The Boxer

I know, "she never posts videos..."

But ah, ever so good. 

A RECAP & SPONTANEOUS MOMENT OF TOTAL HONESTY ABOUT SOLID PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.

Well,

I MISS TRAVELLING LIKE WHOA AND WANT TO SPEND MOST OF MY LIFE IN AFRICA.

That is all. Ta.

Love a solid recap. 

powder puff football during freshman year, SC 2007

Catholic Secretariat Hostel, Dar Es Salaam 2009 (No Shave Africa die-hards)

The Aardvark in Ruaha National Park, 2009

Our carefully dug water slide at work, Pamoja Arusha, 2010

Simanjiro, Pamoja Arusha 2010

Ngorongoro Crater with Shelley, Tanzania 2010

Zanzibar , 2010

Pamoja with roommates and our commander in chief, Jeremy, 2010

RIT women's novice crew :), Rochester 2010

hike in Northern Ireland, 2011

Viva Iberica, Tobarra, Spain 2012

our Spanish friends on New Year's in Tobarra, Spain 2012

reunited at Pamoja Arusha, Tanzania 2012

tramping with Kirsty and Matt, New Zealand 2012

Adam towing me in the yard behind the motorbike, Putaruru, NZ 2012

near Pigeon Bay, NZ

first night in Maasailand, Simanjiro, Tanzania 2010

It's a place that you know, when you're not in it

And distance will show when you try to live it

But is this the way, is this the way back

They say you home is where the heart is

If this is true then I'll live in your kiss

All my walls will be built with a touch of your hand

Yes I know, your love is my home. 

- Your Love is My Home, Ryan Horne

I know, you were probably hoping for something fresh but that's all that's been bouncing around up there unchanged for about three years. Everything else will fall and be worked into place around that. Probably. 

Dumpster Diving Delight

I thought I'd gotten a lot further along on my 2012 bucket list than I actually have (largely due to lack of funds...) which was a bit of a depressant but on the upside I've had other experiences I didn't foresee that have been supremely fulfilling. Bottom of the experience barrel would be financial consequences for spending what I don't have and getting poison ivy all over my shoulders, neck and face. In a way, that is one of the consequences. I've been working outside for my parents to pay them back. But all that aside, there's more than one way for a 23 year old woman to burn the midnight oil.

Chief of these experiences is most certainly dumpster diving.

If you, like most people I know, think D.D. is only for hippies and the homeless, think again, my friend. First of all, it's not a bad way to get a thrill. It's done in the dark, clandestinely ("kept secret or done secretively, esp. because illicit") with head torches. Sometimes the cops roll up. (So what, pour the cops a cup...or offer them a Dunkin Donut). Which brings me to what equipment one would need for rollicking around in dumpsters.

1. Head torch: I would highly recommend my Petzl Tikkina 2. The AAA batteries last a while and it has two brightness settings. Great for dumpster diving and running at night. If you don't have a head torch or flashlight, you might as well stay home because even if there's a free flashlight in the dumpster, you will never see it.

2. Gum boots: rubber boots, wellies, rain boots- whatever. Just use them. One time my friend sent me in the Dollar General dumpster that had 4 inches of cesspool dumpster juice in the bottom and that was the first and last time I didn't wear boots. It was straight out of one of those scenes in a movie where the fair lady or puppy is standing on the last rock careening down a river of lava and the rock starts to sink. Except your friend is like, "I'm not saving you 'til you get me that toy!" 

3. A truck: it's really not the worst to use your car/van but you will find a lot of stuff if you know when to go and it will smell like garbage inside the car if for no other reason than you're in it and you've been in a dumpster. SO much easier to hose the bed of a ute down instead of your fabric seats. 

4. Obviously, appropriate clothing: don't wear anything with reflectors or a pretty price tag, you moron. Wear dark, old clothes. 

5. Bandanna: forget about looking sexy. You're wearing old clothes, and despite the bandanna that generally keeps you from smearing whatever scum the reject bags of garbage left on your hands into your hair, it still falls in your sorry face. Oh, and you smell like the inside of a garbage can. 

6. An auspicious attitude: so cheesy, I know. But seriously, you're dumpster diving! It's kind of like trespassing...(it solidly is) but with some serious purpose behind it. Truly, you find great stuff in there sometimes so be optimistic. No rats yet and not a lot of this-is-so-revolting-I-can't-handle-this moments either. 

As I write, my lab Kiwi is reclining on the bed next to me in front of her beloved, oscillating dumpster fan. The greatest store to DD behind is one that sells lawn/tractor/farm equipment. Their dumpsters are always clean, relatively odorless, and everything in there has a label on it for what's wrong with it. "Parts missing", " hose leaks", "fan doesn't work". It's great. 

So, what's our greatest find? Oh, a three foot blow torch. It gets hooked up to a propane tank. BAM.

Netflix has a cool documentary called Dive! that me and my fellow diving friend watched last weekend (she goes religiously every week and feeds her family and shares with a few others).

Here's the thing, don't knock it 'til you've tried it and done some research. I'm so over people judging things before they've tried them. Like using athlete's foot spray to combat both athlete's foot and poison ivy. Such a brilliant stroke of genius. 

The Rock

Steph & Raja

Monday until this morning was spent travelling around the entirety of Lake Ontario with a stop at my family's cottage (dubbed "The Rock" as it's on an island) for the weekend. It's been pretty untouched for the last sixty years and is, as Steph noted, a bit of a "man cave". No doubt about it. It was my first time manning the cottage alone so I had the chance to learn how to operate the generator, new boat, and the importance of knowing how to use the bilge pump when your cousin doesn't cover during severe rainstorms and leaves the hull full of water. Cool. 

We brought an old futon out onto the porch and slept out there with our labs for two nights. From there, we closed up the cabin and headed to Toronto to spend the night catching up with my friends Nadine and Cynthia who are fellow former inhabitants of Tanzania.

P.S. I've run into a bit of an issue with this blog as I've used up my 1 GB space for the photos. It's $25 USD to keep going which I can't really justify paying for yet so that has to be sorted out. Who knew?

Mumford & Sons Concert

There must have been thousands of people. Mumford & Sons were indelible. 

*The top photo does not have the pixelation before uploading. 

-

On a completely hysterical note, the best line of the night was,

"I'm so high right now."

[pause]

"Dude, that was oregano." 

There was a tremendous amount of pot being smoked everywhere and alcohol being consumed by obvious minors. My part in the night's illegal activities amounted to being stopped at security for having the forbidden "camera with a detachable lens". Luckily, he let us through anyway after telling me not to take any pictures and once I dumped out my clear, water- filled Camelback bottle. Sometimes I just want to ask, "Are you actually being intelligently serious with me right now? No." 

Hebrew Tattoo

At RIT today a friend of mine asked about my tattoo and after a few minutes she decided for sure she was not only going to go get one in a few hours, but that the same place I got mine was the place to go. It wasn't a tough decision. Not a lot of places have such good reviews. And so we went; Kailey, her friend Morgan, and I all showed up at White Tiger Tattoo in Rochester. 

Adam, the guy who did my Hebrew tattoo and another friend of mine's Greek tattoo, had an appointment so he couldn't do it for Kailey. But if anyone is looking for a great tattoo artist, I highly recommend Adam. The text is so beautiful and the sleeve he was working on for my drawing professor looked good last time I saw it. 

Video Stills- Spain

At last I've had a chance to sit down and at least have a look at the video from the trip again. These are a few exports from my favourite clips so far. I'm very excited to be working in Final Cut again!