Colorado Trip - Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

One of the best days we spent in Colorado was the day that we went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. And it was also one of the worst days. Why, you ask? Well, get ready for a story.

For starters, this particular zoo is 3 hours away from my Aunt Ruth and Uncle Nathan's house. So we had a long day of driving. That's not the bad part though. This zoo is TOTALLY worth a three hour drive. It might actually be the best zoo I've ever been too. Only the Henry Doorly Zoo can rival it in sheer awesomeness.

No, the reason that the three hour drive was so bad, was that my iPod died that morning. Like flat out gave up the ghost. Plus, my iPad had also died on the way to Colorado, so we had absolutely no music for the entire three hour drive to Colorado Springs. We still have no idea why those things died. Maybe the altitude? Who knows. The iPod came back to life a few days later, but the iPad never recovered.

Anyway, we had no music for three hours. Nothing. Thankfully Shaina had brought a book to read, so for three hours she read Wuthering Heights to us. Though I still have no idea what Wuthering Heights is about. Was there a ghost? I can't remember. It must not have been the most riveting book. Sorry, Shaina. At least it kept me occupied at the time. :p

But all that was still not too bad. The real problems were just getting started. When we finally made it to Colorado Springs the car's temperature warning light came on, and it was sounding alarms. Now, my car had been having problems like this before. We had tried to leave for Colorado the week before, and it died with smoke pouring out of the hood before we'd even made it to Shelby. But I'd gotten it fixed and we left the next week. There should have been no further problems!

So now, in addition to the blaring heat alarms, the GPS isn't taking us to the right spot, and we went up a steep hill ending up in what appeared to be some sort of gated community where a bunch of rich people lived. To top it all off, Sasha was starting to feel sick! So I called Uncle Nathan and he walked me through what to do. He thought it was just overheating from driving up and down mountains all day. So I dumped water into the car, at his direction, trying to cool it down. He told us to find the zoo and just let the car cool down all day. If it didn't start he'd come get us, but if it did start, we should just drive as far as we can, and if it dies, he could meet us wherever we ended up.

Since we couldn't just leave the car sitting in what is quite possibly a rich person's giant driveway, I had to drive a little more. I knew the zoo had to be nearby, because even when the GPS is off, it's not off by much, so we slowly left the posh little village, taking a different turn, a little further up the steep hill. This turned out to be the right place, so I parked the car. Sasha was still feeling bad, but she said she'd probably be fine after awhile, so we just walked slowly, and eventually she came around.

After the zoo we did manage to drive back to Uncle Nathan and Aunt Ruth's but we had to drive so slowly to prevent it from overheating that it was like 9 or 10 o'clock that night before we got home. And the next day we took the car to a mechanic and left it there for a few days to rack up another huge bill, and even then it wasn't fixed completely. I had to have the transmission replaced when we got back to Harlan. All in all that summer, that car cost me like $3000. I let it live for another year before replacing it, which is more than it deserved.

And that was why the day was so horrible. Now, after all that, that day was probably still my favorite day of the trip. And here's why.

I got to feed a giraffe. We went to the zoo to pet the giraffes, but unbeknownst to me, Shaina bought a bunch of lettuce for me to feed to them. It was so awesome. :)

This is what makes this zoo is so amazing.

This is the reason we drove three hours to go to this particular zoo. When I was 18, my parents sent me to a camp/seminar thing in Colorado Springs, and on one day of that trip, part of the group I was with had gone to a zoo, and I remembered petting a giraffe. When my cousins and I decided to go to Colorado, I figured out where that zoo had been, and we made a point to go there, so we could all pet them. It was so worth the trouble. :)

This is the kind of joy you can only get from contact with these magnificent creatures. :)

I'm going to make this the end of this post. I was just going to do a picture post, but then I remembered what happened that day, and that story ended up taking up all my time. I'll do another post soon, and I might even do a post on my photo blog. I think I have enough good material from the zoo trip. Keep an eye out for that!

Falling Into Place

Well, I am in Ames! My home for at least the next two years. I got over here last night, and got everything into the house in time to fall asleep, wake up, and head to orientation at work. Thankfully the store I work at is part of a chain, and I was able to transfer to a location just a few minutes away from where I'm living. This worked out perfectly for me, because this way I don't have to look for a new job. That would not have been fun, so I'm really glad I was able to transfer.

That is not the only thing that has just seemed to fall into place. Pretty much everything is working out perfectly. So far I haven't really hit any stumbling blocks. My biggest stumbling block before, and the reason I was still living at home, was money. I just could not afford a place of my own. But since I decided on Iowa State, I can stay with my grandparents in Ames at a fraction of the cost of an apartment.

This does not only correspond to rent. My grandparent's apartment is pretty much fully furnished. There is a fridge, and a stove. I bought myself a blender, and I brought a toaster oven from home, but other than that I don't really need much. The apartment also has pretty much everything I need as far as plates, silverware, and glasses. My grandparents have lived there for years, and they have collected a lot of dishes. All the extras have gone to the basement apartment, so I have everything I need!

Another big money-saving-thing that has worked out, is something I never even thought of in advance, it was a nice surprise. Free public transportation! I will save a lot of money on gas, as Iowa State students can ride the bus for free. And it's not just a school bus, it's for the whole city. So basically I will only need to drive to work, which is less than 10 minutes away.

The car thing was another thing that worked out well, as I had been wanting to get rid of my old car for awhile. Mom wanted to get a new car as well, and her car, being much better than my old car, was perfect for me. So I bought her car when she bought a new one.

Something that I just finished working out today, WiFi. My grandparents did not have WiFi, so I figured that was something I was going to have to pay for. But my aunt called my grandparents' cable providers, and found out that their modem was already WiFi-capable, so all I needed to do was call them and have them walk me through setting it up. So that's done, and it didn't cost any extra!

I don't expect that this streak will continue for long. After all, all good things must come to an end, right? For now, I'm just glad that everything has been going so smoothly.

Huge Month

So, this month is probably going to be one of the biggest months of my life. So far anyway. Hopefully there will be bigger ones... For starters, I sold my first car and bought a new one. It was my mom's old car, but still new to me. I've never sold a car before, so that was pretty big.

Then, I went to Chicago with my cousins. By ourselves. Yes, we're all in our mid twenties, no we've never done anything like that before. Yes, we're probably late bloomers. Don't judge us. :p

Anyway, we had a great time, I'll probably post more info and pictures later. I need to sort through them first. Way too many to post all of them.

Next I will be moving. To Ames. 2 hours away. This is huge because I have never moved before. Ever. As in I still live with my parents in the house I was born in. Well, not literally born in. Though, that would be a more interesting story... This is also huge because I have always lived in the country, and Ames is a city. It has a small town feel, but it's a good first step in case I ever end up in a big city.

Next, I am transferring to a new grocery store. A much bigger store in a city. Aside from the car thing,this is probably the least huge step, but it's still pretty big, as I've always worked in small stores. And a nursing home, but that's rather irrelevant here.

Lastly, I will be starting school at Iowa State, which is a pretty huge university. I was homeschooled all throughout my "Childhood" years, and when I went to college it was at a small technical school. When I went back to college it was at a bigger community college, but still small potatoes compared to where I'm headed.

So, that's my month. It's slightly overwhelming, considering I am used to doing pretty much nothing other than going to work, but it's exciting too. I'm hoping that going to school will lead to bigger, and more exciting things in the future.

My First Day Outside With my New Camera

Today is my first day back to work since I got sick. One little problem. My car was buried during the last snowstorm, and I couldn’t go anywhere until I freed it.


So I decided that since I had to go outside anyway, I might as well bring my new camera with me. The snow is past the point where it was pretty, but I still found stuff to take pictures of.
Such as cats.



Spike was the only one around before I got my car cleaned off.

I found the cat’s food pan!

Off to seek shelter.

Our house looks much nicer when you can’t see the dirt pile we have for a lawn.

Squeak lives the good life in the old packing house.

He went outside, looked around, and wanted right back in.



MA! COME QUICK! I FOUND A WHOLE NEST OF ‘EM!



Stop taking pictures! I’m tryin’ to sleep!



Grandma’s looks nice still.


I tried to make this one look like a scene in the wilderness.

Our firewood. The legs from all the old mushroom trays.


So cold and alone…
One other thing I might mention here, I got new boots yesterday. I actually haven’t had a pair of boots in years so I’m pretty excited about these. They’re made in Canada, so I had to show them to dad when I got home.

I posted this picture to facebook and captioned it: My new boots. Proudly made in the land of my forfathers, eh?

An Un-Ordinary Day

Yesterday was rather out of the ordinary for me. Or at least, out of the ordinary that has become my ordinary. It’s still weird to think of myself as a full-time college student.
Anyway, normally Tuesday morning would find me in Council Bluffs, but since the teachers down there were all having meetings, we didn’t have class. Instead I found myself in Irwin. My car has been making a bad sound. I guess I never noticed it, because I drive it all the time and it must’ve happened gradually. Dad did notice it and suggested I call Knudsen Service Station. So I spent the morning inside a grungy auto-shop waiting for mom to pick me up. We had thought it would be an in-and-out thing, but it wasn’t, otherwise I’d not have had to spend over an hour surrounded by dirt, dust, oil, and flies. No, I didn’t take pictures. I can only imagine what they would have thought of me if I’d have pulled out my camera and started snapping pictures of the filthy chairs, a leaking stack of twelve packs of pop, and broken cabinets. After an hour of utter boredom, mom finally arrived, and suggested we go back to Harlan for lunch. She had a buy one get one free card for a Burrito Grande at her favorite restaurant, Border Fare. I like Mexican food, but I am beginning to think that certain kinds do not like me. I think it has to do with this red sauce that drowns the burrito. It’s really greasy, and the last couple of times I’ve had something with it on it, I haven’t felt that great afterwards. My cousin Shaina works at Border Fare, and she told me today that a lot of people ask for no gravy. I didn’t even know the stuff was called gravy. Next time I think I will request they leave it off. Salsa tastes much better anyway. While we were there I saw two of my classmates from speech class. We had been assigned to make questionnaires to give to each other concerning the topics for our next speech. I had not finished mine, and neither had they. Turned out they and everyone else were having the same problem as me. No one could find the instructions on the school web-site. We decided to just wing it and hope for the best. When we got home after lunch I started on it right away. I had already done a bunch of mine, but I still had a ways to go. I wanted mine to be completely different than everyone else's. I wanted mine to be funny, but still get what I needed to know about the other student’s knowledge of giraffes and okapis. That’s right, giraffes and okapis. My next speech is going to be an informative speech on giraffes and okapis. Everyone else is doing much more serious topics, but I want to have fun with mine. If I have to take this class I want to be able to get a little enjoyment out of it. It took me all afternoon to finish, but I think that it turned out really funny.
In case you are curious as to how a questionnaire on giraffes and okapis can be funny, I will copy it here for you to read.

Questionnaire
Demographics Section
 
1. What is your full name?
 
2. What is your gender? (Circle One)
a. Male
b. Female
c. Genderless Robot
d. Space Creature who is “Above all that stuff”
 
3. How old are you? (Circle one)
a. Obnoxious Screamer – 0-2
b. Little Kid – 3-9
c. Aging too fast for Mommy – 10-14
d. Thinks they’re a grown-up – 15-20
e. Legally a grown-up – 21-25
f. Really a grown-up – 26-35
g. Doesn’t want to be a grown-up 36 – 45 (Technically this could be any age after becoming legal)
h. Old – 46 - ?
i. None of your business! (Come on, we all know you just don’t want to circle old…) ;)
(Legal Disclaimer: The above question is for humorous purposes and is not intended to offend anyone over the age of 45, between the ages of 15 and 20, or under the age of 3)
 
4. Please tell us about your work.
 
5. Do you have any pets? If so, please tell us about them.
 
6. Do you have any diseases? If so, please do not tell us about them.
 
Main Topic Section
 
7. On a scale of zero to ten, how much do you know about giraffes? (Circle one)
What’s a giraffe? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I am quite the Giraffa camelopardalis expert.
 

8. Did you know that giraffes are not the only member of the family Giraffidae? (Circle one)
Yes No
 
9. Have you heard of the okapi? (Circle one)
Yes No
 
10. On a scale of zero to ten, how much do you know about okapis? (Circle one)
What’s an okapi? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 I am quite the Okapia johnstoni expert.
 
11. What would you be interested in learning about giraffes? (Check as many as apply)
What they eat
Where they live
How many different members of the Giraffidae family are now extinct
The ways that Giraffes have been portrayed in popular culture
 
12. What would you be interested in learning about okapis? (Check as many as apply)
What they are
What they eat
Where they live
Why most people have never even heard of them before
 

On a scale of one to five tell me how much you agree with the following statements. (Circle one)
 
13. Giraffes are awesome! I would love to learn more about them!
I Completely disagree 1 2 3 4 5 I completely agree
 
14. What is this okapi you keep talking about? Tell me more about it!
I Completely disagree 1 2 3 4 5 I completely agree
 
15. A speech about giraffes and whatever that other thing is sounds like a total snoozefest. Get a new speech topic and tell us about American Idol or Cheetos or something.
I Completely disagree 1 2 3 4 5 I completely agree
 

16. I already know everything there is to know about giraffes AND okapis, I know more than you’ll ever know, and I would even be willing to give your speech for you!
I Completely disagree 1 2 3 4 5 I completely agree
 

17. Please check all the adjectives that you feel could aptly describe a giraffe.
Totally Awesome!
Tree-Like
A horned, fire-breathing beast of legend, shadowed by mystery and superstition
A Leopard, if a leopard was a giant llama
Elephant-ish
Some type of new automobile
Red
It can have stars on it!
It can have stripes on it!
It can have the whole flag on it!
You forgot some! Here, I’ll write them in for you.
 


18. Please check all the adjectives that you feel could aptly describe an okapi.
Totally Awesome!
Shrub-Like
A prehistoric beast of legend, shadowed by mystery and superstition
A fish, if a fish was a two-ton gorilla
Zebra-ish
Some type of old shoe
Brown
It can have stars on it!
It can have stripes on it!
It can have the whole flag on it!
You forgot some! Here, I’ll write them in for you.
 

19. Did you find this questionnaire funny? If so, how funny was it? Please use as many creative adjectives as you can to fully describe the hilarity of the survey.
 
20. Based on the survey you have just taken, does this sound like a speech you would enjoy listening to? If so, why?

The most important thing I learned from the questionnaire is that almost everyone there has absolutely no idea what an okapi is. Well, in a couple weeks, that will all be different…
I think everyone's surveys turned out fine for not having any specific instructions, although two people didn’t do any at all. Our teacher told them they can make them up next week though, so I hope they do. I hate seeing people fall behind. They aren’t generally bad students like some of the ones in Council Bluffs. Everyone seemed really amused by my questionnaire. Most people wrote on that they thought it was hilarious and they now really wanted to know what an okapi was.
During class we broke into two groups that we had formed a few weeks ago. We are going to be doing panel discussions as our final project, sort of a “Meet the Press” type thing. We had so far not been able to come up with a good topic for discussion. Everyone seemed to keep suggesting “Toxic Topics” which our teacher did not want. Toxic Topics are topics which could incite an overly passionate response on one side of a debate or the other. Things like gay marriage, abortion, or other controversial topics like those. Well, last week I had had an idea. It started when I was trying to decided on a subject for an upcoming speech where we are going to have to try to persuade our audience to take our side on an issue. Again, avoiding toxic topics. Well, I was trying to think of something non-toxic that I could do when I started thinking about cryptozoology. I decided right away that that would not work for that speech, but it might work for my informative speech. Instead I narrowed the focus down to one aspect of cryptozoology, and my persuasive speech is now going to focus on getting my audience to believe that the Loch Ness Monster does, or did at one time, exist. After thinking about my informative speech though, I realized that cryptozoology is far too broad a field for one quick speech, and decided that I should narrow that down too, and I decided to focus on okapis, since they were at one time considered a myth. I decided that I would include giraffes in there as well, since they are the only two living members of their family. (Not to mention my favorite animals) I really didn’t want to lose out on more people knowing about cryptozoology though. It’s still a relatively unknown field of study, and since it includes any and all unknown-to-science animals, including the likes of bigfoot and yeti, those who do know about it tend to ridicule those who are involved in the studies. I decided then that I would suggest that as a topic idea for our panel discussion. However, we ended up not breaking up into our groups that night, so I decided that I would suggest it last night. No one had any idea what it was, but everyone seemed very open to it. We decided that everyone should do some basic research, and bring in what they found next Tuesday, and we’d go from there. I am feeling pretty good about the rest of this class. I already have two speech topics finalized, and our panel discussion is on a topic that I’ve been very interested in for years! I still don’t “Love” this class, but at least I don’t hate it!
Anyway, I had better be signing off for the night, tomorrow I have to go pick up my car early in the morning, then come straight back home and leave again for school. Tomorrow is my last in-class day to work on my kite. I hope I can get it done!