Week five

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Monday, July 2, 2012

When we got to the museum, we were told that Dr. Murphy was a teeny late, so I ate the rest of my breakfast while I edited one of my 500 worders. When it was time, we went to the back of Snooty’s pool to wait. When the doctor came up, Matt was waiting to help Shannon network. I felt bad, as he was taking time out of his day to help us and first we were late leaving the condo because I didn’t look for him at a different parking spot and now because we were just standing watching Snooty while he was networking for us. Perhaps, I am simply being silly, but I don’t feel that I am being appreciative enough. Snooty’s exam was quite interesting – I know that I never want to be a vet, but Dr. Murphy made it look cool. Afterward, we were to wait for him. I think Shannon was nervous; perhaps I should have left her side so she could ask herself. He was pretty straight forward – he let us know some things that were helpful to both of us. He’s a pretty nice guy. After that, I continued with writing and lunch came up – during lunch Shannon ran into Jeff who said we needed to touch base. We talked to Matt, and then Jeff and made a plan with him and Sam. They want us to get out on the water. Oh goodness- During the talk, I claimed that I could write a 500 word essay in 20 minutes. I felt so ridiculous after saying it! I am easily the slowest writer I know. I definitely meant 2 hours; it felt silly and then I feel like I talked like crazy to make up for being so accidently pompous. Ay, today was funky, funky. I am glad that I am back here recharging – no more 5 hour of sleep nights!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Today we went in late. It was quite packed in Sarah’s space and our space because we had Sam who got us hooked up with camping on FRIDAY! Wooot! Jeff was in there as well and then he brought Lindsey who is a volunteer for him who aspires to be a physicist. She was very nice and easy to talk to. We showed her the tidal area, bioswale and butterfly garden. I had my usual chat with Nick during lunch and then we got back to work making another 500 worder. I ran into Sam and asked her about her star talk that she was having and she said that she had something really cool to show Shannon and I. Apparently in 1776 on July 4^th all of the planets were within 20 degrees of the sun! She showed it to us in the planetarium! That thing is much cooler than I thought it was. It can track how the stars are any day of the year, and it can even put the zodiac up with the stars. Zodiac actually means march of the animals. I learned how to find a couple planets, how to spot Scorpio and Sagittarius, and learned some pretty cool things about Copernicus. I will definitely be learning more about them later. Before we left, I got an e-mail from Matt inviting us to his independence day celebration! We ran out to try to find him and he was right out front. He also offered to give us a ride home – we gladly accepted.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Day off! We went to the museum with Matt to watch his presentation for the fourth and it was fun. He’s very passionate and enthusiastic about the revolutionary war. It was contagious. He shot a flint rifle in his presentation and everyone loved it. His kids were balls of energy. He gave us his kayak to use for a bit, but we got scared 30 minutes in, and came back because of the thundering. We played with the kids and ate a ton of food! Then Shannon and I went on a bike ride with his fancy bikes all the way to Robinson’s reserve – which is apparently 2 miles away - since we took a wrong turn first – we think we went 5ish miles. I am clearly in the wrong sport. 5 miles of bike riding was easier than 10 minutes of running. We came back just before the fireworks. When we got back, we got a babysitting job from Rene, one of the moms that were there celebrating with us and we rode home. Matt’s family is so great. They were so nice and helpful and generous… I don’t know how else to describe it. We are so very fortunate. I learned a whole bunch about Matt today, too – It’s quite interesting the path his life has taken. Fate: what an interesting beast.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Journal Entry:

JEFF KNOWS NEIL DEGRASS TYSON. Holy flipping cow… I’m in no way the biggest Neil fan, but I’ve been following his lectures and videos for a couple years – Jeff is even in a video with him…

I have actually watched it before, but I skipped to where Neil was talking! Crazy. Anyhow – I am writing this the Monday after this, as working/being at the museum for 6-8 hours every day is hard. It’s a really long time. I’m so tired when I get back and I have to make dinner and clean up the kitchen and read the GRE book… This is crazy… I don’t know how this adds up. I’m always so busy with clubs, organizations and jobs - sometimes I leave my room at 7 00 and don’t get back in until 11 30 – then there’s homework after that. Those days seem easier than living alone doing these things. My hypothesis is that spending 8 hours on one thing is so much more draining than spending 1 hour on 8 things. I don’t quite know what to make of this, but that is seriously all I remember for last Thursday.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Camping! Matt greeted us today by telling us that we should take the day off. Since he didn’t have anything to do but wait for Sam to get done with working Matt scheduled a meeting for everyone to touch base. We waited around researching and tweaking text. Sam ended up coming to the meeting – she’s brilliant and full of energy. I hope to be that one day. We had about 1 hour after that to get ready and packed up for camping. I had such a great time. It was truly wonderful. We went to Fort De Soto. Our camping spot was about 4 ish miles from the beach, so we hopped on our bikes almost immediately after setting up the tent, and left for the sunset on the beach. When we got back it was super dark. We heard ruffling while we were eating! We jumped onto the table and shined light into the unknown. Turns out it was some raccoons feasting on some beans left from the last campers. We ate like that the whole time – it was so much fun. Once the clouds cleared out of the way, we went out to search for Mars and Saturn. We used a really awesome green laser pointer. It pointed all the way to the stars and planets that we wanted. Fascinating! Jeff lent us his binoculars. The moon was gorgeous through them. I hope I can recognize constellations and planets soon. We actually got in trouble for being out past curfew …weird. We had to be back in our campsites by 10 PM. We got back, had some corn on the cob, and went in for the night. We decided to get up at 5 30 to kayak into the sunrise!

Saturday July 7 Kayaking into the sunrise, meditation on the Gulf of Mexico, breakfast full of nutrition… sounds like my kind of Saturday. We packed up and cleaned up just in time for a few hours on the beach. After that Sam took us to the Village in Bradenton… Basically the coolest place ever. I almost spent 45 dollars on some incredible art. For how intricate and incredible the sculpture is, it’s a steal. I’m for sure going back. It’s a community of artists with cool houses that sell things out of their colorful houses on the weekends. I will take pictures next time! P.s. Try watermelon salsa! Yum.

Sunday. July 8 Sam invited us to go to Siesta Beach with her friends. Before we left, we stopped at Richard’s Natural Food – Oh man, I wish this place was closer to the condo. I need to let the world know that ginger kombucha is flipping delish. After the beach, Sam invited us to do some more with her, and I am really, really glad she did because it was a blast. Fro yo, picnic, drum circle, frisbee… my kind of Sunday night.

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