A Blog @ 28,000 ft.

I guess if you can dedicate a blog post to someone, I am going to dedicate this one to my grandmother who recently passed. Mrs. Annabelle Hill Miller (1924-2008). Love you maw-maw.

This blog will consist of experiences, observation, ideas, etc. for the week of June 9th, 2008…
Nothing happened…well I can’t say nothing happened. The week was filled with many happenings. I’m still assisting, measuring, and reading….and reading. The new intern Larissa showed up Tuesday after her orientation and all the hoops HR made her jump through (we all love HR J). I want to welcome her officially on this blog, so Larissa “welcome”; I know you will be a great help to Allison and I both. Even though you are a Longhorn, hopefully by the end of this summer we can bestow upon you an honorary Aggie title.

I started to help Dr. Armitage (Anna) finish the seemingly endless task of weighing ground up aquatic plants from her post-doc work. It’s busy work and really needs to get done so whenever I am not busy I have the opportunity to assist her in that process. What I am doing with this ground-up plant powder is basically adding a certain amount to a small aluminium (?) cup, weighing it on a very expensive analytical balance that measures to the one thousandth of a gram (milligrams) and then taking that cup with sample, meticulously rolling it up into a ball, and placing it into a designated holder to later be incinerated for C, N, and P measurements. Trust me, the research is quite interesting, but I defy someone to tell me they actually enjoy the redundancy and meticulousness of weighing milligrams of samples using their best aseptic technique in the process. To put it in the best way possible, it passes time. :-D I know Dr. Armitage is going to question the professionalness (my brand new word) of this specific blog. So to Dr. Armitage, I apologize.

My colleague, Allison, has begun the sampling of her study site. Her study consists of sampling parts of Armand Bayou around Pasadena, TX for...

(10 minute pause for some pretty sketchy turbulence)

Nitrate, Ammonium, and SRP (I assume) level gradients as she takes samples at points further and further away from two point sources (a water treatment plant and another site) along the bayou. Her samples are consisting of pore water the interstitial spaces of the sediment, water column samples, vegetation, and the sediment itself. This week we labeled Ziploc bags and small plastic bottles with the designated sample points in her study site and both Alisson and Larissa along with the help of Dr. Armitage, Dr. Coe, and a volunteer named Josh recorded their first sampling day that Thursday. From all accounts the sampling went well except for one pesky alligator that gave Alisson and Larissa some trouble at one of their sampling points. Certainly a close encounter.

In closing and on a personal level, no matter if the death of a loved one was unexpected or you were just waiting for that call, I can honestly say it hits you the exact same way. Grieving for my grandmother has been one of the hardest experiences of my life, but I feel it only makes me stronger and more determined to accomplish everything I want to before my time comes. So now not only do I work for myself, but for her as well because I know she’s watching me with excitement every step of the way.

Some notes to leave you with:

1) Longhorns and Aggies can work together in harmony.

2) Weighing small samples of powdered plants is tedious, but quite the time consumer for those 8 hour days when there is nothing else for you to do.

3) To myself: it’s Anna not Dr. Armitage from now on, except in certain situations (I guess?). I think Dr. Anna is a good mix until I can learn.

4) Small 50-seater planes = no beuno.

5) Take good notes of what you do each week. In the end it certainly makes for a better blog.

6) On a personal level: losing a grandmother is tough…end of story.