the PLAGUE.

SO.....here i am....my first blog as a 25 year old. SCARY. my birthday was pretty low key. went to my IP at the stranding network. meredith, amie & korinda came & had lunch with me and jane from the stranding network made me a cake! got to check on a seal in orleans on my way home. ate some dinner. watched a movie. nice & relaxing.....getting ready for a crazy weekend in rhode island. enter 4 am friday morning. 2 girls had stayed home on thursday deathly ill with the stomach flu. i had been psyching myself out that i wasn't feeling well either, but everyone was telling me that it was just in my head. so, it was my luck that at 4 am i woke up in a panic to make it to the bathroom. i made it! and all consecutive times as well. yeehaw. i went downstairs to lay around until amanda got up so i could tell her that i would not be doing service that day. (i wanted to rest up for the weekend!) much to my surprise....my roommate, erin followed me down a few minutes later & went straight for a couch in the living room. i had no clue that she had been stricken with THE PLAGUE as we had missed each other in passing while running to the bathrooms in the dark. amie had also been throwing up all night....so we had a total of FIVE people home sick on friday (lisa & sam were still recovering). we couldn't decide what to do about the get away to RI, because i still wanted to go even though i was sick. meredith called her aunt and got it OKed to go this weekend. so, i relaxed and munched on saltines all day and sat in front of the TV. the healthy people that went to service on friday decided that since they already had bags packed for the weekend, that they would go to boston to stay away from us sickies. good idea. saturday morning i went downstairs and discovered a body on the couch....it was alex. he had driven all the way to boston only to get sick and drive all the way back to wellfleet -- while puking. so, he joined us to make 6 sickies in the living room. we heard later in the day that greg, who was staying at the bourne house for the weekend, also got sick, making the total 7. amanda was great and got us pedialyte to keep hydrated and monica drove us to the store to get more saltines, soup and popsicles. we were all feeling better on sunday and it was GORGEOUS out, so i even took a walk on the fire trails behind the house. sunday night we were enjoying (?) the super bowl when amanda disappeared....into the bathroom. she had succumbed to THE PLAGUE as well....which was fitting since she was the one who originally brought the bug to us a few weeks ago after hanging out with some elementary school kids. monday was chore day....so all toilets, tubs and sinks have been bleached. amanda is feeling better and no one else has gotten sick! (cross your fingers).
on monday we served with the Cape Cod National Sea Shore fire crew chainsawing and burning brush piles. we are removing non native species to try and re-establish the original ecosystem of the park. right now there about 120 trees per acre of land and they want to end up with about 20 trees per acre....we have a lot to do! i am still nervous about chainsawing, but i ended up cutting 4 trees down and limbing a lot of stuff. it was great weather and the huge brush fire kept us warm as well. it was a long, hard day of work and i am still sore tonight!
today the snow came! a big difference from the sunny, 40 degree weather of yesterday. it was cold and windy and SNOWY...for the cape. this is nothing compared to wisconsin. but, i left my IP early, since i have to commute 45 minutes home and the wind was suppose to pick up. a few other people got done early, too....so we took advantage of the snow and went sledding down the driveway and front yard....and then popped our inner tube on some green briar. fun over.
so, now i am healthy & looking forward to THIS weekend in rhode island. it's suppose to be 48 degrees there on saturday...CRAZINESS!

stay warm.
much love.
A


i made it to the bottom of the drive way!....

it's a long way down.....

me starting to de-limb a tree.....