A Peaceful Easy Feeling

I apologize for my absence from writing. In part I just wanted to get away from the computer for a little while. Usually I have at least a month during the summer away from technology. Also, I have been surprisingly busy this past week! A short recap:

Wednesday:

A lesson in sewing. Who knew I’d be learning so many life skills this summer. I spent the afternoon mending our beloved nets that fell victim to the terrible harassment of blue crabs. I also successfully depleted more of the sragassum seaweed population at Radio Island. Talk about habitat destruction. Oops

Thursday:

THe day I’ve been waiting for!!!!!!! 4 day weekend. Fantastic. Madelyn and I headed for Durham around lunchtime for a family reunion. Sadly, we need reunions to get my father, mother, and sister together these days. My mom was coming from DC, my father from Pcola via a trip to Spain and Tennessee. What better way to celebrate than a concert. And make it The Eagles. I’m pretty sure my dad has been saying that he wanted to take us to see them since I was 5 years old. I’ve been through endless car rides (mainly to the beach) jamming to the Best of the Eagles album. While I know the tunes by heart now, I am just beginning to finally learn, understand, and appreciate the lyrics. Our seats at the concert were decent. Average age of the crowd: 50. Excitement level: 150.

8:00pm ready to rock. The big four walk onto stage silhouetted. Glenn Fry, Don Henley, Timothy Schmidt, Joe Walsh. ……..

“There are stars on the southern sky…….” – Seven Bridges Road

Beautiful harmony. Great way to kick off the concert.

And it only got better and better and better.

They played all the hits:

Hotel California, Desparado, Tequila Sunrise, One of these nights, In the City, Victim of Love, Peaceful Easy Feeling……..and on and on and on

3 HOURS WORTH of unbelievable music and harmony. It was rocking. Best concert I’ve been too. And it was great to share the experience with my dad and seeing the joy in his face. It was a moment of family bonding that only comes around every now and then. Especially with my sister and I leaving the house now.

FRIDAY: After falling into a slump because of terrible refereeing for the USA and GERMANY games, I headed back to the beach with the family. It’s a 3 hour drive that I am getting used to making these days. It’s a country route and I am shocked when I don’t pass at least one truck of pigs. Poor hogs.

WEEKEND: Beach beach beach beach beach. Believe it or not, living at the beach I actually haven’t spent that much time on the beach itself. So I spent nearly every waking moment on it this weekend. Book of choice: Istanbul by Orhan Pamuk and finishing Anson Dorrance’s autobiography. About to start Stones For Schools. Music of choice: country – Brad paisley, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts. No wave action though. I broke out the noodle and tubes for ocean flotation. Hot HOT sand. Big Oak BBQ. Cheerwine. Dairy Queen. El Zarape Mexican. World Cup Soccer. Things just keep getting better.

Sunday: We sent dad to Spain for father’s day this morning. Meanwhile the girls went to Beaufort to buy mom’s bday gift. I have officially decided that if my entire house isn’t nautical themed than at least one of my room’s will be. I can help but walk through the waterfront stores and begin to envision my life in a few year’s when I will have a place of my own. Better start keeping an eye out now. So tempting to purchase things now. But I made lots of mental notes. And fell into another I miss sailing funk. I will admit that I have gotten over my camp nostalgia (as a figured I would). Things are much better now.

I spent the rest of the day in Swansboro eating at a killer diner that serves peach fritters (to die for), hitting up Emerald Isle beach with Christian, and working on my juggling skills (which are non existent). It was quite a challenge without a trustworthy knee. The Kohlmann’s invited me to stay for dinner again!!! And I was mistaken for Ashley by their next door neighbor. Hahaha. We watched the end of the golf tournament and a huge thunderstorm move across the bay. Another nice trip to Swansboro. It’s been great getting to know people better.

Monday: Work….what’s that again. It felt like my summer job was already in the past when I woke up this morning. But thankfully it was an easy day in the lab. DATA ENTRY. For all of the fish we have been sampling, we have also been taking down notes that have to be entered into excel spreadsheets. THe process is actually slower than the collecting in my opinion (or in my tying skill abilities). It’s tedious work and crucial for the success of Rachel’s project. No pressure. Thanks to Pandora and John Mayer, I was able to stay focused and make a dent in the endless data lists. Surprise surprise, Rachel wanted me to go out into the field today. The one day I thought I had a chance of staying dry. Nope. We went out to Hoop Hole marsh to set fiddler crab traps. We successfully chased some into the traps to see if they would work. Fiddler Crabs are hilarious species. Unlike the terrorist blue crabs, they are much smaller and have a personality. They travel in herds and look like an army moving (or retreating) across the mudflat and into the grasses as you approach them. I’m looking forward to getting to know them a little bit better. She also taught me how to take sediment samples and do vegetation sampling. This is the boring stuff. We have square pipe frames that we lay out and then we count the number of plant stems of each species within the square. Trying not to get our eyes poked out by Junus grass. Now I am also going to be a plant expert. Not nearly as AWESOME as fish. I already miss my mummichogs.