february 29, 2012, a wednesday

Leap day! Thought about making a separate post for February 29th, but then realized it would be forever lost, and I’d never be able to look back and see what I did on this day like with the other days of the year. So, sticking it in here. It is kind of an extra day, after all. Sadly, nothing of note: class all day, went to Six-Mile Fold for field geology, and it was crazy windy out for the first half of our time there. Home, exhausted, tried to finish my physics homework but didn’t make any headway.

Smoky Hill member of the Niobrara Formation, Six-Mile Fold

2012, a tuesday

Another awesome astronomy class—plus we got donuts! Groceries, delicious lunch, freezing for some reason so bundled up on the couch with ‘the Graham Norton Show’. Sed/Strat lab, homework all night.

2011, a monday

Class, homework, went over lab #1, read chemistry, class, finally had dinner (all chips and salsa), watched a little ‘Futurama’.

2010, a sunday

ran errands, caught up on tv shows including ‘lost’, tried to get my sleep schedule back to normal and failed.

2012, a monday

Class, field geology. A warmer day, so not quite as miserable, but once the sun dropped behind the mountain it got cold fast. Spend the evening warming up, talked to Renee, watched ‘the Dark Crystal’.

2011, a sunday

To Ocean Star for dim sum for Meghan’s birthday! Picked up her brother Ryan on the way. Ate awesome food and got to see John and Maria. Home, baked another cardamom pear cake, off to Elaine’s for the Oscars. Ate more amazing food, watched the end of the red carpet and the awards with a great group of friends. Way too full now; going to maybe get back into ‘Island’, even though I should really go to bed.

2010, a saturday

didn’t sleep very well, worked out (painful, but felt great to get back into the routine), did some post-vacation catch-up. elaine picked me up to get my car back from maria & clayton’s, then invited me to go to the pottery barn outlet with her and megan g. fast-forward five hours later: we’re finally back from lake elsinor after running into the craziest traffic i’ve ever seen on a non-beach-going saturday (bizarrely hard rain, stopped traffic, at least two multiple-car accidents). i helped megan with her new computer and met her dog pippin (previous owners named him after the lotr character), gave clayton his birthday present and drove home, skipped all the errands i intended to run and meghan’s birthday drinks in favor of sweet sweet sleep and my favorite tea, but not in that order.

2012, a sunday

Up early, worked out. Spent the morning and most of the afternoon working on my geologic map, stratigraphic section and geologic cross-section. Did some reading, watched the Oscars. Only high points were the wins for ‘the Muppets’, ‘Rango’ and ‘the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’.

2011, a saturday

Set out for a day of errands when I found out my credit card had been fraudulently charged over $4000. Stressed over that, I retail therapied myself out of $100 at Anthropologie. Ran errands, saw Jena Malone, home, baked treats for Meghan’s birthday, spent the rest of the night watching ‘Doctor Who’.

2010, a friday

finished packing, then spent the morning at the royal botanic gardens. it rained a bit, but we found some trees to stand under and it passed by in a few minutes. saw lots of pretty sub-tropical plants and flowers. then noticed – that racket? yeah, that’s hundreds of bats in the trees. EVERYWHERE. it was CRAZY. also saw an eel following a duck around a pond (sorry, that duck won’t fit in your mouth) and found out that they drain the pond every once in awhile but the eels repopulate themselves – rangers have seen baby eels crawling over the lawn from sydney harbour! went to the airport, said our goodbyes to aunt pat and uncle denny, then promptly found out our flight had been pushed back seven hours. hung out in the airport, used our meal vouchers. the time passed more quickly than i’d have thought. went through security and i got my wine confiscated – misunderstood a couple of answers to my questions about australian security, otherwise i would’ve packed them! finally our plane came, and we settled in for our 13 hour flight. slept a little, but not well. watched a couple movies to pass the time. mom and dad got standby for tomorrow morning’s flights to chicago and when i left them they were heading back to the qantas desk to get a hotel. steve picked me up and i’ve spent the rest of the night unpacking and opening mail and checking emails, etc, but totally avoiding facebook because i’m terrified of what i might find in there. can’t believe i’m back in LA – doesn’t feel quite real and i keep expecting to blink and find myself back down under.

2012, a saturday

Slept in a bit, then got ready for a day of mapping. Met up with Ian, Mo and some others and drove up to Mt. Sanitas. It was the best mapping day we’ve had so far—sunny, in the low 50s. We took our time with the hiking and spent a lot of time just sitting on some rocks, studying outcrop, taking notes and enjoying the rare warmth. At 3 the wind starting kicking up—more crazy winds!—and by the time we left at 4 it was getting pretty rough out. Dropped off Mo, Ian and Rob, then went to a new BBQ place next to Sprouts. I was so hungry I was past hungry. Picked up a pulled pork sandwich, collard greens and squash casserole, and topped it off with a big cup of sweet tea. Ate my feast while watching ‘Grimm’. Spent the rest of the night catching up with ‘Justified’ and ‘the Walking Dead’.

something new: Moe’s Original BBQ

large-scale cross-bedding of Lyons Formation sandstone

2011, a friday

Slept in, glorious! Yoga, homework, watched all of the BBC series ‘Casanova’ starring David Tennant and it was FANTASTIC. Highly recommend. Finished ‘Torchwood’ season 2 and was extremely pissed about what happened. Launched into ‘Doctor Who’ season 4. Stayed up way too late playing dumb word games on my iPhone.

2010, a thursday

after breakfast went up to the pool on the 31st floor and checked out the view of the opera house, bridge and rest of the harbor. met a nice english lady up there who had a lot of historical info and a very plummy accent. went on a city tour – saw mrs. mcquarie’s chair, some celebrities’ houses and bondi beach. afterwards mom, dad and I did a tour of the opera house which was very cool. met up with p & d and took the ferry to manly. walked to the parks, saw giant spiders and had a beer and chips and watched the boats go in and out of the harbor. went to dinner at an italian place in the rocks and had probably the best pasta of my life.

2012, a thursday

Planned to get up early to work out, but it didn’t happen. Meeting, class, meeting, homework, worked on my stratigraphic column and cross-section.

2011, a wednesday

Got up for class. It was painful. Learned about limits. Home, homework, passed out for a couple hours. Woke up just in time to get ready for class. Class was kind of boring, but hopefully I made a positive(?) impression when I slipped my prof a note to let him know that his fly was undone. Home for glorious sleep.

2010, a tuesday

got up earlier than necessary so I could go across the street to the wildlife dome and have my photo taken holding a koala! she was so little (but heavier than she looked) and soft and sleepy. and her claws were very sharp too! she really latched on when the keeper put her on me. met up with the group and went to kuranda. we drove through the rainforest and our guide, roderic, pointed out a lot of plants and animals. in kuranda, mom, dad and I went to the butterfly sanctuary and saw all kinds of gorgeous and huge butterflies and moths. one butterfly wouldn’t stop landing on me – mom had to pry it off of me and then I ran out so it couldn’t follow me again. we went to the market area and to the honey shop then grabbed delicious german sausages for our walk to the skyrail terminal. the skyrail is a giant gondola over the rainforest and you can see all kinds of plants and birds up there. we stopped partway down and saw barron falls, which was huge due to all of the recent rain. at the bottom of the skyrail we went to the tjapukai aboriginal cultural park and saw dances and explanations about food and hunting.

2012, a wednesday

Almost got blown over on the way to campus by some gusty winds. Class, field geology cancelled due to a forecast of 80mph gusts in our mapping area. Spent some time during my walk home walking in place due to winds right in my face, preventing me from moving. Homework, nap, ‘Justified’, early to bed to read.

2011, a tuesday

Up early for class, homework, hung out in the afternoon until it was time for Cameron and I to go to the screening of the live-action and animated Academy Award nominated shorts! It was hosted by Kenneth Branagh who was unbelievably charming, and asked wonderful questions of the directors/writers/producers during the q&a that followed each set of films. My favorite for animated short was ‘the Gruffalo‘. The mouse was so adorable and the whole style of the film was great. Also, really impressive actors did the voices! My favorite for live-action short was ‘Wish 143‘, which was the only short that was both nomination-worthy and touched me emotionally. Home extremely late – gotta be up in 5 hours!

2010, a monday

woke up to rain (tropics!) on great barrier reef day and walked to our boat. it took over an hour to motor out to the floating platform but once we were there mom, dad, uncle denny and i had the first scheduled marine biologist guided snorkel. eric was a great guide and eased us into snorkeling and pointed out a lot of cool things. roxie, a humphead maori wrasse, follows Eric around whenever he’s on the reef and will actually seek him out, so we saw a lot of the big fish and got to pet her and give her mouth a rub, which is her favorite. she was very smooth and soft and her mouth was sort of squashy. we got to hold a sea cucumber and a free-living coral as well. once the guided part of our snorkel was over I stayed out and watched the fish and listened to the parrotfish eating. it was fantastic and I wouldve been out all day but I got stung by a jellyfish on my hand ankle and face (my lip and cheek), and more started drifting into our area so I didn’t go back in. the sting hurt a lot and took a few hours to go away, despite getting sprayed down with vinegar relatively soon after it happened (I was pretty far out when I got stung). we had a buffet lunch and went on a little trip in a semi-submersible. we had a nice talk with ken and shirley, a couple we’d first met on our taieri gorge railway trip and got some ice cream. back ashore we cleaned up and relaxed then went to dinner on the esplanade. my dinner was so good i’m still fantasizing about it. we saw the fruit bats migrating out of town and got gelato.

2012, a tuesday

Only one class today; sed/strat lab was cancelled. Groceries, errands, came home to functioning water! Finished my physics homework and did my prelecture assignments. Took a three hour nap. Read sed/strat, will spend the rest of the night reading astronomy and probably going to bed extra early so I can read more of ‘the Passage’.

2011, a monday

Presidents’ Day, no class! Slept in till 9, yoga, studied for my math test. Watched some ‘No Ordinary Family’ and thought a lot about New Zealand (Christchurch’s second rash of serious earthquakes today).

2010, a sunday

up at 440am to disembark and fly to cairns. had free time in the afternoon so walkeddown the esplanade, got gelato (it’s ungodly hot and humid up here in the tropics) checked out the lagoon (big outdoor public pool and entertainment area) and picked up a few souvenirs. got together with the tour group and went to hartley’s crocodile farm via a highway through the barron river’s flood plain and acres of sugar cane. cruised around the marsh and saw a lot of crocs and saw the up-close feeding of three or four. had yummy canapés and I held an olive python and a baby estuarine crocodile. we saw a croc show and learned more about them then had a great bbq complete with a ton of desserts.

2012, a monday

Long day of class, but field geology got cut short due to some high winds that kicked up while we were on the mountain. Piercing winds + blowing ice particles = no fun. On the plus side I got home before it was dark out, on the minus side, we all have to go back on Saturday to finish our mapping. Made a good dinner, toilette took twice as long as normal since now I don’t have cold water at all. Went to bed early (so tired from being out in the wind) but started a new book—the Passage—and ended up reading the first 1/4. It’s amazing. The writing is incredible, the characters, the whole story.

2011, a sunday

Met Megan, Meghan and Renee for brunch at Larchmont Bungalow. Used up my Groupon and had a great meal of red velvet pancakes and fruit with granola and yogurt. Walked around Larchmont Village for awhile, then came home and did my online chemistry homework for…hours. Trying to resist eating all of the rest of the pear cake (had 1/2 a slice) but pretty sure I’m going to put a big dent in it before the night is fully over. Catching up on ‘Fringe’ – god, this show is so good. I hope it doesn’t get cancelled.

2010, a saturday

got up early for our cairns flight info and baggage tag meeting. did the ‘on deck for the cure’ breast cancer 5k with uncle denny, and checked out the giant dessert buffet. took my last chance to lay out and also participated in the pool games (my side of the ship won!) before getting ice cream and going back to the room to shower and pack. we had our last dinner (i got as much food as i could eat) and said our good-byes to aunt linnea.

2012, a sunday

Slept in. It was glorious. Still no cold water in the bathroom. Washed my hair in the kitchen sink. Again. Spent the day doing homework and reading for class. Got quite a bit accomplished. Finally watched the last episode of ‘Sherlock’. Watched some ‘Justified’, then went to bed and intended to go to sleep and a reasonable time…but then stayed up until who-knows-when reading the last 1/3 of ‘Pride and Prejudice’. My first reading of it!

2011, a saturday

Woke up and recited the unit circle to myself in my head. Used up the rest of my Valentine’s Day pears in a really good cardamom pear cake (holy crap it’s amazing). Met up with Terry, Renee and Tim in Burbank for ‘Cedar Rapids’ (sweet and funny – I &heart; Ed Helms!) and brought them each a slice of the cake. Afterwards, we braved the rain and went to Pasadena for tapas with more friends. Afterwards, circus animal cookie froyo at 21 Choices! A fantastic night of good food and good conversation.

something new: cardamom pear cake, La Luna Negra

2010, a friday

we docked in melbourne a bit later than usual and drove through the city to healesville sanctuary. i fed a kangaroo and when it ate it grabbed my hand with its sharp little paws and I could feel its little tongue! we had a really good lunch at rochford winery, then took a scenic cruise down the yarra river. on the ship we went to aunt pat and uncle denny’s for snacks, had dinner and saw the musical performance – a medley of broadway songs.

2012, a saturday

Intended to sleep in, but woke up at 7am like clockwork. Worked out, did my taxes, completed my FAFSA, drafted all of my scholarship essays. Physics reading and prelectures, load of laundry, processed a batch of photos from July (whoops). Lots of TNG on in the background, ate the rest of the Indian feast. 10:30 before I knew it; this weekend is going by way too fast :(

2011, a friday

Slept in and did nothing all day except eat and watch TV on my computer. It was freaking glorious.

2010, a thursday

went to breakfast in the international dining room with aunt linnea then went to the big cooking demo and galley tour. the demo was a lot of fun and the galley was really interesting. I went out to the sun deck, got a bloody mary, and watched the men versus women cocktail competition and the ice sculpting demonstration. mom and I went to the live taping of the ship’s morning show then i went back to the sun deck and laid out until aunt linnea found me and we had photo show and tell. dad and i hit the hot tub for a bit then we went back to the room to get ready for formal night.