Monday, December 31, 2007

Still here.

It's been a while. Hi! Some people at home mentioned that they still check to see if I still have a blog, and apparently I do. I just haven't written for like seven months. So here I am. We (I) live in Hermosa Beach, which is outside of LA (we... yeah, I'll get to that). It's a nice little beach town with lots of fun bars and restaurants and surfers and stuff. It's pretty inconvenient for... well, basically anything in LA, but the apartment is a block from the beach and therefore totally worth it.
(Hermosa)

PS I'm watching Top Gun right now and I always forget how awesome it is. Don't laugh.

Anyway I have a job, like a real one. It doesn't even involve tourists! I'm working for LA County Sanitation Districts' Biology Group doing water quality bioassays. Got that?


(That's our lab, from the LACSD website.)

Basically it's lab work, which I actually really enjoy. I was talking with some of my co-workers about how you have to be kind of OCD to really love lab work, which I guess works out for me. Pretty much we use tiny fish and invertebrates to test waste water that's been through the treatment facilities and is being released back into rivers and the ocean. So in theory we're using clean water (although that's not always necessarily true... but if it were, there would be no reason for us to be there). It's very science-y, like microscopes and beakers and pH meters and stuff. Which I like. The people are awesome, and much cooler than I expected, considering I work in a lab.

(The biology group plus a couple of randoms)

The bad part of my job is that it's 35 miles away in beautiful Whittier, California, in the shadow of the world's largest currently operating landfill (which actually was really interesting when my boss took us on a tour). I spend a lot of time in the car, so if you ever want to chat, call between 6 and 7 AM or 330 and 430 PM pacific time and I should be available. Yeah, I also work really early, and sometimes weekends. I think it's worth it, at least for the moment.

Which leads me to future plans. Next fall I'm spending two months (specifically August and September) in South Africa doing a Great White shark research internship. I am so excited for a number of reasons, not least of which is the fact that it's just going to be so damn cool. It should hopefully help me figure out what I'm doing with the rest of my life as well. (Maybe?) Regardless, it hopefully will be important to me both personally and professionally. Check them out at www.sampla.org.

(From the SAMPLA website. This is basically what I'll be doing... I hope.)

Top Gun continues to be great, in case you were wondering. Love that volleyball scene.

What else? Oh right, the big one. Jon and I have decided to break up, for a variety of reasons which you can ask me about sometime if you want to know. Bottom line, it sucks but I think it is for the best. What that means now is I have no plans for the future any more (I had been planning on following him to where ever he got into med school). It is a scary but exciting feeling, and at this point I really have no idea what I will do. I'll be in LA at least until April, I'll be in South Africa in August and September, and I am continuing my tradition of intending to apply to grad school in the fall (for those who aren't keeping score, next year will be my fourth year in a row that I will have planned to apply to grad school). I might really do it this time, though. And that's my entire life plan! Oh, the other thing I have planned is a half marathon on February 3rd in Huntington Beach. This will be my first race ever and I'm excited. I ran 10 miles yesterday, so 13 should not be a huge problem. Feel free to come watch, I'll let y'all know how it goes. So anyway, if you're doing anything in 2008 (or early 2009) and you think "hey, Tricia might want to come do this with me," let me know!

So that's it, just thought I would bring everyone up to speed and hopefully I'll write more often now. Love you all, and you can be my wingman anytime.