SOOOOOOOO, I just had the best Saturday of my young life. Seriously, I feel awesome right now. I feel that I must share these experiences with you so you realize just exactly how awesome my life really is. I have divided the experience into two parts so that no one gets too bored with reading one super long post. Anyway, children, let me begin my tale.
I rose from bed bright and early yesterday morning. When I say early I mean 6:30 am. EARLY! I had to get up early because I was going to a service project with the Wildlife and Range Club and we were leaving at eight. So I got up early cause I wanted to shower, I ended up breaking the shower so that it wouldn't stop running, and was ready by 7. Suck.
All nine of us conservationists met at a building on campus and drove up to Draper, UT where REI was sponsoring the clean up of a wetland there. Yes, supposedly there are wetlands in Utah. Obviously, I wore my red and black checked lumberjack shirt for the occasion. We also stopped along the way for Krispy Kreme donuts, so you know the rest of the day is going to be good.
We get up to the service spot, park at a church, and divy up the waders. Yes, WADERS! For those of you who do not know what these are, they are boots connected to water proof material so that one can WADE in water and not get wet. Often used by fishermen. Mine were thigh high. We walked down a long trail, laughing and joking, to a couple of ponds where a bunch of people are clearing tree branches and litter. We got right to work. Most of us girls donned our waders and got down and dirty in the pond picking up trash. It was the funnest thing I've done in a long time. Cause I was walking through water and not getting wet! Some might call that a miracle. However, the pond smelled like poop and trash and was hard to walk in because there were so many logs and debris in it. At one point I was shimmying over this tree that I didn't want to go around because the water was too deep, I got over it and the girl behind me says, "Uh oh! I think you sat in some poop!" Perfect. The next few minutes consisted of me trying to see the poop and the girl saying "Ok, I'm going to touch your butt..." and trying to wipe it off for me. So the rest of the day I walked around with what I can only hope was duck poop on my butt. After awhile me and the other girl were charged with clearing out cattails so that water would flow more freely into the pond. When we first stepped into them there were hundreds of little tadpoles swimming everywhere. We tread carefully. Using clippers, we spent the next couple hours, cutting a clearing cattails and trash from the water, getting really dirty because the plants would flick smelly mud and water into our faces.
At around 11:30 we were told to stop and come have lunch. REI and some other place provided sandwiches, cookies, chips, fruit, cliff bars, and fruit rolls for us to eat. It was the best meal I had had in a long time. Then after we had eaten they said "Hey, take some food!" That was a mistake on their part. They obviously did not realize they had a group of college kids amongst them. I ended up taking a bunch of bananas plus one, some muffins, two cliff bars, and a fruit roll before some lady was like "Save some food for everyone else." My fellow clubbers were similarly laden. Then as we were standing around talking, the president of the club said that Clint, a boy we know, was having a bonfire that night and was I doing anything? Then we all left and I thought about how fun that morning had been and how glad I am that I am in Wildlife Conservation.
Later I went to the football game, which I will not discuss except to say it was a shameful disgrace. Then me and Brenna and Kelly went to the Pizza Pie Cafe which was the perfect end to the perfect first part of my perfect day...sigh...
Dont you wish you were me?
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