Falon’s World

Yup, that’s right. I’ve been here for two years. I changed and chose my final major while at this job. I met my boyfriend and moved in with him because of this job. I got my brother my job . Two years is a long time. I think the longest time I’ve stayed at any place consecutively. I leave in exactly 20 minutes and the next time that I work, it will be in my chosen field – that is crazy…and scary…and exciting. I’ve been out to lunch twice – once with a manager who took me to Charley’s Crab, the most amazing seafood place ever!! Then again yesterday with a couple of the other ladies in the office, including the VP, where I scarfed down some delicious (and incredibly bad for me) bar food. Today everyone is gone to the Allendale campus for Convocation and it’s kind of anti-climatic that I’m leaving and there will be very few that see me go.

Here’s to the future…

Quite awhile ago, my Mom helped me design a tattoo for my lower back:

I really like it and the pain was nothing to speak of, so I began thinking of another I may want. I have so far thought of three I want for sure, one a maybe. Normally, I like to wait a year or two to make sure I still like the idea – then if I do, I get it. I really wanted a foot tattoo for a long time so that’s what I decided to get. I wanted to go to the old place I went to in East Lansing, but the artist I had before moved to California and I didn’t have much luck getting a response via email so…Eric found some info online that Mos Eisley’s was the place to go in Grand Rapids.

After showing up two different times, once for an appointment, once for a consult, the date was set to get my new ink. I love the design he came up with and am very impressed since my description of what I wanted was less than stellar.

Here he is applying the stencil:

Preparing the tools:

He started by my heel and worked up and out, to avoid smudging his stencil. Therefore, the words went first.

They took a long time.

The Achilles tendon area didn’t feel all that great being done. I kept telling myself that this was the worst part and it would get better…

One word (outline) down, two to go…

Working on the outline of the last word:

Adding a little green to the outline:

I had to flip onto my stomach so he could do the rest of the last word – “Loyalty”:

Almost finished with the outline:

Now to fill in the words:

The finished words:

This was the first time I realized I lied to myself. The outline hurt a whole hell of a lot more on my ankle bone than it had on my Achilles.

I had to do something with my hands and I needed something to grip – at the same time I knew it was kind of freaking Eric out so I hid my face from him:

When he moved to the ridge before the inside curve of my foot, I realized I had lied to myself again – more pain:

Finally, what I had been telling myself would be the worst part (the outline), was done:

Next he started to fill in the color:

The pain of the outline was nothing compared to this, this was torture. Every time he wiped off the excess, I flinched, it was painful.

The pain was bad enough that Eric and Adam moved up so I could squeeze their fingers…and my whole upper body was one tight, clenched muscle. It was excruciating.

Here’s a couple of bloody photos:

I reached the point where I wasn’t sure I would be able to hold my body still much longer…and then we were done and I got the final wipe-down:

Eric and Adam had to uncurl my fingers for me, they were stuck in the position they had been in the entire time I was getting tattooed. I had not looked at it since the outline had been finished (and I needed a bathroom break), so I was surprised at the finished product, and very, very, very pleased. I think it turned out beautiful. The flowers turned out very realistic and it’s just lovely. I’m so happy with it!

We trooped home, 3.5 hours later and I fell into bed and asleep, hard. I came to enough to eat dinner and then laid back down. Eric woke me up a couple of hours later – the new tattoo needed to be cleaned and ointment applied before I could go to bed. Something I had not remembered from my first tattoo but came back with a vengeance was the nausea and pre-faint conditions that I develop afterward it’s over and before cleaning the first time. It was bad enough that I ended up begging Eric to clean it for me this first time – which he did, a tad grudgingly. I was still feeling like I may faint so I stretched out on the floor while Eric applied the soap (which STUNG), rinsed and applied the ointment. Then I stumbled into bed for the rest of the night. These are the photos from me in the bathroom, that’s why they’re so dark, but it’s all we’ve got right now.

I love my new tattoo – which is actually a birthday present from Eric – THANKS BABY!!!

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In June, Eric signed up for some random survey and a chance to win a Nintendo Wii. Last week he got word that he was the winner. Some were still skeptical but lo-and-behold what came in the mail this weekend while we were gone:

I think my excitement at getting Mario Kart almost surpassed Eric’s excitement of getting Guitar Hero III .

Tonight I was voted into a new group, the Grand Rapids Dog Training Club. This will open up quite a few opportunties for me and also allows me to practice Agility and Rally with my two. Hopefully I will begin to try Midas out with tracking and see how he does sometime soon as well.

After the rather lousy weather on Saturday, we thought that Sunday may be the day that the forecast was actually correct, so we woke up before the crack of dawn to go down to the beach and see the sunrise. It was pretty dark and cloudy on the way there, but we tried to stay optimistic. While waiting for it to rise, Eric snapped some nifty photos:

Unfortunately, the sunrise was a dud, it got lighter, but no pretty colors to speak of. I got a couple of photos myself but nothing too good:

To prove we really were there:

Eric and I were pretty disappointed as we headed back to the cabin.

It was still really early when we got back, so we copied everyone else and went back to bed for a couple of hours. When we finally got up for the day, we decided to take a trip to Iargo Springs, like we did last year and take some photos. Nick, Dan and Kelsey came with as well.

I had a lot of fun learning about my camera and fiddling around with the darkness and the blur of the water. These are some of my shots:

Eric took a bunch of photos as well:

Which of course are much better than mine (again):

We climbed the 800 million stairs back up to the top. I got there first ( ), with Dan bringing up the rear:

The view from the top is pretty cool too:

When we got back from this trip, we packed our bags and all of our other stuff and loaded up the dogs to head home. While packing, Eric found this in the cooler:

We thought he was pretty neat, so did Mason, who tried to lick it. The drive home was long and Eric started to fall asleep with only 45 minutes to go so I made a concerted effort to keep him awake and we made it. We unloaded everything, cleaned up and I fell onto the bed. A long weekend, but fun.

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Woke up on Saturday morning relatively early considering how late some went to bed on Friday, to rain. Not a storm, just a steady drizzle. I was a little apprehensive about going canoeing when it wasn’t looking so great but was told the weather forecast was to be 75 and sunny. So, we headed out to the rental, did some dropping and exchanging of vehicles (Old Goldie played her part in that) and then we started out on the river.

We had an odd number of people, so Nick took a Kayak:

Just like last year, we saw some birds on the river, not as many though:

Some members of the canoe trip were a little more…risky, than others:

Then it started to thunder off in the distance, then a little closer, until it started to rain. I was already freezing, so I took Nick’s generous offer and put his sweatshirt on:

We came upon a bank where there were several people using a rope to swing out over the water and plunge into the river. Eric started insisting that everyone stop because he wanted to do it, so we did. Then he got up there, and was too scared to go first haha. So, after several other people went, Eric began to prepare, I was watching from below when all of a sudden SPLOOSH! I was under water. What in the hell??? Ben had been coming down beside my canoe, slipped in the clay bottom/drop-off, landed on the end and opposite side from where I was and catapulted me into the river. At least the water was very warm lol. After we had fished out what we could, I watched Eric again prepare and he swung out, I yelled when to let go in case he couldn’t see (he took his glasses off), and he screamed like a girl and thunked back into the hillside before swinging back out and eventually letting go – it was hilarious .

Shortly after we dumped the remaining water out of my canoe, we headed out, although we made several stops along the way, to peel off drenched clothing, go to the bathroom, and drink:

Next thing we know, it starts pouring (we were back on the water again) and thundering like crazy. The water was coming down so hard and fast we could hardly see, let alone dodge any submerged stumps or trees. It was really, really cold and the river water really warm, steam was lifting off into the sky. We stopped and got into the water to have a little warmth:

Then the weather cleared up, the skies turned blue and the sun came out:

We turned a bend in the river and saw this:

So of course, the guys wanted to stop to prove their manliness by jumping off yet another something-in-the-air:

Eric jumped again…well sort of, he lowered himself from the branches pretty far before he let go:

We left from there and it downpoured again, complete with thunder.

This soaked my second borrowed sweatshirt and then I was down to just a towel (not mine either):

Kelsey and I were both freezing and shivering like crazy by this point. Then the sun came out again (are you sensing a theme?):

By the time we reached the end of the trip, it was clouding up and looking like rain again so we hurried and packed up the van and headed back to the cabin.

Ben exercised the boys for us (and Kya a little):

(he’s hitting a ball with the bat and they’re retrieving, if you click on the photo, there’s a note)

We gathered around the campfire for awhile, I was freezing still and couldn’t get warm:

That didn’t last long before 1/2 of us succumbed to the need to nap (and get warm). Eric woke me up awhile later, I ventured outside for a bit, but a couple of people had not gotten up from their nap and shortly after I went to bed for the night. Eric came in much later after playing Euchre for several hours.

Last year was the first official Webteam Canoe Trip. This year some people weren’t going and there were some newbies along as well. Eric told Nick, Dan and Kelsey to meet at our house at a time I knew was totally unreasonable for us to be ready by – and I was right. So, we frantically rushed around trying to get everything together before we headed out: the dogs and us in the van and the other three following behind. When we stopped for gas I started to scope out the back of the van and realized that while Eric had remembered the tent and the EZ-Up (to go over the tent in case of rain), he had forgotten sleeping bags, pillows, air mattress etc.

We arrived at Ben’s cabin and decided the dogs could sleep in the garage in their kennels and we would sleep upstairs in the extra beds. It was a laid-back evening. Predictably, we had to run to the store and pick up some things we had forgotten and then everyone settled in for some card playing and campfire sitting.

There was an attempt to make popcorn over the fire, which resulted in:

Bailey decided he wanted to go and visit the neighbor’s black lab, Ben had to carry him back and Midas was very excited at his reappearance:

As the night wore on and people drank more, it was decided that laying out in the middle of the road would be a good idea.

Although Eric did get some cool night shots:

There was quite a lot of alcohol consumed:

Although that does not include several wine bottles full of other “stuff” .

After everyone was sufficiently drunk, we all went to bed, some of us earlier than others…

With Mason being in SAR now and his Agility classes and Midas no longer being in Rally, he’s started to feel a little bit more needy. Kya never has this problem because when she wants it, she constantly begs for attention. Although Midas is still in Agility, he is just feeling a little jealous that now. Instead of being the one that always gets to come with me places, Mason is more frequently the tag-along. Midas has never been a real touchy-feely dog. He likes to be nearby but he’s content with that. He very, very rarely asks to be petted. In fact, when he’s feeling like he is not getting enough attention he mostly conveys those feelings with deep sighs and pathetic looks – I still have to reach for him to pet him though.

*SIGH* I’m so neglected

Mom?! Hello?! Are you even going to NOTICE me here???

When these infrequent times come, I always give him tons of affection and attention and after a short while he wanders off – to lay nearby but just out of reach. I love my heart-dog .

As of today, we are now an accepted member of K-9 One and no longer with MISAR. I am very pleased with this switch and look forward to posting many more SAR stories on Leapin’ Labs of our training adventures.

We have also applied with Kent County SAR and are awaiting our application to be processed.

Today at work things were a little slow, so I started to play around with some photos in PhotoShop. I’m just now becoming a little more comfortable, enough to explore some of the options. This is what I came up with:

I also did this one from the other night:

I thought they turned out kind of neat . (I know, for those PhotoShop users that may read this blog post, I didn’t do a whole lot – but I still liked the effect)