So today at A&M was The Big Event. Seven oceanography grad students (myself included) and G rounded up at 8 am to walk over to Reed Arena, check in, get our tools and head over to a lady's house in Bryan to do yard work.
We spent about an hour waiting to check in and get our tools because we couldn't actually get our tools until the "speeches" were done. There was a former student athlete doing the last speech and honestly, I wonder how he ever graduated. He spoke three words at a time, i.e. "word word wordSTOP. word word wordSTOP." repeat. It was very hard to follow and he just kept going on and on... to be honest I don't think he really knew what he was talking about.
Anyhow, we drove over to this lady's house in Bryan. She's probably in her late 50s-early 60s, had a nice southern drawl, and her husband works the event staff part time at A&M. Their house was pretty large for this area and was lined all the way around with garden. We spent 3 hours pulling up weeds and avoiding spiders. Very sweaty work, but she bought us all pizza for lunch and had a cooler of water ready. She was awesome. She knew exactly what she wanted done and had all the tools to do it. I never realized how cathartic pulling up weeds and chopping away at dead plants was. It's a great way to metabolize angry and frustrated chemicals in the brain.
We came back home and showered. I opened a beer and crashed on the couch. I didn't feel sleepy immediately after getting home, but man, I passed out for 2 hours.
Spring has sprung. There's a carpet of pollen outside our apartment and if I don't take something for my allergies in the morning, dear god I want to die. Just walking outside makes me feel all itchy. It's fortunate to be in a profession where the likelihood of me being allergic to something is very low.
Spring break was week before last. We went to DQ's house for a lab party with a white elephant gift exchange. It was very fun, and it was interesting to compare and contrast G's lab to mine. Obviously hard science majors = hard drinkers. We likes the alcohols. DQ stopped counting the bottles of wine to make sangria after about the 6th one. And there's this really awesome Australian beer that everyone brought one of. Cause you know, DQ and Mr. Quigg are Australian. Blonde Allison #1's hubby is Australian, gotta represent.
White elephant exchange was long lasting, but full of laughs. The gifts that were stolen the most often were the box containing coffee beans, a coffee mug and Ghiradelli chocolates, and Moon Sand (my gift!).
After the party we drove back to CS, which was a lot easier to stay awake for because we left Galveston at 10 pm instead of 12 am. And then Sunday we went shopping for boat gear for me cause I was going to be collecting samples for the first time and needed stuff to wear that would dry quickly. Thankfully those items are tax deductible because they were pretty pricey.
Being on the boat was a lot of fun, and fortunately I don't get sea sick. It was pretty windy in the morning (thanks, meteorologists for being COMPLETELY WRONG about the forecast), so the water was really choppy getting out to the first station. But after that it was a piece of cake. Again, it's something that completely wipes you out once you're done. I went to bed at 8:30 and slept until 6:30 the next morning. BEST SLEEP I had had in A LONG ASS TIME.
G came by on Wednesday and we stayed in a nice hotel. We walked along Sea Wall in the morning before heading out to Houston to go apartment hunting. I think we found a place, but we'll see how things go in the next month or so.
No comments:
Post a Comment