A bit more depth, for now.

Alright - since this was set up during a bout of procrastination, I might as well continue that. (and somewhere inside of me, the little person who likes deadlines cringes and dies a bit more. oops?)

My deadline is Monday on a report that I'm supposed to have been working on for months. Key words there: "supposed to". I'm leaving for about a week on Tuesday, so whatever isn't done by Monday probably won't get done before I meet with these people the following week. Dammit. My procrastination habit is not helpful. At all.

I was one of those kids that decides at about ten years old that they want to be a marine biologist. Well, I did it. I went to a state university with an excellent marine biology program and graduated in 2007. During a couple of summers there, I had great internships with two research groups on the East Coast of the US, met my eventual graduate advisor, and applied for grad school inland. I started in the fall of 07.

My family is several states away from here, and while I see them a few times a year, I'd like to be around a bit more. Especially now, because of some recent medical things. But that's where my trip next week takes me, so I can be patient for a few more days. I'm taking one of my good friends out there to do some touristy things and to visit with my family and some of my friends from high school (always an experience in themselves...).

I haven't gotten started with my real field research yet; I've just essentially completed my thesis proposal, and am getting my committee together. I feel like I'm behind the rest of the students in my cohort, but then I remember that their field sites a) don't generally involve boats or massive amounts of permits, and b) are much much closer than mine. I'm still going to have to bust my tail to get out of here in three or four more years, though. (This isn't to say I have no field experience - I've been helping Advisor out with her projects, and will do so again in July and September. My work, though, is completely separate from hers.)

For the moment, I have one labmate (K.) and one pseudo-labmate (S.), who works in a related lab under a different advisor. They are both in a different program than I am, which I appreciate: my program requires much less mathiness. There's the possiblity of another labmate for next year, but we'll have to see how it goes. I'm meeting the prospective student on Monday before I leave.

As far as my philosophy on life, I'm politically pretty liberal, and generally laid back (at least, I think so.). I enjoy reading, spending time outside and especially on boats, hiking, scuba diving, and a variety of other things. I also (as you may have noticed) have an awful procrastination habit. My motto appears to be "do it right, but do it later". I'm working on fixing that. Eventually.

I'm spending this summer in the lab, with a few trips outside for fieldwork or vacations. And on that note, I should get down to work. Ta!