2012:
January - a crazy month in which I went to Death Valley with my research group and visitors from Saudi Arabia; prepped for my first ever international field season; and narrowly missed my grandpa's 92nd birthday party by scheduling my flight to New Zealand for the same day.
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| My camera battery died within five minutes of arriving in Death Valley, so this is one of six photos I took on the trip. Oops. |
February - a whole month in New Zealand! Looking at rocks, popping man o'war jellyfish washed up on the beach, fumbling my way through my first real field season, eating lots of Whittaker's chocolate and TipTop ice cream.
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| Sunset on the west coast (Mokau). |
March - a SECOND whole month in New Zealand! Looking at rocks, slipping on algae-covered stones and dreaming of the black sand beaches of the west coast, riding high on adrenaline from finishing my first real field season, eating lots of Whittaker's chocolate and venison sausage. Celebrated my 24th birthday just one day after getting back to the States.
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| Sunset on the east coast (Tatapouri). |
April - kicked off with a surprise trip to see the elephant seals and explore the coast with Sam, as a belated birthday/3rd anniversary celebration. Frantically got back into the mode of having lots and lots of classes, and made 500 bucks driving people around California on a field trip. Experienced the bizarreness that is the Harris Ranch steakhouse (a hop and a skip from the feedlots) firsthand.
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| I did not take this photo (National Geographic did) but I also don't think I took any other photos this month, so... |
May - class. Lots and lots of class.
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| Partial eclipse! |
June - crushed a lot of rocks. Went to class. Moved to Houston. Went to the zoo.
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| Turns out the Grand Canyon is the perfect place for a sedimentologist and a geomorphologist to visit together. |
July - worked a lot.
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| Now that's inspirational. |
August - worked some more. Honorably maided at Elaine's fabulous wedding, finished up in Houston, and went to Canada for what could certainly be called a change of scenery.
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| Preeeeeeetty. |
September - rejoiced in having neither work nor class for the better part of the month, then remembered there was a Big Meeting to prepare for and shat bricks for a while.
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| At least someone enjoyed the garden. |
October - definitely the craziest month of the year; possibly the craziest month ever. Big Meeting to start things off with a bang; all the rock crushing that should have been done months ago; no weekend left untouched by out-of-town obligations; and holy shit so much class. But I decorated for Halloween and it was the best thing ever.
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| So scary! |
November - classsssss. Also, shooting minerals with lasers. Also, Thanksgiving!
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| It looked exactly like this. |
December - kicked classes' asses, wore myself out at AGU as usual, went to Reno just in time to enjoy a few days of light, steady snowfall. Yay snow!!
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| Pint-sized trees are the best. |
In addition to all that, I've spent the last 3+ months thinking about 2013 - planning for the field, mostly, but with a background buzz of anxiety that when the field is over, quals will be looming all shadowy and creepy-like on the horizon.
Happy new year!
