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!