for Him and not for us. Oh, and since I have been learning/struggling with trusting the Lord lately...this paragraph really hit home..i want to share it (because i am a natural-born worrier)

"Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what is happening in our lives. Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our patience, our lack of grace toward others, or our tight grip of control. ..... Why are we so quick to forget God? Who do we think we are?" It then goes on to give a great analogy...but it's kinda lenghty. You should just read the book..haha.

I don't know...it just makes ya think. Those are two things I definitely struggle with, but I have never really looked at it that way. This book definitely challenges you to re-evaulate the way we view ourselves, God, and how we live life.

It's weird...I have been really missing Florida lately. Never did I think that would be happening. Of course I miss the people that are there, but I actually miss west palm beach. The heat (well maybe only a little), the palm trees, the intracoastal, going to the beach whenever I have free time, just the familiarity of it all. I suppose it really is like home to me now. Another home at least. I don't know how I always end up writing so much on these things..haha. Oh well, hope you don't mind:) I love and miss all of you. Really. Anyone who is reading this...know that I really miss YOU!