As some of you may know, I’ve been working in the LSU Biogeography lab for the last two years or so. My job there is mainly a student worker position, but I also help conduct some analysis and research under the supervision of my advisor.

Most of my friends and family have been able to come by the lab to see what I do there, but I thought that a small pictorial essay would be appropriate at this point in the year, considering that it’s what I’ll be doing during the day for the next couple of months or so.

So, even though I’m not fond of self-indulgent web rambling, the following is a few pictures I took this morning of some of the essentials at work:
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Dood

i am going to make a trip to midland on Wednesday the 18th of May, 2005 and will be staying there until approximately the following Tuesday.

So DANG, if you live in Midland Texas and you are reading this blog, give me a freakin email with your cell number or something.

i came home. I ate sushi with julie and her friend and i absolutely loved it. I used to not like sushi but then i found out you could get it without the seaweed, and get it with “Soy Paper” instead, and i wished i had like 3 orders of the stuff.

at home i busted out the acoustic git-fiddle and plucked sweet nothings from the strings, and oh my goodness it never sounded better. I think Mercer hall was noisier than i thought, and home is much quieter than i remembered. having recently been successful at a songwriting attempt, i have this strong urge to continue. And, lo, tis summertime. there will be productivity. But first, i have a list of things i need to get accomplished, including seeing doctors, getting apartments, unpacking, cleaning, and then work, of course.

plus, my fambly is moving in july. we’re going to end up about 5 miles from where we are now, but the new house, i hear, is amazing. well that’s great. I won’t be living in it that much. But i guess i’m prematurely saying that because now i’m going to be so close to home that i could just make the trip for an afternoon. Maybe spend the weekend. Relax with the parents. and lunch with grandmere. gosh. what a concept. i haven’t done that in years.

My new life in Louisiana is going to be nice. sweet-ace music scene in Baton Rouge and New Orleans (!!). The best food i’ve ever eaten. The comfort of home so close. but.

leaving Mercer was freakin hard.

Allow me to digress in physics, which i have recently been retardedly obsessed with. You see, you can think of time as a 4th dimension. and space being the first 3 dimensions. if i could travel (“just by folding the map” – deathcab) really quickly, then any space difference, aka mercer being 700 miles away from home, would be made a trivial affair. I could go to Mercer and everything would work out.

it can’t work like that though. According to the laws of physics, i cannot have everything i want. The only other solution is to change what i want, or, more likely, change what order i want things. so there you have it.

jon wrote an amazing, beautiful post about time and how everything comes together the way it was meant to be and life happens accordingly, and truly, i believe it all. I’ve had similar feelings and optimistic views for the majority of my life. But when i have to act like i’m making an informed, educated decision that revolves completely around deep-set emotions on both sides, i have trouble finding out what i truly believe.

i stole this link from curry

http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/26951/

true dat, mr. T!!

There’s so much I want to write in this entry, I’m wondering how I can possibly get it all out on the screen. I guess a good place to start is at the beginning.

I came home to this weekend to visit my mom for mother’s day, to catch a brief respite from my hectic life at the university, and to visit with my significant other.
Coming home is always a wonderful thing, especially coming home to the explosion of spring that is our little plot of family land. Seeing the towering giant red oaks in full bloom gracefully dancing in the spring breeze, the millions of tiny white wildflowers congregating in the yard, their petite petals raised in devout sun worship, the sweet yellow blossoms of the honey suckel flowers embracing the thorny budding blackberry bushes, the chromatic ballet of my grandmother’s spring roses; it is a womb-like spring that is so much more beautiful to my eyes, in part because it is so different from the city-scape that I have become so used to at school.
So, in the midst of this eden-like spring paradise, surronded by the people I care so much about, and away (at least temporarily) from the demands of work and school, I finally ease myself into a smooth relaxed Saturday.
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one more final exam to go, in a couple days

except for this last test, i’ve just completed everything academic that is required of me in georgia. academic things went pretty well, if you’d like to know.

this school year has been incredible. if somebody would have told me a year ago today about ATO, the Newtons, LSU, my parents moving, julie graduating, desiree and her adventures, my own personal revelation and new friendships and changes in relationships, i never ever would have believed you.

I didn’t see it coming.
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With the end of school a mere two weeks away, I know that it’s time to begin preparing myself for the inevitable.
The inevitable end of classes, stress, and so forth, but also the end of classes, stress and so forth.

Finishing the school semester is similar to finishing any other activity, you feel a relief from all the work, but there is also the anti-climax, the let-down, the wall that is summer.

It’s not a bad thing, more of an odd thing. Going from 100 mph to 0 mph in one day. So I’m trying to get ready.

I can’t help but wonder about what the next three months are going to bring. Summer work, the return of old friends, girlfriend overseas, visiting home more often than normal, sister leaving for Georgia, living by myself, trips to the beach.

It sounds like a lot of fun, and plenty of new experiences to be sure. But I’m anxious.

The good news is, I won’t have to wait long to find out what’s around the bend.