Whenever my mom asks my grandma, who has alzheimers, what she wants to eat, she answers "Something good."  In a way, that helps me to remember there are good things even when everything seems bad.  So today, I'm posting a few pictures of our campsite to remind myself that there is something good that comes out of going to the field, even with all the other crap that goes on.

We camped at the Negrito Fire Base.  It's a pretty nice place, with flush toilets, showers, and a functioning kitchen.  Probably the fanciest place I've camped in for work so far.

 Here's where I set up camp.  I love camping in the Ponderosa Forest best.  It's so pretty.



One night, there was a really pretty sunset.  Sorry it's kinda fuzzy.  I'm not the best photographer in the world.



That same night, the full moon glowed orange, because of all the smoke in the air.  I wish this picture could do it justice.  It was really cool looking.

Flying Taco's less fortunate cousin.

I've said that several times already this week.  As I mentioned previously, this was my first week in the field, and well... it bombed.  Badly.  I've had three mini-lectures already and I'm sure there's more to come.  I feel like the guy in Office Space who has waaay too many bosses and all my TPS reports got accidentally flushed down the toilet and dragged out again in a wet, soggy heap.  But the thing is, it wasn't me who flushed them.  It was the stupid intern, even after I told him not to.  This is all metaphorical, by the way.  In case you didn't figure that out already.  Anyway, like I said, it's a long story.  One that I may have to dust off the old fail blog to write.  We shall see.  But to make the long story short, suffice it to say I will be back in civilization for at least the next two weeks.  That should give me some time to tell you everything.

My field season officially starts next week.  ummm... yay.  So much stuff has been going on lately and I feel very scatterbrained and disorganized and completely not ready to be out in the woods for all of eternity (aka this summer).

So, what's been going on?

First of all, if you haven't heard already, there are some massive fires going on in Arizona right now and the smoke is blowing all the way to Iowa.  It's been smoky here, particularly at night, for oh... about a week and a half, I suppose.  My line of work is directly involved with fighting forest fires, keeping them under control, and monitoring afterward.  This is not my job, in particular, most likely because my boss thinks I would die if I even got near a fire.  Probably right.  Anyway, the fire has been growing but the smoke seems to be dying down for the moment.  So maybe it's getting better.  I really should know more about this than I do.  But I've been distracted.

Before I can go out to the field, I have to finish entering a crapload of data, and I'm not done yet.  That's why I'm getting out so late this year.  I don't exactly understand the reasoning behind needing it done now, but whatever.  But next week, my boss and the rest of my crew are going out on fire duty.  So I have to take the student intern to the field so he has something to do.  That means I have to be ready with my maps.  Oh and on top of that we're getting new carpet in our office so I have to take everything out of my cubicle and put it in boxes.  Soo exciting.  Plus I have to order a new tent pole and buy some other camping supplies.  Today I was measuring the tent pole, and a lady came by and was like "what the heck" and I said "I'm measuring this tent pole to see how long it is." Duh. 

So that's what's happening at work.  But it isn't all that's happening.  Last week, someone in stupid Detroit stole my credit card number and was using it to buy McDonalds and 7-11, and other crap like that.  So I had to dispute it and get a new card.  I was cleared of all charges and got my new card today. 

But that still isn't all.  Just when I thought things might be getting better, some idiots decided it would be a good idea to fight while driving down the highway and smack into my car.  Yeah, not the best idea, especially if you're a felon with no insurance and no driver's license.  Geniuses, I tell you.  Albuquerque is frickin full of them.  Anyway, I didn't file a police report because he would just run, go to jail, etc., which wouldn't really help me.  And I'm not sure what kind of insurance claim I can make against an uninsured motorist.  So now I'm stuck with a scraped up car (it looks a lot better than I thought it would based on how hard it felt when it hit) and a criminal's "promise" to pay me back.  Lucky me. 

So... that's why I'm not excited to go to the field.