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 :)