Catalina Island

has sun (sometimes), waves (most of the time), deer, fleas, and no tv :)

So it's been a crazy summer and I think I've spent more time traveling than I have at home. Let's see, I came to Catalina to set up my project in June, then went to Wilmington for the 4th of July, came back to Catalina, then went to O'ahu for 10 days at the end of July to help my professor with his research, and now I'm back at Catalina. I see JP for a couple days at a time now and then, especially since he's just as busy! (see his Blog)

Anyway, I'm stuck on this island until next week sometime only to come back and watch JP go to Catalina for the weekend to finish his dive class, funny huh? I bug him a lot about all the things he's doing in his scientific diving course, but just because I'm a nerd and find it all so interesting. If I had the time, I'd take the course too!

So on the island, I pretty much spend my days diving at Bird Rock ( named because of the gigantic amount of bird crap covering it's surface - see picture). Underwater I count and measure tiny anemones (see pic) in permanent squares I made by hammering nails in as markers. This is all very tedious. Sometimes I feel like I'm going a little crazy underwater!

So when I'm not underwater - did I mention I've spent 80 hours underwater just since I've been in California?? - I'm attaching anemones to little plexiglas squares for analysis, or reading, or trying to figure out how to beg, borrow, and steal enough money to get through the next year and a half living in LA! I've decided that marine scientists, especially students, were never designed to live among the stars. Natural selection is attempting to take hold and push us out.

So that's all for now - updates soon to come I hope.