Tuesday, June 29: What shall I do?

It's still raining around these parts. My camera gear is (for some strange reason) opposed to rain. I tried to use the underwater camera bag for some above-water shots, but they turned out less than stellar. I'm off plover watch until this endless rain stops!

Trying to make the most of my day, I lined up 2 more redhead interviews and a tentative shoot for the evening. The redhead shoots went perfectly (after kittens were corralled for one and a garbage truck slowly meandered away for the other). I am so happy with how my interview portion of Anne is turning out! 5 redheads down. Ideally, I'll have 4 more. You'll see why.

I went Halloween costume/decoration shopping for another Anne shot afterwards, but decided against purchasing anything. Chances are it'd run a little pricey for a few second long scene, and I'm not exactly working with a big budget. I'm going to see if I can borrow some instead.

Then, there was the always fun mind game of WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH MYSELF. I have so many interests and they all drive towards the same things. I've taken career test after career test. I think I'm coming close to figuring it out. Unfortunately, UPEI has NOTHING to offer me. I'm thinking of applying off-island. It's a smart move education wise, but it'll be hard. I'm so rooted here. I have a fiance here and we have a daughter together. OK, so it's a cat daughter. But still! I'm getting married next June. Everything seems to be happening so fast!

All I can do is take a step back, stop trying to control every aspect of life, and just enjoy the ride.

Photo of the day: A face only a mama could love?

Monday, June 28: Take THAT, graphic design!

I FINALLY FINISHED THE MINI-DESIGN PROJECT! Well, sorta. Pictures still need to be placed, but who cares? The tedious work is behind me!

This is an extremely short week; weeks go by fast enough! I can't believe it's almost July.

Will Marsha pull off 3 full videos in 1 month?

Will she find enough redheads?

Will her sanity leave her before the Torngats come? STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT!

One of my regular annoyances every day is the drive to work. Don't get me wrong, I usually LOVE driving to and from work; Island Morning on CBC Radio blaring, sunnies halfway down my nose, extra large black coffee aroma wafting through the air, it's all fantastic. Then, construction began on the Charlottetown bypass, and that has successfully added on average 18-20 minutes on my trip one way. If it was a detour that took that long, that would be alright. Marsha's happy as long as she has new and interesting things to look at out the window. Unfortunately, it's the kind of construction you just have to grind your teeth and not throw mind bullets at the walkers passing you.

Then you pass the hospital and can finally make some headway. Thank goodness Dalvay is about a half hour drive away from home; it gives me time to calm.

Photo of the day: My record breaking 24 minute wait in construction tonight. That's what I get for attempting it at "rush hour" (I use that term loosely on Prince Edward Island).

I sat in front of a "please drive slowly" sign for about 5 minutes but only noticed the irony when I was almost by it. 

You see that long line of cars? Ugh. By the time I got home I felt a strange need to get gas purchased at an Irving... 

Sunday, June 27: Oops.

I didn't blog yesterday. Alright, before you issue the "off with your head!" order, let me explain.

It's hard to blog every single day and, though I had thought about it all evening yesterday, I got caught up in a movie and fell asleep last night. No grand explanation, just the simple honest truth. I broke my "blog every day" pact, but I'm OK with that. Let's face it, there are some days that ooze evidence of Marsha-just-wrote-what-she-wrote-to-be-done-of-a-blogpost-for-the-day-and-not-miss-a-day. I've noticed my quality has gone way down, and I'm going to do my best to bring it up to where I feel proud again.

Today I attended the high school graduation party of my 10 year old cousin, Evan. Wait, that can't be right.. OH YEAH. BECAUSE HE'S OLD ENOUGH TO GRADUATE FROM HIGH SCHOOL, EVEN THOUGH IN MY  HEAD HE'S A LITTLE BOY. The Robertson crew got together at my aunt and uncles for BBQ, cake and great conversation. As everyone was socializing inside, I took a moment to take a step back and really look at my family. There they were, tightly packed in a small kitchen, conversation flowing with ease, food disappearing at a rapid pace, no lack of smiles or laughter. We were all so different. We were all so busy. Yet we continued time and time again to come together for birthdays, graduations and holidays to catch up. I took a mental snapshot of my amazing relatives and joined in the nearest conversation.

Photo of the day: Oops. Embarassingly, this is the only photo I took today. I sent this to my friend to prove to him that I was wearing his Maiden t-shirt to a family party. It has no actual context in the post, so enjoy the awkward angle and vacant expression.

Friday, June 23: Tired.

This is my official "I blog every single day so I deserve to only write a sentence once and awhile" blog, where you, my non-loyal non-readers must deal with my laziness and dread of typing out my day when I have a purring kitty waiting to be cuddled and a warm bed to curl up in.

Photo of the day: Alan Alda. What a man.

Thursday, June 24: More plovers!

This morning as soon as I got to work, Jessie grabbed me and told me that she was herding plover chicks and parents away from oncoming tractors which were placing lifeguard houses.

BEST. SHOOT EVER.

I've finally learned how to shoot plovers. Don't try to follow them; they're spastic and they follow bugs that you can't see. Instead, go to where they might go, and be patient. You'll get your best shots that way. Don't move until they leave the shot. I got a remarkable shots of the birds brooding. It was terribly shaky due to wind, but I'll take it.

After Cavendish, I went with Jessie to the Sandspit to look for scrapings and plovers. She had seen a few mating there the day before, so chances were good that we would find more. It's so incredibly beautiful there. She showed me what they called the bowl, which may be my new favorite place on earth.


When I walked into the bowl, it felt like no other human had ever stepped there before; it felt like I was discovering a new land. I haven't felt that way since I was about 12 years old, and my dad took me to the dunes below the Whelan house. I still forget what it's called; something about monsters? Am I remembering something so vague that I'm making stuff up?

Wednesday, June 23: I'm famous on that there television.

This morning was my big interview with Sally Pitt, and it was a blast. Myself and a woman from PR travelled to Green Gables to get some b roll for my video and have the interview. When it was all over, the camera man needed b roll of me doing my job, and while we were walking between locations, I picked his brain about working for CBC, and the business in general. What an experience!

In the afternoon, I did what turned out to be a trial run on a video about how dangerous it is to jump off Covehead bridge in the Prince Edward Island National Park. The bridge looks like fun, but underneath are huge shards of rusted metal from past repairs and general badness. It's easy for us to tell people not to jump off the bridge, that it's illigal and that they can hurt themselves. It's another thing to show them.

My job? Show them what could potentially seriously injure them.

Today we got the senior lifeguard at the park and a few park employees and set out to film underwater underneath the bridge to show everyone what was down there. We thought we could do it in one afternoon, but it just didn't work out with the current and the mucky state of the water. It did serve as a test for my underwater camera bag and a trial run of what was to come when we can actually successfully shoot the video though, so the day wasn't a total loss. And I got to go out on a zodiac boat!

When work was through, I almost crashed the car because Matt Rainnie ♥ said my name on the radio when I wasn't expecting it. That's all I have to say about that.

I rushed home, caught my radio/television interview and horray! I didn't sound like an idiot! Things weren't as bad as I remember, and one shot that I was sure was going straight up my nose wasn't at all!

Here are some screen shots of my television tuned in to me on CBC news, because I was way too paranoid to take my iPhone out on a boat to get a nice picture.

Tuesday, June 22: Toy Story!

I have such a busy day tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it so much. In the morning I'm being interviewed at Green Gables by Sally Pitt, and in the afternoon I'm shooting a public service announcement to enlighten people to the dangers of jumping off Covehead bridge. I can't WAIT.

Today I worked some more on the designs Mike left in my hands. I've gotten all the English done, and I'm working on the French. Placing type in a language that you do not understand is very difficult and it's taking me awhile, but I think I only have 6 left so HORRAY!

We had a big External Relations/Visitor Experience meeting today, which caught everybody up on what everyone else was doing. Work has been crazy busy with the park opening on Friday, so it was great to touch base and hear all of the exciting things happening.

There was talk of many, many Anne's in one place. This made me excited. That's all I'm going to say about that.

I went to see Toy Story 3 tonight, and I cried. I won't give anything away, but it felt like it was made for people our age; people who first discovered the story when they were still playing with toys. The franchise grew as Andy and I grew, and this (hopefully final) chapter was the perfect melody of nostalgia, progression and hilarity. Two thumbs up from this uneducated movie reviewer with no credentials.

Monday, June 21: Graphic design makes my hair fall out.

I remember the respect I had for graphic designers. I'm doing the simplest thing ever, and I really don't mind doing it, BUT I wouldn't want to do it all the time again. I've been there, done that, and had mini anxiety attacks because of it. To my graphic design friends: you're amazing.

I'm going to be on CBC News Compass on Wednesday! That's pretty fun, I can't wait to quiz Sally Pitt and the camera person about their jobs.

Tonight I came home and skyped with my sister Kim for about 2 hours, which was phenomenal. Here's one of the more awesome pictures:

She bought me a teapot in Ireland, and I was extremely happy <3

I promise these blogs will be more exciting when I actually begin filming again.

Sunday, June 20: Lord Tunderin'.

I didn't get home from Halifax until nearly 2 last night, so today was extremely lazy. I got up at around 10 in Souris and achieved very little all day. I hung out with my fiance's family, ate at Shirley's Take-Out, visited my Aunt D and drove back to Charlottetown in the heaviest rain I've seen since Treego a few weeks ago.

There's a severe thunderstorm warning for PEI tonight. I LOVE a good thunderstorm. Maybe it'll get rid of some of this humidity, which is NOT a curly redhead's best friend, I'll tell you that much.

Here's the sky turning more and more ominous, until it finally exploded rain.

Getting darker...

A little more ominous... 

A few big drops...

KABOOM SPLASH WHOOSH

I got back to town unscathed after some light hydroplaning for approximately 20 km. 

I've gotta add this last picture of my sister's cat, chillin' armchair style in someone's hand. 

Saturday, June 19: I rang the bell.

Today, I bought a wedding dress.

Chrissy, Stephanie and I met Doreen at Wood Islands to catch the first ferry of the day "over across't". We got to Halifax shortly after 9 and immediately went to the first and most important stop on our wedding tour: Winchester's.

Before I continue, let it be known that I did not expect to like a dress. He'll, I didn't expect to find a lace dress that fit me. But I found it. You know, IT. "the" dress that everyone talks about finding. I've had on dresses I really liked in the past, but nothing like this. I won't lie and say the clouds opened up and a beam of light was cast upon thy dress while a heavenly chorus sang. It was somewhat more ordinary than that.

I saw it on the wall, saw that it would fit, and tried it on. Like a glove. I left knowing that it wouldn't be the last time I saw it. All day long it clung to my thoughts. The way it poofed when I spun in a circle. The way it hid my imperfections. The perfect mix of old and new.

I went back and bought it, and got to ring the bell at Winchesters. I have pictures of me in the dress, but that's not for the public eye. Instead, you must be satisfied with my sister in a veil, myself as the dude outside of freak lunchbox, and my celebratory piña colada (I'll stick to beer from now on):

Friday, June 18: An excuse for a short post!

In honour of the PEI Tweet-up, this blogpost is going to be 140 characters long. Today was so busy and amazing. I missed friends. Blog done.

Thursday, June 17: WINNERS (EARL!)

Today I covered the archaeological dig, and realized how much missed being a kid. The teacher yelled "pairs!" and every child immediately linked arms with their best friend forever without hesitation based on any extra societal factor. Kids were walking around with shoes untied, dirt on their shirts and booger crusties present. It was great, and reiterated my love of archaeology and my need to take part in the dig next year.

I stayed late to help out with some basic graphic design and made it to trivia just in time. It was the last Thursday trivia of the season, and we ROCKED it. A perfect round and a near perfect finish sent our group into ecstatic "quack"s. We're not named for the mighty ducks for nothing.

Photos of the day: the dig and our big win (and a year's worth of saving up our beer winnings and the hoist of the value village trophy):

Location:Sydney St,Charlottetown,Canada

Wednesday, June 16: FINALLY.

OH HEY PLOVER CHICKS THAT HAVE THUS FAR ELUDED ME AND MY VIDEO CAMERA.

That's right. They fell victim to giddy squeals, "AWWW"s, and shaky camera work due to over excitement. There were 4 of them, and they were perfect. They look like mini-me's except they're smaller, fluffier and more tired looking. Their legs are also about twice as long as their bodies. Peculiar little creatures, but adorable none-the-less.

After work, Jacob and I headed over to Amy and Sean's to play some bocce ball. Hilarity ensued, and not even from us.

Jacob rolled the bocce ball close to the road. There was a guy walking down the street and decided he would try to be helpful. For some reason, he picked up the 3 pound bocce ball and decided to over-hand throw it back to us. He threw it so hard and so inaccurately, that he hit the tree in front of him, the ball ricochet'd and hit a guy's shiny black truck (yes, when I don't know what the make or model of a car is, I use discriptive words and colours). Immediately, all 4 of us dropped the remaining Bocce balls we were holding in our hands. THUNK. The guy stopped on the road, exited the vehicle, and was a lot nicer than he could have been about it. Awkward helping guy left in haste, truck dude drove away, and we burst into uncontrollable laughter.

Photos of the day: Bocce ball and a candid of the guy that was Awkward helping guy's victim.

Tuesday, June 15: Flood Rescue.

Today was full of ups and downs.

It started as soon as I got to work when the plover monitors grabbed me for a flood rescue. If I didn't know what it was initially, my drive to Cavendish Main confirmed my suspicions: The water had risen so rapidly that it was the highest I've ever seen. Piping plovers nest on the shores of the National Park.

My little buddies that I have been filming for almost a month were in trouble.

Lucas went to check on the eggs at Clarke's Pond while Jessie and I searched Cavendish Main for the plover parents and chicks that had eluded me since last Wednesday. The conditions were absolutely fierce. 100 km/hr winds with salt spray fogging up my glasses and lense. Debris everywhere and sand whipping at my bare legs. Finally, after over an hour of searching, Jessie spotted a plover feeding by the shore and we followed it until it landed near another adult plover and at least one baby brooding behind tall dune grass. We dared not go further to see if more than one chick survived; to disturb the plovers now could be fatal for the chick(s) if the adults got spooked and flew away. So we let them be and met back up with Lucas, who gave us the amazing news that the flood waters hadn't reached the Clarkes Pond nest, and the 4 eggs + adults were still there.

Unfortunately, we lost 2 nests in Greenwich and one in Blooming point. That's right, 3 out of 5 plover nests the monitors had been meticulously watching over and studying, wiped out in a matter of hours. Heartbreaking.

I could go on to tell you about the rest of my day, but I don't feel like anything else even comes close to what I experienced this morning. The tension in the car ride to Cavendish, the frantic phone calls and texts of "DRIVE FASTER" between monitors, the look of sheer desperation on everyone's face. It's an experience I'll not soon forget, and I thank the monitors for letting me come along to film.

Since today was so terrible out, I don't have a photo of the day, sorry! You'll have to deal with a mass of boring text. I've tried to space it out as best I can to give your eyes a rest.

Calling all redheads!

Are you an Island redhead over the age of 15? Wanna talk about Anne Shirley in a Parks Canada video to be uploaded to social media sites?

I'm the videographer for Parks Canada this summer and, as a redhead growing up on P.E.I, faced Anne overload. Now, I'm making a video about growing up in the Anne frenzy, and I want you to be a part of it.

I'm looking for redhead volunteers, boys and girls, who would like to be interviewed about growing up as a redhead in the land of Anne. Were you called Carrots as a child? Was working tourism jobs a nightmare? Have you ever read the books?

This will be a fun experience and a good chance to tell your story. All interested can call Marsha at 902-218-2812, and if there's no answer, leave a message (and laugh at my Seinfeld answering machine). You can also email me at marsha.robertson@pc.gc.ca if you're so inclined!

Thanks in advance for making my video even better.

Location:Rustico Rd,Lot 24,Canada

Sunday, June 13: Panic attack at 400 feet.

Today was my first ever experience with Treego, and I must say, I'm extremely happy that I did it.

If you don't know anything about Treego, click HERE to see what it's all about and watch some videos.

It started out fairly easy, as they build you up to the "OH MY GOD DON'T LOOK DOWN" heights and feats. There was a large group of people in the same group as us, and at first it was extremely slow, waiting for people to finish an obstacle so that you could proceed. There are 4 levels of colours that increase in height, daring and skill as you go along, and during the second color, there were a lot of people holding up the line and going back through the course instead of proceeding.

Once the boys were separated from the men, there was virtually no line. Emile has an extreme fear of heights, so we were very proud of him for making it past color 2. Krista, Jacob and I pushed on to color 3. We had gotten through about 7 obstacles when it suddenly started to downpour. Seriously, I was about 70 feet up in the air, holding on to a rope and walking along a tightrope when WHOOSH. Suddenly, my glasses fogged up. They started slipping off my face. I made it to the next tree post, and put my glasses in my bra and pushed onward.

At that point it started to thunder and lightening. Now, the third color of Treego is intense enough bone dry with glasses. It amps up by about 3000000 when you add rain and blurriness. Jacob was gone in front of us, and Krista and I noticed there was no longer anyone behind us. Thinking the course would end fairly soon, we continued on.

It didn't.

There was noone behind us because the Treego guides were calling everybody down and told them to turn around because of the sudden storm, but we were too far ahead. A few obstacles from the end was climbing to about 400 feet up in this huge tree on a wood and rope ladder while clipping yourself in every step with 2 caribeeners, then ziplining an incredible length to the next tree. Marsha, tired, blurry-visioned and soaked, started to cry. I hate climbing ladders, let alone soaked wooden ones suspended from rope. Krista talked me into continuing on by reminding me that there was literally no other option at that point. There are no ladders to the ground. Once you start a course, you either turn around and run the course again backwards to get out the way you came, or get going. We got going.

I stopped crying, decided that I would crown myself Marsha: Queen of the Trees if I completed the course, grit my teeth and started climbing.

3 ladders, 2 ziplines and a glide-by-your-hands-on-a-stick later, I was on the ground and very happy to be.

We're trying the last color at the end of the summer.

In conclusion, today I have never been so terrified and exhilarated in all of my life. I'm so glad I decided not to bring a camera out with me, because it would have been ruined, so no Treego pictures for you. You should really check out the site and see what it's all about though.

My photos of the day are what I groggily took this morning from inside our tent.

Location:Gould Beach Rd,Shediac,Canada

Saturday, June 12: Camping!

I'm currently sitting beside a roaring campfire in Parlee Beach, binging on roasted marshmallows and loving life. Emile, Krista, Jacob and I headed out at around noon to buy camping supplies and get off the sandbar for awhile. We were all more than a little tired after the festivities last night, but once we got some pizza hut into our bellies, we were good to go.

Jacob and I bought our first tent and new sleeping bags. I paid significantly more for mine because I needed one that would keep me warm in sub zero temperatures for the Torngats. I also purchased a shell jacket, horray! Here's hoping I don't leave this one in a shabby Mexican restaurant in Bar Harbour.

Oh yeah, something epic happened last night: Krista made us a beautiful cake for the party, and there was too much left for everyone to possibly eat, so a lifelong dream of mine was fulfilled.

I karate chopped a cake. And it was amazing.



The photo of the day is our awesome campsite. Our tent is on the left, Emile and Krista's is to the right.

Location:Gould Beach Rd,Shediac,Canada

Friday, June 11, 2010: One year from now.

One year from now I'll be married to the man of my dreams and partying it up Island style with my friends and family. I hope it's as nice of a day a year from now as it is today. Until I know for sure, there's always bulk umbrella buying off the internet.

Today I went with one of the plover monitors to check out the new chicks, only to be disappointed again. They're still not hatched! Fortunately, they found 2 more plover nests with 4 and 2 eggs in them respectively at Greenwich! That's amazing news, since we lost 2 nests last week.

Tonight friends of ours are throwing us a -1 year anniversary party. We're going to eat, drink and be merry.

Photo of the day: they can't really have meant that... could they?



from my iPhone

Thursday, June 10: 4:39 am update.

I thought since I had some time to kill that I would do a mini blogpost of how things are going in time lapse town. If anything super awesome happens today, I'll just edit this post.

So far I've learned:
That when the Internet tells you twilight starts at 3:45 and the sun rises at 4:15, THE INTERNET IS LYING. It's currently 4:42 and the sun has not risen yet, though it is fairly bright out.

When you try to time lapse when it's still dark, you zoom into a bush and miss part of the early light.

Being alone at the beach that early in the morning is scary as all get-go. Did you know axe murderers, zombies, wild boars and E.T hang out there and try to eat nice park employees before dawn?

Sometimes having to pee is a good thing, because, since you retrieved enough courage to leave your car anyways, you might as well check out your time lapse and have enough time left to reset the shot into something usable.

Packing lunches should best be done early the evening before; not at midnight. If you pack a lunch at midnight, your liable to pack a mustard and cheese sandwich, 3 apples (yes, 3), a ring pop, a bag of gummy worms left over from Halloween and a jersey milk bar. The only one of these that are actually enjoyable that early is the jersey milk bar.

You shouldn't still be up at midnight when your alarm is set for 2:30.

As I wrote this, a fox and I had a hangout. My first reaction to seeing the fox was "where's my video camera!" then realized it was currently in use and I didn't have my flip cam with me. I did however snap as may pics as I could before my normal photo camera died, then switched to the iPhone camera. Here's a few crappy iPhone pics.

I think the fox smelled my food. Remember kids: a fed fox is a dead fox.











Edit: My camera battery died before the sun even came up. I'm sure I've got something, but it won't have the full effect. I'll try again when I receive my second battery.  I don't have an alarm code or a key for the field unit's compound, so I had to go home to make sure my battery was fully charged for possible plover chicks. On the way home, the sun burned my eyes in the rear view mirror, taunting me. It cast beautiful light and shadows on everything it touched, and here I was with 2 dead cameras and a sense of defeat.

You win this time, sun. But I WILL time lapse you, and it WILL be pretty.

 It's the perfect opportunity to work from home in a nice quiet place, finishing out my last shots for the Anne shoot and working on uniting my RED ARMY. 


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Gulf Shore Pkwy,Lot 35,Canada

Wednesday, June 9: Lack of babies!

The babies didn't hatch today! However, I still got fantastic footage of the plovers, and the little guy was comfortable enough with me to go back on the nest while I was filming - making the double charlie horse and pulled back muscle from crouching perfectly still totally worth it. Here's a screenshot of my footage, for all you plover lovers out there:

After playing with plovers, I came back to the office to discover MY REPLACEMENT MIC AND HARD DRIVE FROM BANFF HAD ARRIVED. That's right, so important that it's not only caps locked, but bolded. I can now record freely with full audio without any weird feedback or the double tripod jimmy-rig.  So so so so so happy.

I spent the afternoon catching up on emails and trying to organize my footage and my schedule for the next few weeks. It's going to be super busy. I'm getting up at the crack of 2:45 with plans to be in Dalvay by 3:45 for an early morning time lapse. That's right. I have to be up in 4 hours.

I was going to stop and buy a large canteen for coffee, but decided not to.

After work, I bought baking supplies and headed to my friend Christina's, where we baked 3 cakes that will eventually turn into a shoddy rendition of a wedding cake for our -1 year anniversary party that my friend is throwing my fiance and I on Friday. It will be exactly a year from that date that we'll be walking down the aisle.

Dun dun dun dun!

Wow. Sudden realization that when you type out the wedding march, it can look like dramatic "OH NO SOMETHING'S WRONG IN THIS SCENE" music. Maybe I don't know what I'm getting into.

I was going to make the photo of the day a picture of a half eaten seal we found on the beach, but then thought, "what would my grandmother say?", gave myself a tongue lashing and thought better. Goodnight!

Tuesday, June 8: BABIES BABIES BABIES BABIES

I'm a sucker for babies. Any kind of baby (except insect babies, but that goes without saying). Today was extreme CUTENESS/BABY/AWWW overload.

Ben came in first thing and asked if I wanted to go for a drive to find some wildlife footage that I was dearly needing. Having a student photographer is working out very well for me, for the simple fact that usually what I want video of, he wants photos of. We carpool a lot, and it seems like every time we're ill-prepared, animals taunt us with perfect video/photo opps. So we set out to find our own.

And find our own we did! We saw a mama with 2 baby foxes and 5 goslings with a mama and papa canada geese pair. It was awesome, the footage is phenomenal, and I can't wait to use it in an upcoming video.

We went to Cavendish Grove, aka Rainbow Valley, and it was so sad! I haven't been there since the last summer it was open, where my friends and I greedily stayed until close, taking in everything we could and taking about 100 pictures. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like now; beautiful walking trails, strangely void of giant Anne's and spaceship gift shops where once, when I was 7, I spent my entire 'trip budget' on 25 cent water guns that left a breadtrail behind me on the way back to the school bus.

The castle. It's just as big as I remember.

Where the paddle boats/row boats used to be.

The maze! Ben abandoned me and I was forced to use my acute sense of direction to find my way out.

I dropped my dead kitten in a stream while getting footage of goslings. I got it back, phew!

Monday, June 7: I just don't know what to do with myself.

I had a huge post written out about careers and my future that I decided was TMI for a public blog about neither of those things.
So, according to careercruising.com, after answering 116 questions, here are the top 10 careers that I might like: 

1.	Cartoonist
2.	Stenographer
3.	Lawyer
4.	Civil Litigator
5.	Corporate / Commercial Lawyer
6.	Film Editor
7.	Editor
8.	Casting Director
9.	Political Aide
10.	Anthropologist

I'm not surprised. 


Photo of the day: A sneak peek at the first page of my storyboard for my webisode, "Uncovering Anne: A Redhead's Story". 


Maybe it's safe to omit the first occupation off the list now. 

Blogger's bein' stupid. You'll have to turn your head for this one.

Sunday, June 6: Lazy day.

How do I make the fact that I did absolutely nothing today interesting enough to blog about?

With an awesome cows take on Vince "You're gonna love my nuts" Slap Chop dude.



The photos of the day is from Dromore fest last night, where we got rained on hardcore and loved every minute of it.

Outhouse made by 1 of the Dromore Fest founders, Joel. It smelled like cedar and not pee!

Cups that you can scratch your name into for easy identification? What will they think of next?

One of the amazing performances of the night. 

Saturday, June 5: Floored.

Holy moly.
Today I had a simple assignment: cover the plaque unveiling of Mona Wilson as a Canadian Historical Person of Interest. Little did I know it was going to be more than I bargained for.

I follow Minister of Environment Jim Prentice on Twitter, so when I saw he tweeted he was on Prince Edward Island, I hoped he would stop by the ceremony so I could see him. Well, I recieved a little more than that.

The superintendent of the Field Unit came up to me and said that Jim Prentice wanted to meet me. Internalizing my girly squeals of delight, I followed, and there he was. He shook my hand and asked me about the job. Then Minister Prentice, Ben and I took a walk around the building to find a nice spot to sit for a photo opp for "the website" (What website?). On the way back, we talked the worst summer jobs we've ever had. He said coal miner. I said fish plant. Ben said Waste Management. There wasn't a clear winner.

I thought that was great. I was elated. I could barely wait to get home to blog that I got to meet him. Little did I know, I'd have a bit more to brag about. Minister Prentice mentioned me in his ceremony speech! He talked about the process to get the job, and then he introduced me. People clapped, I blushed. That's generally the way it works for me. I spent the rest of my time recording the ceremony walking on clouds.

Of course, I MEANT to get a photo of Minister Prentice giving his speech, but after the events that took place, it was the furthest thing from my mind (I do have it on video, though). Here's a few photos of the plaque unveiled.

 

Friday, June 4: Mini heart attacks.

Final pitches were due to be sent to head office for evaluation by them and Craig Colby of Oasis HD today. Dun dun DUN! (sidenote: it's quite hard to type music. No, seriously, try it.)

I had my pitches finalized yesterday, so it was just a matter of sending the email this morning for me. This of course taking advantage of the fact that my work email has worked for me for the last week or so with no major hiccups. Then I looked in the mirror and realized "Oh wait! I'm still Marsha! Stuff's gonna go wrong!" 

My email crashed. My heart rate rose. My pulse quickened. How was I to send my pitches when my work email wasn't functional? "OH, WOE IS ME!" I cried, running around in a panic. Then the student photographer kindly reminded me that, though my work email was not functional, I had other email addresses I could send the pitches from. Duh. 

Pitches were sent, fists unclenched, and muscles relaxed. 

This afternoon I participated in an Experience PEI presentation/brainstorming session with a small group of people from Dalvay. I was put into a group developing an experience for people interested in birdwatching and Mi'kmaq legends. Being an expert on neither of these things, my role was to nod my head and get enthusiastic about things I thought would work well. After the meeting, I talked to Bill, one of the founders of Experience PEI about my job and where I was going with my pitches. Turns out, he worked at CBC for over 20 years. I'm literally rubbing elbows with experts no matter where I go. 

I drove home and checked my personal email, and there it was. My pitches, reviewed by Craig Colby. Never have I flipped from totally chilled out, feet up, cat on my lap to OMG OMG OMG OMG WHAT IF HE HATES ME so fast in all of my life. He liked my pitches though, and gave me helpful criticism on what I can do to push the videos to make them better. It was a good day. 

Why do my blog posts turn out so long? I guess if you talk a lot in person, you tend to talk a lot in print. 

Photo of the day: Try to figure this one out. 

Thursday, June 3: QVE Training.

We had training all day today at the firehall, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. Thank GOD for activities and discussions to keep us all awake! I learned a lot of what is expected of myself as a Parks employee, so I'm pretty happy I went. I also got to know more students who are working with me this summer, which is always a plus.

After training, I met up with a worker from Port La Joye, who filled me in on the happenings surrounding the archaeological dig of a French site going on there. This excites me greatly. I love archaeology, and I'm not against pitching another video idea to cover it if I have time. If not, I'll have tons of footage and probably a few interviews for the next person to be able to edit into a masterpiece.

That's pretty much it unfortunately, boring days make boring blogs.

Photo of the day: My favorites.

Wednesday, June 2: Jimmy-rig 2.0

The day started at 5:23 am, when the alarm went off. Surely I wasn't ACTUALLY planning on going to the gym this early in the morning. I COULDN'T have spent 1/2 an hour loading my iPhone with running mixes and episodes of Cake Boss for the eliptical. There's NO WAY I'd actually go through with it.

Well, I did. And I liked it. Will I go that early tomorrow? Time will tell. But for today, it was good. Well, except for the part where I showered, thought I lost my UPEI card, looked everywhere, got it cancelled at the main desk, got all the way to Dalvay and realized I had left it in a random locker when I needed 2 hands to untie my running shoe.

The CGSJ day started with PLOVERS PLOVERS PLOVERS PLOVERS! I haven't seen a plover in years, so I was more than a little excited when the head plover lady told me today was the day they were setting up a camera on Cavendish beach to cover the nest. I filmed the plover monitors digging a large hole in the sand and setting up the cameras. Then came the fun part: I creeped out near the nest and laid on my belly to try to stabilize the camera on my elbows. I got some amazing plover footage, and I can't wait to get more.

After lunch, I went to a powerpoint presentation about archaeology, that was basically a refresher course from what I took last semester in university. Then came the much anticipated PROGRAM PARTICIPANT CONFERENCE CALL! It was so good to hear my friends' voices.

After the conference call, the student photographer and I attempted to yet again jimmy-rig my broken mic stand. When I tested my earlier prototype with the plovers this morning, all I could hear was clunking from the mic wiggling about. The photo of the day is Jimmy-rig 2.0: the double tripod.

Tuesday, June 1: I passed!

I got my pitches passed by the field unit today! One hurdle down, one more to go: the head office, and a few esteemed film makers.

I won't reveal my pitches until head office gives me the green light as well, because that's just ASKING for trouble, you know?

I will reveal that one of my pitches is about Anne (really? the Island videographer is doing an Anne video? SHOCKING!), and may require an open casting call for redheads... This is going to be amazing.

I must say, once I sat down and actually worked on deadlines for pre-production, filming, rough cuts, etc. I realized that 2 months is not very long, especially seeing as this month has flown by so fast I feel like I have whiplash.

Tomorrow I'm going geocaching! Well, sort of. I'm going to film some Parks people setting up geogaching! (And then probably wait a month, ask my friends to go on a spontaneous geocaching mission with me, know where everything is right away and let them think I'm a genius)

I'm SO GLAD I thought to take a photo of something, ANYTHING interesting today instead of leaving it until RIGHT NOW and having to take and upload an extremely last minute photo of the day that really has nothing to do with my day. Yep, sure glad that didn't happen.