Dating blues

Since I have moved to DC I have a series of bad dates/men come and go in my life, more so than ever before, and I am beginning to wonder whats going on. When I first moved here I noticed that all the women I met had less than ideal relationships with the men in there lives, I could not make heads or tails who or what was at fault for these bad relationships, but now I kinda get it. There is something about this town that makes people act differently when it comes to dating. Perhaps it is the hours everyone works (most people get home around 8pm), perhaps it is the high mobility rate (no one is from here) or maybe it is that the amount of people with MA’s and PhD’s is exceptionally high, regardless of the reasons there is something wrong with the basic dating principles here. To make maters worse for the first time I am constantly meeting people who are very intellectually stimulating and therefore i would like to date them, but alas they have all proven to be less than adequate in the morals department. To give you a better idea of what I mean I am going to give you a few examples, most are from my own experience but some are from my classmates:

1. When someone says they want to date you (girlfriend/boyfriend), it does not mean that you are exclusive.

2. DO NOT assume that just because a guy asks you out he is single, most likely his girlfriend works for the State department and is station in a foreign country. If you are lucky he will at some point tell you this, hoping you will be like other people in this city and continue to date, because it is normal to do so. Or you will go out with him, have a great time and then when you have both parted ways he will texted you something like “I really like you …. but….. I sorta have a long distance girlfriend…. thus a little conflicted” now there are other words that I would use other than conflicted.

3. married men are no better

4. Men give you their number so you can call and ask them out. Not really a big fan of this one, not that the others are good, but this one violates the basic principles of a first date and it annoys the heck out of me.

5. When a big project is going on, do not expect to be spoken to or even texted. No, it is apparently to difficult to pry away from work here to cancel plans or say “hey gonna be busy this week talk to you at the end of it.” No moving your thumbs across the key pad of a phone would be way to much effort when you are working on the health care bill for two weeks, after all they are a catch and you should be so lucky to be able to meet up with him under normal circumstances.

6. If you do find a good guy,  let me know, because my friends and I certainly have not.

 

So I know it sounds like I am getting jaded but i assure you I not,  just a little shocked at the dating culture and trying really hard to figure out how navigate around it without becoming one of them. On a bright side of things I have really gotten to meet a lot of people who have the same interest as me and I am enjoying that side of things, even if the individual relationships arent working out.

 

 

 

 

Musical Moments

If your life was to be played out to one song what would it be? Today I would say that I would like it to be the argentine tango, particularly prostrated by Astor Pantaleón Piazzolla. I want my life to glide from one step to the next with torrents of movement that send chills up my spine and invigorate my sole, all the while keeping my feet grounded. I have to imagine that life can be like that, otherwise where does the music come from? Moments, they are what saves us from those things that soo want to overwhelm us.

Today my roommate read over some pamphlets that I created for an outreach project, one was a little dooms day in nature, I had wanted to make it more uplifting but facts are facts and the facts about what our climate could look like in the near future is rather depressing. After reading the first one she laughed and said, “now I’m depressed” we laughed and she asked how I dealt with these issues, knowing what I know? Moments. That is what it comes down to, living on those moments that show hope.

Songs are continuing moments after they have passed, encasing them in amber, letting the sun shine uniquely through those moments for others to enjoy. Yes there are sad songs but even those can be wonderful in ways that only music can create. My point is this; life is challenging, life is full of unknowns, it is fragile and wonderful and should be embraced to the point where we are all dancing to our own song, allowing others to benefit.

This weeks schedual

I was looking at what I need to read for this week and it made me laugh and wonder where am I in this surreal context. This week for my Bio-geochemesirty class I will be presenting on the Flow and mixing dynamics in a patterned wetland: Kilometer-scale tracer releases in the Everglades, I also need  to read articles on Hyrtothermal vents and the origin of life, and the Effects of Nitrogen Fertilization in leafy Spurge Root Arcitechure, now I never liked science to much and am feeling like am I having an out of body experience have to read and understand this stuff, not to mention the fact that I beginning to be able to relate these concepts to environmental policy. Really who have I become?

 

On another academic note I had a serendipitous event happen to me on friday. I was supposed to go to a lecture series on the environment as it relates to national security but then my roommate and presentation partner for my bio-gieochem class refused to break up his weekend to go over the presentation so i bended and agreed to forgo the lecture to meet with him. At some point i realized that i was not comfortable forgoing a very pertinent lecture so that my presentation partner could have an uniterupted weekend so I went to the lecture. The last presenter in the lecture started to mention this study called the Six Americans, this article is very interesting and I recommend everyone read it, but more importantly it is what I based one of my research projects on. Now this speaker is actually a professor at AU and as it turns out he is working on the second body of work for this research. Needless to say that after the lecture i approached him to ask him some questions and I now will be working on the analysis of the second part of the research! i am so excited and a little nervous, but mostly excited.

 

Well that is my rant for this week. I have two presentations to finalize today and an exam to study for so back to the school work for me. Oh one last thing, i have a professor that is exceptionally hard and scares all of us the class average in the mid 80’s needless to say that I am always scared to get my grades back. I have been averaging a low A in the class which is better than most but still a scary place to be so you can image my surprise and joy to see that on one of the larger projects of the semester and by far the hardest I  got a ……100%!!!!

It has been a while since I have posted anything, primarily because the idea of writing recreationally has been a little off putting, but finally I have one night off from writing a paper or reading a major article. That is not to say that I should not be doing those things but rather it wont be horrible if I dont, though it just puts writing a paper off till tomorrow. So as one would expect school dominates my time, that and thinking about school, but I still love it. In fact I went to a conference on Copenhagen on Tuesday that was thoroughly invigorating and made me very happy on my decision to go back to school.

I do want to encourage everyone to look into Copenhagen and the Kerry/ Boxer bill as well as the Markey/Waxman bill as these are major climate issues that are being battled out in Congress right now and everyone should be aware and concerned of the outcome.

On to other topics that are less climate related I have been finally meeting some people and trying to go out at least one night a week so that I don’t become more of a hermit. It has been nice to meet new people but it is also a reminder of all the wonderful people that I no longer see. Uhm other than that there is not much to report on. I have booked my flight to Tuscon and look forward to being in Mexico this December and January. I also have signed up for my classes for next spring and am looking into a summer program in China, yes China. Umm for those that don’t know Chines is hard and I might be insane for trying to tackle Chines as my second language but I am applying to a Fellowship there next year and so I have to learn chines.

A long time coming. More Pictures

So I am pressed for time and I am sick as a dog but I did manage to down load some pictures from the last month, some are from lower Virgina, others are from a weekend adventure with my roommate to an apple orchard and neighboring town and another set is from a walk around DC on a sat. Enjoy!

Some days just make you smile

So a few weeks back I had my bike stolen, I have been looking on Craigslist to see if someone would try to sell it but so far no luck. This morning when I went to move my car, it is street cleaning day,  I went to park it a my usual street there were tons of spaces available which is unusual. I went past a few spots, found the one I wanted, parked walked up to the side walk and BAM!!! there is my bike. Sad and lonely with no seat, and the back tire still locked up to the frame, it was just hanging out perched up against a iron gate. I had wondered how someone would get my seatless, double locked bike  of and running. The answer is they only got a block before they gave up the idea of getting my bike. So I unlocked the back wheel from the frame and walked it back to my apartment and neatly placed it on my balcony where no crook can get to it.

I think the amazing thing is that for two weeks no one else has tried to get at the bike and that I passed up parking spots to park directly next to it. I mean this is a street that I would never walk on if it weren’t for parking there once a week.

This special find could have not come at a better time either as this week is my hell week with a paper, presentation and exam all due plus my regular weekly reading and book reviews I have been getting little sleep and really needed to have a pick me up.

A much watch video

So I have been trying to not put too much about climate change on this blog because I don’t want to inundate you, but this video is good and it makes a good point.  For those who perhaps don’t know what our politions have been arguing about it can try to sum it up in the simplest of terms, which will not do the issue justice but I don’t want to write a novel.

So for the last fifteen years there has been the argument that while yes, global worming is happening, and yes it is due to to anthropogenic activities (humans), we will just adapt. You know that little thing concept called adaptation that Darwin stole from Wallace, that little thing that has taken millions of years for the current animal population to come to grips with. Well if it were up to many of the guys on capitol hill we would all just sit back and watch the survival of the fittest take place in a ramped up version. This video is in response to that idea of thought as it is still an argument that is taking place and could affect the outcome of the Copenhagen negations.  so have fun, it is not a sad video, it will not make you cry or give up hope, it just has a good point to it.

http://www.youtube.com/time4climatejustice#play/favorites/3/wL8HTy03rVg

I am finally feeling the student thing

As many of you know I have been having moments of doubt coupled with bouts of incompetence. Well I think I finally got my student grove back! After years of being the in “real world” where you have one boss and your workload is fairly simplistic in nature I have been struggling with the idea of three different professors assigning projects all due on the same day and how to generally manage my time. I had tired the studying at home thing, and the going to coffee shops for excessive amounts of time, but nothing had been working. Alas I have found my new home, my sanctuary of education if you will. In fact I hear right now, rewarding myself for finishing a paper I am writing in my blog. Where is this wonderous place where I am excelling as a student you ask, it is the library.

For those of you who, like me, who have not been in a school library in a while let me say it is magical. There is no traffic noise or music to distract you from the enthralling readings on optimizing adaptation and mitigation principles, in fact there is nothing but the sweet flicker of halogen lights and the sound of my own thoughts. There is the added advantage of the fact that no one will kick me out after being here for 5 hours streight, and there is an ample supply of additional reading sources all at my finger tips.

I have also found that my professors are really wonderful people who want me to succeed, they are very persuasive on this matter. I have been asked for the second time to resubmit my research proposal on the grounds that while it is good, I need more depth in my explanation of my resurch methods and qualitative analysis techniques, of which i had none. This might sound bad but it is awesome! I love that instead of my proffesor letting me slide with a A or a B on an ok paper they are working with me to gain knowledge that i might otherwise not get.

On another note I am working on fenagling my way onto a whale observation expedition during christmas break on the Sea of Cortes, so wish me luck! I will already be in the area and one of my classmates will be there too so he is working on getting me invited to work on the project as well.

A last goodbye to my bike

There might be a few less adventures to be had now that my bike has been stolen. After surviving New Orleans my bike has surcombed to the villainess hands of someone else. I will have to give credit to whomever took it though as that bike was wrapped in an army of locks and I really thought that other than the bike seat (which I lost weeks ago) that there was no way to steal that bike. I had a U lock and a motorcycle lock on that sucker, who would have thought.

That is really all I have to write about, the sad loss of an old friend who has been on four road trips with me.

Beauty

Beauty can be found in every moment, even the sad ones if a person is willing to look for it. When I speak of beauty I am not really thinking of the traditional beauty or referring to the old adage that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” but rather I am speaking of real beauty. The kind that transcends cultures and personal preference; the simplicity/complexity of nature, the kindness of a stranger, the kindness of a loved one, strength in the midst of a catastrophe. These are things of real beauty.

I was pondering this idea as I was coming home from class tonight. As often my classes can leave me on the verge of tears, not because they are horrible but rather what I am learning is a harsh and scary outlook on the world. On this particular night I was feeling a sence of doom when a guest lecture asked us to sum up our “story” and to fold into it a silver lining. At that very instance I thought of my tatoo. Now it might sound odd to think of a tatoo when such a question was posed but for me my tatoo is there to remind be of the beauty of life, something I often forget. In fact when someone asks me about New Orleans (where I got my tattoo) I generally have very little good to say about the recovery, but that is why I have the tattoo to remind me of the good.

You see even with all the things that happened there, beauty is all around it. Each one of the families were beautiful, each one of the volunteers, and each one of my co-workers were beautiful. In the end for all the horrible things that I experienced and witnessed, there was so much light and goodness in those around me that they could be nothing less than beautiful. Many times I forget what brought me to New Orleans, that idea that we are all connected, that life is more than ones self and a person in need is a person to help. So my tattoo is what I think of when I think of hope and beauty, when I need strength or to belive.

It is true that a perfect flower is wonderful and a fall day can bring a calmness over me that is indescribable, but nothing compares to the beauty that can be found in people whom by our very nature are intrinsically built to look out for ourselves but continually look out for one another.