My new apartment!

Regular readers might remember that I had plans to move into a house with a few girls from work.  Well there ended up being some drama (of course) and as I learned the hard way, when something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. 

I ended up signing a lease for a studio apartment a few blocks away from my old place and I love it! It's the first time that I've ever lived alone and in my own place, and its so nice to come home and just have all my own stuff there and my own things to deal with.  Its kind of small, but since I don't really own any furniture it was perfect for me.  The complex is really nice too with a nature trail, pools, and a huge gym!

My kitchen and "breakfast nook!"  As you can see I already put out my Christmas towels!

 

My Target decorated bathroom!

 

Basically my only furniture. Catching up on the Vampire Diaries!!!

 

I planning to get a small couch soon like from Ikea, but in the meantime, I've been using my giant stuffed bear from Costco as a couch.  He's pretty comfortable to curl up on when I get home from work. hahaha

Today while I was waiting for my laundry cycles to finish, I took a lovely walk along the nature preserve path!  This complex is so nice and I kind of wish I'd moved here sooner!

Peru!

Last week Yoav and I took a trip to Peru!!!  We booked discount tickets on a website with a few of our friends and the 5 of us took an adventure down to Peru!  We started with a few days in Lima then headed to Cuzco to do some exploring and to see Machu Picchu!!!

Overlooking the ocean in Miraflores, Lima!

 

At the top of a mountain in Cuzco!

This place is called Sacsayhuaman...otherwise pronounced as Sexy Woman. Hahaha

Sacred Valley of the Incas!

Oh hey there! :)

Rocking our UCLA ponchos!!! Go Bruins! Beat 'SC!

MACHU PICCHU!!!! Just amazing.

On a sadder note, when I got into LAX Sunday night, my sister called me to tell me that our family dog Rusty had passed away while I was in Peru.  He was 13 years old and pretty sick, so it was his time to go, but it was still really hard.  Can't believe he'd been part of our family since I was 11 and now he won't be there the next time I go home.  Rest in Peace Rusty...you will be missed.

Roman Ride!!!!!

Practicing the roman ride in a training session!!!

Waving to the invisible audience! 

 

I  love my job. :)

Training New Behaviors!

Every 3 months or so, we get what is called the "Behavior Packet."  Basically it is a chart of all the new/current behaviors the dolphins are learning and which trainers are assigned to each behavior.  Yesterday we got a new packet and I am assigned to three behaviors!!!  So exciting because I previously didn't have any behaviors I was working on.  I am now going to be working on a sink (where the dolphin lays on the bottom of the pool), a tail walk and a high jump ball!  I'm on my weekend right now, but I can't wait to get back to work and get started on these behaviors!!!

Also, I have been working on learning the roman ride!!! I don't have amazing balance so I'm not great at it yet, but I'm getting there!!! Once I get the hang of it I will be doing it in the show!!!!  Here's a picture of my boss doing the roman ride, and hopefully soon I'll get a picture or video of myself doing it!!!

In other news...

There will be no mention of those adorable grey faced marine mammals in this post!  This one is about my life outside of work!  A new development in my life is that I will be moving into a house with my current roommate Erica and another girl from work Jen sometime in the next couple of weeks!  Erica has a friend who owns a house and he is going to rent it out to us!!! Its a pretty old house, and the previous tenant was literally a hoarder and she left all her stuff there, so we have been busy cleaning it and getting things in order, but overall it is a really awesome house, surrounded by trees, and in a neighborhood of mansions!

 

(Erica and I are actually holding a sign we found in our yard with our actual street name on it, but I colored it in just in case any creepers see it...don't want a stalker showing up at our new house haha but seriously)

(Our sweet yellow living room!)

(My future room, with its big old fireplace!)

One cool thing about this house is that it backs up onto our landlord's horse farm, where Erica works training and riding his horses!  So a few weeks ago she took me and Jen on a trail ride with her!!!

A few days ago, the three of us went to the gun club after work and shot shotguns!!! I know, you're all thinking, Hayley with a shotgun!? That can't be safe! Well, I was a bit scared since I had never shot a gun before, but it was actually kind of fun!  We even all hit our targets right in the heart at least once, so future home invaders better beware!!!

Yesterday, they really wanted to go to the Bass Pro Shop, and I had never been, so I tagged along for the ride.  Clearly both Jen and Erica are a bit more country than this Southern California city/beach girl, so there weren't really too many things that caught my eye at the store (besides the sand dollar earrings and starfish ring at the jewelry counter haha), but I did have fun fooling around and trying on various things...

 

 Bet you can't even see me in that picture, huh?  I'm totally camouflaged.  hahahaha

 Anyways, I'm definitely looking forward to having more adventures in our new house!  On the related topic of adventures, Yoav is coming to visit me next weekend and we are taking a staycation to a lodge about an hour outside of Atlanta near a lovely place called Calloway Gardens!  I'm looking forward to a nice and relaxing weekend!  Also, I have my first wedding dress appointment on Monday!!! I am bringing a friend from work Kristen, who also has the day off, for moral support and advice cause she has great fashion sense!!! I have a pretty good idea of the type of dress that I want, I just hope that it actually looks good on me!!!

Wow, 2 posts in one day! That might be some sort of record for me!!! Well, that's it for now! Off to bed!!!  Farewell blog readers!!!!

Swimmin' with Dolphs!

So when people find out that I work with dolphins at the aquarium, inevitably, their first question is always, "Do you get to swim with them!?" And for the first almost year I worked here, I would always answer yes, even though I barely ever got to get in the water with them.  But lately, work has been awesome and I have been learning a lot and getting to do so much more water work!!!  I mentioned in an earlier post that when I got promoted, one of my new goals was to work on water work with one of our dolphins named Lily!  My supervisor told me to work on her water work like 3 times a week (to which I obviously replied, heck ya! don't have to tell me to get in the water twice! haha) so I have been getting in the water with her a lot more!  I started out just doing some mimics, which are basically when the dolphins do the same thing you do, but I have also gotten to do her dorsal tow, inverted tow (where they are upside down and you hold onto their pecs as they swim) and her pec push (which is when you put your feet on their pecs and they push you backwards)!  It has been so exciting for me to actually get in the water with her, work on my relationship with her and as some people would say "ride a dolphin!" hahaha :)

This is me practicing a behavior called a "Layback" with Lily!

In addition to Lily's waterwork, I've also just started learning my first show waterwork part!!! It's going to be quite a while before I actually get to do it in show, since I don't even have it as an official goal yet and since there are 2 girls ahead of me on learning this part, but it's still super exciting.  Most of the girls at work start out by learning this segment called the Ballad, which is mostly low-energy water work like pec pushes and mimics that only girls do, and this past week I got to get in the show pool and start working with one of our dolphins named Pukanala on her ballad! Nothing too fancy, but still very exciting for me!!! I shall keep you posted on updates! :)

In other work related news, I had my first time holding a dolphin for a fecal sample collection!  I know it sounds gross (eww dolphin poop!) but it was actually pretty cool for me!  Next I will get to hold a dolphin for a blood sample collection!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with dolphin husbandry, all our dolphins (and most marine mammals and other animals at facilities) are trained on voluntary husbandry behaviors.  What that means is that they are trained to allow us to collect most medical samples (blood, urine, fecal, stomach, blowhole, etc) we need.  Another new goal/area I have been assigned to be in charge of is Environmental Enrichment Devices (EEDs), otherwise known as toys!!! It is now my responsibility to make sure that all of our toys are accounted for, remain safe for the animals' use, and are in good condition.  It might not sound that important, but it is actually a big deal because anything that enters the dolphins' environment has to be safe for them to play with.  What might a dolphin like to play with, you might ask?  Well some of the toys in our collection include basketballs, footballs, hula hoops, buoys, rings and even a traffic cone (lol)!  Also, most of our dolphins seem to enjoy bubbles!!! :)  Here's a super cute video one of the other trainers took for the Aquarium website!



Well I know that was a lot of words and not a lot of pictures, so thanks for reading all my work updates!!!! :)

Urban dictionary

So yesterday at lunch two of the other girls at work were looking up everyone's names on Urban Dictionary, and when the looked up Hayley, they were like, "this is totally you!" haha  There are a couple different
"definitions" of Hayley, most of which somewhat apply to me, but I thought this one was funny and pretty accurate. hahaha :)

Hayley
Hayley is a beautiful girl that everyone can't help but love. She's blonde, has blue eyes, and is super loyal!  She can keep a secret and never backs down.  (That one might not be true haha)  She's funny, smart, and a freakin ninja.  (Obviously) She loves music and animals.  If you ever have a chance to be her friend, do it.  You'll never have such an amazing person in your life.  She'd take a bullet, knife, punch, you name it, for you in a second!  Don't ever let her go, as you will forever regret it.

Another "definition" I found to be quite accurate was:

hayley
1: pretty/beautiful
2: nice
3: sexy ass
4: not fat
5: wayy sexy
6: fun and crazy

hahahahah just kidding :)

If you want an ego boost, I recommend looking up your name on Urban Dictionary!!! It can be quite amusing!!!

Promoted!!!!

Guess what y'all? I got promoted!!! Last week I had my mid year review and got promoted from apprentice to assistant trainer! Basically I'll be doing the same job, but I'll be making a bit more money (woohoo!) and I got some basic waterwork as one of my goals!!! So that's pretty sweet cause it means I will get to get in the water with the dolphins more often and learn more behaviors!!! :) Also, I just posted this from my phone, so I'm not really sure how it's going to look...

Summer Happenings

It's officially my favorite season!!! So far we are a couple of weeks into summer and I have been a busy bee running around enjoying the sunshine!

In June, I flew to California for basically 36 hours (fastest and most expensive weekend of my life haha) for my sister Nicole's graduation from UCSB!  I tried to surprise her, but apparently she suspected that I was coming to surprise her all along! Oh well, I tried. haha  Her graduation was the same day as Father's Day, so my mom and I also planned it to be a Father's Day surprise for my dad as well! :)  Yoav drove up from San Diego too, so it was really nice for all of us to be together, if only for 1 day.

 

At the end of June, Yoav and I drove down to Panama City Beach, Florida for a weekend!  It was kind of a long drive, 5 1/2 hours, but it was nice to get out of Atlanta and see the beach for a change!  We went to a place called Shell Island the first day, where we laid out on the beach and went snorkeling.  There wasn't much to see so we spent most of the time looking for sand dollars, but we did see several dolphins including a mother and calf up close!  They were right where we were snorkeling and swimming very close to us!  It was very cool!

 

(Funny story about this bathing suit...it is from Target and at the beach that day I saw a 12 year old wearing the same one...how embarrassing hahaha)

The next day I made Yoav go to Gulf World with me!  Gulf World is a small marine park in Panama City Beach!  It was not quite as fancy as the Georgia Aquarium, but it was a real cute place with a lot of heart.  We saw all the shows and animals, but it was hot as heck so we didn't really spend a lot of extra time there.  The cool thing about Gulf World is that it is the only facility in North America that houses rough-toothed dolphins so of course I just HAD to see them! :)

Here's a picture of a chick doing a double rocket in the bottlenose dolphin show...

And here are the rough-toothed dolphins doing bows!

Apparently I can't even go two days away from work without having to get my dolphin fix! I'm obsessed! hahaha

Yoav was able to stay in Atlanta through the 4th of July, so after I got off work we went with a bunch of friends up to a park in Alpharetta to watch fireworks!  So fun! (Even though he'll tell you that I was being mean cause I wouldn't let him eat dinner since we were running so late hahah)

Well that's my summer so far.  I don't really have any other trips planned or any vacation days requested, so I probably won't be going anywhere else!  I'll just have to take advantage of Atlanta's HOT, sunny weather and lay out by my pool getting tan and reading books!

Happy Summer everyone! I leave you with the dolphin photo of the week! <3

One million guests! And an Emmy!

Today was an exciting day at Dolphin Tales!  The one millionth guest came to see our 11:30 show!  They got a special photo with the dolphins and our mascots Deepo, the garibaldi, and Betty, the dolphin!  Another trainer Ramiro and I were selected to take the picture with the family!

 

Also, a documentary about the making of AT&T Dolphin Tales called "Georgia Aquarium Dolphin Project" won an Emmy!  Ramiro and I got to present Shaka and Lily with the statue!!!

Here's a link to the Georgia Aquarium blog about the one millionth guest and the Emmy! :)

Blue wetsuits!

 Sometimes when I am having a bad day, I just have to remind myself that I am lucky enough to have every little kid's dream job.  Seriously, who actually gets to grow up to be a dolphin trainer!? :)

Lily kisses!

Shaka!

(I had to make this one black and white cause the lighting was weird and I looked super pasty haha)

Most of the team! (Aren't those some good looking outfits?)

Dolphin team human pyramid!

(Also, please try not to notice that I basically look like a bald elf.  A slicked back ponytail and these giant ears just isn't a great combination. hahaha)

Waterwork!

I have been getting to do some more stuff with the animals at work lately, and it has been awesome! In the past few weeks I have started doing some in water mimics with one of our dolphins! (Out of show, of course haha). And today was the first time I got to do a dorsal tow during a training session!!! So fun!!!! :)

Check out the video below! :)

 

Dolphin Tales Commerical!

Here's the newest commercial for our show!!! (Don't bother looking for me...I was in the back pools practicing water extrication while this was being filmed. haha)



Totally magical, right!? :)

Pretending to be a dolphin trainer

You say its your birthday!

Today I turned the big 2-4!!! Just one year away from being a quarter of a century old! It was a pretty low key day...just had to work. My friend at work Katy made me some pretty awesome whale cupcakes, so that brightened up my birthday!!! :)

After work I went to dinner with some friends at the Olive Garden! :) It was great!!! Now its time for me to hit the sack and have dreams of balloons and presents and birthday cakes!

Engaged!!!!!

Well blog readers, I'm pretty sure I'm friends with all of you on facebook, but if I have any unknown readers, you might like to know that I got engaged last week!!! Yoav and I had a trip to the Bahamas planned, and he surprised me by booking us a stay at Atlantis!!!! It was pretty much my life dream since I was a child to stay at Atlantis, so I was super excited!!! It is just as amazing (though expensive) as I thought it would be- water parks, dolphins, aquariums, casino (I won $100 on a nickel machine!), restaurants, pools, beach, I could go on and on!!!

(Shout-out to the Mystery Team- pondering the ancient runes of Atlantis hahaha)

The first full day we were in Bahamas we went on a shark dive! So awesome! Pay no attention to the water marks on the photo...we were too cheap to buy the real one!

The next day he surprised me again by booking a dolphin interaction at Dolphin Encounter! I know, you're all thinking, umm doesn't she work with dolphins? Well yes, technically, but that doesn't mean I get to swim around in the water with them, so I was super excited for it! Anyways, as most of you know, a dolphin brought be a little box with an engagement ring in it and Yoav proposed!!! I said yes, and the rest is history!!!! :)