April Fools

Nature's April Fool's Day prank was to dump snow on us just after giving us several days of warmer weather.  The snow was nearly gone.  I have a picture of some friends and I on a bridge on a warm October afternoon - the trees are all still green and the sky so blue.  This is the image I keep in my mind's eye when looking out at a landscape covered in snow.  Soon - soon there will be green again and it will last for a few months.

I'm not sure why but this picture has always spoken to me about our differences.  I'm walking on the left hand side while the other three are on the right.  You can't see Elanore, the photographer, but I've always associated her as being on the right hand side.  All three of them are married now.  They are also all very religious, some variant of Christianity (Baptist, Methodist, and Lutheran). Even their order in the picture seems relevant.  Elanore is behind the camera - she has her own life but it always seems like she's following behind someone else.  Cleo is out in front like always - she knows what she wants and isn't afraid to go get it.  She is very strong, independent, and outspoken.  Liz is behind her, she also knows what she wants and has strived toward it.  She is a little less outspoken, more of a follower, but independent enough.  I'm on my own on the left, watching.  Seems I've always been watching, but not really living.  I'm not outspoken and have a tendency to follow.  These years in grad school have been good for me.  I've had no one to follow and I've had to find my own footing.  In this picture we're all traveling down the road of life, but I've diverged from the road they've taken.  I watch, but keep to my own.

So I've started over again on my Daphnia data collection.  Hopefully I have my search images right this time.  I don't want to have to start again, again.

This weekend is going to be spent grading lab reports.  I'm hoping very much that not all of them waited until yesterday to start it.

I've started listening to music rather than television shows while working on the microscope and I'm really glad I had my Paste subscription while they were giving away music.  I've discovered so many new artists by letting my iTunes randomly shuffle through my collection.  The current album I'm listening to is 'Life Like' by The Rosebuds.

Well, I had better continue working.  Happy Friday!