Smoky start to summer

Happy longest day of the year!  Would be outside but there's some wildfires in eastern NC and totally making it all smoky out!!  I knew in just one inhale that something was up when I stepped out on the porch this morning.  I didn't look into it for several hours, preferring instead to finish watching Like Water for Chocolate and then a documentary on the making of Steinway pianos (random, but they had come into discussion over the weekend and it happened to be on my Netflix reccomendaysh list) that turned out to be quite good.  

Anyhow, with the smoke and high ozone levels making today a pretty terrible air quality day all-around, I'm not even hanging out on the screened-in porch any longer and I def cancelled my long run at noon thirty.

Normally I'm a bit sad on the first day of Summer..odd, but I like looking forward to longer and longer days and knowing that the days will be getting (ever so slightly) shorter each day is just a bit depressing.  BUT this year is quite different for me:  In Alaska, where I'll be doing field work during the month of August, my day length will be between 24 and 20 hours long (depending on where I am in the state).  Crazy right?!

Welcome, summer season!  

 

 

 

Readin Murakami short stories at Caribou

The Google illustration today for First day of Summer is by contemporary artist Takashi Murakami, no relation to Haruki Murakami I think.  I'm enjoying the short stories in after the quake.. nice change of pace

Chocolate chunk-coconut butter-1 banana bread! this a.m.

Mmmm best banana bread I've ever baked!  (Not an impressive feat b/c I've only made it once I think hahh)  The moistness is just right on the inside and crisp on the outside..and the flavors are rich and complementary.  This loaf is studded with semi sweet bakers chocolate on the interior and Endangered Species organic milk chocolate on top..Mmmm 

I was in the mood for some of my recently purchased green tea ice cream after a simple japanese lunch of chilled kamut udon noodles and tofu with red miso soup.  The SO Delicious brand Green tea coconut ice cream is super good.  The matcha flavor is not shy and it goes really well with the coconut milk.  The flavors actually do a magical yin yang balancing act on your tongue.  Highly recommend

Crazy good green tea ice cream (Pictured with green tea Itself)

Don

Sparrow

 Happy Father's Day, Don Sparrow!!!!  That's my father.  (The unsuspecting one with the salad!) Cutie
 The other fellow is a house sparrow who definitely saw me taking his picture and promptly flew off.

Pop and I got to do everything today together: have toast on the screened-in porch, take our bicycles out for a ride, get mocha lattes at Cup a Joe (Home of the King Mocha) and catch a flick: Jane Eyre (w/ Mia Wasikowska as Jane) which was playing at The Galaxy.  It was a tortuous love story to be sure, with a fantastic heroine.  My dad and mom have both read the story of course, but I didn't know it at all.  I'm really amazed at the posture, mannerisms, and demeanor with which 21st century actresses like Mia and Keira Knightley (playing Lizzy in Pride & Prejudice) can dynamically play these early 19th C. women. 

Yesterday for lunch our family intended to go out for African food at a cool place we recently discovered and loved but Oh! we had to discover they are Closed on Saturdays..would have been much to our dismay had there not been an Indian restaurant right nextdoor.  And not just simply Indian, but South Indian Vegetarian buffet!  Woah mama.  Largest selection I've ever seen.  No naan, here folks!  But its heavenly tandoori ovenlicious bread void was filled with several South Indian jewels: Dosa, Tali, Appam, Pappadum, and Chapati.  Man and there were a dozen fantastic dishes with chickpeas, spinach, paneer, a yellow dal, and some great chutneys, even a Coconut chutney!! and lots of desserts including a salty yogurt rice pudding and mango "moose" haaha.  Great great great!  We all loved it.

Good reads and ice cream purchases

 Ah Murakami, you amaze me.  I can't go a day without reading you! I returned Sputnik Sweetheart and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle and checked out after the quake and Wild Sheep Chase so I'm probably set for the rest of the month.  His work is, as one reviewer put it well, "dreamlike and compelling."  It's totally Japanese culture meets West meets Surreal.  Stephen recommended him to me and I'm so glad.

 Oh man! What's that I'm holding?  Something I won on kittee's blog months ago and hadn't redeemed!  It's Luna & Larry's Coconut Bliss.  They're a real cool company.  Started from their kitchen, all that jazz.  I hadn't decided what flavor pint I'd like to have first..but realized that the end of June is coming up too fast and I had better decide whilst I'm near a Whole Foods!
Yaaaa! I chose the one with the best name..and its descripsh is "Exhilarating mint with dark chocolate flakes."

Gorgeous and frosty..oh and it's delicious too!

Goddess of yogurt

 Also in my whole foods haul today I got Liberte yogurt, it's unparalleled in the yogurt world as far as I've tasted..again, thanks to Stephen for encouraging me to get it.  They either just got it (in only 3 flavors) at WF or else they were always on the tip top shelf and I didn't see them the past few weeks (and of course I have trouble believing that!)

My stand-by fav

 Whole Soy & Co. makes some goood yogurt though.  It's definitely not like anything else or any other soy yogurt out there.  Very thick, tangy.  I had it often when I was babysitting for Jackson and now it makes me think of him!  I get a big container of it.

 And what's that lurking beside the sour cherries??  OOooh more ice cream.  Once I was in the ice cream aisle I just had to purchase another thing that grabbed my attention.  Will go perfect with some som tam.

In other news (moving on from the refrigerated and freezer sections of life)..I went to see Woody Allen's new movie, Midnight in Paris and I really liked it!  It had a ton of Paris in it!  Really really made a tribute to the city itself, and I think that having visited Paris myself and getting to recognize and recall the streets and sights like old friends was a large part of my enjoyment of this film.  Great theme though, too..about current generations always believing that the Golden Age is behind them.  Def recommend.

My brother is playing with the NC symphony in their lawn concert of Paul McCartney music later today so my fam and I are having a picnic out on the lawn.  I hope you're having yourself a lovely weekend as well and starting it off right..I am with some delish french press from Crema.  MMmmm

Green tea bubble tea and choice asian produce

 Grand Asia Market today!!  Rachel went with me and we had a grand time.  In produce I got a honey tangerine, a small jicama, and a small green papaya.  I plan on making som tam tomorrow of course!!

Fresh red bean bun and some choice sweets.

 I also got a hot n fresh red bean bun, some mochi candy, pocky, and some chocolate biscuits.  Supa fun!!  I'm gonna take the chocolate pocky to my fav barista because she's a fan.

At my (old) residence..that's the ocean in the background!! gawsh

I am missing wrightsville beach, just my life/friends there really, not the whole rush rush student thing.  duh.  Ah well..I'm off to watch Lost in Translation now..I watched Insomnia a couple nights ago just for the whole Alaska during eternal daytime feel of it all and last night I happened to watch My Best Friends Wedding (I can watch anything with Julia Roberts in it for some reason..) which leaves me with the moral, "Perhaps the love of your life will not have feelings with you and will marry someone else, but at least your best friend will surprise you by coming to the wedding reception and dance with you and you will be happy." Also JR insinuates that College Station, TX is a drab place to live :/  too bad I'm moving there in 16 days, and am pretty set on looking forward to it!!

Recalling a great hike in CA

Stoked to head out for a nice long run around Cary

Ah, summer vacation.  It is so so nice to wake up early and have a whole day to do whatever you like.  I woke up and had a bowl of cereal and then went off to Crema Coffee to chill and have an espresso and read my Murakami novel (Sputnik Sweetheart!) for a couple hours.  At 11 I got ready to go for a long run..I keep doing that! running in the middle of the day, not the best I know, but I suppose I'm getting used to running in 90 degrees..putting on plenty of sunblock that's for sure.  Anyhow, I came back from my fav 9 mile loop and then went out to get some lunch with my nextdoor neighbors, Amelia and Sarah.  After eating up a delish plain bagel w/ plain cream cheese (plain sort of mood!) we left Bruegger's, home of the best bagels in town, and went and chilled with some cool beverages at Crema.  I was in the mood for an ibc root beer, so that's what I got. Sarah and Rachel just got back from Bonnaroo, a dusty crazy time to be sure!  I would have loved to see Beirut and Arcade Fire.  Speaking of being outdoors for hours on end..but in a very different setting...

Bear Canyon Trail in the Cleveland Nat'l Forest

 Allison and I went on a great hike 2 weeks ago while she and I were visiting Shira in San Clemente.  Shira was at work, so the 2 of us drove east out to Riverside Co. to the this trail we had heard about, up to Sitton Peak.  It was 10 am and we were pretty excited.

 Great trails and we only saw 3 other souls in the whole 11 miles!  There was one girl hiking and one guy..he wrote in the log book at the top, "Sure beats work!"  I wrote that I was scared to come down!  True story, it was super steep to get up to the top!  My old running shoes didn't give good traction at all, but it could've been worse, actually, the 3rd person we encountered was a guy on horseback who told us that he had just passed 2 rattlesnakes in the middle of the trail and that we'd better watch out.  Yea that was a scary few hundred yards!  But we didn't see them.

2200 ft elevation change later..This is the view from the rock on Sitton Peak where we perched at the top for some lunch!! 

Looking up at Sitton Peak..man it looked far away at that point!

Tired legs

 Between the hiking and the tide pooling, my legs were pretty beat!  I was so jazzed to get to be outside so much and that I got to see so much awesome CA country (rocky cliffs! beaches!  mountains!).

West Coast Reunion!!!  It was gorgeous out.  Like it is every day there!

One morning we went tide pooling on the rugged coast over where my friend works in Dana Point.  Shira and Allison found all kinds of things in the rocks as we scrambled across the rocks, trying not to let any of the waves come crashing in on us.  We found anemones, wavytop turbin snails, brittle stars, sea stars, limpets..so rad.

The Getty! in LA

 Wow!  I was so impressed with this place!  Ilana, Ben, and Griffin took me here.  First off, The Getty Center offered incredible views of the LA area.  The museum is nestled at the top of a ridge and you can see pockets of skyscrapers, and out to several of the islands off shore.  Way too cool.

It was the type of place where you just feel completely at peace and far-removed, leaving you to really appreciate aesthetics.  As a museum-goer, you park your car at the base of the mountain and wait for an automated 3-car tram to come and take you up to the top.  Very cool and atypical museum experience.

Super cute family, right?

Ilana, Ben, and Griffin frequent the Getty quite a bit.  Griffin really likes the tram ride and the cactus garden..

Griffin's fav part of the Getty

 Griffin absolutely loves the cacti around his house and that you see all over LA, but the cactus garden had a ton of different types all in one space.  Griffin has very interesting likes and dislikes, I loved learning about him during my visit.  And though he's more articulate than most kid's twice his age, he is still 3 and still needs food and sleep on very regular schedules..so we had to leave pretty soon after getting there.  Ben and I did a lightning quick appreciation of a Cuba photograph exhibit as we passed through the building back to the tram..

I was smiling every other second, I swear

 I'm pretty used to having to walk away from really cool museums/places of interest after just getting a taste--in Paris a few years ago I got to see a lot of places but like at Versailles, I had to just do a quick run through of the stunning rooms of the chateau itself in something like 35 minutes before closing because I had spent all day walking the grounds and seeing the other little buildings of the palace! 

Chik*n wings, sweet potato fries, purple slaw

For dinner that night we ordered in Veggie Grill--sounds unassuming and kinda boring but it was anything but.  They offer up all-american fast food that's all totally veg.  The mango cobb salad with tangy lemon dressing and tempeh, chik*n, and bac*n was out of this world too.  Ilana and Ben also took me to Cafe Gratitude (L.A. location)!!---Out of this world..luckily I had learned a bit from my blogger friend Natalie about CG so I didn't completely freak out at the coolness.  All of the menu items are self-empowering statements like, "I am Eternally Youthful" (vanilla milkshake) the kind of hip place where all the cheeses--ricotta, mozzarella, etc. are made of nuts, several of the entrees, even enchiladas, and nachos are raw, and kombucha is on tap!  Ilana and I had fresh sangria.  Some people aren't too fond of the "hippy-dippy"ness of the whole empowering statements or whatevs, but I don't think that anyone can argue that their food isn't insanely good and that their spattering of crazy cool veg restaurants along the CA coast isn't a great thing!

Next up:  A really sweet day hike in the hills east of LA with Allison

Southern California Fun

I fell in love w/ original tart & the really tasty, not just plain pretty, fruit at these establishments

 First order of business after we had gone to Old Navy so Allison could get a swimsuit was to begin what would be a 3 day fro-yo taste adventure!!   This place called Cherry On Top or something was all pink and white and trendy on the inside and was my first taste of LA style selfserve fro yo.  You get a lil sampler cup the same thing for dispensing ketchup into at a fastfood place and go crazy tasting until you actually get a real cup and start to get Serious with your selections.  haha.  the cups are huge!  I was in love at first biodegradable spoonful.

Ohmygosh these kelp air bladders were so fun for me to collect and subsequently pop!  Never seen anything like them..they looked like jewels washing up along the tide line and I must have gathered 3 dozen of them up and popped them.  Shira gently warned me not to pop open too many close to my face, as they have carbon monoxide inside.  Duly noted!

 Day 2:  The 3 of us went tide pooling!! Will have show-and-tell (picture style of course) lata.  But for now a full demo on yogurting!  yogurting (verb):  to self-serve yourself some delicious yogurt and smile all along the way.
         First, you ask for a sample cup and try out all the flavors that appeal to you and perhaps the ones you don't think you'll want in your final bowl..dunno that was my strategy.  So basically try every flavor of the 10ish ones available.

Here's that sample cuppie I was talkin about.  Non-commital stage of yogurting

 

 

 

 

 

Mmm Plain Tart.  The perfect base for a yogurt bowl

Next, grab the giant cups for actually self-serve purchasing purposes and get your base flava.  Original tart if you're me.  Then, proceed to add all your other flavas and toppings if you want them.  MMMMhmm.  Then pay the nice man .39 cents per frozen amazing crazy delicious creamy tart ounce.  Then go outside and enjoy it while basking in the lovely California sunshine and feelin the cool Pacific ocean breeze!!
  [ Luckily this LA sensation has crept its way over to the East Coast so it is true that I and everyone else ova here can replicate this in the east coast humid humid heat..but yogurtlands was seriously the best (w/ the most creative and well executed flavors!) frozen yogurt that I've ever had in mah lyyyfe.  And the fruit was so sweet and fresh tasting in cali, even at froyo places (not just at farmers markets!).]

Finished bowl: Plain tart, pink Guava, Coconut, Pistachio, and Kona Coffee

 

 

Must talk next about my visit w/ cousin Ilana, husband Ben & lil Griff in W Hollywood!

Joy of cooking

Hello! i had a great trip to california which i will talk about soon! i am already enjoying being home again with the rents!
     I made an absolutely scrumptious dessert tonight-- CCK's cobbler bars with sour cherries and topped it with sweetened sour cream. mmmMmm good!  Unforch, I discovered that photos from my iPad do not turn out on my blog!  Ironically, blogging from my iPad has made my posts (particularly the pictures) look technologically-challenged.  Ah, well, this laptop is good for something and seems HUGE now!
For main course i made a " not to miss dish"..tempeh cutlets from the Student goVegan cookbook alongside some farmers market goodness..steamed bokchoy and mashed sweet potatoes. yep, a great supper fer sher. My mom is studying for the GRE, taking online college classes, and still working fulltime and my pop just had cataract surgery! so what better way to show my love than cook, cook it up! i am happy to be outta the kitchen now though and watch my new fav Modern Family and finish the last pages of The Windup Bird Chronicle!!
        Today i ordered my first pair of Rx sunglasses, as theyd be good to have in addition to my plain nikes for runnin in sunny afternoons but chiefly i got them in preparation for starting my graduate fieldwork in alaska later this summer..since i'll be above the arctic circle for a month when the sun will not set, these babies will be pretty crucial.

Oh and hey! I saw rachel mcadams, aka regina george from mean girls in the phoenix airport on sunday and was pretty sure, esp since she was with a police security man and all. The picture I took on y ipad is def not great but i am still like 95% sure it was her. She seemed real nice, i watched her from about 15 ft away for a good 5 minutes. no one else noticed her that i saw.

Cornbread! An ode to the Amaizingness

I worked up what i think is a great cornbread recipe this week once I'd gotten home from emerald isle! I had a hankering to make some similar to a killer skillet I brought to a birthday bash this spring but for which I didn't do diligence in noting any measurements. It is really good and moist and I've already shared it with my blogger friend, Natalie, who loooves her some good cornbread!
My dad has been making the Moosewood cornbread recipe my whole life. We bring it to potluck and have it at home to accompany suppers including veggie chili or lentil soup. What made cornbread special for me, besides that it is always so good!, was that dad always carves a big 'S' for Sparrow on top. I forgot to do so this time!

Katys Cornbread w/ Millet
Dry
1.5 C cornmeal
0.5 C sprouted wheat (or any other) flour
0.25 C wheat germ
2 tsp baking powder
0.5 tsp baking soda
0.25 heaping tsp salt
1.75 C cooked millet
Wet
1.5 C milk of any kind/combination
1.5 T apple cider vinegar
0.25 C honey
1 egg
Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix dry, adding in millet last until it
is uniformly mixed in. Let your vinegar curdle the milk for about 10
mins, then add honey and egg and whisk away until it's nicely beaten.
Add wet to dry and stir until just combined. Pour into a greased 9x9
or similar pan and bake 30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean!

So what to do with lots of delicious cornbread that you can't eat all up? Give it to ur favorite baristas! That what I did. And in addition to ur butter of choice, try toppin it with molasses, local FRESH honey if you can score some, jam, or even miso-tahini!
Next up on the cornbread front for me is brown rice cornbread and a blue cornbread! Saw blue cornmeal next to da yellow today at whole foods!
Long live cornbread! Food of the settlers, it will always have a special place in my heart, marked with a capital 'S'.

Coasting on post-gaduation high



My advisor, me, and the diploma

So after last Friday afternoon's post, I dropped my laptop on my foot from quite a height as I was fumbling with a doorknob to pack it into my car!  Ouch. My foot is healing up nicely though and an x-ray taken this week confirmed that nothing was broken.  But the swelling that ensued made the big Walk to shake hands with the chancellor and get my diploma the next day a little difficult!  But I managed.  Hooray, I'm a college graduate!

I didn't notice my foot swelling up until late Friday night because I was having such an epic time enjoying the guests at my graduation party!!  A serious portion of My World was in attendance and it was actually not overwhelming, but just FUN!  All the kids I babysit for were there and I loved getting to play & swim with them one last time in Banks Channel which is literally the backyard of Mike & Julie's house.   So many of my close friends made it out, I was so happy!!  The families I babysit for (aka best families in Wilmington/WB) and my own family were there too, which was so awesome, words just can't say it all...PLUS there was 2 flavas of vegan cake, several incredible salads, and great beverages: I had a new coriander brew from New Belgium, fantastic.  Stephen brought the first loaf he had made from a tight breadmaking book he scored; luckily I scored a piece before it was eaten up!  I floated from group to group of mingling family/friends and just watched the magic happen, and of course said somber goodbyes as the night drew to a close...Absolutely incredddddbile time-of-my-life type of deal we're talking about here.

Family and I at our candid best on WB

Since graduation, I've been diving headlong into this great summer vacation!  Moved in with my parents :D  Shopped at Whole Foods :D Went Swimming 3 times at the YMCA :D  Am at the beach with the Rents soaking up the sun and birdwathching...and most importantly, free reading!!!!  I'm reading The Wind-up Bird Chronicle by Stephen's fav author, Haruki Murakami and ohman fantastic.  I've gotten in touch with my old reclusive bookworm self and am totally lovin it.  Someone at the library who has his other books checked out and I are going to be battling it out..I was nice and only checked out one but I'm going back and gettin all thats left..hahah



Opening Texas A&M shorts from Mom & Dad



Last & best days eva on WB

That's me on the left and there's Vans beside me

      Ohmygah, best days of my life.  Sure, I've had to pack all my things into my li'l Honda and sweep pounds of sand off my floor, yada yada but seriously! Amazing days!!  The past 3 days I have been thoroughly enjoying myself because I've had no agenda and have had such a clear head and ample patience.
    Oh? 36 New York Times sunday editions got under my bed?  No worries..I'll dust off the bunnies and read bits of them before I toss them all in bags to be recycled. 
     Oh? A flustered grandmother pulling over onto the shoulder of The Loop needs directions to Shell Island Resort and I happen to be the running by?  Of course I can stop and chat!  That was on my second-to-last Loop run, and I also saw an egret fishing and a blue heron flew right over my head.
      So I was thinking about it and I must have run around its scenic 2.5 mile path (crosses Banks Channel twice! and encompasses a tidal marsh) upwards of 350 times in the last year and a half.  I'm gonna miss it terribly.  My last Loop run this a.m. was the best ever.  I could see stormy clouds in the west as I set out at 7:45 for 2 loops.  A drizzle turned into a downpour and once I had done one loop and was passing my street, I stripped off my tanktop and continued on cause I was having a great time.  The lightning and thunder were slightly worrisome, and only one fellow comrade was still running clockwise (I run counterclockwise) and we both had big grins on our faces when we saw that each other was still at it.  The rain amplified the salty sulfurous marsh odor, making it intoxicating; I loved it.

Sunrise garden sandwich in Stephen's dextreous hands

      I had to say goodbye to lovely Vanessa (who is headed off for a big Greenpeace internship in DC this summer!) yesterday morning.  She wasn't feelin so hot (even though of course she was lookin cute as ever)  so the only photo I have of us is our bikes, but that's so totally Us.   Then I met up with Stephen at Sweet & Savory for a bomb-diggity breakfast.  Stephen had talked about a particular S&S sandwich on numerous occasions so of course I knew I would be getting that too.  2 sunrise garden's and 2 more hot sauce packets please.  Coffee black. MmmmHmmm We are pretty much twin eaters except that Stephen eats approximately 3 dozen more eggs than I do a month.  I suppose that I fill that void with my favourite breakfast, milk and cereal (bran flakes, raw wheat germ, ground flaxseed & moist raisins).  My first reads from the western wake library (at home in Cary) are going to be Haruki Murakami, whose work Stephen hiiiiighly recommends. 
    All of my worldly possessions are tucked away into my car except for my cap & gown, my dress, my sheets & comforter, my pillows, my technology, and a few vegetables and drinks in the fridge. My room and bathroom are clean and I'm just all set!  I'm so happy it is not much trouble to move when you choose to live simplistically (and fortunately get to move into places that are furnished!).
    I am not very patient in waiting for my last grade!  My F5 key is about to go on strike.  I have all of them except environmental studies seminar.  I'm totally stoked about them so far.
Physical Oceanography....B+
Adv. Nat. Resource Mgmt....A-
World Music & Dance....A
Physics....C+   !!!!! :D
    I'm going to bike around the island one last time now..then a graduation party on the south end of the island hosted by the Hurley-Travis' (who I babysat for) at their gorgeous little house on the Channel.  My closest friends, my parents, dear siblings, aunt Lucy, and vegan cake will be there!  I'm so jazzed for my family to meet my friends and to be able to have a last Hurrah and photo opps with everyone I have grown close to and have to part with for now.  It will be poignantly bittersweet for me, I know too well. :/

FREE AT LAST

      So that's it, I'm done with my undergraduate career here at UNCW.  I bicycled to the dreaded physics exam yesterday morning.  I actually felt really calm and just drank in the scenery of crossing the Intracoastal waterway, the familiar trees, and storefronts on the way to campus.  When I was a kid I always dreamt about being a beach kid who rode my bike to school and stuff..I'm so happy to have gotten to grow up and be that kid for my last year of college as I got to live on the island this schoolyear!  So lucky.
      I got to spend Mothers Day weekend with my very own mom (and dad and godmother!).  We were at Emerald Isle after Ben & Sarah's graduations.  Sarah, by the way, was the Outstanding Senior for the Music school and gave a really great speech to her graduating class!  I was like, "That's My Sister!"  you know?  So proud.  I got to sit with Ben at her ceremony, which was nice brother-sister time. 

Mom & I were out observing our swamp on Mothers Day.

     So mother and I birded in the morning of course--saw a little blue heron in the swamp by our house and mom introduced me to a flycatcher while we were bicycling.  I can't remember which flycatcher he was..
      Andy's film about "Don't ask don't tell" premiered last night in the film student showcase and it was sooo good!  He followed up on a news story of a  UNC student who got kicked out of ROTC and has to pay back $80,000 in scholarships because she is gay and she didn't feel like a person of integrity by continuing to hide it from the people she worked with everyday who needed to trust her completely.  Andy had told me all the ideas he was putting into this film, like shadow puppets, old photos, green-screening, news headline scrolling, etc etc and it all came together sooooo great!  Incredible. 

Fact: Mothers love flowers and homemade cards.

     Mom & Dad gave me, Ben, and Sarah iPads for graduation!  So jazzed.  Am going to be playing with it today, putting some things in my car, hanging out with my bff Vanessa and meeting up with my fellow environmental sci classmates at the lighthouse again.  Lucky kid!

And i'm feelin good..

       I had my physical oceanography final this a.m. and it went totally swell. 50 short answer, no problem.. The one problem was that my hands were cold and oddly stiff from my bike ride and I couldn't write so well in the beginning.
And my adv. natural resource management final went well too!  It  took the whole 3 hour period b/c of the paucity of bird and tree field guides.  Good thing I had my lunch with me during the layovers between stations--

yellow-bellied sapsucker

    It was a very multi-faceted exam:  60 multiple choice, 2 birds (stuffed) and 2 trees to identify (outside), had to use a compass to find 2 bearings (outside), test 2 water samples for turbidity, salinity, pH, and temperature, and use a topographic map to answer a couple questions.  I was so stoked that I could identify both of my birds in a second..a yellow-bellied sapsucker, and a northern flicker, (a yellow-shafted flicker actually, I did use the guide for that).  Both have really distinctive red markings so they were probably easy for other people too, but I don't know, some people took 20ish minutes on their birds!  I was not so swift at the trees though, and pretty much gave up and said one was a Sourgum, though it probably wasn't..anyhow, I didn't care at all..
         I totally felt the joy of being done with all but one killlllllerrrrr (physics) class.  My last exam is Tuesday morning so I have 4 days to get going on preparing for it.  I am going to work out a ton of sample problems from the textbook. Tomorrow I am going to my brother's and sister's graduation from ECU in Greenville, jazzed to be with them and mom & dad.
        Gah, I cannot believe my "7 impt things of importance" has shrunk to "1" already....so so happy.  Going home for a nap, a run around the island, and dinner & a movie at stephens.

Gorgeousss sunset ova Banks Channel, Wrightsville Beach

I share this photo not because I took it today, but because it is the exact site where I saw 2 black skimmers this evening!!!!!!  Black skimmers are pretty much my fav bird ever besides the black-necked stilt, and they are a threatened colonial nesting bird, so always good to see.  First time I've ever seen them here!
       At 7, I was coming home from port city java where I did some studying and spilled like 10 oz of green tea, you know, the usual.  Its bad enough to spill something, but when the barista puts up a Caution Wet Floor sign it just screams to the world "Accident Prone Person Over Here!"  Anyhow, spills aside, it was a good productive time, and I saw not 1 but 3 friends there! 
When I saw the skimmers (a pair) skimmin (doin their thang!), I almost went over my handlebars, I was so stoked. Good thing I didn't, because besides the fact that the water is still chilly...its one of my roommate, Alex,'s  birthday today, and i had gotten her a pcj chai shake to-go, b/c I had heard a nice barista recommend that beverage on several occasions..that woulda been 2 spilled beverages in one day! no good.  
        I got to see my sweet friend Cristina at the coffeeshop which was so rad.  We have coffeeshop ESP..pretty much whenever I enter a cafe, I know there's a good chance she's there.  This time, she faked me out and was in the restroom when I got there, and then I didn't see her for  another 5 mins b/c I went in the other restroom (the java joe's, not jane's) washing bike grease off my hands, as my chain and I had to have a lil 1 on 1 chat when it went on strike and fell off.  We worked things out.  So glad.
  I'll be up for 3 more hours gettin some physical oceanography phenomena into mah brain b4 my 8am exam..

lovely sunny tuesday

     I am so happy to have completed my big montreal protocol paper, woo no more papers! as well as to have turned in my bird identification field notebook!  I had a last minute addition to the notebook..Picture me, just having rolled out of bed, on the street in the morning at 7:30, aiming my camera at something up on the telephone wires..that was how 2 of my roommates found me as they were leaving for work.  Total bird nerd.  I snapped a good photo of a house finch.  Though it doesn't have as much red as the purple finch who, according to my Peterson guide, is "like a sparrow dipped in raspberry juice," (!!) but it has quite a bit on head/neck.  I can't wait to share my notebook w/ my mom!  It's nothing spectacular by any means, as it is just a powerpoint presentation, but I know she'll think its cool.  I def had a great time doing the assignment.  Probably my favorite assgn. I've ever had, really, b/c of how often I'd be outside and think, Ah, I wonder what that bird is? That being said, the most common bird around my house is the mourning dove, and I refused to put it in my book!  My big breakthrough came when I ID'd an immature forster's tern.  I felt like I had conquered the bird world..nah not really.  After all, I'm just a sparrow!  I did, btw, get a nice male house sparrow, who is an old world sparrow, and a cute li'l chipping sparrow in my book.
     I jumped on my bike w/ my handy flash drive in my pocket and turned my notebook in (figuratively, as my TA just downloaded the file and handed me back the drive..ah technology..) and went to play with Jackson after that.  I saw Mike and Jackson out on their paddleboard as I biked to the south end, but wasn't quite sure it was them. They're too cool.  J and I discovered the largest jellyfish I've ever seen (1.5 foot diameter!) in the channel.  We played 1 on 1 bball and did spanish flashcards, made some mother's day necklaces, you know, cool kid stuff, before his dad whisked him off to his t-ball game.
     I just knocked out my last physics homework assignment, and what a relief that is. 3 big exams and 1 easy open-note left and that. is. all. folks.

This choc. almondmilk & banana beverage was dedicated to michael!

      My awesome friend Michael called me this evening during a break from his class, he's in Portland and having an amazing time there.  He was asking me about kombucha, as he just started brewing some.  He "broke" practically all of the basic guidelines that I know of, but I bet his elixir will come out anyway because he just has a way with things! 

last paper! Check

I am on the final leg (just 3 pages to go!) of my last paper here at UNCW. I have been remaining calm, thanks to "Stay Calm," "Be Calm," and "Remain Calm," being built into my Task list.  On Gmail, you can easily operate your own techie to-do list.  I've been using this the whole year to organize my life.  It's my favorite thing to do when I have the unsettling feeling of a lot of things coming up that I need to juggle. I think it's better than pen and paper b/c you have an endless sheet and its nice and neat.  Plus, you still get the satisfaction of slashing through an item you've completed once you check the box next to it before you press the garbage bin icon to throw it away.   Often I list my full agenda for the next several days, complete with start times.  Though it sounds like a rigid way to live, it actually allows me relaxing time and free time because I get everything done that I need to.  As great as this is, I am looking forward to not making Tasks lists after I put the slash through "graduate"!!

Remain (as) Calm (as possible)

     I've got a whole day to write this paper and write and write I will.  I began at 8 this morning and am just going to keep at it.  I pretty much gutted the framework I had and am boldly starting out anew, to write the paper I am actually excited about writing.  It's on the Montreal Protocol, and the requirements are firm and strict, 12 pages of text, 1.5 spacing, minimum 20 sources, APA citations..ya!  It's hard for me to not get overwhelmed by the severity of it all, but I'm just doing my best to remain calm, make an outline, and work bit by bit. 

Pelicans stream over the beach, as seen from my porch

     When I was out on the front stairs eating my favorite bowl of cereal in the soft sun, a sense of calm slowly washed over me.  And how couldn't it?  I could hear the roar of the ocean waves, the breeze is fantastic today, and two different lines of pelicans glided overhead.  I want to talk about this last point: pelicans.  Brown pelicans are a mainstay here on WB, and I can definitely say that I do not take them for granted even though I see them several times a day.  Somehow they remind me of breathing..They fly in a line that gently wafts up and down, and they are likely flying with the contours of the wind.  I am always so happy to see them.
I almost always count the pelicans...they fly in short lines, as few as 3 members, and long lines, upwards of 20.. and occasionally I see one by him/herself.  I wonder how the different groupings form, how often they change groups, and why they fly back and forth across the island the way they do.

Pelicans on the South End (line of 6, my favorite!)

Of course, another super cool thing is watching them dive straight down into the ocean when they're catching a meal.  They make a big splash, and it always seems comical to me.