productivity

Today has been a rare event...a productive day. I was celebrating a friend's birthday last night till 2 or 3, so I didn't start too early. Had just enough time to brush up on Bloomington's environmental issues for an internship interview with the Bloomington Environmental Commission. Realized I probably wouldn't get it because it involves planning and development- stuff I know nothing about, but that made the interview pretty laid back.

After that, I read a project proposal and went to a meeting about invasive species in the Great Lakes. It's a cool project. We're working with the law school to do research and make recommendations to international authorities. Nice to see a lot of my "this semester" friends there.

At Barnes & Noble, I got some finance reading done, drank some coffee, bought a b-day present and a cookbook. All my cookbooks and recipes are still in the Ecorps house in Elkhart! I hope they are, I'll try to get them back someday, along with the lids to all my pots.

Back home, I emailed in a summer internship application (the Mexico City one!) paid my bills, packaged up some gifts, and added every commitment I know of to my calendar. Finally replaced my light bulb, answered emails, and sorted the piles of papers, mail, etc. that have been accumulating around my apartment. That's all the productivity. It doesn't seem like so much now, but I feel like I've been running around and getting nowhere all week long.

TUNES: Juanes, Mi Sangre- the Colombian rocker's latest release
PAGES: Ravens in Winter, by Bernd Heinrich- nonfictional mystery story about a scientist's investigation of raven behavior. I think the scientist's behavior's just as strange and surprising.
FLICKS: Finding Neverland- hurry, hurry, before it leaves the theaters! Not "just another Peter Pan movie" as one critic, who never saw the movie, claimed.

mousecatcher

No more blog novels...I promise.

Today I scored a big victory in the war against the stinky mouse in my apartment. As of 9 a.m., it was evicted from my apartment and is now a resident of the park. I have to say, it was kind of cute. I was almost tempted to get a cage and keep it as a pet. Not quite, though. It would be wrong, like keeping a cockroach or a mosquito as a pet. Of course there was still a smell coming from behind the fridge, so I had to move the fridge, move the loose panel behind it, strap on my headlamp, and journey to the center of the wall. It took me back to the days of hunting for leaks in the attic... B, E, and L should've been there.

Needless to say, I was happy to sign a lease application today with a couple of friends. A nice reputable place that would probably actually call an exterminator if there was a rodent problem.

a good day

Easing back into college life...the fact that it feels like spring makes it that much easier to be here. Nice catch up time with other speons in the grad lounge (grad students are so cool, we get our own lounge). Felt a little sad that I'm taking my own strange combination of classes, and won't be with my cohort of 1st year enviro. sci/ enviro. policy people that I had last semester- they seem to be clumped in the same classes, but i just gotta be different.

Came home to find my textbooks had arrived (just in time), along with some birthday cards, a stipend check, and the Green Gazette- the EnviroCorps newsletter. I was thinking of you ECorps, when I installed my low flow showerhead yesterday!

Met with the bible study group...seems like its been ages. Lots of catching up, and admiring 4 month old baby's new accomplishments. Now we just need to decide what to study next...

Thoughts on my "strange combination" of classes so far...mostly to see if my first impressions turn out right, but read on if you want:

Restoration ecology- how could this not be great? Topics that are near and dear to my heart, like wetland & prairie ecosystems, prescribed fire, invasive species. We get to take field trips (see some of The Nature Conservancy's handiwork- and plant trees with them!) We have no tests, and just 2 papers on anything related to restoration. Not sure I like the prof as a person (not just because he confused me with someone else), but he is a very good scientist, makes class interesting, and is a wetlands guy.

Aquatic chemistry- I might be dreading this if it wasn't taught by one of my awesome Limnology profs. He told us a very inspirational story about how he started as an invertebrate zoologist, realized environmental science was where the action is, had to go through a couple engineering departments to study it, became an aquatic chemist in spite of hating undergrad chemistry, and ended up with a job he clearly loves. Inspirational to me because my life has been strangely similar, except for the engineering part. Hopefully I end up with a job I love, too. As far as the chemistry goes...after getting a better grade than I deserved in Enviro Chem last semester, I'm hoping I can pull it off again. And maybe I'll finally understand alkalinity.

Public finance and budgeting- I'm taking it with the hard prof that no one else wanted, for scheduling reasons, but I think I'll survive. He is tough, but supposedly good if you really want to learn something. No "syllabus day" for him...jumped right into lecture. I found myself hanging on every word, not because it was really interesting, but because it's like a foreign language. Definitely an opportunity to grow and broaden my horizons. It might even be useful someday.

Water law- don't have it till thursday, but we already have a reading assignment. This is an actual law class, not watered down SPEA law. That means I have to learn legalese and use it to participate in class discussions. Not my strong point. More growing.

Back in B-town

Filled with warm, fuzzy feelings at the beginning and end of the day. It's amazing how much this feels like home to me now. Even waiting in lines at the registrar's office, or waiting in long lines at 2 different post offices to pick up my mail, couldn't bring me down. So nice to run into friends around town, and share stories with other students who have been going through the same trivial little ups and downs over the past months.

Only 2 things brought me down: 1) I thought I had a nice part time job for next year, as a math TA for one of my fave profs. But today, I found out it probably won't work, thanks to bureaucratic university processes. O well, I was getting a little too prideful about it, and since I skipped out of all math in undergrad, I probably wasn't the best person for the job. 2) Within the first 5 minutes of my first class, the prof confused me with some other Indian student. Grrrr. That was my exact word for it, when class ended. Now that I write it, these things seem kind of meaningless. Why be bitter? Blogs are so theraputic.

Now I'm back to warm fuzzies cause I've been e-mailing friends, and catching up on their journals.

So I had one goal over Christmas break and I totally failed to complete it. I was going to read 5 books, because I've almost given up fun reading during classes. At the time, I thought I'd read novels, which go much quicker because I'll give up sleep and almost anything else to finish a good one. See why I gave them up? But I finished 1 nonfiction book, and started 2 others, so maybe I can be disciplined enough to do more fun reading during the semester.

The 1 book I finished was "The Bible Jesus Read" by Philip Yancey. These days, he's one of my favorite Christian authors, because he discusses things in an interesting and intelligent way- he's up on his philosophy, ancient history, etc. Also, he tends to say things we all think and don't like to admit, like "The Old Testament is boring and scary"--that's not a direct quote, but pretty close. This book looks deeper into some of the more challenging or intimidating books in the old testament- Deuteronomy, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the minor prophets- the author takes you along on his journey to find meaning and significance in them, or just make sense of them, and provides some perspective from Jewish and Christian scholars. I'd call it a glimpse of what's really there- it's not an in-depth Bible study, but it may inspire you to start one. It's also best if you've actually read, or are willing to read, the Old Testament books he deals with, because it refers to passages and ideas that make more sense if you have the big picture. If you're not convinced about reading the O.T. yet, or you're still exploring what Christianity's all about, Yancey also wrote "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What's so Amazing about Grace" which cover some of the basics with a nice twist. Also, he's written quite a bit about grief, doubt, disillusionment, and other things we don't like to talk about, but I haven't read those, so I can't comment.

Lucky number 26

Vacation's almost over. Believe it or not, I'm almost ready to go back. If only I could haul my school, home, and life down to Florida for the winter, I'd be perfectly ready.

I haven't written in awhile, so here's the quick vacation rundown since Christmas:

Horshoes and hot tubs: my parents dug horseshoe pits in the backyard- regulation size and spacing. It's a harder sport than you think. I have yet to get a ringer. Got to try out the hot tub in warm and cold, weather, too.

Gator town: took a trip to Gainesville, and visited my friend Marco. Pretty exciting since I haven't seen him in 4 years, and we've been in different countries most of that time. A lot happens in 4 years. I became a hippie. He became a cowboy. My spanish got much worse. His english got much better. Good times. I learned an interesting tidbit: in the Spanish version of Sponge Bob, Squidward's name is "Calamargo", a combination of the words for "squid" and "bitter". It's pure genius, because he is one bitter squid.

Meanwhile, mom, Gary, and Karen visited Gary's uncle, a retired chemistry professor turned poet. I'm sad to have missed it. Judging from the poems, he's a very interesting, insightful person. And I like to meet anyone who has science and art pulling on either side of his brain.

New Year's eve on the beach: the first warm, mostly sunny day we had in Pensacola. Actually, we went to Destin, because the Pensacola beaches are destroyed. Very quiet, hard to imagine it as a spring break party town. Ended the new year with mini-golf, Italian food, sundaes and anything but Regis. Low-key but nice.

New Year's day: after watching too many makeover shows in 2004, Mom, Karen and I actually got makeovers...well, haircuts. They already began the "ambush makeover" after Christmas, helping me pick out some more professional clothes. I may not be playing in the dirt forever. It's nice to still need makeovers that make me look older (than an undergrad). For the past 3 years, I've seen a Lord of the Rings movie with my Michigan friends on New Year's Day. I was missing you guys this year! I replaced the movie with Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It's no LOTR, but at least has elements of fantasy and just the right amount of darkness for me. It also shows reptiles and herpetologists in a positive light, which always makes me happy.

New Orleans: My brother's b'day gift was Sugar Bowl tickets, so we headed to New Orleans. Raj and G. saw the Tigers beat the Hokies (what is a Hokie?), and were probably the least passionate fans in the crowd. But that's not saying much. Mom, K. and I walked around the French Quarter and checked out a lot of art galleries and other interesting shops. The next day we took a swamp tour, part of my b'day present, because I couldn't leave Lousiana without seeing the bayou. Saw some real gators, along with snakes, herons, nutria, lots of turtles, lots of water hyacinth (ugh). Learned some interesting facts about plants, Cajun culture, and history-- well I use the word "fact" a bit loosely, because the tour guide was an interesting character who referred to the gators living in his house as his "kids".

I have no more patience to write, and you probably have no more patience to read. If you've made it this far, you deserve the holy grail or something.

changes

I changed my settings, so you no longer have to have a user id to post comments. Sorry about that. I'll keep it this way, unless spammers ruin it.

Happy New Year!