Another long awaited return to the wild.

In the late summer and early fall, many species of birds undertake a long distance journey.  These travelers move through our neighborhoods and yards en route to warmer latitudes in which they pass the winter months.  Migration is a challenging time for the birds involved, and the routes they travel are fraught with both natural and human-created dangers.  It is also a roundtrip flight, and those birds that arrive safely on their wintering grounds have but a few months to recover before they must face the dangers again on their return journey in the spring. Invariably during these times of mass movement, the Wildlife Center receives feathered travelers that have succumbed to one of the dangers they encountered.  Migration is an unfortunate time to suffer an injury as, depending on the severity, treatment may require a bird to be in care so long that he or she misses the window for migration entirely.  Such was the case for five migratory birds received by the center in the summer of 2010.

One of the poor birds attacked by a cat. See all his wounds?

Three of the birds we received were Black-headed Grosbeaks.  All three were juvenile birds that were attacked by outdoor housecats.  The first was admitted on July 15, just a few weeks before his migration was to begin.  His body was riddled with punctures and lacerations and he was missing some of his flight feathers and all of his tail feathers.  The second and third grosbeaks came in on August 19 and September 12, and both had various puncture wounds and lacerations from their cat encounters.  All three birds required antibiotics and other treatments that pushed their recovery times well beyond when the rest of their kind had vacated the state. The other two injured travelers were Swainson’s Thrushes.  The first arrived on September 7, and the second on September 21.  Both were admitted with head trauma and other injuries resulting from window collisions.  Like the grosbeaks, the thrushes’ recovery period extended beyond their window for migration.  

Releasing the birds long after their migration period had ended would have created major hardship for them.  They might have become confused and stayed in the area, likely perishing during the winter.  On the other hand, they might have tried to continue on their migration.  Traveling out of season, without the added safety of a flock and having just recovered from life-threatening injuries, they would have been unlikely to survive.  Transporting them south by car or airplane was also a risky option.  Not only would that have been extremely stressful for the birds, it would have required guessing, with a high likelihood of error, where the birds’ migration would have ended and then transporting them across state and international borders to get them to that location. Given the available options, the most responsible choice was to keep the birds in our care until the rest of their kind returned to the state in the spring.  This would allow us to release them in the right place at the right time, and the birds would not be faced with migration until several months after their release.  So, while their fellow flock members continued south to winter in the tropics, the five wayward travelers at the center settled in for what promised to be a very long winter layover.  

And it was a long winter.  In fact, the cold days stretched well into spring; but the birds thrived with a little assistance from the staff in the form of several heat lamps that were strategically placed in their aviary.  While they were no real substitute for the tropical sun, they were clearly welcomed by the grosbeaks and thrushes.  The birds regularly basked under the lamps throughout the winter and early spring as they waited patiently for the warmth of the sun, as well as others of their species, to return to Washington State. In mid-May, Black-headed Grosbeaks and Swainson’s Thrushes came flooding back into the Northwest from their southern wintering grounds, and it was time for those that had been left behind to rejoin them.  As the forested property is a well-used stopover point for migratory birds, the releases took place just outside the aviary door this last week.

Watching us from the roof right after being released.

The two thrushes that had spent the winter wasted no time dawdling when they were released.  One vanished into the high branches of a Big-leaf Maple tree while the other disappeared into a low tangle of ferns and bushes nearby.  Two of the Black-headed Grosbeaks were released at the same time, and both of them lingered for a short while to get their bearings.  One of them took an interest in the local plant life, nibbling first on the budding leaves of an alder and then those of a nearby maple.  The other grosbeak landed on top of an aviary adjacent to the one that had contained him.  He looked around inspecting his surroundings and the nearby humans who had been his captors.  Eventually both birds disappeared into the forest, returning to the correct place both in time and space. So, what of the third Black-headed Grosbeak? He is still with us hopping around the centers massive grounds.  He is the bird that had lost many of his feathers, and he did not begin to grow new ones until spring arrived and brought with it a hormonal shift.  But they are growing now, and by the time you read this it is very likely that he will have followed his former cage mates back to the world in which he belongs.  When he and the four other survivors begin their long journey south in the fall, I hope that they will arrive at their destination safely, with no repeat of the trauma that brought them to the Wildlife Center.  You can assist them in their migration by doing your part to keep them safe from cats, windows and other human-created dangers they may encounter along the way.     

after being released one sampled the local vegetation.

The last few exciting weeks in wildlife.

Animal intake increased sharply in June as a wide variety of orphaned birds and mammals came through the center. Among the orphans received were six young Barn Owls. Five of the owlets were sent to us from east of the Cascades after they were anonymously left in a box on the doorstep of an Animal Shelter. The sixth owlet was found in Maple Valley and came to us after it was dropped off at the Seattle Animal Shelter. Other than a little dehydration, all 6 owlets were all in decent shape on arrival. Over the past few weeks the Barn Owls have been eating and growing, shedding their white, downy feathers for more adult looking flight, tail and body feathers. All six have been sharing a large outdoor aviary and have become capable flyers. When you enter the cage, the owls tend to huddle together and put on elaborate displays of "mantling" and "toe dusting." Mantling is a display in which the birds spread their wings, puff out their body feathers and spread their tail in an attempt to look larger than they really are. Toe dusting is often done in conjunction with mantling, and it involves the owls dropping their heads toward the ground and swishing them back and forth quickly. The combined activities are meant to deter a potential predator from coming any closer, and the impressive wing spread combined with the bizarre movements really can be intimidating.  The effect is amplified when several owls are doing it together.  I took some pictures recently when I entered the cage to check on the birds and count how many mice they are eating or not. They are now all doing individual live prey tests and all seem to be getting passing marks. By the end of July all of these Barn Owls should be ready to return to their home in the wild

One of the cases that was also brought in recently was this poor little chipmunk who homeowners discovered the hard way that mouse traps do not make a distinction between mice and any other small animals that might try to take the bait.  In this case, a Townsends Chipmunk had investigated the snap-style trap that had been put outside in the hopes of reducing the number of mice on the property.  The sound of high pitched squeaks prompted them to check their trap, and they were horrified to discover the injured chipmunk caught in its spring-loaded grip.  After freeing the unintended victim from the trap, they brought him in for treatment. The vet found that he had suffered serious head trauma.  In addition, he was bleeding from a wound by his right ear and both the radius and ulna in his right foreleg had been fractured.  He was treated for shock, given medications to reduce swelling in his brain and injured leg, and started on antibiotics to prevent infection in the wound by his ear.  He responded well to treatment.  Over the course of the following week the chipmunk slowly recovered from the head trauma.  His fractured leg began to heal and soon he was moved to an outdoor enclosure to continue his recovery. As of this last Tuesday the chipmunk was bright, alert and doing well in his new environment.  In the photo you can see that he is favoring his right forelimb.  He uses the leg when running and climbing, but it will still be some time before it is fully healed and his soreness subsides.  Fortunately though, he is expected to make a full recovery. 

how cute is this little guy

One  more that came in last week when I was there was  a bird found because a guy had walked out into his yard and saw something fall off of his roof.  When he investigated he found this Red-breasted Sapsucker sitting on the ground, seemingly unable to fly.  He scooped the bird up, placed him in a box and brought him for care. During the sapsucker’s intake examination, rehabilitators noted some bruises and swelling over the bird’s breastbone and pectoral muscles.  The bird also seemed weak and depressed.  Although the man who found the sapsucker had not seen it happen, the birds injuries were consistent with his having collided with a window. Over the next few days following his admission, the sapsucker was provided with supplemental heat, fluids and supportive care.  He slowly began to perk up and by day four he was able to make short, controlled flights.  He was moved into a large, outdoor aviary that is specialized for housing woodpeckers.  As of Tuesday he is continuing to improve and is expected to make a full recovery.

Isn't he pretty?

The last week or so have been super exciting at the wildlife center. The big news is that 6 of our bear cubs got to be released this week and it’s so happy that they get to go back to a hopefully long life in the wild.   I wasn’t around for the first release when four cubs went to the Washington Cascades but I heard from people that it was pretty chaotic. Fish and Wildlife officers are heavily involved in these releases so between them, the normal vets and rehabbers and volunteers, and the two news stations that wanted to film it, you can imagine how many people were witnessing this big event.  When they get the bears to the location of choice for the release. They are greeted by a bunch of mean bear chasing dogs and shot at with bean bag pellets to help encourage them to stay fearful of humans and run far into the brush never looking back.  I’m sure sad to see them get this distressed, especially for such a happy event,  but it’s a very much needed step in the release process to help ensure they never develop captive tendencies or ever think humans are good.

 I stole this picture from the website since I wasn't there.

 I was around this last Tuesday when two more got to get darted and loaded up to travel down to Oregon where they will be released. It was a much easier process both cause this time it was only two animals involved, but also cause we had some many less bears in the center that it was easier to tell who was who in all the chaos.  After getting them all loaded up on the trailer we got to unload what Oregon fish and wildlife brought us in exchange.  They brought two emaciated harbor seals and one very very sick looking elephant seal.  Unfortunately the elephant seal got checked out first and it was discovered very quickly that he had a very advanced case of a deadly disease and we had to euthanize him right away. But the two harbor seals seem thin but had no underlying immediate issues so they were admitted and given happy little pools to hang out in to see if we can get them fattened up and back into the wild. I had never been able to get that close to a real life seal before.  I was able to touch him and feel the cool kinda fur all over his body. It was so cool and I was  given the chance to learn how to tube feed the thing,  and besides a bunch of struggling I managed to do a fairly successful job of it. Afterwards I couldn’t help but think about how freaking cool my dad would have thought that was,  and once again I was struck by a moment of sadness he isn’t around to share all these experiences with. I know he would be proud of his daughter handing the marine life like that. 

After his tubing..

the other one.. don't they look sad.

 My life has been so much more fulfilled ever since I started to volunteer here. I have widened my knowledge on so many different animals. I have made some truly awesome friends, and I have done some things that are really incredible and would never had been able to do if not for taking the time to work hard and give my time. It’s such a weird thing to know that even in a tiny way I had an impact on some creature here.  Its one of the best things that I do and I look forward to all the time I get to spend there.

My date with Clayton

I had a weird date yesterday. I tend to find that I have more weird date’s then good or even really horrible dates.  I’m disappointed that this date turned out to just be weird because I had high expectations.  But looking back, I know it was foolish for me to have any sort of expectations because you would think that by now I should know better.  Like most of my dates lately I men him online. He is a few years older then me. OK honestly he is ten years older then me being 42. This is not a huge thing because I truly believe that age is just a number and the quality and characteristics of a person can really be ageless.  In my 32 years so far I have met fifty year old's who have the maturity level of a twelve year old, and I have seen the opposite as well, where the person may have had to grow up by the time they were 12. Maybe I am more attune to this though, being as that is how I have always considered myself to fit.  

Anyways back to my date. His name is Clayton, he’s 42, and like I mentioned we met online.  He had an add and I think I found something appealing in it so I thought I would take a chance and respond. Here’s the thing about me. I know that being a bigger woman I have a harder time finding people who are attracted to me… and whatever I deal. I mean I know that if your throw me in a room with 100 guys only one or two will take the chance and want to talk to me. Then out of those two maybe one will be a little attractive to me. Then if by chance those two things mesh up, what’s the likely hood that we'll have anything in common or things to talk about.   If by chance all those things just happen to fall in place, then what’s the chance that we'll be looking for the same things or what not. I mean with odds like this why do I even bother with dating. It’s almost easier to just not and accept that my life is full and happy being by my self.

But then people like Clayton sneak in and shake up that theory. See he had a nice add. He seemed to want the same things as me and he even had a few pictures so as much as I could tell he seemed fairly cute.  He mentioned nothing about what his ideal woman would look like. So that made me a bit nervous, because like I said being big is usually the thing that ends it before it starts.  So anyways, I took this shot by answering his add and send off a random reply in return. Much to my surprise he sent one back and a nice dialog developed between us. Some where along the next few messages we exchanged pictures and he had nothing but awesome things to say about me and he seemed to look his age but was more distinguished then old looking.  The nice thing was that it seemed like we had very similar writing and speaking styles and were quickly discovering that we had a fair amount in common as well. The few days of exchanging letters were enjoyable and when he suggested meeting I felt no hesitation.

This brings us to the date.  Now I’ll admit that I have had some truly horrible dates. In all honestly most of them in the last ten years have been so. But I still approach each on with optimism and think the very best. I mean I know dating is what I have to do in order to find that person who is going to change my life forever or completely or whatnot… Or heck even just fill some time and keep me company for a bit.  So Clayton does that super annoying thing where he wants me to pick the place to meet. He says it because he is new to the area and doesn’t know anywhere, but in actuality its cause he is an indecisive man who can’t make a simple decision.  I suggested a local restaurant near my work that has a nice outdoor seating area and a variety of food choices. He agreed and we made plans to meet at five on Saturday.   When I arrived at the restaurant I noticed that in person he seemed less distinguished and more just old. His face was pretty weathered like he had had a life time of shit happen to it. He was dressed as I would expect for the casual restaurant and he gave me an awkward hug. He was a nice guy who had a bunch of stories to tell and we had good conversation. I wasn’t super attracted to him and didn’t feel this huge jolt of chemistry, but I was enjoying myself immensely so I kept an open mind.

After the dinner he asked if I wanted to take a walk to down to the beach, one nice thing is that we have this shared love of the ocean, I agreed because like I said I was truly enjoying myself. As soon as this walk started he became all touchy feeling. Wanting to hold my hand… (Awkward) he wanted to put his hand all over my butt… (More awkward) and then he started to tell me all about his herpes infections. How he has had mouth herpes since he was a child and had been exposed to genital herpes when he was married to one of his three wives. Yes he has three ex-wives that he talked about on this first date. (Lol a common trend for me in my dates)   Now I know herpes isn't a total deal breaker and that many people have them, or carry then with out knowing, or even have them and never have outbreaks and could spred it to others.  But I still thought it was kinda presumpious to jump right into the genital herpes talk on the first date. But again I had an open mind so I asked him some quiestions about  his herpes. He did that thing where he just seemed to write it off as it was nothing. I mean he had no knowlege about the disease and just played it like it was so unpreventable and not a big deal. But like its obviously unpreventable.. in my 32 years I have never gotten it right. And It was weird that I seemed to know more about the medical side of herpes then he did when he was the one with it.  I mean these were all bad signs but oddly I still wasn’t totally turned off. I still felt enough enjoyment with our conversation that I was willing to give the second date a chance and see him again because I mean first dates are always kinda weird. I told him as much when he asked me how I was feeling a little later. I said that I had this really nice life and that I filled my time with a job I loved and activities that bring me joy. I told him that I didn’t have a ton of time but would love to find that person who supports me in it all. Again we seemed to be on the same page.

As we walked back he again tried to get pretty grabby and I had to kind of put my foot down on it. We got back to my car and he asked if he could kiss me good night.  I wasn’t in any way feeling this so I told him nicely that I don’t kiss on the first date. We talked about going out again sometime and saying that he would email me tomorrow. I left feeling ok. I mean it wasn’t perfect but it was enjoyable and maybe that would be something to grow and build on.  This morning I got an email from him asking if I would consider a casual relationship and talking all about how touching me aroused him so much. And it was all sexually charged and downright dirty!  I was shocked! I mean here was this guy who I thought I had done all the right stuff with and once again I was being asked to be some lame ass  disrespected friend with benefit.    I mean he is divorced three times, herpes ridden and old. Yet I was willing to see how it played out and take a chance on another date. I had an open mind right. This was so crap.  It was like he heard nothing I said all night and the date was moot. I thought I had made things clear and spelled them out really well. And even worse he made it seem like he not just agreed but was one the same page. So what’s the deal universe? Don’t I get to have a break sometime? I mean I’m a good person, I’m not desperate I have zero expectations anymore. But can’t I just not have every date end in disaster? Now I’m back to just being bitter and angry and unwilling to even want to put myself out there again. I mean who needs dating when that’s how it ends up right?  I’m sure it will fade in a little bit and I’ll return to my normal, happy and optimistic self, but until then I’m going to revel in all this bitterness for a bit.

Erin

So continuing on in exploring my early relationships and how they have affected my life. This is the next installment. Enjoy.

I know that I had told you about how I had to move in 4th grade and that it wasn’t really the best experience for me. Well at some point at the bus stop down the street I started to be come friends with another rider named Erin and soon my life improved greatly. Erin became my end of elementary school best friend although I hate to say it she also became the first friend to really show me how much friendship can hurt you too.  But again I’m jumping way ahead of myself.  Erin lived down the street from me and that because one of the things that kept us so close. She was the person who when I was just bored I would be able to walk down to and hang out with even if just for a few minutes. She was more popular then I was but it was ok because I never really lost that new kid persona and she didn’t seem to mind much. Her family was super nice and always welcomed me into the house. We were able to have many sleep over’s both at her house and my house equally.

 Erin was one of those friends who liked to come to my house because she thought my brother was cute. He also seemed to like Erin because a lot of the time I remember my brother being in the back ground as Erin and I hung out or watched TV. Erin was the person who introduced me to many of the TV shows I wasn’t able to watch at home. She and I would ride our bikes around the street and visit various other kids that lived around the area. We would go on these huge adventures in the back yard creating different imaginary world and stories to act out. Sometimes other kids would be involved but mostly it was just the two of us. I don’t really remember how the dynamic of our friend ship went. I can’t recall if one of us was the more dominant friend or if it was shared equally.  All I know is that for two years it was nice having that best friend in my life again that person who I tell everything to the second it happens and who I can count on to be around no matter what.

 I do remember having random fights. Once I remember that she was “gong out “with this kid in our grade named Scott. Scott used to come over a lot and she would always want me to be there with her because she didn’t want to be alone with him.  I never minded cause hanging out with them was fun but at some point I remember her getting upset cause Scott started to talk to me a lot more then her. I think because I was just the goofy friend who didn’t feel the need to act impressive or anything like she did. It was all just innocent but it caused a fairly big fight between us.  But like all those dumb fights eventually friendship ultimately won out and we recovered and went on like nothing happened. 

The summer after elementary school is the summer that changed my life forever. I remember that I was going on a family vacation early on driving back to Wisconsin to visit my mother’s family with her and my brother. Erin gave me a cassette of the pretty woman soundtrack that quickly because all I listened to for the ride.  Having to take this trip meant that I missed out on things that were going on at the Jr high we were going to attend next year but I trusted Erin to figure out all the details for me and fill me in when I got back.   I came back and eagerly went to her house to hear all about what I had missed and it was obvious that something had changed. She just seemed kind of distant and wasn’t very excited about hanging out. As summer went on we both took a few other trips and also sometimes did fall into the normal groove of our friendship. I remember one day spent that the local pool having a blast swimming all day together and riding our bikes back home as if nothing had ever changed. 

Pretty close to the end of summer my family had planned on taking a tri p up to Canada with my father to a lake and doing some fishing. Almost right before we were scheduled to leave my dad said that he wasn’t able to go and instead my brother got to invite his close friend to come instead. It was a fund trip spent at the lake with the boat able to go fishing and swimming. When we returned a few days later my father sat me and my brother down, and told us that the reason he wasn’t able to come is because he had this disease called ALS. It had made it impossible to fish because his hands didn’t work anymore to do small things, and eventually he was going to die from it. He said that he and my mom had held off telling us because they wanted us to be older and able to handle it but that if he had come on the trip it would have been obvious because you could tell something was wrong.  It was to this day the worst thing I have ever been told and honestly how do you handle that news? I remember my dad asking if we had any questions but I have no clear if either of us had any. I just remember wanting to get out of the house as fast as I could. I instantly decided to head over to Erin’s and tell her the news. I mean she would know what to do with this info and she would help me to process it. She was my best friend right. I remember going to her house and her dad answered the door assaying she was at the doctors but would be home soon.  I walked up and down the street bawling my eyes out waiting for her to return and finally I saw her car pull around the corner. I told her the news about my dad expecting some symphony or sadness, but surprisingly she said she was sorry but couldn’t hang that night and I had to go. It was very much not the reaction I was expecting.  But I felt better having told someone else about my father so I went home and dealt with my family about this huge news.

 Two days later she called me and asked me to come over. I walked down to her house and she told me that she no longer wanted to be my friend. She said that she had been feeling like this for a few weeks now and that she had talked to her mom about it and her mom agreed that if she wasn’t happy she shouldn’t be my friend any more. That was it. OK to her credit she may have told me reasons why she didn’t want to be my friend anymore but with all that was going on in my life I have completely forgotten them now. And honestly is there any sort of good reason to say that to someone. I mean what 12 year old wants to hear that they aren’t good enough o to be your friend anymore. Especially when your timing is so crappy that you make this announcement like days after that said friend found out her father is sick and dying. What a horrid thing to do.

Erin took away a huge chunk of my innocence that summer. She hurt me more then I could ever imagine; and she showed me that friendship, even at its very best, can be taken away instantly and unfairly. It made me not ever want to have someone hurt me again and I think from that point on I started to build up walls to prevent people getting close.  A week later we started JR high.  She seemed to be totally unaffected by loosing me as a friend, quickly resuming with the same group that we had in elementary school and being part of that popular crowd. Me I was lost. I didn’t feel like I had any friends and my dad was dying. So I mean, how do you make friends with that being the huge event that occurred over the summer? How was your summer vacation Martha? Well it started out great ,we took some trips, but now my dad has this super bad disease and is going to die soon.  How about you? I mean imagine being 12 and having that conversation over and over again with fellow 12 year olds.  This is probably what started my road to hating school.

I was miserable, more miserable then I had been before and I didn’t know how to deal with any of it. I didn’t feel like I could talk to anyone and everything in my life just felt awkward.  So I threw myself into the only area I loved which was singing. I stopped trying to talk to my dad,  I yelled at my mom a lot,  I grew distant from my brother, who seemed to have a million friends around to support him and help him figure it all out and made it all seem  so easy,   instead I handled stuff alone. I became quiet, recluse, and shy.   I lost the things that made me the funny, loud, confident and vivacious kid I once was. 

 It’s weird, even now looking back I feel a lot of bitterness towards Erin even though I rationally know that I can’t blame her. The timing of life just sucked for  me that summer, but for some reason I still have a lot of resentment towards her. Maybe it’s just nicer to blame someone for making my life miserable instead of blaming nobody for making my dad get sick.  Who knows? What I know is that I don’t hold her responsible or anything, and honestly I don’t have any sort of ill will towards her. She was just a kid as well and honestly probably didn’t understand how her actions were shaping my life that day. And heck maybe I legitimately did something horrible, that was totally worth ending our friendship over.  I don’t honestly know. I just know that the whole thing sucked ass and I have never really been able to move past it.  And sadly I still tend to keep people at arms length, because what Erin did teach me is that even the best friendships can be over in just an instant, so don’t allow yourself to get to close to fast. Not the best lesson I know, and trust me I am trying hard to break these habits.  But it’s hard to, its really hard.

baby shower weekend

I just got back from my best friends surprise baby shower. In the end it didn’t turn out to be a total surprise for her, but it did turn out to be fairly fun.  My best friend is named Heather and she has been my best friend for like 13 years. Soon I’ll post the story about how we came to be best friends but for now just know that she is. She lives over in eastern Washington and her and her husband have been trying to get pregnant for almost 10 years now, being unsuccessful until 8 months ago when suddenly out of the blue she was. 

 I knew that I wanted to plan this party for her almost from the beginning. I mean found out she was pregnant like the day she did, and I instantly felt nothing but joy for the fact that her life and family would finally be complete. I have spent so much time with her talking about how important a family and children are to her and her husband. I’m not going to get into her whole journey because she has her own blog that you can read if you want to know about it. I just want you to understand that this was such a huge shock and surprise to them.  I almost instantly thought that after 9 years of trying the very least she deserved is a kick ass baby shower.   Here’s the problem that I almost instantly ran into. Well honestly there were two problems. The first is that they live across the state from me and two they both happen to have almost zero friends. So you ask… how do you throw a baby shower from a different city for someone who has no friends? Well you end up with what happened this weekend.  But I’m regressing here…

So I found out that she was pregnant but she wasn’t going to announce it until after a few more months just in case. After she got the pretty much all clear I started my planning into action. I first started to talk to her about the baby shower. See she has family close to her that might have told her about doing a party themselves, but Heather kept saying that they repeatedly expressed disinterest in the whole idea. I then emailed Mike, her husband and told him my plan to do one. He was so excited because Heather had started to get a little miffed about the fact that after 9 years of trying for this baby no one really seemed to care about the fact that it was finally here. Because of how close I am to Heather, I knew that keeping the whole party a surprise would both drive her insane and also shock the heck out of her, so I made that my agenda: surprise party!!.

I contact her mom about possibly using her back yard for the party and she says that she just isn’t feeling up to having people at her house.  I then went on a quest for a location from across the state that would be ok for a party. There are a ton of parks in her town, but I didn’t want to have to worry about things like sun and bugs and weird random strangers walking around the party, so I instantly vetoed those. I then looked into hotel banquet rooms and rental spaces but those were kind of expensive to rent for the day, and many didn’t come with tables or chairs to use, so you would have to get those as well. I finally found this little building called a garden center, that’s basically is a little house in one of the huge parks where you can rent the house and the patio area for an afternoon. It includes tables and chairs and has bathrooms and a kitchen to use. I thought it sounded perfect. So I called the reservation number and found out that it was 65 bucks to rent and 100 extra for a deposit. I figured that was reasonable so I asked if they had any availability in June or a weekend day. They had one Sunday open so I jumped on it and sent off my check the next day. The only problem is that I had to pick up the key to the building on the Friday before my party, because city hall wouldn’t be open for the weekend. And due to some lame rule about renting the place and paying, I wasn’t able to allow anyone else to go pick it up for me, so I now had to take an extra day off work just to get this stupid key.

 Now that I had a location and a day fro the party I started on the invitations.  I could have sat and hand written all the invitations myself, but that would have sucked. So I decided that I would find cheap printed ones online. I found a place that was reasonable and made a very cute ducky themed invites, which I feel really stressed the surprise part of the whole party.  I bought them and waited the week that they took to get printed all while gathering all the peoples addresses from her husband and mom. I finally got the invites and have to say that I loved them. They were cute, but to the point, and all my info fit without being all annoying. I addressed them and send them feeling good about the amount of people I invited to this party (45 in all) then I just waited.

Around this same time her mother started to show some interest in the whole thing. I guess because I kind of took the rains and ran with it. She kept telling me about ideas and games she would like to play. I said that was fine because I didn’t really want to be in charge of games anyways.  I kept my focus on the few things that did really matter to me. One of the things I love most about Heather is the fact that she is a vegan. And that she stands proudly and strongly behind her vegan choices, and isn’t super judgmental about the fact that I am not a vegan. I knew that the one thing I could do to make this party super special is to make it an all vegan party. I started to look into vegan food options and lucky for me being in Seattle I have many. I ordered two different vegan cakes and got a bunch of food from places around town that make vegan dishes.   So at some point I guess Heather started to feel pretty depressed that no one was throwing her a shower and started to stress out about it,  enough that he mom sent me a letter asking if I could tell her that it was going on,  cause she was worried for the sake of the baby. I told her that keeping this a surprise was super important to me, but I would come up with something so that Heather would stop freaking out.  I started to tell her about this fake shower that her family was throwing her, and about how sad I was to not be able to go.  I spent the next few weeks having many conversations about how sad I would be to never see her pregnant, and how much I wish I could see her and such. The whole time planning this party knowing that she would be so shocked and happy.  I truly am kind of a devious friend, but I knew in the end the surprise would all be worth it.

The time had finally come and I guess I was all ready. I had the room all booked, I had my two days off work taken, and my hotel all booked for the four days I would be in town.  I had all the food packed up in my cooler including two different vegan cakes I got made for her. I had decorations in pink and yellow with duckies galore to make it all special.  I had a huge box of clothes I had been collecting pretty much from the second I found out she was pregnant.  I had about 9 RSVPs which isn’t all that many but that’s about what I expected with someone who doesn’t have a lot of friends. I had a bunch of gifts that other people sent to my house because they weren’t able to go to the party themselves.  I was set I guess, so away I went.

My drive over went fine. Nothing special happened and I enjoyed the time to catch up on various podcasts I had slacked on lately. When I got to town I immediately got the key to the building and did some last minute shopping.  Then I got really really bored, I mean I had a day and half to kill now. I texted Heather trying to fish for any idea that she knew I was in her city.  She and I had a conversation for a bit and eventually she made some comment about the party. I asked how she knew it was this weekend and she said that she saw the invite on her Grandma fridge. At this point I was like “crap” the surprise is all ruined. So I told her I had to get back to work (hahaha) and went to visit Mike at his job to get the scoop about what she really knew or not. He said that she didn’t know everything, just that the party was this weekend. He also said that she was kind of depressed about a few different medical issues she is having, so it might be nice for her to see me sooner then two days. He convinced me to go see her early so I drove to her house and surprised her ahead of time. After the shock wore off we quickly feel into our normal routine of weird random conversation you can only have with your best friend.   I was happy to have her too vent all the drama of the party to and have her share in it all herself.

 The day of the party went great as did the party itself. I mean I was a little sad that more people didn’t come, because it would have been nice with a few more. But I think the few who were there had a good time and most definitely enjoyed my awesome food spread I offered.  The room looked awesome and most importantly Heather and Mike had a nice time, oh and got a lot of random presents.  I guess where I want this post to go is just that this was one of those moments that I didn’t have to do. I could have easily said no and she would have totally understood. But being the person that I am, I never had that thought cross my mind. I mean here is this person who means the world to me, and they are finally having a baby after all this time and effort,  the least I could do is throw them a nice party right?  That was like the first thing I wanted to do and I am so happy that I was able to do it to someone who means so much to me.  The amount of money I spent doesn’t really matter because giving them a small something to show that I love them is worth way more. 

 I’m glad to be back home now and not have to worry about the party any longer. But as always as I drove away this afternoon I cried a little because of how much I miss having her around every day.  I love that I made the decision to move back to Seattle from that area, but leaving my best friend sucked. And now knowing that she is going to have this little baby that I don’t get to see all the time sucks too. I miss her so much and so many of the things I end up doing during my days out here include thoughts about how much Heather would like it ,or even how it would be so much more fun if she were here.  Over all it was a great weekend and a wonderful celebration that is long in the making to be had. I am so glad that I was able to give my best friend a super awesome surprise baby shower, even if I did ruin the surprise of it  all 36 hours beforehand because I got  kind of bored.  Spending a few extra days with her made it totally worth it in the end.

Tikal adventure day 2

So I made it up at 3:30 am to take my sunrise tour.  Of course I have to mention that at 3:30 am  its pitch black and you are walking around in the middle of a jungle. Its not like the paths are paved or lighted or anything. So of course I promptly tripped on something and fell on my ass. Lucky for me Greg my next door neighbor was on the tour as well and he offered to hold my had as we climbed up all the dark and broken parts so I felt much safer. Typical me being Klutzy right? What’s even better is that sometime after this I totally fell off one of the ruins and skinned my knees, basically I was standing there and suddenly I just fell. Even he couldn’t help but crack up. Sometimes I have no clue what is wrong with me.  But back to the point. The cool thing about being in the jungle this early is that you can’t see anything but so many of the animals are already awake and out foraging. You hear so many cries from the howler monkeys and rustling in bushes of things unknown.  After a long walk in silence we made this horrible climb to the very top of the tallest ruin, climbed to the very tallest point in the  whole park and sat watched as the mist in the jungle spread throughout and the animals all woke up and sang various songs. It was so peaceful and so amazing.   Just sitting there watching the world wake up. The howler monkeys were making all there crazy noises and at one point a coatimundi just walked out right in front of us completely oblivious of the tour watching it.  After about a half an hour you started to see a little bit of sun break out over the mist. It took about another 45 minutes until you could just start to see the peaks of the rest of the temples out of the mist.

the first break of sunrise

a little bit later

the first outline of a temple breaks through

A little bit more sun

a few more temples can be seen now

I have to say that I am not much of a religious person but being where so much of our world started and seeing things from the eyes that the Mayans must have every day, was as close as I bet I have ever been to having a religious experience.  We were lucky that morning because it remained kind of misty most of the morning so the wildlife was out in spade. A huge family of spider monkeys passed over us with babies in tow. They sat for quite some time in a tree directly above us enjoying some sort of berry or another. A little bit later we ran across a coatimundi having a little tussle over one tree with another male and it was pretty cool to watch.

one of the two who got in a scuffle

the other male on the look out

spider monkey just about to make a jump

huge tarantula

cool bird.. also very noisy

but it was just protecting its babies turns out.

wild boar just cooling off in the mud.

 We ended up having that same guide this morning as we had last night and that was nice because he had a lot of cool shit to say about the ruins. One of the parts I found the most fascinating was that this city so far has 3000 building or rooms that have been uncovered. But according to satellite pictures taken by NASA in the last few years really shows that there are about 10000 total that means that there are still 7000 different parts of the city that are yet to be discovered. It’s so crazy to think about these people taking all this time to build this city in a time when they had nothing to help with it. I mean it was mostly between 100 and 400 AD. Imagine all that work they did. All the things that they had to have perfectly in place and aligned. It’s so unreal looking back on.  The tour continued until about 8 am or so and over the next few hours we were able to make the climb to the top of a few more ruins if you desired. At this pint I was getting tired and hungry having not eaten or brought my water so I opted to leave the tour and just kind of wander back to the hotel on my own. I’ll admit that I had a few scary moments where I thought I would end up lost in the jungle because the path would suddenly end or just disappear into nothing. But I managed to find my way out and get back in time to breakfast.

One of the temples during sunrise

even all worn down its still pretty impressive

another ruin

 This is the one we climbed to the very top of to watch the sunrise

its so pretty here

part  of the plaza square

look at the tiny little people.. that's how tall these are

another of the larger temples I forget the number

The rest of the day I just walked around the jungle alone seeing the various ruins, reading about these amazing people and seeing tons of super cool animals that I know I would never see again outside of a zoo or something.   I took a crazy walk to this other ruin way across the other side of the park. On my way back I ran into some of the people I had met the night before and I joined them for lunch before waiting for the shuttle to take us back to the airport. I wish that I had another day to spend in Tikal but I had to leave that evening and return to Antigua as my tour had come to an end. I boarded the shuttle back to the airport and returned exhausted, broken cause of course I feel off one of these said ruins and hurt my knee pretty badly, sun burnt because of the up to 104 temps in the jungle,  but so fulfilled about taking the trip out. I had to suffer through a very annoying flight back that was running a little late and took longer the expected. When my flight landed I was worried my shuttle driver wouldn’t be waiting but much to my surprise he was and was holding the best name sign I have ever seen in my life. It said MRTA RYMRE TO ANTIGUA um how is that my name?  It ended up being quite a long shuttle ride from Guatemala City to Antigua partly due to the fact that I guess my driver wanted to run a few personal errands and make a stop to a friend’s house. Eventually he parked at the bus station and picked up a bunch of other people before finally getting on the road to Antigua.  Of course he had to drop me off very last. The funny thing was that right before he dropped off the last family at the hotel they were staying at he totally ran into a parked car. He didn’t seem to care much because he promptly just drove off and never looked back. I guess that’s what happens in Guatemala. It seemed to take forever until I got back to the apartment but in the end it was totally worth it and something that I doubt I will ever forget.  Even today I look back at the pictures and wish that I were still in Tikal.  It was probable the very best part of the trip and the part that made me feel the most like me. I got to be that world traveling social woman for those few days. It was nice.

during my final walk in the jungle

I wish I could have stayed longer