Caged....

All I want to do right now is go for a walk by the lake. Just to escape the people, the constant glare of street lights, and the sounds of traffic and sirens--its what I really need right now. I feel liked I'm trapped in a place I don't belong, somewhere that lacks some of the essential things I need to survive. I feel like I'm suffocating and loosing touch with many of the things that make me feel alive. God, I hate cities.

And then I thought of something else today while reading the National Geographic News. There are exciting, exotic ecological hot spots all over the place -- Madagascar, New Zealand, Costa Rica, hell, even Hawaii....the list goes on and on -- an yet I chose to do my graduate research in Ohio?? Seriously, what the hell was I thinking? Sure, there was the I want to stay close to my family and friends and Steven....but seriously, OHIO???? And I won't even get into how depressing the environmental news is and how we have completely screwed up our planet. Perhaps the saddest thing of all is that the majority of the people don't have the slightest idea, and then some that do just don't really care. My career is so futile.

What I wouldn't give to live the simple life a few hundred years ago (and be free of my dependance on medical technology).

Ugh....I hate society.

1 down, 1 to go.

Fine fine, i'll post. Jeez. :-P

Well, once again, nothing really exciting has happened. Suprise surpise. The biggest news I suppose is that Steven and I had our 3 year anniversay. Of course, we couldn't actually spend it together, so that sucked. I guess 3 years is a long time, but I suppose it really isn't. I feel like I've known him forever. He's a huge part of my life, and I can't imagine being without him. I love him more than anything, and I can't wait to get out of here so we can actually be together again, and not 200 miles apart.

On that note, my first year of graduate school is pretty much over. Its kind of crazy. Its gone fast, but yet taken forever. College graduation seems like a long time ago, not just last year. I feel so detached out here. I can't wait to get home. After this summer, i'll have all of the course/credit requirments done for my degree. So, if I can just get all my field work done this summer and get my thesis written next fall, then I can defend in the spring and get out of here. Thats my goal. I just hope it works out.

As for other bits of news....

One of my GIS maps turned out looking like the naughty region of a guy. Everyone I showed it to had the same reaction--"oh my....hahahahaha." So thats been a huge joke lately.

umm....I've been riding my bike a lot, mainly to the lab. Which is good.

Thats really all i've got. I'm just scrounging now. So, now I get to spend my entire weekend doing work. If i survive/don't kill myself, I'll try to blog again soon.

Fire

I guess its been a while since I've posted, but there hasn't been a whole lot going on. I got home for Easter weekend, which was great. On Saturday, Steven and I went out to the Game Lands and colored eggs (at home, not at the game lands), and then he came along to Easter dinner at my Grandma's on Sunday. It was good to see my family and have Steven there too.

As far as this last week, its just been a whole lot of work. Its the typical end-of-the-year pile up. I just can't wait for the semester to be over. The end is coming soon, but I have a lot of work to do before then.

The weather has been beautiful though. Perhaps a little too warm for spring, but I won't complain. I've been riding my bike to the lab, and roller blading quite a bit. It feels good to get out and do something again, not to mention get some sunshine and fresh air. Today, after blading, I just laid in the grass out in the sun for a while. I like to play lizard. *sticks out tongue* I may have actually gotten a hint of a tan.

Right now my apartment smells like smoke. Around 6:00, one of the nearby buildings behind mine (but in the other complex) caught on fire and burned for a good long time. It was so smokey here that I couldn't see the circle outside my window. (For those of you who have never been here, its about 50 feet away.) It was unbelievable. Apparently, the cause was a couple of idiots arguing out on one of the top story balconies with a flaming trash can. The wind caught the flame and caught the roof on fire. Everyone got out in time, but 3 cats did not. :-( I feel really bad for those who lost their pets/belongings/apartments. According to the news, 12 families have been displaced due to the fire. That would just be aweful. I worry about that sort of thing every day. That's probably the worst thing about living in an apartment building--you have no control over what your neighbors do.

But it was smokey here this evening to say the least. My apartment was filled with smoke for a while. My eyes were watering and my throat was burning. And poor little Radar was really sticking close by, and giving me lots of kitty kisses. He seemed really worried. I closed my bedroom window (which was where all the smoke was coming in) and set up fans to blow air out my front windows. I also burned some oil scents, so its finally starting to air out and not smell like smoke anymore. But it was a pretty crazy evening around here.

They keep having all these severe thunderstorm warnings on tv, but I'm not seeing any sign of any storm. If all the storms miss us tonight, I'm going to be very upset. All the storms have missed us so far this spring and I really want a good storm. Is that so much to ask? It just makes Toledo suck even more. *huffs* A nice storm would really help to air out my apartment too.

Anyway, it is getting late. I'm going to go settle down with a glass of wine and encourage the storms.

First field day of the season

Today was great. Sure, it started out with some pretty slow and boring computer work, but since I have the luxury of having a lap top, I was able to move from our windowless gradstudent office to the multi-windowed lobby. Then, around 2:00, we (Amanda, Josh, Jhonathan, Doug, and me) decided to go out and seign for shiners so the larger fish in the tank could have some more substantial meals. Okay, so the main reason was just to get us out of the lab and into some waders. But the fish (well, not the shiners) will appreciate it none-the-less.

It was so good to get outside in the sunshine and play in the water. There were two teams seigning--Amanda and me and then Doug and Josh. Jhonathan got the task of running between us with the bucket to get the shiners we caught. I think Amanda and I outdid the boys, but thats just because we rock so much. Then Jhonathan fell in face first. We thought all the fish we caught were gone, but he's such a good ecologist that he managed to save the catch. We were catching Shad and Shiners, but we only wanted the shiners, so the shad were all throwbacks. However, Amanda and I discovered that if you flung the seign just right, the shad would FLY. It was so much fun. Then Jhonathan started to try to catch the flying fish that had the misfortune to find themselves in our seign. And then I fell in. It was grrrreat, and I mean that with all seriousness. I was soaked, but it was warm enough that I wasn't cold. It was just so much fun to be out in the field again. And Amanda's waders had a nicely placed leak so that when she took them off, it appeared that she had taken a massive leak herself. Needless to say, the day produced a lot of laughs, and when combined with the warm sunshine, we were left in very high spirits.

Then I came home and fixed an awesome Mom-quality dinner. I was quite pleased with myself. I think I'm actually starting to get the hang of this cooking thing.

Anyway, I'm off to kick back for the evening. The windows are open, MASH is on, and Killian's is at hand. Its spring and the field season is upon us. Yep, life is good.

Procrastination: Part II

So, in efforts to procrastinate even further, I decided to go out for walk on this fine sunny, but mildly chilly, day. Everytime I venture out this way, I am reminded of just how much I hate living here. If I were home, I could have had a nice peaceful walk through the woods, and seen relatively few people. There would have been some nice hills to give my legs a bit of a workout and probably would have seen a bunch of critters. Well, here, it is quite different. Here, I walk down the edge of the road either in the grass (they don't believe in sidewalks here) or on the bike path, which is really just another lane in the road. Cars are constantly zipping past, drivers gawking like they've never seen a pedestrian before. And then of course, you have the 2 mature guys in the moving van than insist on yelling out some sort of indistinquishable, but most likely sexual, waahhooo as they drive past. All of this, to say the least, is far from your relaxing stroll through a woodland path. I'm not sure if my heart was thumping more from the walk or from the adrenaline of being near death.

I eventually made it safely to the Metropark. I walked down the dirt path a ways, relieved to get off the road (which isn't even a main one). A ways down, I discovered a nice log which was being blessed with sun rays. I decided at once to play lizard. I laid there for a while, watching the naked tree crowns sway in the breeze, but the sounds of traffic and sirens, and the constant string of joggers and walkers still prohibited any sort of relaxation, let alone some much needed meditation. So back I went to dodging cars and headed for home.

I went to the store for milk, and also got some Iced Green Tea mix, which I made up and is quite yummy. And now I supposed I should actually try to make some progress on this paper. *sighs*

Procrastinating with the help of the internet

So I'm trying to write a reasearch proposal for a project that I have no intention of actually doing. Its just a requirement for my Landscape Ecology class. So because its just a random proposal, I have no ambition to do it. There are a thousand other things that I'd rather be doing. So, naturally, I'm procrastinating.

Its been a rather uneventful week. The only really interesting thing that happened is that I got back in touch with my friend Jolene. Being back in contact with her is wonderful. I missed her tons.

Okay, so I went to http://www.thedeathpsychic.com and found out that I'm going to be stung several dozen times by a swarm of bees. The large amount of venom in my blood will cause my throat to swell shut. Unable to breathe, I'll suffocate to death.
Perhaps the creepiest thing about that it sounds rather probabe for someone with an outdoors oriented career.

Buzzzzzzzzz......

Random Questions.
What time do you go to bed?:	11:00-midnightish
Do you drink coffee?:	Occasionally
What was the last song you listened to?:	Rob Thomas- Ever the same
How old were you when you got/gave your first kiss?:	15
What kind of ice cream is your favorite?:	Cookies and cream
Have you ever met an internet friend in real life?:	yes
Have you/are you anorexic?:	haha, no
Do you know which US states don't use Daylight Saving Time?:	Indiana was one.....not sure of the others
What size shoe do you wear?:	10 womans, 8 mens
Who was the last person you talked to on the phone?:	my mom
Which is more important in your life, TV or Internet?:	Internet
Do you have an iPod?:	No
Have you ever been fired from a job?:	No
Have you ever taken something you knew belonged to someone else?:	No
Do you overuse smileys?:	Probably
Which is better, Madonna or Blondie?:	eh....
Name three website you visit every day::	yahoo, weather.com, and my bank
Do you know the song Total Eclipse Of The Heart?:	Pat Benetar, of course
When was the last time you ate something?:	breakfast, about 2 hours ago
Ever had a pet fish?:	Yes
Have you seen all of the Jaws movies?:	yeah, but the first is the only good one
Do you have an obsession with Anime?:	used to, that passed
Do you have an obsession with vampires/fantasy?:	I have a mild interest in fantasy
Have you ever worn black eyeliner?:	Yes
Have you ever worn blue mascara?:	No
Ever spiked your hair?:	No...too much work
How long have you had a computer?:	umm.....5 years
Have you ever written something, and published it on the internet?:	My blog....
Do you have a crush on anyone at the moment?:	Crush...no
Do you like Starbucks?:	Yes
Have you ever owned a kitten?:	He's laying at my feet right now
Is it raining where you are?:	Nope, sunny
When was the last time you played cards? (not on the computer):	July, i think
Can you play chess?:	Yes
Ever owned a pair of the original Nikes? (white, with only a single swoosh):	No
Ever worn leg warmers?:	No
When was the last time you read a book over 700 pages long?:	Don't think I ever have
How many people are on your IM friends list?:	More than i want to count right now
How many hours of sleep do you usually get?:	7-8
Have you ever drank cherry coke?:	Yes
Do you prefer using pens or pencils?:	Pens
Have you ever skipped for a long distance?:	Not for a long time
Have you ever had a black eye?:	Yes

Miserable Colds

So Thursday was a beautiful sunny 64 degree day, and there was no way I was going to spend it sitting in front of a computer in a windowless room. So instead I headed to the zoo. I simply wandered around for hours, watching the critters and soaking up all the sunlight I could. After the zoo, I threw the rollerblandes in the trunk and headed to the metropark, where I skated for the better part of an hour. Unfortuantly, by that time, it was time for me to grab some dinner and head to class. After class, I even went to the gym. By the end of the day, I felt very productive. Unfortuanly, I was also begining to feel a bit sick.

By Friday morning, it was obvious I had contracted a head cold, but I was still happy because Steven was coming over after work. When he did eventually arrive, we headed to the mall to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown. I highly recommend it. We laughed the entire way though, and was possibly even better than the first one. And there was a lot of Scrat, which was awesome.

On Saturday, we headed to Detroit to visit the zoo and go to the IMAX. The Detroit Zoo has a butterfly garden, which was awesome. We spent a lot of time there. But as for the rest of the zoo, it wasn't anything spectacular. Certainly not nearly as nice as the Toledo zoo. It probably didn't help any that I was completely miserable and was ready to crawl under a rock and die. But I tried not to whine and sucked it up as much as possible so that I wouldn't ruin Steven's time. Eventually though, he realized that I was pretty sick, and we left (after checking out the International Wildlife Photography Contest Gallery). We wound up checking out 2 IMAX movies to cut down on the amount of time spent waiting in the car. So we saw Walking On the Moon 3D, narrated by Tom Hanks, and Deep Sea 3D, narrated by Johny Depp and Kate Winslet. They were both really good, and the 3D thing is just crazy. It was like the fish were right there infront of you. Of course, the Deep Sea one was better than the Moon one, but they were still worth seeing.

Soon after that, we were home and showered and I had some cold medicine in me. I couldn't wait to go to bed. We spent Sunday morning lounging around, and then Steven had to go. Thats always the worst. So I spent the rest of the day feeling lousy and depressed in an ameoba form on the couch staring at the tv. Monday wasn't spent much differently. I definately felt the most miersable on Monday, so hopefully, that was the worst of it and I'm now on the road to recovery.

Anyway, that was my weekend. I'll be home for Easter, so I can't wait for that. I'm also looking forward to getting my new bike from my sweetie. I gave him his waders this weekend too, which he seemed really happy about. So that made me happy too. Anyway, I need to go find my Kleenexes.