puddling

humid, mid 90s weather has changed my whole routine. It's saturday, and I was active before noon. Playing with the dogs, cleaning house and watering plants where I was housesitting, helping with the SPEA backyard habitat...but since then, I'm totally unmotivated. It took me hours to make myself eat anything besides cottage cheese- the thought of cooking and adding heat to my apartment was horrifying (yay microwaves). I tried to read but fell asleep and was sweating in my dreams. I don't want to go anywhere because it involves getting in the hot car or walking in the hot sun. But after I finish this blog I will stop complaining, get into a pool or some air conditioning (maybe a grocery store, since all my food requires cooking?), and be happy.

Dog-sitting/house-sitting was fun, but reminds me why I don't have a dog now. I'm not yet willing to be that responsible. I'd rather be a dog sitter than hire one.

Read Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood last week. I miss all my ya yas! Bride and Prejudice is now playing in town and I don't know of anyone here who can truly appreciate it. But fall will bring back my friends who have a taste for both Jane Austen and bollywood!

Monday and Tuesday will be my first official sampling trip in NW Indiana. In my current state, I'm looking forward to being on the water and going north.

the scoop

It's been awhile since my last post...I think the 8 to 5 schedule makes time go by fast. Work is fine. I got to drive a boat for the first time, but just with the wimpy electric motor- that's all that was allowed on the lake. I learned that I'm terrible at backing up trailers. Hopefully not too terrible, I'm scheduled to drive on Monday!

Went to an Indianapolis Indians (minor league baseball) game on Thursday. A lot closer to the majors than Pensacola, but sadly they didn't shoot things into the audience or hand out plastic clapping hands. I haven't been to Indy much since I was a kid. There are some nice new parks, museums, restaurants and shops...a nice place to visit.

Trip to Cincy last weekend. Got to hang out with my old Living Water co-workers. Every time we get together, I get fired up about something. I can't accept the fact that there is a significant portion of the next generation that the majority is perfectly willing to leave behind and push out of sight. Now that those kids and families have been in my sight, I just can't do it. It may not be my career path now, but I feel the need to do something- volunteer, donate, vote, blog?

I've been running and/or working out on a pretty regular basis now, so I think I'll go for a run now. The weather is just perfect for it! A couple weeks ago I think I discovered what I've been looking for for a long time. Our fitness center offers a jazz dance class, and it's great! A lot like the dance classes I had when I was a kid, but very laid back and no performances that would just be embarrassing now. I think the people in the class are like me...took dance some time in the past, but they're not dance majors or anything.

Another dream come true...I just got a call from my prof about house/dog sitting next week. Which means for a week I get out of my apartment, I get to have pets, and I even get paid!

Time for a run.

back to work

OK, I think after 3 days I can give a decent update on my job. I've been pretty tired or busy after work, so it's taken me 3 days to write this.

The general plan is training and practice in water quality tests, driving a boat, backing up trailers, etc. for most of june. In july and august, we have sampling trips on Monday and Tuesday, and analyze samples for the rest of the week. I've never considered myself a chemistry person, so I was a little nervous about running all these tests and getting good results. It's hard to tell so far, because there is so much to learn, but I'm starting to feel more comfortable in the lab setting. On one hand, I was the first person to break glassware this field season (the lab tradition is that whenever someone breaks something, you have to press one of those "Billy Bass" mounted singing fish, and hear a song. I'll be more careful in the future- those things are annoying!). On the other hand, the set of 7 solutions I made one of the tests had very little variance from what it should be- I can't explain it briefly, but it's a good thing, and hard to do.

There are 5 master's students working in the lab. I think we'll get along pretty well, we've had some good times already, during and outside of work. Surprisingly, we're all in the joint Environmental Science/Public Affairs degree program, and 4 of us just finished our first year- so we'll be seeing a lot of each other over the next few years. We come from a variety of disciplines, so we all can shine or improve in different areas. Our direct supervisor, who's been running the lab for the past 6 years, seems really great. The professor in charge (my Limnology lab prof) seems more involved than most profs with sizable research projects, but I think we'll be on our own a lot after this month. It seems like an ideal setup- good training, then a lot of independence.

I saw Star Wars III today- yay! I was even more excited to see a preview for the first movie in the Chronicles of Narnia series (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). They better do a good job! The books have been some of my favorites in both childhood and adulthood.