Saturday, May 29, 2010

Duck Squad

So...I saved a duck.
Helped save a duck is probably the better wording as it was Greg who was the mastermind behind the operation. Here is what happened:

Greg and I were driving to the office after work, very late I might add since we had a super later whale watch going out that we were trying to fill. So it's about 6 pm and we are driving down the only four lane road in all of Juneau when a little tiny baby duckling, about the size of a baseball, runs out in front of us and tries to cross traffic. Greg swerved and just missed it and thought things were done when, upon seeing in his rear view mirror what is was that he had in fact dodged, he suddenly became very concerned and declared, "that was a baby duck!!!!!!!!! oh my gosh, that was a baby duck!!" I tried to make him feel better by assuring him the duck was probably ok since he didn't hit it, but he was not to be consoled. He pulled a quick U-turn at the light and parked on the side of the road, ran across all four lanes of traffic, and proceeded to lunge after this tiny, scared, baby duck, almost getting hit by cars in the process.

Once safe in the car he placed the duck in my hands and, realized the gravity of the situation, "what am i going to do with this duck?", he called his mom. She advised that we take the little duck to "swampy acres" a local farm that takes care of baby animals. She had to remind Greg that he probably shouldn't keep the duck since, "it probably wouldn't be happy in your home, it needs other ducks", even though he had decided that perhaps it was fate that he saved the duck and maybe he should continue to take care of it.

We took the duck to the office so we could finish the paper work we were originally on our way to take care of. When I asked Greg if he would take the papers so I could carry the duck in he said, "you are going to carry it? LUCKY!" So I gave him the duck and took the papers in, thoroughly amused by the amount of passion he portrayed for this duck. Since our bosses have a cat we decided that we would take turns holding the duck while the other did paper work. Greg did his paper work first, then we switched. When I gave the duck to him he took it the couch, plopped down, placed the little thing in the top of his vest to keep it warm, and contentedly pet its little head and convinced his friend Robby that it wasn't geeky of him to save the duck. Seeing how in love he was and realizing we would be getting rid of it so soon I offered to drive to the farm so he could hold the duck which he agreed to all too readily.

The ride out to the farm was kind of long and spent mostly just looking at the duck and talking about how Robby probably actually liked the duck when he saw it and didn't expect it to be as cute as it was. The lady at the farm came to the door after much knocking and amusingly took the duck from us, declaring it was a "duckling", not "baby duck" or "little chick" as Greg had been calling it, and said she would put it with the other baby birds and see how it did. Reluctant to leave Greg asked, "well, can we at least see where it's going to go?" Biting my lip, I smiled being actually a little curious myself but still completely amused by the extent to which Greg cared for and was passionate about this "duckling". She did let us see where she put it, in a trough with baby turkey's who were twice his size and ugly looking, which didn't really make us feel any better about the situation. We however thanked her and went home. When I asked if he was going to call and check on it he cooly said, "no" as if he could have cared less about what happened to it, and we left.

And so, we saved a baby duck, well, a duckling.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Journey North


I graduated college April 30th, 2010 and started to make my way north and the beginning of a new adventure. So far the plan is to live and work in Alaska for the summer season (into September), hopefully be able to take a road trip across the united states and then fly to Ireland and WWOOF followed by random travelings in Europe to hopefully return by the hollidays and see the fam. Whatever follows after is tbd.



After moving out of school I spent one last night with some dear friends and headed up to Tulsa to have dinner with the fam and spend a few days with the sisters, brother-in-law and new little niece. We had a few ice-cream and movie nights, trips to vintage stores, watched Tabitha do roller derby, went on walks, and were together.


Tabitha and I has the same flight out but at our lay over she boarded a plane that took her to Rhode Island and I boarded one that took me to Seattle where my friend Laura met me and drove me to Bellingham.



Once at the house she is living in with our friend Hillary and Hillary's grandpa, we discarded my bags, jumped on her scooter and went and grabbed thai food. They rest of my days spent there consisted of walks on the board walk, breakfasts with friends, time spent in book stores, dinner on the deck overlooking the bellingham bay, two trips to REI a day, a trip to trader joes, and rides in a convertable with the top down even though it was slightly cold for it (we turned the seat warmers on) and much laughter!





From there I boarded the ferry Matanuska and began my 2 1/2 day journey to Juneau. I slept under the salarium (sp?) on a lawn chair and read "Redeeming Love". The sky was clear the first night and the stars were bright and abundant. The whole first day was spent on the water and the second day we started making stops.




The first stop was in Ketchikan where I took a taxi to the Pioneer cafe for breakfast and got a small tour from my 80-year-old drive for free on the way back. He just wanted me to get my picture taken by a totem pole, too bad the shadows didn't help his photography much.



Our second stop was in Wrangel. The whole town was closed and the only people I saw were kids on the shore selling rocks to those of us who got off the ferry. I really liked Wrangel, its was really small and seemed community oriented.



Our third stop was in Petersburg but I didn't have time to get off so I bought myself some clam chouder (a nice change after a stict diet of nutella, bagels, and dried green beans) in the cafeteria on board.



That afternoon a younger native man sat by me in the salarium and asked me if I was interested in different cultures. When I said that I was he started telling me some history of the migration of his people through the very mountains that we were drifting passed. Then he took out his native american flutes and began playing and teaching others how to play. It was so perfect to lay back and listen to the native music float through the hillsides where it was once abundant. It was like an old friend had come back to visit home.



I woke up at 3:30 the next morning to get all my stuff together and prepare for our landing.


My dear friend Greg drove out to the ferry terminal at 4 AM to pick me up and take me home. Once I spotted his all too familiar beamer I realized my journey was complete, I was where I needed to be, at least for a few months.