Happy

I've been so happy today. I think I am still riding the wave of elation from the elections. A bird pooped on me today, and even that couldn't bring me down! But also, things are starting to settle down in terms of my schedule here. I am getting a grasp on my responsibilities and obligations. Also, I was applying for a grant that I have decided against now, which frees up some time. I sent a draft to a scientist I worked with and he ripped it apart. I was upset at first, but then realized that he was right and I don't want to send in sub-par work. Also, I had a long skype conversation with him and felt much better about grad school. He believes in me and it felt good. I'm really starting to feel comfortable. We'll see how long it lasts, but for now, I'm happy.

I'm still going to the gym. I have not seen an Adonis like there was at my previous gym, but there are many roided out monstrosities. Thankfully I have not had anyone talk to me. I never understand how people meet people in the gym. I look terrible when I'm working out! My face is the color of a cooked beet, my hair matted to my forehead, I'm sweaty and dehydrated, super attractive.

I've started reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I can't believe I never read it before! I think I saw the movie when I was much younger, I am getting flashes of it as I read the book. I feel like this is a prerequisite read for every marine biologist--I've just been pretending to be a marine biologist until now! Here is an excerpt where Captain Nemo is talking about the sea:

"The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert where a man is never alone, for he can feel life quivering all about him. The sea is only a receptacle for all the prodigious, supernatural things that exist inside it; it is only movement and love; it is the living infinite...The sea is a vast reservoir of nature. The world, so to speak, began with the sea and who knows but that it will also end in the sea! There lies supreme tranquility. The sea does not belong to tyrants. On it's surface, they can still exercise their iniquitous rights, fighting, destroying one another and indulging in their other earthly horrors. But thirty feet below its surface their power ceases, their influence dies out and their domination disappears! Ah, Monsieur, one must live--live within the ocean! Only there can one be independent! Only there do I have no master! There I am free!"

This is what makes me love the sea. It is "quivering with life" yet it is "supreme tranquility". I feel an enormous sense of calm when I'm in the ocean. The sea is my escape. It is my sanity.

I can't remember if I posted a picture of the bobtail squid that I am studying right now in my animal behavior class. If not, here is a pic :)