It seems as if life has been on autopilot lately. I wake up, fiddle around on the computer, do some random errands and go to work, repeating this same process five days out of the week. The weeks have been flying by in this autopilotish fashion. It's nice seeing that paycheck at the end of the week, but lately I feel as if I've been somewhat disconnected from how I really want to live my life. Here's a few of my realizations.

Realization 1
I eat shit. Working up to and over 60 hours a week sometimes combined with working a very mentally draining job makes cooking fine meals not so appealing. I've been trying but sometimes the need for (me time) gets in the way of a healthy meal. I don't go out and buy junk food, but I often exclude more than one food item for dinner. For instance, I'll bring a bowl of potato soup but no fruit, veggies or protein sources.

Realization 2
I haven't been exercising regularly. Juggling two jobs, I have found it difficult to set myself a clear pattern of exercising throughout the week. I sporadically get in a sort run in the morning or a ride in the mid afternoon before work. Sometimes I just feel too exhausted or mentally damaged from working with brain impaired people to motivate myself to go. Bottom line is; exercise helps keep me sane. It reduces my stress and running races gives me something to work towards.

Realization 3
Our lives are in danger. It didn't really hit me until Linsey's family came to visit, how often we hear ambulances, firetrucks or police cars roll by. Probably one every five minutes. Linsey's mom mentioned this while visiting and since then I've become more cognizant of all the crazy stuff around us. For instance, when traveling down to Fort Myers to visit more family, we didn't even make it to the end of our own street before someone cut us off and almost drove us off the road. Last night I was driving some of our residents to the movie theater and witnessed a car hit a cyclist. The man was able to stand up and walk away, but the funny part about it was the vehicle directly behind the guilty driver was a police officer. On the way back from the theater; the main highway heading up through Pinellas County was shut down from an accident that left a 22 year old girl dead. She hit a light pole, flew through her windshield and I believe she died there on the highway. There was also a eating establishment called Super Country Buffet, that was closed down for a few days for human trafficking a half mile from where I work. Stuff like this is a daily occurrence. Long live Florida.

Saturday was the Foster Grant World Championship Triathlon. Many of the top half ironman athletes from around the world came to Clearwater to compete against each other in what was for many, the culmination of many hard months of training.

Not only was I excited that the home base for the race was only about two miles away at Clearwater beach; I was also very excited that the bike portion passed right in front of our apartment! The night before the race, Linsey and I didn't get to sleep until 1-2 am, so I decided not to wake up early to see the 6:45am pro-start. But I did wake up at about 7:00am and was able to cheer on some of the bikers as they passed our apartment.


An hour or two later, Linsey and I biked over the causeway to check out the transition area/other stuff that was setup near the beach. We took a few pictures along the way and were fortunate enough to catch the womens 1st place finisher Britian, Jodie Swallow as she passed by heading in on the last 3-4 miles of her run.

The bike hangers and part of the transition zone.

Two riders approaching the transition zone.

View down the causeway.

This week has been a rough one; in and out of work. Our car is giving us headaches again, the residents are, well, being themselves but at a higher ridiculousness level than usual, and things just don't seem to be improving.

I believe that almost everyone, at some point in their lifetime, has always wanted to be a super hero of some form or another. Maybe Superman, deflecting bullets and swapping uniforms faster than Garavani's runway models, or Batman the caped crusader of the night, swooping in on his bad guy victims with the same finesse that Tom Cruise uses when mounting a sofa. I have always wished I could be immortal like Mr. Manhattan or the Specter, but I'm coming to realize that you cannot choose your own superhuman strength, it chooses you.
Therefore after much resistance to accepting my superhuman powers, I'm coming out to the world, letting all know; I am the Master of Redirection.

No, I don't physically unhand people who are so inclined to hurt other people. I don't step out in front of bullets, or leap from tall buildings to save damsels in distress. I don't have a long cape or even a cool costume unless you count my cycling spandex. Can't fly or even jump higher then Lebron. I don't even have a superhero logo for crying out loud! I wake up in the morning, put my blue jeans on one leg at a time, iron my shirt, pack my healthy dinner for work (not immune to cardiovascular disease either) and drive my car the seven miles or so to get there. This is where the magic that is my superhuman power is unleashed. As I said, I am the Master of Redirection, "Hey did you see the Rays game the other night?", "Where did you get that cool shirt?", and "Is that coffee you're drinking?" are my weapons of choice. These words will give the intended target a swift kick in their verbal bowels. The wrongdoers will hopefully forget who they were about to pummel or possibly what they were about to do long enough for me to come up with a solution or another redirection. To keep the story short, I'm pretty much a bad ass!

When James and I go to the beach, we enjoy doing a few things. We have a favorite parking lot we park our PT in (it has NEVER been full and is really quiet), we like swimming and riding the waves, and what I really like to do together is walk the shore and look for shells. The shore is a wonderful place for discovery and serenity. We tend to go to the beach later in the day, close to sunset and it is just awesome. The whole experience is calming, simple, and easy. We pick shells that we like, and it doesn't have to be a consensus--you just pick up whatever you like and put it in the bag. Nothing perfect, nothing worth a lot of money, just the shells or fragments you think are pretty or that catch your eye. We take them home and put them in our large, green bamboo bowl. They're like our little collection of the things we like about living here. The last couple of times we went, there have been jellyfish blooms (baby jellyfish) washing up on shore and they have been fascinating! They are just odd-shaped clear molds of gel. I think a lot of them are moon jellies. When you swim, you can feel them all around you (which is quite scary but once we realized that they are just blooms and that most of them are harmless, it wasn't so bad). The shore has so much to offer--so much to learn about! I've learned so much about tides, jellyfish, shells, and the beach from just walking and looking around! Its the only place here that I've felt a connection to nature (which I long for often) so we try and go as much as possible.

When I was in high school I was obsessed with oddball things like numerology and astronomy. Ten itself is a very lucky number according to numerologists.

I'm going to take a step back in time to our days in Ann Arbor. I was still busy working at my internship site in Novi, MI where I met a great friend/coworker named Cristina Noble. Cristina is pretty much who I want to be when I "grow up" in the sense of athletic capability and dedication. She's married with two active twins, works part time at Botsford, takes a karate class with her kids and does a crazy amount of other activities all while training for triathlons throughout the year.

It would be an understatement to say she's good at triathlons. She recently won a triathlon in Tawas, MI for the 4th  year in a row and last week actually qualified for Team USA, where I believe she will represent (US) over in Australia next year.

Knowing my interest in running and triathlons, Cristina told me about a sponsorship contest that she had just won with the makers of Snickers candy bars. Snickers has recently released a product aimed towards endurance athletes called Snickers Marathon Bars; a high protein/carbohydrate bar with a variety of vitamins for athletes who participate in any type of endurance event. In order to promote their bars, Snickers formed a marketing wing called Team Marathon, made up of amateur athletes who are given a mini sponsorship to help promote the bars. Any amateur athlete who wanted to participate had to fill out a few forms and submit them on the sponsor website. 200 winners from all across the US were selected for the sponsorship based on these answers and awarded a sponsorship package consisting of, a triathlon racing top, running tech t-shirt, cycling jersey, jacket, hat, running shorts, triathlon shorts and 200 Marathon bars to use and give away at events. There is no obligation to do any promotion of their product, but to have priority for next years sponsorships they give a list of requirements including, submitting race pictures in their gear, passing out bars at events, etc.

I submitted my info on the site and was notified last week that I was one of the lucky 200. A picture of the free swag I won to the left. All this sportswear is definitely not cheap, an inexpensive pair of tri-shorts or cycling shorts can easily go for 50 bones. They sent me roughly $300 worth of stuff. Can never have too many cycling Jerseys, running shorts or bike shorts. I'm hoping to meet all of the requirements so that I can continue a sponsorship with them next year. I'm not really a big fan of candy bars but I do really like the Marathon Bars.

Linsey and I ran our first race of the fall season today. Linsey hasn't been running very much in the past month so she definitely had a good workout today. I had to use some of my trainer skills to stretch her out after the race. Not a bad opener for me; I took fifth place in a crowd of roughly 150 people with a 6:20 min/mile pace. Nowhere near my prime but I thought it was a great baseline to start working from. I've been conditioning myself over the past month to get back into competitive racing shape, which I have not been in since the Grand Rapids Marathon back at the end of (2008?) I'm planning to do a half marathon sometime in January and then a full marathon a few months later to qualify for Boston. Probably do quite a few smaller road-races and triathlons in between time. Here are a few pictures that Linsey took at the race.

Passing out Marathon bars at the Ace of Hearts 5k race.

2nd place in age group, 5th overall in my new Team Marathon shorts!

Long day at work today, so to celebrate its end and the end of my first full time week on the job, I'm drinking our last Magic Hat #9. Down the hatch! Decent beer is extremely hard to find here. Local grocery stores only stock "name brand" beer, that is Busch, Budweiser, Michelob, bleck, bleck, bleck. Trust me, I check the beer isle in every grocery store that we've been to.

I may have mentioned this before but Florida makes it extremely hard for small breweries to distribute their beer, which in my snobish opinion is usually far better than the swill that takes up the majority of space in the beer isle of the average grocery store. I think this, almost more than anything makes me miss Michigan. Magic Hat is distributed in Vermont but it reminds me of all the small breweries that are so easy to come by in Michigan. You could throw a dart at a map of the mitten and almost always land within 40 miles of a small brewery. So as I roll my head back and allow the last remnants of the almost pale ale to travel across my taste buds; I give a salute to all the microbreweries out there. Thanks for being so delicious!

The new job has been very interesting and very stressful at times. I'm working in a house with four TBI residents. Between myself and the two other life skills specialists, we usually have our hands full. The residents are all great people, but its quite a chore keeping things flowing smoothly in the house. Some of them don't get along with each other, new medications are being tried, poor decisions made and craziness ensues. I feel like Mad Eye Moody from Harry Potter, "Constant Vigilance!" I've only been working there a week and I could already write a book about all the crazy experiences that I have had. Its an experience that I will definitely remember in the future.

I was talking to one of my coworkers towards the end of the shift tonight and compared working at Communicare to having a second life. I leave my perfect little world with Linsey and Neville in our perfect little apartment with hardwood floors, a comfy bed and healthy food in our fridge and enter a new world each day with the staff and residents of Country Side. I've already become quite attached to the residents and their quirky ways. Its a whole new life for these people and being the one responsible for finding their strengths/talents/weaknesses and helping them overcome and use these to their best ability is an enormous task. I commend anyone who does this kind of work and regards it as more than just a paycheck at the end of the week.

The past couple of weeks have been a blur of events, so to summarize a bit, I'm posting a letter I wrote to the employees at the Washtenaw County Health Department as an update on James and I (by the way, the title is in reference to a role-play situation I was in during our training at Communicare--I was a disgruntled client complaining about a roommate's cat that was "shitting on my shit"--sound familiar??):

Earlier this year, I had been pestering James about adding a kitty to our family, despite his reservations about the responsibilities that having a cat would include. I was not very good with the fish we had (James ended up being the only one that remembered to feed them daily and clean the fish tank) so you can understand why he was reluctant to move on to a newer beast. I reassured him that cats can cuddle with you, remind you they need to be fed, etc. So he made a deal with me--when we get jobs we can get a kitty.

Our fervent job searching may finally be over. Linsey had a premonition last weekend that the week ahead would be a fruitful one, and it definitely was. Linsey managed to land some freelance graphic design work at a few of the local screen printing shops and has been commuting to St. Petersburg for the past two weeks to fill in at a small design shop. We were also both called in for an interview at a place called Communicare, a group home type setting for rehabilitating people with acquired brain injuries. Our jobs would be to assist a group of residents with relearning life skills, such as cooking, making their beds, socializing, etc. We interviewed last week and have a second interview lined up for tomorrow afternoon.

I also had two interviews at Best Buy here in Clearwater this past week. They both went very well and I was  expecting to find out if I got the job some time this week, but haven't heard from them yet. I would be working in the home theater department. Not exactly the kind of job I'm looking for with my fresh bachelors degree, but a job is a job when the student loans start to dry up.

Last Saturday was a little sunnier than it has been the past week. We've been getting quite a few rain storms, which are refreshing, but make traveling about outside slightly difficult since you never know when the sky is going to open up. We used the break in the rain to go for a bike ride on Pinellas Trail that runs pretty much the entire length of Pinellas County. It was a great leisure ride, quite a few cross roads but not much traffic.

On the return leg of the trip, Linsey found a giant locust sitting out in the middle of the pathway. It resembled a grasshopper that had made its way into some sort of radioactive substance that caused it to grow to almost four inches long. The bugs are definitely bigger down here.

I've been doing a lot of biking lately. usually get in anywhere between 20-25 miles at least every other day. I've found that heading over the causeway to the islands on the other side is one of the best places to ride. Most of the roadways heading north or south have bike lanes on the side or the speed limit is only 20-25mph so it makes it pretty safe. I just started getting back into running yesterday. The biking has been a lot easier on my foot, which I believe may have a stress fracture from upping my running mileage a little too much a month ago. It still bothers me but not as bad as a few weeks ago, so I think a slow start back into running will be best. 

I went out for a run yesterday morning for the first time in more than two weeks. It was 10:00am and 82 degrees. For some reason, the sun seems extra strong here in the morning. You start to sweat almost as soon as you leave the house. I only did 2.5 miles and was completely soaked. When I go out for a run, I'll usually set my gps out on the sidewalk in the front yard to zero in on the satellites while I sit down on the steps to put my shoes on. The little lizards are always out there every morning and scamper into the shrubbery when I approach. I think it's usually the same lizards I see out there everyday. There's usually a big one that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 inches including its tail and a baby one that is only about 3 inches long that usually likes to stay close to the stairway to our apartment. They are extremely fast runners, almost seem like little darts being shot out of an invisible gun every time I see one fly by. I'm always scared I'm going to step on one or run one over when I'm biking.

To take a break from job searching and to have myself a little fun, I decided to teach myself how to use flash. Mike Johnson, since it's your birthday, you're the lucky first person I get to make fun of.

Okay, maybe it's not a contest. But gosh darn it--I wanna win enough votes for my design! Check it out here:Score this design: "Get Fit or Die Tri-ing," to help it get printed on Threadless!



(the design is still pending approval--but it should be approved in the next couple of days so keep checking back! I could win $2000 plus $500 in Threadless gift certificates!)

I had my first ever ocean experience yesterday. Linsey and I had been cramped up in the house for the past few days sorting through our boxes and looking for jobs so we decided to take a break and head to the beach. The beach in Clearwater is amazing. The sand is so fine that it feels as if your walking on baby powder, not to mention that it is probably the whitest sand I've ever seen. The waves were quite calm while we were there, only averaging a foot or two high with an occasional rogue wave that plowed into us unexpectedly. I was amazed at how warm the water was. I'm used to the great lakes where you have to run up to the waters edge and dip your toes in to see if it's feasible for the rest of your body to enter. The water here is even warmer than any lap pool I have ever swam in and the view down the beach is spectacular. It's littered with brightly colored high rise hotels and condos with carefully manicured lawns. Dozens of small shops ranging from surf shops to small tropical themed restaurants line the beach and many of the inland roads. We stayed in the water near pier 60 for roughly a half hour before heading back home for dinner.


This morning I went out for a bike ride around 10am when the sun wasn't at its hottest. It was 85 degrees and I'm still not acclimated to the heat so it was a rough ride. I headed southwest from our apartment and met up with a bike trail that runs almost the entire length of Pinellas County, from the southern tip of St Petersburg up to the north side of Tarpon Springs spanning a total distance of roughly 40 miles. I took the trail south about 6-7 miles and then took a small causeway over to the islands that line the west coast of Pinellas County. The picture from the left is on the island.
While I was heading south on the bike trail, I came upon a road crossing where a man driving what looked like an old Volkswagon had stopped to let me cross. The man had a huge grin on his face and excitedly waved me across the roadway. The man looked exactly like Michael Jackson, pale white skin, nose and all. I waved back to thank him and continued on my way wishing I would have had the sense to request a photo with him. The rest of the day I had Man in the Mirror stuck in my head.

If you are living in Michigan (and I'm sure you are given we only have three followers and they are all from Michigan) and you want to be transported to a land much different from the Great Lakes, look no further than Florida. We've been here a week and I have had a lot to reflect on here.

Study A: Flora
You've seen the pictures; palm trees, Birds-of-Paradise against the warm colors of the Gulf sunset. Well, it's sort of like that. There's palm trees everywhere--there are load of different types: hairy ones, stout ones, tall, Dr. Suess-looking ones. It's lush, wild, and green here. Unfortunately that green scenery you've just imagined is competing with the overload of vacant, 1960s-reminiscent, pastel-colored buildings here in Clearwater. There's ivy growing everywhere and these huge trees with what looks like moss hanging from them in almost every back yard. But I will say, it is beautiful here. The Hibiscus flowers on every corner just make you smile.

Study B: Fauna
If you love reptiles, this is the place to be. There are lizards everywhere! I have never seen so many of them in my whole life. Much like the flora here, there is a very dense population of animals that live here with us. That includes the laundry list of insects that make my skin crawl incessantly. Despite the insect population, the animals here are so interesting. When we went swimming in the Gulf yesterday, there were majestic Brown Pelicans floating and flying near us. They were so cool! Just the other day, we were driving around and we saw parrots perched on a telephone pole chatting away. I would definitely take that over Kill-Deer any day.

Study C: Climate & Its Effects
Looking for a quick way to lose weight? Try sweating 23 hours a day in 93 degree heat. That really melts the extra pounds off from all that horrible eating you did while making your way down 1400 miles of American highway. Yep, I can safely say that I have lost five pounds since moving here (although that may also be due to unemployment-stress too but I am sort of an emotional eater, so the cause is unknown). James and I have never taken this many showers either. You know it's hot when you set your air conditioning to 84 degrees and that feels cool. As far as weather goes, it's been really nice. We've had some rain but only at night. That same storm produced some crazy lightning! James really wants to experience a hurricane, but I can wait until we have some renter's insurance.

Study D: Environment
Okay, Uncle Mark. I'll admit it. Florida is one big strip mall. It seems like since the 1960s, when this land was really being developed, the city "planners" said "to heck with zoning and planning--let's make this a business party." Well, I think the party ended in the 1980s and what's left is mess of vacant buildings, too many of the same business on every street corner, and no local identity. Imagine, living in wonderful place like Ann Arbor, a city with a unique urban identity, with lots of progressive ideas being put in place, and urban planning. Now imagine moving from this liberal, crunchy, hippie-loving mecca to a city where everything is a pastel color, 85% of the population is over the age of 60 and you have to knock on your neighbor's door to make sure they are not beating their kid (yes, that really happened). It's been quite a change. But despite Clearwater's misgivings, the downtown has some character and I bet the more we get to know the city and the landscape, the less we'll compare it to lovely Ann Arbor.

Other Observations
James and I have come to the conclusion that parts of Clearwater are food deserts. We have Publix, but they are only in certain areas of town. Today we were trying to find other grocery stores around town and ended up in a slightly frightening part of town in place where we stuck out like sore thumbs. We bought some Faygo and left for Publix after that.

The job search has been a strenuous one. If I had a nursing degree, I'd be all set. But I chose public health because, well, I liked it and felt I was good at it. I still believe those things, but I'm coming to the realization that there aren't a lot of jobs out there that allow me to utilize my newly obtained degree and that is challenging. The skills that have served me well so far are my graphic design skills which I obtained in high school and working at a screen printing shop (skills I didn't have to pay for). Nonetheless, I am trying to find positions where I can utilize either or both degrees and even my minor in family studies. I might be given some freelance graphic design work from a print shop here in Clearwater so that's good news. I also just applied to a WIC clinic in Largo, a women's health clinic in St. Pete, and a brain trauma center here in Clearwater where I would be helping brain trauma patients regain life skills. I'm hopeful that something will pan out. Plan B involves me just starting my own freelance business and finding random work that way. I'm trying to keep my options open.

I know that this blog post has been a little cynical and, at times, negative about my experience so far but my visit to the beach yesterday trumped all of that. Talk about a prescription for SANITY. Feeling that soft, white sand between my toes and the warm waters of the Gulf made all my piss and vinegar dissolve. James and I floated, jumped with the waves, and just enjoyed being alive in those waters. That feeling of calm, beauty, and natural connectedness is what makes people flock to live here. The beach is my happy place. Along with our beautiful, little apartment. It's cute isn't it?

Something we're quickly learning about Florida is that although this place is overcrowded with humans, we're not nearly as dense as the animal population. Our second morning here, I was walking out of the bedroom and towards the kitchen when I saw something scamper across the kitchen floor and underneath the oven. I originally thought it was a centipede by how quickly it was moving, but after moving the oven out of the way I found a small gecko about three to four inches long including the tail. It was too fast and the oven too uncooperative to move, so that gecko has a free pass in our kitchen for now.

Linsey was getting ready to head out to meet a guy who owns a screen printing company this morning. She sent him her resume a few days ago and luckily he was interested in hiring a graphic designer. Linsey decided she wanted to wear her red flats and was just about to put them on when she noticed something slither down and hide in the toe portion of the shoes. A gecko! Not the same one either. This one was only about 2 inches long. I managed to capture it in a Tupperware container and took it out for a photo shoot. It was an active little thing, jumping around in my hand. After we manged to take its picture it darted for the floor and hid inside the processing unit of the computer for a few minutes before I managed to scare it out and recapture it. I took it outside in the Tupperware container and let it go at the bottom of the staircase. It was a Mediterranean Gecko, otherwise known as a House Gecko, since it is very commonly found residing in peoples homes. Its body has raised white bumps and a long stripped tail that is about the same length as the body. I thought I remember reading that this species is not native to Florida but has been doing quite well here. They are also hermaphrodites, so they can reproduce by themselves without their counter gender member.

This morning I woke up at 7:30 and went out for a short ten mile ride around the neighborhood. It doesn't seem to get below 80 here even at night, so I was sweating almost as soon as I went out the door. When I arrived back, I took a shower (a seemingly pointless thing to do around here) and then started unpacking the rest of the truck with Linsey. It probably took us about an hour and a half to finish and during this time I drank nearly two liters of water by myself. The rest of the day we spent unpacking things and moving furniture around to find the best place for it. Hardly looks like we unpacked anything. We took a break early in the day and went shopping for some supplies and then went out again later on to get some groceries. When we got back to the apartment we decided to take a break from the unpacking and go for a short bike ride to the beach out past the causeway nearby. Here are a few pictures.

This is from the top of the causeway looking back at Clearwater on the mainland. We live roughly a mile in the distance from this point.










This is looking out to the West from the top of the causeway at the island strip where the beaches are located.










Looking down at Clearwater again.












On the beach walk. Pier 60 is right behind us and the Gulf of Mexico is off to the right.











Pier 60 and the Gulf in the background. This is also where the swim for the world championship triathlon takes place on the left side of the pier.

When we arrived at the apartment the temp was 94 and equally as hot inside the apartment. Walking up to the front door, there were a bunch of tiny lizards that scurried off into the landscaping as we approached. Over the past two days, we've realized that they are about as abundant as grasshoppers in Michigan. We unloaded the car and started unpacking the moving truck, unloading about 1/3 of its contents onto our living room and bedroom floor. It turned out to be about nicer than we expected. Here are a few pics of the place.

This is the Living room facing the road out front.












                                                                                     Bathroom
















Dining room that overlooks the parking lot in back. We have a really cool tree that is growing in the middle. Its too dark to take a picture now so I'll post one soon.









The tiny kitchen :(

Tuesday morning we rented a Penske truck and began packing all of our belongings into it. The heat index must have been approaching 100 degrees by the time we finished for the day, so what better to do than go down to Washtenaw Dairy one last time before we leave the state. Wednesday morning we woke up at 6:30 and started loading more junk into the truck before Linsey's parents arrived. They helped us move the rest of the stuff, clean up a little bit and then took us out to eat breakfast at Nicks House of Pancakes. After eating we said our goodbyes and headed south to Louisville where we  were going to spend the night with my uncle Mark. The first leg of our trip was also the most eventful.

We spent over an hour waiting for traffic inside Cincinnati. The exit ramp to 71 that we were supposed to take in the middle of the traffic back up was closed so we circled around to try the exit on the opposite side which ended up also being closed. This left us no other choice than to hightail it through the back-roads of Kentucky in our Penske truck with the PT Cruiser in tow. The back-roads that we were traveling were most likely the narrowest roads that I have ever driven on. A small car would barely fit on one side of the road, let alone our large truck. The sides of the roads immediately dropped off to large pastures below and cruising along at 45 mph with semi trucks whizzing by on the opposite side didn't help.

Before telling the rest of the story I just want to say that we put that truck through hell. There were many times when we were climbing mountains, or going down them, when I thought that the engine was going to blow at any second. But we made it.

It was a particularly long hill that we were climbing on this back-road detour that we ran into more problems. We had been chugging up a very steep grade for about 1.5 miles in first gear barely going 10 mph, when all of a sudden the traffic in front of us stopped. The grade that we were on was so steep that I was afraid the brakes would not hold us for very long. Here are some pictures of the hill, they may not look very steep but believe me they were.
We waited about ten minutes and then a tobacco chewing police officer came down to us from the top of the road. He put his hand up on the mirror and talked for a few minutes, informing us that a semi had taken a turn too sharply and had gone off the road, blocking traffic in both directions. We put the E-brake on the truck and decided to walk up to the truck and watch since there was no way we could possibly turn around on the steep hill with our truck. We met a few truckers that were stuck there with us while we watched. One was from Tennessee and the other I can't remember. They both had southern accents and for some reason every time they said "tators" (potatoes), I had to stop myself from laughing. We learned a lot about trucking while we stood there, even learned a trucking joke, which I can't remember, sorry!


Eventually the tow truck arrived and after an hour of winching, they finally removed the truck without tipping it over down the hill. Another hour and a half later we arrived at uncle Marks house.

When we arrived, there was vegetarian pizza and cold beer waiting for us. We stayed up until past midnight talking with uncle Mark and Charlie. The next morning Charlie made us some scrambled eggs with toast and coffee. While eating breakfast we met Eugene, who was a friend of Mark and Charlies who was helping them with their candle business. We went out to the garage after dinner and checked out where Mark made his candles. He was currently busy making a whimsical line that were molded out of recycled containers. After perusing his collection we headed out for a short tour around Louisville. Here are a few pics!
This is an old bridge over the Ohio River that is being converted into a pedestrian bridge.

Here is where Louisville Sluggers are made.

After the short tour, we stopped at a Tai place to eat and had some great vegetarian Pad Tai. We stopped back at Mark and Charlie's and then headed on our way again. We had a great visit with them and look forward to the next time we can stop by!








We chugged onward through the foothills of Kentucky and the mountains of Tennesse and finally arrived late at night in Marietta Georgia, just north of Atlanta.









We awoke at 5:00 the next morning and finished our 10 hour drive into Clearwater. The worst part of the drive was taking 55 South to Clearwater. Nothing but strip mall after strip mall for 40 miles.

I still can't believe how fast the time has past in the last few months. James and I are finished with our internships (sending in materials tomorrow to officially graduate!), packing things up in the apartment, and starting to say our goodbyes. It's been difficult in the last couple of days; the uncertainty of when we'll see our new and old friends again is hard sometimes. But we just have to remember that the times we've had thus far are what keeps us connected and coming back for more.
Tuesday of this week, Rachel and I were taken out to lunch by the Washtenaw County Public Health Department staff to commemorate our internships. It was really nice; the staff pooled money together and gave me $65 for our new start in Florida, a really nice card, and a Growing Hope tank top for my days on the beach. Rachel was given a nice foot scrubbing kit (which made her feel slightly insecure about the hygiene of her feet--completely unfounded), a very nice card, and a Growing Hope t-shirt. They thanked us for our work and for a fun summer. We started talking about what Rachel and I were doing after the internship and Jenna joked that because the the diversity of places interns seemed to travel to, she felt that she was vicariously traveling the world through her interns. So, later on that week, Rachel and I created map of the world on a cork board to hang in the office so that when interns were getting ready to leave they could just pin their contact info on the board and then the staff would know where they were. It was a really fun project and we made the continents sort of geographically correct (which was kind of the funny part). At the end we realized that Siberia was just not going to fit on the map (and who would go there anyway, right?) so we cut it off to fit on the map. Everyone loved it at the office and when we told Jenna about Siberia being taken off the map, she said "oh, that's so funny because we actually had an intern travel to Siberia in the summer for another internship." What are the odds? I mean seriously? One of the most desolate, remote places in the world, and of course WCPH had a former intern travel there.
On Friday, it was just me, Therese, Jenna, Deborah, and Amanda in the office which made the office quiet and out of the ordinary. Therese gave me a card and an ornamental frame to hang in my office someday that said "To Good Women, may we know them, may we be them, may we raise them." It was really thoughtful! Therese and I have a lot in common (same sense of humor and thoughts on life) so we have thoroughly bonded over the summer--it was hard to say goodbye to her. We went out to lunch and I just sort of bummed around the office since I didn't have a whole lot to do.
I've been applying for jobs like a mad person. I hope to hear from someone soon, but all I have heard is the position is filled or that I didn't get the job. It sort of takes a toll on you when you've continually had to write about yourself (which I don't particularly like to do) and then patiently wait to hear from them, call and bug them, or wallow in the rejection email they send you. I have my degree now, hire me! I'm just going to have to stay diligent and not take it personally. It's just hard being unemployed after 5 years of having good jobs and not being able to use my degree and experiences.
Despite the job situation, we are getting excited about the move. We've been packing, making lists of what we need to do before we go, and thinking about how great the beach is going to be when we get there. There's a lot to do between now and Wednesday; moving out of state is NOT easy. But once we get there I think we'll wipe the anxiety off our minds and focus on starting up again in a new adventure.
Here's to the future; unknown and limiless!

Part of what has been keeping Linsey and I busy for the past few weeks is our free graphic design work for our internships. They learned that we both have the ability to create fliers and brochures in something other than Microsoft Word and have drafted us to do many times already. We both end up fighting over who gets to use the computer some nights. Here are a few of my projects so far. (Click to enlarge)

It's been a pretty eventful last couple of weeks. The Schultz clan came down from Alpena to stay a weekend with us which was pretty fun! Ann Arbor is such a nice city to walk down and experience. We went and saw the Natural History and Archeology Museums, experienced the county water park, and ate at Cafe Habana, the Clover Leaf Restaurant, and Silvio's. I'm sure that everyone had a lot of fun--I know that we did!

Later that week, I worked at the farmers' market giving out nutritional information and temporary tattoos to kids. I really love this part of the job because it allows me to interact with a lot of different people at the market and support local businesses like farms providing residents with delicious, healthy food. What's not to like? Well, creepy old men, for one.

An elderly man named Tom had stopped by my booth the first Tuesday I was there and casually talked to me for a couple minutes about very surface things like weather and food (in a slightly incoherent manner--he was very hard to understand). I didn't think anything of it because, to be honest, I don't expect every man I meet to give me creepy poems after meeting once. Clearly, Tom isn't like other men. In fact, he likes to write young female interns love poems and letters on a yearly basis. 2010 just happened to be my year, I guess.

I initially thought that the sealed letter he was adamantly handing me during my second time at the booth was money (since we swipe credit cards and EBT there for tokens to be used as money at the market) and I refused it because I can't take money from a low-income elderly man and it was just weird. But then he muttered "It's a poem for you." Even better. I took it with the intention of NOT reading it because those sort of situations just make me nauseous and I really had no idea what it was going to say (whether it be completely inappropriate or just creepy). I left that for someone else to decipher. One of the interns at the booth attempted to read it but got weirded out after the first couple of lines which said something to the affect of "Linsey you are an angel sent from heaven. . ." Ugh. I brought it home and James read it to find a very strange poem with him eventually singing me a lullaby and then a letter proclaiming that he was going to donate money in my name (which he only knows my first name) and then start an organization to feed low-income families. I really hope that the letter part is true and that we can all just forget about the poem. Seriously.

I let my supervisor know the next day and she just sighed in exhaustion--"this has happened before." Apparently, Tom is serial creepy poet. I give him props for wanting to share the love. Oh well, I confronted him this week and hopefully next week will not start with another letter.

Otherwise, work has been really good. I'm going to miss being there with everyone. The other interns are great people and all the staff make you feel like you're a part of the family. If we ever decide to come back, I hope that I can get a job there because I think that it is a wonderful work environment.

I did find out from a high school friend that we are not the only ones from Michigan moving to Tampa at the end of the summer. Kelsey, a long time friend from high school, is moving down there with her boyfriend at the end of July. I wish that we could work something out with her moving-wise but I don't think it is feasible. Regardless, we'll have someone down there that we know and that's comforting.

Up coming events:
-Mike Johnson & Chris Gates coming to see us this weekend (yay!)
-Calling on apartments and moving companies
-Michelle's Wedding
-Trying to get our lives straight :)