James River Float- June 20

Too bad Patrick missed this canoe trip while he was in NC (that's ok though- we went on another, more extended one like a week or two later). It was a beautiful day, and I kayaked for the first time. I was a bit wobbly at first and ran into a branch which knocked a TON of little black bugs all inside the kayak and on top of me, but before long I got the hang of it and really enjoyed myself. Wouldn't mind having one of my own and going more often! Here's some pictures of the group and the river:

Jackie, Barley & Pat

Derek & Erin


Dave was being trailed by Pat & Jackie's canoe until the rope got caught on some fallen trees and they cut him loose. It took him longer to drift down the river than us, but he didn't seem to mind- he looked pretty relaxed!


By this point, I felt pretty comfortable in Derek's kayak. Patrick and I think we'd like one similar to this if we got one.

This is a really good picture, but its also funny since Pat looks naked!


Both Derek & Jackie took a quick dip and grabbed on to the ends of their respective canoes to literally hang out for a bit.

Barley looked like he was seriously contemplating joining Jackie for a swim!

June 18- An Awesome Day

At the ripe age of 25 now, you might think my memory would be having a difficult time conjuring up a description of my birthday a month later. But, it was a memorable day. I was truly spoiled, with lots of little surprises that made the day so cheerful and fun!

I started the day off by spoiling myself with one of my fave drinks- a vanilla latte! I had told myself I must hold off my craving until my birthday morning so it would be more special. And when I got to work, I had yummy things to eat with it- Shirin and Pam bought donuts in honor of the day! We found it amusing how many treats we'd have to eat- remember, I made cupcake cones to bring in too!- but we laughed out loud when one of our reps stopped by to tell me happy birthday and brought a huge cheesecake/fruit filled danish pie as a gift! I ended up saving that and taking it home, but I thought it was very kind of our rep- and I have no idea how she found out it was my birthday either, which made it even more of a surprise.

That wasn't my only special delivery to the office that day. My family sent a package with sweet cards and gifts, that was scheduled to arrive the day prior, but was delivered fashionably late, for better birthday timing. And later, when I went up front to sign for FedEx, I was thrilled to find it was a beautiful bouquet of my favorite flowers- gerbera daisies in all sorts of vibrant colors!- sent to me by Patrick. He was out of town in NC at the time, but he was still more than successful at treating me. I didn't get much work done that day with the flood of phone calls and deliveries, but I can assure you- I didn't mind at all!


More perfectly timed mail was awaiting me at home, filled with birthday wishes and surprises from my Aunt Cheri and Grandma, and a delicious dinner awaited me @ Pat & Jackie's where a group of our friends had gathered for grilling and a smorgasbord of five star food options. Although it was a hot day, things cooled down for a beautiful night of lounging in their backyard.

I flipped on the tube when I got home, and tuned in to Conan for just a bit of TV before bed. Although I often periodically laugh during his show, there's few times I crack up laughing for an extended period of time. Which is why even that tiny segment of TV added to the perfection of the day. "Twitter tracker" = hilarious. I chuckled like crazy, and went to bed smiling.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/75638/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-twitter-tracker

http://www.hulu.com/watch/76852/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-twitter-tracker (the one from my bday)

http://www.hulu.com/watch/83686/the-tonight-show-with-conan-obrien-tonight-show-twitter-tracker#s-p1-st-i1

So I want to thank everybody for a whole day of awesomeness. Really, everyday in my life is more awesome because I have all of you!

A little Essence of Atalie preceding the Celebration of Atalie

On the eve of my birthday, I was reminded of what the epitome of "Atalie Albin" is characterized by: clumsiness and cooking craziness. It started out with grilled cheese sandwiches. Rather than dirty a new knife, I figured I'd use the giant bread knife already on the counter to take slices of cheese off the block. And in addition to it being an over-sized utensil, I was talking on the phone (meaning I didn't have the utmost precision). So my 1.5 sandwiches were filled 1/2 a big block's worth of slices that were super thick, and it oozed all over the pan.

Later on, I baked cupcakes in ice cream cones to share the following day for my birthday treat. I got a little overzealous and put too much batter in them. They baked on top but overflowed and were soup in the middle. I hoped with cooling they might solidify, but instead they collapsed on themselves and sunk. After trashing the first dozen, I put some dishes away while I waited for take 2 to cook. In the process, a ceramic bowl toppled to the ground, made a noise that gave me a headache, and broke into pieces (we have 2 of that particular bowl, and go figure- the 1 that is chipped is not the one that broke).

The night isn't over yet though!

After pulling out a successful second batch (yay!) I decided to watch some TV while I let it cool. On way way to sit down, I trip on a cord, stub my toe (ow!) and fall forward onto the futon. After recovering, frosting the cupcakes and cleaning up, I notice there were fruit flies hovering around my vase of flowers. Those little suckers had been invading the house all week, so at that point, I had a mini fit of rage hit me and I swung at them. Did I kill my victim? No- but that doesn't mean I missed....the vase. I knocked it onto the cupboard, spilled the semi-dirty water all over my freshly cleaned cupboard, and a small chunk of glass was chipped from the upper inner edge of the vase. It was the first bouquet that vase contained since I resumed ownership of it too! (Don't tell Grandma- that was my bday present from her, and besides, my handyman has since repaired it!).

Luckily the evening wasn't a taste of the next day. Not that it was a bad night- I've had these things happen enough that I find them amusing most of the time now. But I escaped any incident on my birthday other than fun surprises and thoughtful doting. I'll tell you all about my awesome 25th anniversary on Earth in the next entry though- I've already engaged your eyes enough with my rambling! (more essence of Atalie, I suppose) :)

More Jamaica

A storm rolling in over the bay.

YS Falls- 7 waterfalls with a pool you can swing over and plunge into the water 12' below (lots of fun)

Incised bank of the river showing how high the banks are.

Rastaman with his bowl and bag of ganja hanging from his canvas kilt-thing. Plus, he was singing. Quite the character.

The front of Sunset Cottages where we stayed.

No problem, mon

As most of you know, I just returned from a nine-day vaca- er... class field trip to Jamaica. It was a really good experience chock-full of cultural experiences, fieldwork, and fun. I was picked up in Montego Bay the night of Sunday May 31 and driven to the south side of the island to Bluefields Bay. The rest of the group had arrived three nights prior and spent their first day in the field surveying the day I arrived. The next couple of days were spent in the field surveying.

The purpose of the trip was two-fold: 1) test the streams surrounding Bluefields Bay for E. coli, total coliform, and phosphates (Jackie's thesis) and 2) examine the effects of a large flood on Bluefields river that occurred in 1979 (Pat's thesis). The Bluefields river study was more up my alley, so Derek, Dave, and I (along with Bob) helped Pat while Erin helped Jackie. This flood occurred as a result of a lot of rain and a dam breach in a pond located at the top of the watershed. The water released from that, as well as all the rain, increased the volume of water in the stream to an extent that resulted in extreme erosion and damage to the surrounding infrastructure. By the end of our time there, we discovered the stream had downcut over 5 meters and deposited all that sediment in the bay downstream. Boulders the size of cars were moved over 1500 meters downstream taking out two bridges in the process.

The rest of the time (3 1/2 days) was spent visiting various places around the island. The first thing was a community tour where we drove up into the mountains and checked out some of the small villages and had lunch at a small bar. The second day we went to YS Falls and then Treasure Beach for dinner. Our third day off was overcast and rainy and, of course, we went to another set of waterfalls (Mayfield Falls).

The roads, of course, are terrible and everyone drives 60 mph all the time, no matter the radius of the curve. Needless to say, car sickness is common for visitors. Luckily, I have had conditioning on the ever-winding Scotland roads for a summer. Despite being the minority, I didn't really feel like I was. This could be due the fact that I was with a group of white people, but nevertheless, when I was on my own, the people treated me openly and friendly. These people are poor- the average income in the area is US$5,000 per year- but they seem happy with what they have. Everyone knows everyone else, they help each other out, and are pretty genuine. This, of course, might have something to do with the ganja, which was everywhere. However, I think the people of Bluefields are an exception to the general Jamaica racism; they seem motivated, or at least some of them do, to make their community better. Anyway, I'd recommend it only to people that are prepared to not have air-conditioning, screens, or hot water. Seriously, the main thing I didn't like was waking up in the morning with additional red spots as gifts from some unseen creature with multiple legs. Check out the pictures:


cutting my way through the bush.


The local shower- hence the water quality study.

The single biggest culvert I've every seen- a semi truck could drive through it with room to spare. It's something like 30' across.

Veda, one of the locals that went out into the field to run interference for us. Obviously, she was one of our cooks as well.

In the Caribbean, one shot of a sunset is a necessity. Sadly, this was the best sunset the whole time I was there.

Whether I'm on 2 feet or 2 wheels- I can't escape my clumsiness!

A week ago, Kat and I were riding our bikes over to our friend Luke's house. We're about to pull into the driveway, so you'd think cool- we got there w/o problem. But no. This is me we're talking about. I let go of my bike w/ my left hand to signal I was turning left, lost my balance, and took a spill in the street, backing up three cars behind me (at least they were far enough back and the speed limit is slow enough that I didn't get run over).

I did somewhat of a halfway flip over the side of my right handlebar as me and the bike took the tumble to the asphalt, injuring my body, my bike, and a bit of my pride (I mean, what a stupid way to fall! taking my hand off for just a sec- come on!). Although, it actually wasn't nearly as embarrassing as other things I've done, probably because my initial instinct was just to wisely get up and out of the road as quickly as possible. That being said, injuries to all three were quite minor thankfully. My bike seat got a small tear in it, some scratches and scuffs on the right gear changer and front of the bike, and my cute sounding bell broke. :( I'm more sad about all that than myself after spending so much money on my pretty bike last year! As for me:

Banged my right knee up a bit- it looked a little worse in person since it was slightly bruised too, but doesn't show up too well.

Right elbow scrape.

This is 1 day after my fall. Inner left thigh where the handlebars jammed into me.

Day 2- not quite as dark but it grew a little!

Patrick the Nomad & the Cow Cookie Platter

This month is full of traveling for Patrick. Last week, we were in Michigan to visit family and attend a wedding. On our way back to Missouri on Sunday, I dropped him off at the airport in St. Louis so he could catch his plane to Jamaica (where he currently is until late Tuesday night, with a group from school). And 4 days after his return, he'll be headed to North Carolina to help his professor collect some research. So while we all wait for his pictures of far away places, I'll fill the void with highlights from our trip to Michigan and pictures of the wedding.

We started the week off by seeing Star Trek with my parents (very good!) and grilling at our friend Mike's. We also got to catch up w/ Brad and my best friend Cassandra a bit (which meant seeing her cute baby- she's getting so big!). The middle of the week was spent doing errands like health-related appointments and visiting secretary of state (Patrick drove me there insisting I replace my black hair photo when renewing my license). Thursday I had a girls night with Cassandra, Mattie (her baby), and our friend Amy- shopping & eating of course! Friday, mom took the day off so we could have a Goodwill marathon, paused for a delicious lunch at a new restaurant that used to be our neighborhood's library. Patrick came back from his parents house that night, after a retirement party for his pastor, to find mom and me in the process of making a mosaic covered table for him to use as a nightstand (right now he's got a stack of milk crates).


Turned out rather well, don't you think? :D

Saturday we attended the wedding of our friends Sam(antha) & Kory, who were both in the geology program at GVSU with Patrick. We both had a really good time catching up with some of our old pals and hitting the dance floor!

The new Mr. & Mrs.! (Thank goodness for facebook- I took this one from the album of someone I don't even know!)

What a philanthropist- donating to the dollar dance. What a sacrifice! I mean- look at her! :)

On the left is my old roomie, Sydney, during my last year at GVSU (also a geo-nut).
There were lots of tasty treats there! Several flavors of cake, candy galore (including some that look like rocks!), and Sam grew up on a dairy farm, which explains these sugar cookies. I thought they were simply adorable! (and delicious too!)I am led to believe this picture was taken when the DJ played Thriller. :) In addition to Sydney, Patrick's jamming to the tune with Ben (on the left) who shared a tent with him during field camp and who I took GEO112 with.
I grooved a lot of the night, but it took a while for me to get comfortable enough to let loose. This would be after "a while," seeing as I'm in the middle of the circle! (This one and the Thriller pic are also compliments of facebook!)

Partying Saturday night made it more difficult to get up early to leave Sunday, but it would have been difficult anyway. It's always sad to go! We're so happy we could come back to Michigan to see everybody. We miss you all already!