An Ode to the Millions of Dead Squirrels

I would like to welcome you all to another rendition of me spewing my mindless thoughts. A major focus of mine while being here has been the extreme amount of dead squirrels on the road. I mean EXTREME. It honestly looks like a squirrel massacre. It’s very upsetting. I expressed my concern to my coworkers a few weeks ago and last night one of them came up with a legitimate researched answer as to why the roads are littered with ghosts of squirrels past. Seriously. It’s such a problem that the news has done segments on it and there are newspaper articles on the subject. So here is my educational topic for you all today. Apparently, 2017 was an excellent season for acorns and other nuts that squirrels like to consume. This then caused an increased mating season for squirrels and resulted in an explosion of the squirrel population in 2018. Unfortunately, the acorn and nut supply is back to “normal” this year and so the supply vs demand is a bit skewed. The squirrels are “displaying erratic behavior” while trying to fend for themselves and find enough nuts for the winter. Part of this erratic behavior is them darting out in front of cars in their hurried efforts to find food (farmersalmanac.com). So there you have it. RIP little guys.

Moving on. Two weekends ago now I was back in Milwaukee for Brad and Nick’s wedding! It was honestly one of the most fun and enjoyable weddings I have been to in a while. It was a beautiful fall night and of course it never hurts when you get to reunite with the best of friends. Plus the major highlight of my weekend is that I got to see Brad (my Brad, not the groom – though that was also nice). I was THE HAPPIEST person that he was able to fly into Milwaukee to meet me for the weekend. I actually feel like a new human. The last four plus weeks were extremely rough. I am back in New Hampshire now and feel a lot better than I have been. So I think I needed to see him and now I can chill out for a minute. It seems a minute is as long as my chill lasts these days. It’s quite amazing the power of sadness. I am not one to feel depressed so it is nice to be out of the fog a little. That being said, it’s now been just over a week and the glow is wearing off. The manager of my unit asked if I would extend my contract another three months. Needless to say I immediately declined that. I am hoping to head somewhere back West in January. These 2,000 miles aren’t really doing it for me.

Anyway, Milwaukee. We had such a good time. It was only a few days but I managed to take Brad to most of my favorite Mke spots. The weather was amazing all weekend and we just really enjoyed ourselves! Obviously I finished off the trip by crying in the airport. Only about six more months of that and I should be done with my public displays of emotion. So, that’ll be nice. Not just for myself but for the general public who has to witness me crying.

Mom and Andy visited this weekend for a few days! They just left this afternoon. We had a really nice time despite yesterday and today being very rainy and gloomy. I was hoping the leaves would be a little more changed by now but we took a day trip up to Maine and the color was significantly better up there. At least we had a little fall color to enjoy 🙂 Sunday, after picking Andy up from the airport in Boston we wandered up the coast in Massachusetts and explored an area called Cape Ann. Prior to that we stopped in Manchester by the sea because Andy and I have both seen the movie and it was necessary. Super cute little town! After that we drove up to Rockport. This town is famous for its fishing. In addition, back in the day this became a famous site for artists, such as Winslow Homer, to come and rent out fish shanties and paint. A red fish shanty in particular is quite famous for being the subject of many paintings and art pieces over the years. The old school fish shanties are still used today by artists. It was a cool little spot although it was more commercialized than I thought it would have been. I was expecting random shacks along the water with art galleries in them. The area turned out to be quite crowded and although there were galleries, it was more “tourist” galleries if you know what I mean. I did find a mean lobster roll there though and the buildings were so old and interesting!

Yesterday we went up to Maine for the day. We stopped at a forest preserve on the way up to Portland and decided to take a little nature walk. We had grabbed some sweet, sweet ponchos at a store and carried on. The rain actually made the leaves stand out more and the ocean look more dramatic so it turned out to be a beautiful walk. Once we were done we decided that chili in Portland was the perfect cure for the cooler, gloomy weather. We stopped in at the Thirsty Pig. It was so delicious! Such a cute little place too! Super relaxed and laid back vibe. As you can probably guess by the name of the restaurant, the food is primarily sausage related. I was a happy camper to see that they did have vegan chili and vegan sausage! Both were SO good. I would definitely revisit that spot and recommend it to anyone visiting. It is also down the street from what appears to be an extremely busy donut store. We had every intention of going there after our meal but it closed right as we walked up. I plan on getting in there at some point while I am out here 🙂

This morning before Mom and Andy left we went to breakfast at the Friendly Toast. A recommendation from a coworker that did in fact turn out to be fantastic! I had the vegan breakfast burrito and it was probably one of the best breakfast burritos I’ve ever had. It had all the flavor without all the heaviness. It was perfect. So overall we had a really nice trip together. I am so glad they were able to visit and see where I am staying for the next few months.

I have been moving back and forth between places since I arrived here in August.  On Monday I made my final move into the studio I am staying in until December now. SO happy to finally have a home and actually be able to unpack!  Took me about two seconds to take over and make it feel like my space. I think this may help me mentally as well. Hopefully some sort of stability will help curb the crazy because frankly two more months of me going insane all the time is probably not going to get me very far.

Anyway, a few pictures are posted below. I am heading out with some coworkers tomorrow night and then I work all weekend. The colors are starting to change big time and early next week I am heading up to the White Mountains with another travel nurse and we are going to do some famous drive everyone keeps telling us about as well as hit up a few trails. I am so looking forward to that! And then next weekend I am meeting up with Casey (the travel nurse I met in Montana and became quick friends with) and we are going to do a hike together. It will be nice to see her! So stay tuned for what I am hoping will be some insane pictures of the foliage 🙂

Cheers!