Life Updates

So as you might assume it is still raining in CT. But today I was like fuck this I'm going to make the best of it. So I woke up at 9 ate a muffin and then wen't back to sleep until 1. I woke up periodically and let the rain lull me back to sleep. I finally woke up found there was nothing appetizing at all in the kitchen and then decided to go to my favorite cafe in pomfret and have a nice warm lunch, hope there is wifi, get some work done and read the whole afternoon.

My fav little cafe, also a hotspot for local biker gangs (really) is called the Vanilla Bean Cafe. It's nestled within some giant Norway spruce trees and then surrounded by CT forest. They serve delicious soups made fresh daily and sandwiches, burgers, and other specialities along with some yummy desert. Turns out they do have free wifi and some comfy chairs. I have a great spot by the window although outside isn't all that nice but it's comforting to sip a hot spiced chai and look outside. So VBC is in Promfret, CT also home to a ridiculously swanky school founded in 1894, this high school was founded OK even became a state! New England amazes me like that. And this school actually seems more beautiful than Yale. Sometime I'm gonna just park and walk around it a bit. This area has a lot of rolling hills and the school seems to have a really nice view from the back. Anyway the other great restaurants around include this amazing ice cream stand called we-li-kit that makes fresh to order waffle cones and a fabulous flavor called apes delight, banana ice cream with walnuts and chocolate chunks, absolutely delightful. Then there is this drive in called Pete's which I was expecting to be just like hamburgers and hot dogs, turns out it is this bomb seafood joint with great scallop and clam rolls and some rockin french fries.

So I've decided that I'd really like to live somewhere in rural new england. I know I bitch about the weather but everything else makes up for it ten fold. I love the curvy roads, beautiful houses, natural streams and lakes, berry picking orchards, colonial style homes with big yards, the wildlife, and how it's rural but only an hour from a big city (boston/nyc). It's the best of both worlds and picturesque even in the rain.

In order to compensate for all the yummy food I've been consuming I've been running. It was something I kinda started doing in New Haven but not with much dedication. But here I've been running at least 4 days a week and really trying to run more than that but the weather has been getting in my way some. Two days ago I was running up the road and saw a deer to my right, we just looked at each other and kept on doing out own thing. It was so awesome. White-tailed deer really are beautiful animals. I was in my field yesterday with Dror and we always see deer but that day it was kinda muddy so in order to get out of the field it had to do this jumping/running thing and it was really graceful and beautiful. Ok so back to running, I can run two miles straight with some incline. It's not much but I'm seriously proud because I just started like June 1st and by started I mean before I could barely run a block without stopping, which was sad. It's amazing how out of shape I was without being overweight. My ultimate goals for running are 1) to actually be able to run and enjoy it 2) to get in shape in order to do more extreme physical activity in the future 3) more specifically so I can do intense hikes/backpacking 4) lose some extra, unnecessary weight 4) to just be more physically active in general. I've been running on a trail behind camp and also on the road near camp. The road is definitely easier and I like it more cause I can zone out without tripping over rocks and other crazy stuff (dead mice). My goal for end of July is to be able to run the 9 miles from the highway to the forest.

As for my experiment, it is the most beautiful scientific experiment of all time! Seriously you should see it. 120 cages with cool artificial plants in a sweet grass field. Os said we'd try to publish the paper that comes out of it in Ecology Letters (the best ecology journal), which is sooooo ballin! So everyone cross your fingers I find some super cool results. Right now I'm just waiting for the grasshoppers to hatch and grow to about the 2nd instar. Which means it will need to stop raining and for us to have a few hot days. Yesterday I was finishing putting all the treatments in the cages (minus the ghoopers and spiders) when I looked to the left and saw the grass moving. I stopped and waited quietly for the creature to show itself. Then I saw it cross my path about 10 feet away... a BOBCAT! It was so cool to see one that close! Dror was so jealous, cause we've been talking about seeing one all summer. Other wildlife we've seen include some cool birds, including a mother Turkey and her baby chicks. I work in a tall grass field and they were hidden in the grass. We were walking the path back to my car when all of a sudden the big turkey mom popped up and flew into the forest edge. I freaked a little and ended up almost stepping on one of her chicks. Dror picked the little guy up and he was so adorable! Moral of the story my field is bomb.com.

What else... oh yeah I recently got a Macbook and like three days after I bought it apple put out a promotion for students that if you buy a Macbook you can get an ipod touch for free. So I called and they were like sure you can still get the rebate, which was very cool. Most people think Macs are overrated, but they are wrong. I mean they are more user friendly once you figure it out. The customer service apple provides is amazing. So for this rebate I was going to have to buy the ipod and then mail in for the rebate. I ended up waiting a long time to actually do it because I needed to save up the initial money. So today I called and initially the person was like sorry you don't qualify then I explained to her that previously they told me I did qualify so she put me on hold for a few minutes and then came back on and said that they would make an exception. So she was like which one do you want. I told her that I wanted the classic ipod and would pay the difference of the rebate. So she added it to my order but only charged me $20 for it (the difference). So I didn't have to even go through the whole rebate process, and my new ipod is in the mail! Apple=mad ballin. So to all of you thinking about making the switch I seriously recommend it. Although the PC commercial with the adorable little asian girl "I'm kaylie and I'm 4 and a half" is pretty fuckin compelling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtilWL4mnhI

Ok so this is the longest blog entry of all time. I hope it was enjoyable and I'll try to write less and more frequently next time.

love,
kat