...as in "the happenings." This blog post will skim across what has been many, very busy weeks. In late August, the semester crashed down on us with a boom... boom being the sound of 13 new graduate students, several looming deadlines and an average of five meetings a week. But whoa! ... let's back up a bit!
Before said semester began, we were incredibly lucky and thankful that we had a long vacation planned with the Smith side of the family and friends, the Perrys, in North Carolina. After the summer from hell, it was a true vacation from heaven. We flew into Raleigh and drove our rental car out to Emerald Isle, arriving in the wee hours of the morning. We were given the "honeymoon suite" with the beach view since it's our first year of marriage and, wow, was it spectacular.
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| View from the deck outside the honeymoon suite |
We were greeted enthusiastically the next morning and the following ten days went by way too quickly. Each day we hit the beach and that was subsidized with shopping, golfing, walking, chatting, reading, playing, a trip to the aquarium and obligatory trips to Dairy Queen (of course!). We celebrated Emma's birthday and later in the week celebrated all of the other happy events of the past year, including our first wedding anniversary and Mom Smith's big 7-0. It was a nice reminder of all of the good that has happened in the past year. The night before our departure it still felt like we had only just gotten there. It was tough to say goodbye especially when you're surrounded by such amazing family and friends. But now we have Christmas and more moments like these to look forward to:
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Not long after we arrived back and the semester started I had two visiting researchers arrive from the University of California-Merced. One, Collin, is a Ph.D. graduate student and the other, Manu, is a post-doc. Both are in the lab of our friend and fellow RSMAS grad, Monica. They were there to sample diseased corals with me for a project that we're hoping will lead to something bigger. I was very much ready to get back in the water but wasn't sure how "Thumb-y" would handle it. As it turns out, there's no better therapy for getting your hand strength back then pounding on some corals to collect tissue!
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| Me and Thumb-y sampling some coral tissue. (Thumby is in the glove holding the hammer - go Thumby!) |
That project kept me and Thumby busy for about a week and a half. Since then our days have been filled with class, meetings, field work, beach cleanups, and more tropical storm scares. Hurricane Irene was only a Tropical Storm when it passed by us right before Collin and Manu arrived, but it wreaked havoc in the Northeast. My sympathies and support go out to family, friends and just fellow-northeasters who were affected, some of whom lost almost everything. Here's hoping the Atlantic stays quiet the rest of the season! So those are the major "happs" for now. I'm sure there will be more to report soon so stay tuned! Until then, enjoy the sunset:
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| North Carolina sunset |
