Working, drinking and hiking

So it’s Monday, meaning it’s my Sunday. No work today, and that’s probably a good thing after the night I had last night.  I marked the area in which I talk about work, so feel free to skip it if you aren’t interested.

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Oh, so we worked on Saturday. This basically involved giving a tree planting demo (our supervisor did it because I guess the rest of us were too chicken) and giving trees/stakes etc. to people who were supposed to be given them. The demo was really small–only about 8 people, no volunteers. I really just want to say that I absolutely love the team I’m on, because none of us have the big attention seeking personalities. This really just makes it so we’re all totally cool with each other, and are generally easy going. Okay, anyway.

After the demo and handing things out (which didn’t take more than an hour, really) we went back to the office and learned how to type everything into the database. Boring! I know it’s important to keep the organization going though, so I guess I’ll stop whining about it. We had lunch at the mostly deserted office (there were 5 of us, including our team leader Busara), and afterward did some phonecall training. This included calling people, which is always nerve-racking at first. I figured I should go ahead and do it to get the initial scariness over with… it’s just hard not knowing the answers to all of the questions they might ask, you know? And then having to be like, "Uhh, hold on a second" or something.

Later in the day we learned how to do site inspections (we inspect the job people did planting, a few weeks after they get their tree). After a little training (including learning how to fill out the paperwork) we split up into our teams and did a few sites ourselves. Man, it was SO depressing! Some people obviously don’t care about the trees because the city requires them to have a tree/trees on their parking strip, or on the public right of way (10′ from the curb). We went to one house that had 2 trees planted (though they were only supposed to have one?); they had only been there around a month and already looked nearly dead. There were a lot of things they didn’t do correctly (pretty much everything), and it’s really frustrating to see. We didn’t have the appropriate tools to make the drastic changes needed, so we recorded what we saw (including taking pictures) and left.
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So anyway, Saturday night I did absolutely nothing. Well, unless you count chatting on the internet and watching "Hogan Knows Best" on vh1. I know it’s not quality TV (if that exists), but it was something to keep me entertained.

Oh, are you looking for instant depression? Listen to a song or two by Elliot Smith. The music is really, really beautiful, but I’ve never known anyone to listen to it and not be really sad. Just so you know!

Oh, so yesterday I didn’t do much the first half of the day. Around 6 though Monte and Micah (2 guys I work with) came to pick up Meghan, Karoline and I to go to a local show–the housemates of a girl we work with were one of the bands playing. They played really loud, screaming, hardcore something or other. I felt like a weiner for plugging my ears, but it had to be done. There was some older man with his shirt off that was rolling around on the floor and placing his head on the speaker. Dear Jesus, he really can’t have eardrums. He definitely seemed drugged (or we were experiencing what happens after a long life full of drugs). It was really freaking hot in there but a relatively good show.

Several people I work with were there (Erin, Micah, Monte, Karoline, Meghan, Susanna, Vinh, Amanda, Carie), and afterward we went to a nearby bar to drink a little and play pool. It was pretty fun, and I stuck with gin as my usual drink. Man, I haven’t played pool for awhile but last night made me realize that I’m still bad at it. There was also karaoke there… I didn’t sing, but I might’ve if someone had been willing to sing “Jungle Love” by the Steve Miller Band with me. No one seemed to know it though, so I was very disappointed. Oh, I also forgot to mention that Meghan and I peed behind a dumpster.

After hanging out there awhile we all went back to Meghan’s house (since her grandparents are still in Spain). We really just sat around and talked, and I texted Ian (another guy we work with) and invited him over… yeah, I have been texting a lot now that we have free phones with free texting. After Ian got there (and after Micah, Amanda and Susanna went to the store) we watched “Zoolander”. I tried to watch that movie the other day and fell asleep, but that movie is so much funnier when you’ve been drinking. For reals.

I stayed up until around 530, and woke up this morning around 1030. Not much sleep, but I couldn’t really force myself to sleep any longer. Most of the day was pretty slow for me, but today I went to one of the county parks and went hiking. Yikes, it was really hiking! I mean, a lot of it was pretty steep and I was definitely feeling it… man, I need to get into better shape, at least cardiovascularly (not a word, I know). It was a really awesome park though with mountains and shiznit, and I managed to survive! After that we ate stir fry here at the house and watched “Scrubs” on Comedy Central.

Okay, this is really long and I should probably start laundry.