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Published: July 10th 2013
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Sturgeon release 2012 Whoa has it really been over a year and a half since I have written a blog?????? Where has the time gone. Well, I will tell you. It has been quite a busy year and a half for me and one that I can't complain too much about! 😊 The fall of 2011 was full of classes and research followed by a New Year's Eve in Chicago and then a spring semester of 2012 with my dissertation proposal, numerous grants that had to be written, and lots of planning for the 2012 field season. And wow what a great summer 2012 was! One experiment went amazingly well and the other one was a bit of a bust, but the technicians made the summer pretty great with lots of laughs and some great fishing firsts. I caught lots of new fish -- pike, walleye, rock bass, and a sucker. Well after the field season, I went into complete "comp-study" mode. In a PhD program, you have comprehensive exams either at the end of your 2nd year or beginning of your 3rd. I opted for the beginning of my 3rd and spent two and a half months of non-stop reading of everything I
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My first pike! could get my hands on and organizing for the big event. During August, I went out and saw my best friend who was working in New Jersey and spent the days studying while she was working and then relaxed in the evening. We even went to New York City for my birthday and I got to see Wicked on the Broadway stage. It was one of the best birthdays I've ever had and I loved NYC, even more than I thought I would. Central Park, Rockefeller Center, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, the Chrysler building, and riding the subway...all awesome 😊
Well comps began at the beginning of October with five written exams from my committee members over the course of two weeks followed by a week break and then a 2.5 hour oral exam with all of my committee present. It....was.....exhausting......Even now, I couldn't tell you half of the things we discussed during that oral exam, but I can tell you that at the end, I got passes from everyone present and a signed document saying I had finally become a PhD Candidate. Besides my dissertation defense scheduled for spring of 2015, I have
no more homework and no more exams to pass. Just yearly updates, papers to write, research to finish, courses to TA, and then my graduate career is finished. I'm still glad I have two more years to prepare as I'm not ready for my defense yet, but I'm getting there...Then what? A lot of people ask me that -- I'm not so sure. I know that I want to be a professor but where? I'm not sure yet. We'll see when it gets a little closer.
The rest of fall flew by as I just tried to play catch up after comps. I got through my final class as a student and done with teaching before I got some bad news. Our dog, Thor, had taken a turn for the worse and my family had to make a tough decision about a week before I got home for Christmas. Well it was pretty obvious that life had changed at my parent's house without Thor around. We were all a little lost without him being outside to greet us and wagging his big tail when I pulled up in the drive, coming home to see him for Christmas. Even now...it's
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2012 sturgeon release a little hard to write about him without tearing up. My stepdad took the loss of his friend the hardest so my mom and I schemed and a couple days before Christmas, we surprised my Old Man with a big present, a sweet little golden retriever puppy. And the reaction was priceless...And so Hunter joined our family and instantly began tormenting my cat just as Thor had when we was a puppy 😊
Christmas break is always a great time with my family, but it was a little too short so I took my bestie and we went back to Idaho for spring break with a nice stop in Seattle to see my bar buddy during my Alaska days 😊. It was a short trip, but we had a blast and were hoping to catch the birth of my nephew. Sadly, baby Riley did not want to come until after I had already left, but my little nephew was born happy and healthy and is the first for my sister, April. 😊 I'm pretty excited to meet him at Christmas!! Well the rest of the spring went by quickly as I drafted my first publication, prepped for the field,
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Field Museum in Chicago took a Docent class at the Potter Park Zoo so I can volunteer there on a regular basis, and spent a lot of time at the gym. I made a New Year's Eve goal of running three 5K's this year and so far have finished 2 of them with my second one being on the MSU campus where I broke my best time by 1.5 minutes. Well, the field season came before I knew it and we got eggs on Day One! I had some new research firsts assessing male sturgeon sperm quality using a microscope and taking blood samples from spawning females and overall, the summer turned out quite well. We had a lot of issues with the environment with some cold spells and days where the water was too high we couldn't get in the river. Then the power went out and shut down the entire dam -- not good news for a river system when a hydroelectric dam shuts down. Nevertheless, we'll see what the data shows in a couple weeks. One experiment went even better than I expected with a large sample size and great survival in my little hand-crafted aquariums made from milk jugs. The
technicians were quite a lot of fun too and I finally climbed the infamous silo at Mel's house...a new first 😊
Two days ago, I said goodbye to the field and moved back down to Lansing. Although it was a little bittersweet, I am pretty excited to be back in the land of multiple coffee places and fast Wifi. It was a short stop in Lansing though as I got my powerpoint talk approved by my advisor, checked on my apartment, paid some bills, dropped off some samples, packed and did some shopping for nice clothes to wear for my presentation. And now, I am sitting in the airport on my way to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the annual meeting of ASIH. It's going to be a blast as AES will also be at the meeting which means lots and lots of shark talks!! 😊 I can't wait.
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marsha
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Thanks for connecting again, Kari. I always love hearing about your adventures and educational pursuits. Your words and photos take me to so many locations, and give me an insight to your life. Yippee!