Helen and Elisas adventure through the woods

Hello all! It has been ages since I updated, and I could think of no better time to do so then after I returned from a marvelous backpacking trip to the Porcupine Mountains.
Last Wednesday morning me and Alyssa got up bright and early to drive up to the Porcupine Mountains in the upper peninsula. we were armed with our toasted everything bagels, iced capps from tim hortons, and a sense of adventure. We were also aware that the weather forcast for the week was 40% chance of thunderstorms or higher for everday we were going to be there. but we still made the 10 and a half hour drive up to the porkies.

When we arrived at the park, we chose a campsite near the woods and were instantly swarmed with bugs as we exited the car. we set up the small two person tent and after 10 minutes of deliberation decided we had put it in a low area of the campsite and had to move for fear of being flooded in there.
We crawled into our sleeping bags and prepared for sleep. which for me, didn't come until 4 am when I individually put on every single layer of clothing I brought with me trying to warm up. Yes, it was a chilly night.
Despite the chilly and damp night prior, we prepared for our 30ish mile hike through the back country of the park. Packed our bags and headed off starting at lake of the clouds lookout point. The first day we did ten miles, rugged terrain, hills, roots, lookout points, rivers. It was a great day. We spent a lot of the miles singing because you're supposed to make a lot of noise to make sure you dont surprise a mother bear and her cubs. There was one river crossing that we had to do where we had to wade across the river. the water was SO COLD that my feet were in pain for minutes after exiting the water. At our lunch spot we got to watch salmon struggling to swim upstream to their breeding grounds.
Our first campsite was on lake superior next to a tent with three college age looking boys. We busied ourselves by pitching the tent, making tea and filtering water. Then we collected our packs to hang them on the bear pole. (you have to hang up all your food or else hungry bears will come ripping through your tent and whatnot). The problem was that the pole used  to hoist up your bag of food was heavier than our bag. Together we struggled to lift our bags on the pole high over our heads to hook it on the small hook about 10 ft high. each time we tried we were unsuccessful and therefore ended up dropping our packs from a high height to the ground. Luckily the guys next to us took pity on us and let us put our food in with theirs.  we spent the rest of the evening hanging out with them around their fire swapping stories.
This night was no better than the last temperature wise, in fact Im pretty sure it was a lot colder. I was shaking so much i felt like the entire tent around me was vibrating and didn't start to doze off until dawn. It didn't help that the waves from the ocean sounded like a bear breathing outside of our tent.
The next morning we awoke and saw a bald eagle land in a nearby tree. everyone rushed over and watched it as it perched there surveying the scene. It was so awesome to see it out in the wild as opposed to captivity. after a few minutes and us trying to inch closer it took off and circled the area a few times before disappearing into the woods. AWESOME.
The hike was much colder on this day and what seemed like infinitely longer. The first half of the hike was pleasent with nice scenery. but then we entered into the swamp/bland woods area that seemed to stretch for miles and miles but was only about 5. We had to maneuver our way around swamps and mud and fallen trees and walk through the blisters we had gotten the day before. moral was low. We were still singing but this time it was pain by three days grace as opposed to zip a dee doo da that we had been singing the day before.We went a little over 11.5 miles on this day.
At camp the only bear pole was directly in the middle of a deep swamp. We cursed our bad luck and went to work trying to stretch over the distance of the swamp to hang up our food. Everytime, we were dangerously close to it falling into the water and nowhere near close to hanging it on the pole. So for fear of our food getting soaked, we abandoned this effort and walked back the 1/4 mile to the rustic cabins hoping someone would take mercy on us and take in our food for the night.
The next day was our shortest only about 5 miles long. We hiked through the (much prettier) trail and arrived back at around 2 o clock. We counted 23 obstructions on the path in this short day and we both fell a couple of times in the steep downward slopes. But it was all very rewarding when we arrived at the top and to our car.

We headed up to the nature center to buy patches and brag to anyone that we could find that we had just hiked more than 30 miles. We realized that no one really cared and hopped in the car to head over to pictured rocks!
we didnt get there until late and we knew we had to find someplace to sleep for the night. we went to a couple of campsites but they were horrendously overpriced for being a patch of grass and a picnic table. so we decided it was a good idea to sleep in our car. we went to three different parking lots trying to find out which would be the least shady/get us in the least trouble if we were caught sleeping there. we finally decided on a parking area where you can drop your boat off. We got cozy in our sleeping bags, reclined our seats and tried to go to sleep. We were rudely awoken by a light shining in our car and a police officer tapping on our window. we tried to come up with a quick story in our groggy just-sleeping-nearly-upright state. But he provided it for us. "just taking a nap?" he said "staying here all night?' when we said yes to both of these things, he said alright just checking and left. I said not a single word in this whole exchange. And this whole time we thought we were committing some crime and being very sneaky when we were really only just sleeping in our car.
The next day we did some short hikes at the pictured rocks and saw several beautiful waterfalls. We didn't stay too long but headed home at around 2 pm. We saw most of the famous sites though and did a couple miles of the trail.
At a gas station on the way home a lady came out of the building as I was washing the windows, looked at me and exclaimed "oh hi Helen!" I looked at her perplexedly but she just kept walking closer and smiling. When it was clear that she still didn't understand that I wasn't Helen I gave her an awkward little hello. When she was right next to me she said "oh your not Helen. I'll have to call Helen and tell her I met her twin!" And with that she dropped her can of pepsi, which sprayed everywhere, and walked away.  ah the encounters you have at gas stations...

 catch yall later with my next adventure!

The Earth is a Spaceship

This post is coming a little late, I have been busy with school.
Over spring break I went to Vieques Puerto Rico for an Alternative spring break! Our main focus of work was environmental- mainly cleaning up beaches, planting trees, working in the greenhouse etc. We had a great group of people that got along really well and it was probably one of the greatest weeks of my life.
The bus from campus to take us to the airport came at 3 am on friday night, so naturally, I didn't sleep at all. Traveling consisted of a bus ride, two plane rides, and a cab ride to the hotel after we arrived in San Juan. A whole day of travel. In the morning I was stopped at security because I forgot to take our my swiss army knife from my carry on bag. They had to search my bag and me then took it away from me. When I boarded the plane I also realized that i had left my pillow by the security gate as well. haha. Other things I lost this week: my bathing suit bottoms (no idea where those went, i searched the entire house before leaving), my toothbrush, and a ring. At least I left little bits of myself all over Puerto Rico!

 This the was the front entrance of our little home, I couldn't get all of it in one picture. 

This is the view from the roof of our house
 

When we landed in San Juan we hailed a cab and told them the name of our hotel. He looked at us and started laughing. With the language barrier, it was hard to understand what was going on but I managed to hear the words "really? staying there? change your reservations." We were all stumped because we couldn't really change reservations this last minute and we didn't really know why he thought it was necessary. We later found out that the reservations had been booked in a hospital. It was four floors, the first three with hospital beds, patients.. the whole nine yards. But the 4th row was a hallway of hotel rooms to rent out. So that was where we stayed on our first night. It was a little shady and very strange but not bad since we had to leave so early in the morning anyway. That night we went out on the town to dinner, ice cream and to see the sites.

Me and Carolyn enjoying Mofongo: a tasty Puerto Rican Cuisine. 


The next morning we took our 9 am ferry to the island! We stayed in a beautiful rented house with all necessary accommodations (not to mention wifi and cable!). We spent this whole day at a nearby beach, snorkeling, swimming, tanning and generally enjoying the warmth and sunshine that we were so lacking back in Michigan. To top off the day, we made spaghetti dinner and ate it on the roof during the sunset.

The next day, our work still didn't start until 5:30 when we had a meeting with the fish and wildlife office to find out what we would be doing for the week. So to fill our time we went to an even more gorgeous beach, La Playa Caracas, which means Red Beach. There were palm trees every few feet, completely clear water, and little lizards that we could catch running around!

Beach!

Caracas

My New Best friend

 At the meeting we got our itinerary and some background information on the island. Then to end the night we played poker and bet with m&ms :) We also participated in my new favorite sport, tarantula hunting! What it is, is basically you go outside and find a taranchula hole (there were plenty all over the yard) and poke a stick around in there and see if you can piss it off enough to run out so you can get a glimpse of it. This sounds potentially dangerous and stupid but it was very exciting and kept us entertained for at least an hour.
Tuesday was our first day of real work and everyone packed up and we were picked up at 8 am and driven to the greenhouse. We spent the first half of the day weeding around the greenhouse, pulling up unwanted shrubs and trees and watering the plants in the greenhouse. We found several forms of interesting wildlife like a coci (native frog), a cool walking stick, a ginormous spider, and some cool little lizards. At the end of the work day, they took us down to Caracas after work for a quick swim.

Oh just Walkin stick and me

Our second day of work was a little more fulfilling, and we got to plant trees on the beach! Our lunch break was interesting to say the least. We were all eating our lunch quietly when one of the guys we were working with called us over because he had caught an iguana! we all excitedly ran over and started petting it and taking pictures with it. At some point in the mayhem, the iguana got its front portion of body loose from his grip and started twisting around while its tail was still being held on to. This resulted in the tail ripping off and the iguana charging straight for us in its attempt to escape. The dynamic of the moment changed completely as people screamed and jumped on chairs and as Mike threw the (still twitching and bleeding) tail onto the table where we had just finished lunch. whew.

Iguana + Tail

Ahhhh

This was the night of our biolluminescent bay tour! We shopped around and ate dinner until dark then took a cab to the beginning of the tour. Let me explain, there are these awesome microorganisms living in a certain bay in Vieques that have some sort of chemical process that make them glow when they are touched! That was a horrible explanation but I don't really know the science behind it. We took kayaks into the middle of the lake (as you dip your paddle in the water the water glows around it for a few seconds AWESOME). Me and Maureen had some slight trouble with our kayak and got a little over zealous trying to race someone. We flipped it. Within the first five minutes. We had to get help from the guide to flip over the kayak and get back in. After that it was filling with water and we were falling behind and had no way of communicating to the guide. Our tour guide did not speak any English and rambled on at us for a few minutes in spanish. We were flailing our arms trying to get his attention and tell him that we were sinking. When he finally noticed our predicament, he uttered the only English words I had heard form him. "Shit. The Titanic."  After this we had to catch a ride with someone else back to shore, but not after we got to swim in the water with the dinoflagellates! It was honestly the most awesome thing I can think of. As you moved your arms in the water it created a pathway of glowing water. And when you lifted your arm out of the water you could see little sparkles sprinkling down your arm.
Thursday was our last day of work. We spent it on the beach cleaning up trash. There was SO much. We had filled all the garbage bags shortly after lunch time. We got to spend a lot of time exploring the beach and looking at seashells also. We found a ginormous star fish as well.

Me and the Starfish

Friday was our day off and we headed onto the main island to go to El Yunque the rainforest! We spent a glorious day with an awesome tour guide, hiking to picturesque locations, swimming in waterfalls and taking lots of pictures of exotic plants.

Swimming in the waterfall!

Now I'm sort of shortening this post as it is getting incredibly long and I have probably lost everyone who is reading it, if anyone is.
But, needless to say, it was a very awesome trip and we were all sad to leave. But what I took away from it was a great new group of friends, a sense of accomplishment, and a lot of seashells. :)

I LOVE VIEQUES!!

Opossums

You know the expression its raining cats and dogs? Well actually its raining opossums. At least it is at the nature center. I checked out three opossums when I was there on Tuesday. Most had varying degrees of frost bite on their ears and tails and were just generally thin. It was interesting to notice that each one had very different personalities.the first one I pried out of the carrier barred his teeth and hissed at me during the whole examination. The second one fought savagely to get out of my grasp and the third was calm and peaceful. Its like the seven dwarfs, so far we have sneezy, grumpy, and bashful. and we also have sleepy who lives in the cage next to the overly friendly cottontail who I have never seen awake. I wonder when happy, dopey and doc will join us.
Tuesday was also another day of bagging frozen mice! although luckily this time there were no headless ones. We spent our time choosing the cutest ones and setting them aside for our favorite animals. I think we freaked out the new volunteer, Megan. I wonder if she'll ever be back.
To everyone's delight, Max found a couple of parasites in the fecal sample of a screech owl. We spent the next 15 minutes taking turns crowding around the microscope and learning about the different parasites animals can have and how to treat them. yay! Also did you know that you can take a picture with a digital camera through a microscope? It actually turns out pretty well.
Alright I guess we'll see what sort of adventures I'll have when I go in tomorrow!

Also here are a couple pictures for your enjoyment of our lovely little red screech owl, oh and me.

Packaging ski weekend

You may wonder why, as the title suggests, that I would go on a packaging ski trip when I am a zoology major. well... why not? My friend Sara, who I met on my trip to Utah with the snowboard club invited me and some other non-packaging majors to their ski trip weekend at Shanty Creek!
There was about 25 of us that stayed in a very nice condo near the resort. We didn't know anybody except Sara before the trip but everyone was super friendly and outgoing as we came into the condo. I had packed some granola bars and trail mix for the weekend expecting to be very hungry all weekend. But there were boxes and boxes of crackers, cookies, pop tarts, and various treats for the weekend.  I guess being a packaging major does have its benefits. So the whole weekend I didn't have a single vegetable, or normal meal, just cheez its, cookies and zesty salsa crackers.
We went night skiing that night after some of us had a few pre-snowboarding drinks. I think this is a bad idea, especially for me and my clumsy self so I did not partake, but it was very entertaining to watch everyone attempt to get down the hill. The conditions weren't bad a little icy and definitely not enough light for night ski but still very fun! we skied until around 9 o clock then I went to take a very brief dip in the hot tub/pool before it closed. Later that night, the party began! We got our packaging ski weekend tee shirts, which are awesome by the way and everyone wore them and drank and danced around the living room. Also for some reason 5 or 6 of us took up residence in the closet and spend 2 HOURS in there playing hand clap games like crocadila and concentration. It was seriously the most fun part of the night. The next night was similar though add a bonfire and a jacuzzi made into a hot tub into the equation.
Riding the shuttles around the resort was one of our favorite activities of the weekend. we had really awesome drivers and some karaoke on the rides. overall a very successful weekend.
Thursday was the first day I was at the infirmary all alone. Max was at a conference and all the other volunteers had gone home. It wasn't by any means a busy day but it still felt cool to be in charge of anything. I was in charge of feeding the owls and doing the pm meds for the crow, screech owl, and blue jay. I had to get the dosages together for them then administer them. I felt really official and awesome.

aaaand its winter again

After our brief bout of spring weather Michigan has yet again dumped another blizzard on us. It was a little shocking because I hadn't expected it at all, but at the same time I'm not upset because this weekend I am going snowboarding at Shanty Creek. As the snow was pouring down, me and my roommate decided it was a good idea to tramp through the snow to go ice skating! I'm a little rusty on skates and even fell once when i was trying to do a cool spiny-stop move, but it was still tons of fun.
This weekend was filled with outdoor adventures. Friday was the overnight rock climbing event at planet rock in ann arbor. We got there at around 10 pm and climbed until around 2:30 or 3 in the morning. Today, my arms and legs are killing me. but it was so worth it. There was a slackline set up across the gym as well so people started trying that out when they were too wiped out to climb anymore. Also, an impromptu dodgeball tournament started around 3:30 in the morning, at this point I was too exhausted to move, and after two games I just sat and watched everyone get pelted with dodgeballs.
Sleeping there was quite the production. I tried to find a place to set up my hammock but there really wasnt a good place to do it. so we dragged a couple of bouldering mats in a corner and set up camp there. I can understand how these mats would be good to have if falling from a high distance, but sleeping on them really was just awful. They were quite lumpy and smelled kind of weird. I did only end up getting 2 hours of sleep anyway, because the people who were still awake decided it was a good idea to sing various disney songs as loud as they could.
The next morning I had to work at eleven and I nearly fell asleep on the way there. We had a little squirrel today that had a bad infection in his foot. So we had to make a small incision and squeeze the pus out. And it seemed like this squirrel was synthesizing pus as we were draining it because it went on FOREVER. I don't even know where it all fit in his little arm. One of the owls that came in the other day had to be euthenized because it was completely blind in both of his eyes. So Max came in with the body of this small owl and showed us how to find the different bones in the body and how to tell if there are fractures. I felt kind of horrible using this little dead owl for my own benefit and sometimes when you moved or picked it up its head would move so it looked like it was alive. It was slightly unnerving. He was such a pretty bird. And it let me look at him up close without having to worry about the talons. His feathers were downy soft and he looked like he still could have been alive. His body will be sent to the UofM biology lab for research.

40 degrees and sunny

As the title suggests the past few days have been 40 degrees and sunny! I love walking to class without my winter coat and without freezing my face off. Although, on my way to genetics I managed to find the only patch of ice left on campus and fall on it. As I was picking myself and my dignity back up again, I slipped and fell once more. I sure am talented.

So the majority of work yesterday was scraping half thawed rat guts off the stump in a hawks cage and picking up hawk pellets. I also forgot rubber gloves and was too lazy to tramp through the mud back to the infirmiry to get them. So i used the inside of the garbage bag to pick up all these delightful rat chunks. yum.
The day did get more inetersting though when we got a small red screetch owl in that got hit by a car. I picked it up out of the box and he was so tiny he felt like he weighed nothing. His right eye had been gouged out and his other eye looked up at me sadly, I don't know if he could even see me. He didn't struggle at all as Max set his broken wing and gave him a shot of fluids. It was very upsetting as he layed there in my hands, his small talons gripped my glove with what little bit of strength he had in him. It makes me so sad that people are the reason that most of these animals come into the center. There are a few scattered cat and dog attacks but the majority of animals coming in through the door are hit by cars or harassed by people. Its very upsetting. It was five thirty and I had taken off my scrubs and was heading out the door when a women with another screetch owl came in. So i was lured back into the infirmiry for another car accident victim. The odd thing was that he had almost identical injuries to other screetch- a badly injured eye and a broken wing. This one was also left in a box in a parking lot with a note written on it- "Hey to whoever finds this, we found this little guy in the parking lot and didn't want to leave him on the ground." I don't understand why they can't take 5 minutes to call someone for help. Anyway this little owl was a lot more feisty and was trying to fly away from me despite the broken wing. We now have 4 hurt screetch owls at the nature center.

Max, the vet I work with, is awesome. She is so positive about everything, very helpful and explains everything she is doing so I am learning so much from her. Also every single animal that comes she refers to as "little muffin". Whether shes tube feeding a ferocious hawk with large talons or a tiny cottontail. Its so cute.

Working at the nature center is also a really great way to learn about people. There are so many different types of people that work there and it really changes your perspective on your own life. On Tuesdays I work with the young crowd of volunteers. Stephanie is 23 years old and wants to make documentaries about wildlife rehabilitation. Shes super nice to everyone and fun to hang out with. Jessi is 27 and is a single mother with two kids. I hear horror stories about her ex husband who still harasses her and manipulates her kids. I have learned a lot about their personal lives and relationships and they are so different than mine. Most of the people I hang out with are on pretty much the same path as me: school, friends, families. But it just makes you wonder how other peoples lives and experiences can be so different from your own. On Thursdays I work with a lively bunch of older women who are really fun and talkative. Ive learned about their lives and kids and hobbies, and it just makes me wonder where I will end up at that age, and I hope I'll be half as fun as these ladies.

Week 3 of internship

Today we prepared for the rush of baby mammals that will be flowing in near springtime. Doing some cleaning and organizing and also learning how to feed/hydrate baby bunnies, squirrels, woodchucks etc. Cannot wait until then.
I also gave medication to a crow and blue jay. both of which did not seem do enjoy it that much, and I learned how to bandage a broken wing.
I also released my first animal. It was a little Junco and he had been in the dungeon cages for a couple of months.  He had had a broken wing and he was all healed and ready to be released today. It was very exciting I opened his cage and he immediatly flew out without hesitation. But he did land on the nearest tree and turn back to look at me as if to say thanks. Totally awesome moment. I hope I get to have more of them.
Gogo is my favorite bird we have at the center. Hes about the size of a small dog and spends his whole day making a nest in the side of his cage. Unfortunately everyday it has to be taken down so his cage can be cleaned, but everyday he rebuilds it without complaining. At first introduction me and Gogo didn't get along too well, he attacked my shoes as I was cleaning his cage and then bit my legs. So I tried again later to get in there and give him some sticks to help make his nest. He immediately forgave me and promptly crawled up my body onto my head. At this point I was torn. On one hand I had a set of very sharp talons digging into my head, on the other hand, I had finally made friends with the very picky Gogo! luckily I didn't have to suffer long because he hopped down and proceeded to make his nest. I made my quick getaway. 
On my drive back from the nature center I saw three cars on the same stretch of highway pulled over with flat tires. I assume that this is an omen, especially because when I was driving fairly close behind the car in front of me, sparks flew out of the back end of their car and shot at me like a fireball. I felt like I was in a strange life sized version of mario kart.
In other news, I had to take Clyde, my little turtle to the vet. Aparently he has a respiratory infection and I will have to be giving him shots for the next ten days. Let me tell you its seriously hard to give someone a shot that can completely retract inside a shell, but I managed to do it after 5 minutes of struggle. hope he doesn't hate me now.
Well thats all for now! TaTa

Internship, igloos, and ice cream.

So the title of this post is slightly misleading, I didn't make an igloo. But there WAS a snow day last week! The first one at MSU in 36 years or so. very exciting. Most people grabbed sleds and snowpants and spent the day outside, playing, making giant penis sculptures or riding on their upturned kitchen table being pulled by a car down the snowy streets. I however stayed in all day and studied genetics. A very disappointing way to spend a snow day, but very necessary with my knowledge of genetics.
As for the Ice cream, tasty twist is good at any time of the year. Always.
But moving on to the actual purpose of this post, my internship, which the closest thing to an outdoor adventure I've had recently. A few weeks ago I started a wildlife rehabilitation internship at Howell Nature center. Its absolutely great except for the 50 minute drive there and back.
Ive been there for a few weeks and I think I'm getting the hang of it now. Everyday you come in and feed all the animals in the infirmary (including several songbirds, possum, flying squirrels.. etc) and clean their cages. There are animals that live outside also that you have to take food to also. Next there is usually a meeting with Max, the vet, about the other things that need to get done for the day. Also everyday the waterfowl must be brought outside then back in again before you leave for the night. Waterfowl= 3 geese, 3 ducks, and 2 swans. Now Have you ever tried to pick up a pissed off goose? Well, I hadn't either before this. And they are very wiggly and often try to bite you in the face while you are carrying them.  But it was also extremely exciting my first day because all I could think of was 'oh my god! I'm carrying a goose right now! A real live goose!' Now its pretty much second nature to go outside, scoop up them up with a towel and bring them back into the infirmary.
Recently someone brought in a Grebe to the nature center. If you don't know what a Grebe is they are sort of like ducks but they have small pointy beaks and their feet are all the way at the back of their body so they are meant for an almost totally aquatic existence and they can't really walk at all. which makes them adorable and somewhat pathetic. So several times a day we we have to pick up the grebe (aww) and bring him to a large tub of water that he likes to play in (all the way there he is kicking is little feet trying to get away). He swims and plays happily in the tub for hours and it is just adorable. He catches fish like a pro also.
The other day, I met Woppie, the nature center's own friendly beaver. You can go right into the cage with him and feed him with your bare hands. Hes very sweet and very large and when you offer him a carrot he looks up and you then slowly ambles over and takes it gently from your hands and eats it. He lets you pet it and cuddle and is just the greatest beaver I have ever met.
Yesterday at work, it was donation day from U of M! The Howell Nature Center gets donations of rats and mice from the lab that we feed to our various carnivores that we have here at the center. So mine and the volunteers job yesterday was to sort through big bags of frozen dead rats and mice. The first bag I opened was full of headless bloodly rats that were all frozen together in a big block. after trying to chip away at the deformed bloody bodies for a few minutes so I could sort and bag them, I found all of the decapitated heads at the bottom of the bag. This may have been unpleasent for some, but luckily these things don't bother me very much. But it did get a little tiresome after the 3rd bag of large headless rats my rubber gloved hands looked like I had just performed a complex heart surgery of some sort.  So when we opened up the next bag we were delighted to see the bag full of small, cute, mice with heads! We had a great time sorting through the mice picking out the cutest ones and taking pictures with our cell phones. I know, we are very strange. After the sorting of at least 15 bags of dead rodents I got to help Max feed our Coopers hawk! for a bit of background information, this hawk is very dehydrated and very thin and is refusing food. So we have been having to tube feed the poor little guy. I get to hold to Coopers while Max feeds it. It may not seem that cool to others but it might be my favorite part of the day (especially yesterday). Hawks are so cool and before this internship I never got to see one up close, let alone hold one. So despite the dead rat sorting the day at work was great.
Alright thats all for now. See ya!

How to start a blog?

I created this blog several weeks ago intending to record all my outdoor adventures, trips, and anything else of that nature. I haven't started it, not because I haven't had any adventures (I've had plenty) but honestly I just didn't know how to start the blog. Do I introduce myself or something? eh. So I guess I'll just dive in. Hey whats up? My names Melissa and I like to play outside.