One down . . .

Yup, the first semester of my Ph.D. career is over, and I came out smelling like a rose with two A's (physiology and fishes) and a B (conservation bio seminar). The end grades of finals and the CBS paper were lower than my previous standards, but considering everything that's happened in the last month, I think I still did pretty darned well.

Funny how I haven't had any tight neck muscles or stress headaches for four days.

So what am I doing with myself until I head home on Friday? Reading the newest Laurell K. Hamilton, watching TV and a couple of movies, playing the new Bejeweled on MSN games, collecting research articles to read over the break, and making fudge. Yes, you heard correctly, making fudge. The kind you actually have to cook and get to a certain temperature and all that jazz. Well, my attendant Natalie cooked it, but I picked out and read the recipe! Still waiting for it to cool, but I'll let you know how it came out.

It actually got cold here in NO. Today's high was 45 degrees with 10-15 MPH winds. A might chilly, especially living on the lake. I've heard it's as cold or colder at home, so I told Dad to warm up ye olde chili pot. Mmm, I can hardly wait.

Aquarium of the Americas

Took a break from studying today (we'll just pretend I actually HAD been studying, OK?) to go to the aquarium. My friend Amy was back in town to do some training with JASON, and she and her fellow trainee Pat had the weekend free. I hopped the bus to the Quarter (no sprained ankles this time), met up with the ladies, and we headed off. We ran into Hector (the tech in Barney's lab) as he was also on his way to the aquarium for his weekly volunteer session, so I got to introduce Amy to one of my new science-geeky pals down here.

I've heard as aquaria go, this one is not that remarkable. I, however, enjoyed it immensely. The Gulf of Mexico exhibit was one of my favorite stops where I quizzed myself on how many of those blasted fish I could remember from the lab practical. Amazing how different they look alive versus preserved for thirty or forty years!

Favorite exhibit number one was the seahorses. Three tanks had hundreds of tiny babies, and one bigger tank had several hugely "pregnant" males. Poor guys looked miserable. Amy and I marveled at what evolutionary processes could POSSIBLY have driven the development of seahorse shape, then we saw the seadragons. Also a seahorse, these guys have multiple protrusions all over their bodies which mimic the vegetation in which they hide. Obvious advantage, but the energetic cost to maintain! It boggles the mind . . . . OK, maybe just mine, but I'm a nerd like that.

Favorite exhibit number two was the jellies. I LOVE jellyfish and comb jellies. So delicate, so beautiful, so relaxing to watch, so dangerous. Reba, though, was not impressed. She liked the jacks and sharks and rays and pretty much everything NOT a jellyfish -- they move more quickly and apparently are much more entertaining doggie TV.

Speaking of rays . . . saw an incredible one. Called simply an orange-spotted ray, it is all-over pure, unadulterated black (total absence of color black) with orange spots. The contrast was astoundingly beautiful, and it looked as soft as velvet though I KNOW it was rough as sandpaper.

Man, I love Nature.

World AIDS Day

I was reading an article on Yahoo earlier this evening about a widowed woman in Pakistan who has been fighting a monumental battle to make her country more aware of HIV. She contracted HIV from her husband in 1995 who received infected blood in Africa after an accident -- he has since died from the disease. She has never had money for meds, she has two children, and she lives in a conservative Muslim nation which not only is in denial about the presence of HIV/AIDS in general but doesn't listen to women, widowed or otherwise. I was simply in awe of her bravery and determination. How many of us would just decide to live our life in the best way we could and just be with those children? Would any of us have the guts to speak out to those who don't want to listen because of our gender? This woman has been speaking out for nine years. NINE YEARS of no one really listening, and still she keeps going, keeps talking, keeps ramming the issue down the throats of those who have closed their eyes.

How many of us would have that kind of courage? How many of us have read about someone living with HIV or AIDS and said, "They probably deserved it, being like THAT." THAT is not the issue the majority of the time. The issue is that there are thousands, millions, of men and women and CHILDREN living every day with this disease that eats them from the inside out, and too many of us would shun them if we met them. I've known a couple of people with HIV, went out with one of them, and I'm here to tell you that they deserve our attention and our admiration for fighting a battle that for right now has only one, terrible end.

I admire that Pakistani woman, I admire that man I went out with, and I could only hope that I would be as brave in the face of a terrible disease that NO ONE should have to suffer. Tonight, I light a candle in honor of all those who are battling HIV and AIDS, and I pray that each day one more person's eyes and heart can be opened, and I pray for a cure.

Fish, hospitals, and other fun stuff

Got the fish exam back. After the prof threw out questions and gave bonus points and generally waved his magic wand, he gave me a 100. Counting myself rather lucky as after all those manipulations, half the class still flunked -- including Jackie, one of my study partners. I couldn't even be happy for my good grade because I was so upset that she and several others with whom I studied did so badly.

My grandfather passed away on 21 November after years of heart trouble. I took all my energy and poured it into one of my papers, thus finishing my physiology paper three days before it was due. Paul has been in and out of the hospital several times since my last entry. He originally went in to a Wichita hospital on 11 November with pneumonia, got out the 15th, went to Mom and Dad's because he was still having breathing issues and didn't want to be alone for hours, went in to the McPherson hospital on the 17th with a severe asthma attack, got out the 22nd, went back in to Mac via an ambulance because he stopped breathing, was transferred to Hutchinson Hospital, and he is still there. I don't think they've quite figured out what's going on, but he is doing better because he sat up in his chair for at least six hours today without much breathing trouble -- a marked improvement over the 15 or 20 minutes of a couple of days ago.

Had a nice visit with my friend Amy on the 16th, despite my slide on the city bus on my way to the Quarter when the bus driver didn't tie down my w.c., slammed on the brakes, and made me slide into a woman and sprain my left ankle. Fun fun. Amy's back in town this Wednesday until the following Tuesday.

Have my presentations on Tuesday (conservation bio seminar) and Friday (physiology). Barney has arranged for Chad's and my Biology of Fishes class to come hear our presentations. Fun fun.

Finals are a week away, and I haven't typed any of my notes yet or done any reading, nor have I started studying the fish bones. Fun fun.

The Fish exam is over . . .

. . . and to say it sucked a-- is being very kind indeed. If I pulled a C on it, I was freaking lucky. So, all the hours of studying and lack of sleep the last two weeks were basically for naught.

I'm going to go play Bejeweled.

OK, let's see if I can catch you up

::Dawn peeks out from behind a jar holding a specimen of Sphyrna tiburo and another holding a bunch of Notropis longirostris::

What's been going on in NO?

Voted on the second -- didn't do a darned bit of good, but I can safely count myself among the 49% who can say "I didn't vote for him" as we become more and more alienated from the world community and our environmental and social standards fall further and further back into the Dark Ages. ::sigh::

My stint as an undergraduate research advisor has been interesting to say the least. One group of my four has completed its experiments (I think) and needs to do some data analysis -- time to brush off that ol' biostats book I asked my mom to mail me! A second group had a *minor* (is your sarcasm meter going off?) setback when all but 30 of their 150 madtoms (relative of the catfish) died within a day of being captured. No, they hadn't done an experiment. A third group can't keep its artificial milk-crate reef together in Lake Ponchartrain. We've had a lot of wind the last week or so. Lots of wind = lots of waves = plastic milk crates washing up on shore and/or busting all to pieces. Haven't heard anything from the fourth group.

As to my own classes -- I've been putting in an average of 10-12 hour days on campus for about a week now (although I managed to stay home all day today -- yee-haw). I have two papers with presentations to finish in a week and a half (physiology) to two weeks (seminar). The physiology presentation is no longer during a class session but at some as-yet-undetermined time outside of class. ::sigh:: Like I have time for that. I have 121 species of fish to learn to identify on sight by this Friday, and all I have to say about that is "damn minnows." Actually, they were upgraded to a more colorful expletive last week, but I don't want to hurt some folks' delicate sensibilities. Oh yeah, and fish bones. Let's not forget dem bones, dem bones.

My bro is in the hospital with pneumonia. He's doing well and should be out Monday.

My pal Amy is in town the first part of this week, so we're going to hang together in the Quarter Tuesday night. She may also be back in town Dec. 2-6, so I may get to see her again then. Will be a nice break before my finals on the 7th and the 10th. My advisor Barney invited me to go with him and his family to the Hammond RenFaire next weekend. Need to see if I can afford to rent a van -- I'd sure love to go since I haven't had my Fall Faire fix.

Will head home on Dec. 17th, and will stay until Jan. 7th.

::Dawn heads back under her piles of articles and behind her jars of fish::

Maybe I'll declare myself Empress of Louisiana

http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/tests/lunatics/">%20src=" Historical Lunatic Are You?
From'>http://rumandmonkey.com/">From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

No time, no time, I need Thanksgiving to catch up

And that's about all the time I can afford to put in to an entry. Wouldn't even do that right now except some count on this for updates.

Oy, what a weekend

Had a pretty nice, relaxing day today, which is great since I was having such a cranky, crabby, weepy, depressed afternoon and evening yesterday.

I talked to my long lost Uncle Dave in Alaska Friday night and got a good laugh out of his reaction when I told him I had found my way back to Louisiana. For those who have never heard me talk of my "Uncle" Dave, he was/is my dad's best friend from the days they were stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, LA -- so I've known him since I was about four. I can't remember the last time I talked to him, and it was wonderful to hear his voice.

I spent most of Saturday working on my fish endothermy paper (which, incidentally, I should be working on right now), occasionally taking a break to try to return my mom's call or talk to my aunt or check in on the Camp Chihowa reunion. Regarding the last, a bunch of campers and attendants from way back when rented our old campground for a reunion. I talked to several pals I haven't talked to in a long time, all of whom asked where I was and none of whom thought my busy grad student schedule was an excuse for missing the gathering. No, truly, they understood, but I was sorry I didn't make it.

Then, during a study break, I decided to catch up on my pals' online journals, and that's when it started. My pal Scottish Neko is having one of those weeks, and I was upset that I wasn't there to try to help. That got me to thinking about my pack/circle, which is not a good idea because I am incredibly hormonal at this current point in time. Most days I can ignore how much I miss them, but I couldn't distract myself from it for some reason last night. I tried calling Naomi, then I tried Mouse and Lady, and no one was home. That just seemed to make it worse. I talked to Paul on the computer, but he was rather uncommunicative and soon found something else better to do. My cuzzie Sarah helped a little by getting me giggling about her mom, but it was only a minor distraction. By the time I got in bed (particularly late because my attendant, who is observing Ramadan and had fixed herself a large supper and consumed it after sundown, had fallen asleep), I was wallowing in ridiculous, hormone-super-charged loneliness and wishing I had no ovaries. I lay in bed, thinking about how I only have two people with whom I have had decent, non-school-related conversations in two months, which I actually consider pretty good since I don't make friends easily. Too introverted -- always have been.

But I slept, and in the night my hormones died down a bit, and I'm back to my Polyanna self. OK, maybe not Polyanna, but I'm feeling much better. Natalie (one of the two with whom I have conversations) came over because she wanted to learn how to make soap. After a few hours of that, which always relaxes me, she helped me up onto the levee and we walked around and let Reba and Mayu play. Now I'm waiting on my spinach and feta pizza to be delivered, hopefully by the same goofy but cute guy who delivered my pizza last time, and I think I'll work some more on my paper or try Naomi or Mouse and Lady again. I'm where I want to be, I'm where I'm meant to be, and things are working out.

Oh man, I *am* turning into Polyanna. Her, or Stewart Smalley.

Thought-provoking lesson from one of my lists

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity, boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does myshell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get betterand change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

The Fish Exam

That one turned out pretty well, too. I wasn't as worried about it going in or coming out of the exam -- although my dreams might beg to differ. I dreamt I lost ten points for not using complete sentences. Naturally, that didn't happen (the loss of ten points, that is). So, my grad studies are off to a nice start, despite hurricanes and unautomated apartment doors and rumors of romantic affiliations (no, I'm not seeing or interested in anyone, nor is anyone interested in me, contrary to my attendant Audrey's implications).

Now to get these pesky papers done . . . .

How did THAT happen?

I managed to pull a raw score of 91% on my physiology exam. Add to that 5 points which were Barney's concession that the exam might have been a TAD too long, and I have a 96%.

I'm still in shock.

Just a few seconds to say . . .

. . . AAUUGGHH! OK, I'm feeling much better now.

I had a physiology exam on Monday that SUCKED -- was too long to satisfactorily complete in 50 minutes. I finished it with 30 seconds to spare, but I didn't get to go back and add anything to my answers to make them better. Spent the majority of Tuesday in the lab watching Barney and Chad set up a gel to try for what seems to be the twelfth or fifteenth time to elucidate a particular protein from a particular fish cell line. Have I mentioned there's a REASON I don't like molecular stuff? So basically Tuesday went something like this -- dash to lab, have impromptu meeting of only Barney's lab because grad student from other lab who was supposed to conduct the meeting was at the police station filing a report on his stolen car (right from in front of his house), hash out amongst the five of us exactly what experiment we're going to run, calculate volumes of proteins needed to load gel, load gel, hook it up to electricity and let run, eat lunch, go to class, go back to lab to check progress, run home to pee, go back to lab to see results of gel transfer and staining, go to supper with Chad, finally go home and STAY home, begin studying for Fish exam on Friday by reading in text. Wednesday brought two classes, a meeting with Fish prof to find out what we grad students are supposed to do on Friday as far as directing the undergrad research projects (Chad and I are contemplating studying in the library so we can't be found -- yeah, it's going to be THAT interesting), a meeting with classmate Danielle to figure out what we were going to do for today's seminar class, then home to finish prepping for the seminar class and finish typing notes so I could really start studying for the Fish exam on Friday. Today I finally REALLY, TRULY started studying for the Fish exam on Friday, which was/is quite a feat because it's cloudy, dreary, and cool -- just want to curl up with The Spiral Dance or the new Laurell K. Hamilton and a good cuppa. Sigh. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

Rain, rain, and more RAIN

Ugh. That's about all I can say. It's been raining pretty steadily for about 48 hours now, thanks to Tropical Storm Matthew. Haven't checked the radar lately, but I'm hoping he gets out of the 'hood pretty soon -- I don't want to miss my physiology exam on Monday. No, I do not have a Hermione complex in which I like exams, it's just that I have another one on Friday plus a lot of reading and preparing for my seminar class in between, and I just want this phys test OVER. Even if it ain't gonna be pretty. And it ain't.

And then there was science-type stuff to do

Actually did some science the other day -- well, sort of. We had our weekly lab meeting in the a.m. at which Barney informed us he was expecting some cichlids (that's an African fish, for those who don't know) from the University of Florida, and thus he was organizing a fish killing party. His phrasing, not mine. Barney does a lot of protein assays and had apparently been performing some on cichlid tissues following protocols and analyses for killifish before suddenly thinking, "What if these protocols aren't valid for cichlids?" I'm thinking "Duh" because cichlids are African freshwater fish and killifish are North American estuarine fish (the species Barney uses, for the most part), but what do I know? Anyway, Barney decided he wanted to do some standardization, so we got to whack fifteen fish and dissect out their livers, hearts, brains, and bits of white muscle. We set up a bit of an assembly line -- Chad dunked a fish into liquid anesthesia (a POSSIBLE carcinogen, keep that in mind for later in the story) then measured weight, standard length, and total length, I recorded said measurements, Barney dissected and placed the tissues separately into tubes, and Sunil (our undergrad, keep that in mind for later in the story, as well) dunked the tubes in liquid nitrogen before storing them on dry ice until everything was finished.

Things were going well while Barney dissected and was basically keeping an eye on Sunil, but that only lasted for three fish. Then Barney had to take care of a gel he was running, Hector took over dissecting, Chad and I traded jobs, and Sunil the not-as-anally-retentive-as-the-rest-of-us starting slacking off. I turned around at one point to see him fishing for a tube in the bottom of the nitrogen container that he had just tossed in instead of holding suspended with forceps as Barney had told him to do. I politely mentioned he probably wanted to refrain from doing that anymore, but he didn't take me too seriously. As he was digging for another tube later, lamenting about how difficult it was to find amid all the "smoke" pouring from the container, Barney turned around and caught him. He chastised him minorly, but he really lit into him when he opened the ice chest and found the tubes arranged in a pretty haphazard manner. Chad, Hector, and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

I was excused from the three-ring-circus after six fish because I had class, and I erroneously thought all the fun and games would be over by the time I got out. No. The boys had not gotten back to our little African friends in the two hours I had been gone. Unfortunately for Chad, Hector was gone, Barney was in a meeting, and I had to meet my attendant for a much needed potty break. That left him only goofball Sunil. I stuck around for one fish, recording data for Chad, when Sunil decided he would be helpful and take the fish out of the anesthesia for us. Chad told him he needed to remove some of the extra fluid from the fish, but instead of blotting Ms. Cichlid on a paper towel, Sunil starts shaking it. He's giggling like a screwball, and anesthesia (that possible carcinogen) is flying everywhere. Did I mention he was doing this eight inches from my face? Somehow, I managed to escape without getting a snootful of the stuff, but he did sling some in Chad's face. I not-so-politely mentioned that he might want to knock that the hell off. I vacated the lab shortly after that, leaving poor Chad to fend for himself. He's a big boy, he could handle it.

Don't get me wrong -- Sunil is not a complete moron. I just don't think he's as conscientious about details as the rest of us, which totally strikes me as weird since he's really into biochemistry. Well, that in and of itself is weird too, but I digress. He's just an odd duck who gives me the impression that he's being a clown so we'll like him. I like him best when he's not being a clown.

Adventures in Acadiana -- Part III

OK, hopefully this is the last installment -- and the first person to make a smart comment about how long it took me to complete this task is going to get thwacked upside the cranium.

Friday, Barney decided a trip to Grand Coteau was in order. GC is a small "village" near Lafayette where Jackie (B's wife) grew up and went to school. We started off with a visit to Jackie's folks' place in the country. Jackie's dad is a physics prof at the U of LA-Lafayette, and some years ago he and two other ULL profs (math and history, I think) went in together and bought a big chunk of land outside GC. On said land, they constructed three homes and a "community building" containing a swimming pool and other stuffs suitable for gathering. The Meriweather pad is this rustic, cabin-looking piece of beauty complete with a tin roof. Trees everywhere, silent as all get-out -- I LOVED IT. I was heading through the yard toward the house, watching the ground for pot-holes, when Barney advised me to stop right where I was and look up. It took me minute to see what he was talking about, but I momentarily realized I had nearly walked into the biggest spider web I have ever seen up close and personal, and the master designer was home. While the arachnophobic in me sent up a thanks that I hadn't given that big spider a reason to drop down on my head, the biologist in me had to admire the beauty of the web and its resident. The web was easily five feet across, and the spider was four or five inches across its legs. Jackie pointed out another web with a different type of spider just five feet away and explained that it was par for living there to watch for spiders EVERYWHERE. There was even webbing stretching from the roof of the house to a nearby tree, and leaves hung from it like a natural form of party decoration.

The house was small and cozy, with books in every room. You know I was in love. I perused Dr. Meriweather's personal library (Mrs. Meriweather's was on the second floor and thus unavailable to me), and I was surprised to find several volumes (I'm guessing first editions) of the Hardy Boys mysteries and closer-to-original-than-my-omnibus of the LOTR trilogy as three separate books. As I looked up and up the shelves to the ceiling (yes, the man has floor-to-ceiling shelves), I just wanted to weep with jealousy. ONE DAY I, too, will have floor-to-ceiling bookshelves.

Next it was into GC proper to have lunch at Catahoula's. For those who don't know, a catahoula hound is a breed that seems to be fairly unique to Louisiana (but I'm sure they can be found in other places, as well). The man who started this restaurant has a passion for them; he's also a regionally-well-known photographer, and his photos of catahoulas decorate the restaurant. My two major comments about Catahoula's concern the food and the manager. The food was exceptionally good -- a little pricey, but I truly have no complaints in this department since Al had insisted lunch was on him and gave us money as we left the house. Barney and I had an appetizer of crab cakes and for lunch I had the pan-fried catfish covered in crawfish etouffe. I ate so much I almost something. As to the manager, I have to go on record as saying, "Yum." Hey, I'm a red-blooded female with good vision (with my glasses), and I promised you all an honest reckoning of my trip, right? John (son of the restaurant's founder, not the founder himself) came over once to talk dogs because Reba, bless her little doggy heart, batted her browns at him several times. Some mutual harmless flirting later, John saw us to the door and even held it for me in that great Southern sense of politeness. Yeah, that was fun, especially since I don't have it in me to flirt much. As Gina said once, Stacy got all the flirting genes in our family.

After lunch, Barney took me to the Academy of the Sacred Heart, the Catholic girls school Jackie attended. The school was founded in 1821 and is the oldest continuously run Sacred Heart (maybe even Catholic overall) school in the US. There are one or two other schools in the US which were founded earlier but were closed at least once at some point in their histories. Sister Moreau showed me the chapel (which is where Barney and Jackie were married) and the shrine to St. John Berchmann. This is the site at which Berchmann performed his third miracle by curing a sister of a severe illness. I found the history of the school and the miracle very interesting, and Sister Moreau patiently answered my million and one "I'm not a Catholic, so could you please explain . . ." questions. I know enough Church history from Professor Gythiel's classes to follow most of what she told me about canonization procedures and such, and it was great to add more to my regional knowledge. Plus, I love old places, and this one (especially the shrine) felt so peaceful and sacred.

Friday night we went to the Festivals Acadiens kick-off to listen to some excellent music. We caught the end of a Cajun folk group and stayed through the interim to listen to an hour of a Zydeco group. The biggest kick of the night was watching Barney dancing and cutting loose. If you look at his picture on the UNO bio website, and he kind of looks preppy and . . . well . . . just not like a guy who dances to Cajun music. He gets cooler and cooler the more I know him.

Saturday we attended more of Festivals Acadiens -- listened to more music (and Barney and Jackie got to dance more), ate cracklings and fried soft-shell crab, and checked out local crafts on display. It was 100 degrees, but it was still a blast.

And now I'm off to meet some of my fellow members of the Biology Graduate Student Conviviality Association for a little fun and socialization at a place called d.b.a.

Adventures in Acadiana -- Part II

The trip to Lafayette began for me at about 4:45 a.m. on Wednesday, the 15th, when Jackie coaxed me out of bed. By 5:45 we were on our way out of NO, and that part was actually pretty easy. The city had opened up the "contraflow" the day before on I-10 West, meaning all four lanes (the two actually heading West and the two which normally go East) were open to the West. There was no going East on the 10 for several miles. We booked along fairly well for probably ten or fifteen miles, but the closer we got to Baton Rouge, the more bogged down we became. After a while, Barney had had enough and we got off the interstate and hit one of the state highways. While longer under ordinary circumstances, in the end we probably saved ourselves a lot of time and headaches. Plus this route was more interesting because we got to drive through a lot more bayou and several small towns and see lots and lots of sugarcane fields (even an abandoned sugar mill). Much more scenic than the 10. We made our way across the Mississippi over the Sunshine Bridge which is named for the LA governor who made popular the song "You Are My Sunshine." The river would be SOOO much more appealing without all the refineries.

Barney, Reba, and I arrived in Lafayette at about 12:30 (normally the trip takes about two and a half hours), and Jackie, the kids, Honey, and the three cats went on to Grand Coteau a few miles away to stay with Jackie's folks -- three adults, two children, two dogs, and three cats were a little too much for any one household. Barney's dad Al greeted me with two pink teacup roses and a "Welcome to Lafayette, young miss refugee." He and Kay (Barney's mom) are two of the most absolutely delightful people I've ever met. They went above and beyond the call of duty to accomodate me and my needs by arranging for a portable commode so I could use the restroom and talking to a CNA and a nurse they knew to help me in and out of bed. Barney and I spent Wednesday just relaxing while Al finished up his work day with his patients and Kay went to her arts in film class. In the early evening we went for a walk down the street and back. The street on which Kay and Al live is basically a dead end, and at the dead end was a mansion. Not the huge, fancy kind like in the Beverly Hillbillies or even a big plantation home for which the South is famous, just a simple, square, brick, large structure. I can't even really explain to most why I was so enamored of the place (except maybe to the Pack and Hywela), but I loved it and its surroundings instantly. It was abandoned and clearly had been for some time as evidenced by the yard, but the ENERGY. I wanted to get a picture of the place, but it was torn down before I could do it. Yeah, you read that correctly -- in the short space of four days, it was gone. The older couple who lived in it had died some time ago, and the grandchildren who inherited the estate were too stuck-up to want to mess with it. Instead of selling it to someone who would restore it and enjoy it, they tore it down. According to Kay, they want to build condos , but they're not likely going to accomplish that goal because of the covenant of the neighborhood which states only single family homes on the street. I'm still in mourning for that mansion.

Wednesday evening was spent eating salmon and talking. Al is a fount of knowledge, and I learned a lot about Louisiana and plantations and music and history and a dozen other things in the days I spent in the Rees home. I went to bed early that night.

Next morning, Barney knocked at the time we had agreed I'd get up, but I was pretty much still non-functional. I managed to roll my head over and crack open an eye (felt a little like Luta in a story I'm writing), but talking was pretty much out. Barney asked if I'd slept, and I nodded once. He asked if I wanted to sleep more, and I nodded again. The door closed, and I was zonked again. I managed to get up and bed-bathed and to breakfast while Al's famous cornbread was still hot, though. OK, so everyone else had already eaten, but who cares? Had a few of Kay's kumquat preserves on the cornbread and some juice, and after a bit Jackie and the kids arrived. Jackie was heading out to shop with her mom, and Barney, Kay, and I took the kids to the children's museum. It was quite a fun and interesting time. One room was about the LA Purchase and pioneer life, and the kids can dress up in pioneer clothes or even like a French officer or royalty. Another room was a cafe where the kids are the staff and take orders and serve the adults plastic food. I think that one was the biggest hit with all the kids, even over the bubble-making area.

After a semi-quick run through the gift shop where Anna got a mini deck of Old Maid cards, Patrick got one of those super bouncey balls, and Dawn got a piece of moss agate, we were off to Borden's Ice Cream for cones and shakes. Yum! Back to Kay and Al's where Barney started a big pot of spaghetti sauce. When he said he was taking me to a bird sanctuary while the sauce cooked, I asked Jackie to get me a disposable camera.

Lake Martin is the epitome of LA waterway/bayou with bald cypresses growing up out of it and an abundance of bird life which just happened to mostly be elsewhere while we were there. We did see quite a few egrets, lesser blue herons, and ibises, though. We got excited at one point because we thought we glimpsed a roseate spoonbill through the trees, but we were wrong. Darn it. I had my chair turned and I was looking out the driver's side for the tour, but about three quarters of the way around the lake Barney asked, "You like Medieval and Renaissance stuff, right?" He told me to turn my chair around and said, "What kind of person builds a castle in the swamp?" Right there off the shore of the lake was a home built to resemble the tower of a castle, looking perfectly in harmony with its surroundings. Loved it!

To be continued again . . . .

Just for fun

Found this on my pal Kendermouse's LiveJournal. I never pegged myself as Galadriel, but elves are my most favorite fantasy characters.

Galadriel

Possessing a rare combination of wisdom and humility, while serenely dominating your environment you selflessly use your powers to care for others.

Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.

Adventures in Acadiana -- Part I

Leave it to me to be in a place three and a half weeks, and without a vehicle for the first time in ten years, and have a hurricane hit. Ivan was the talk of campus all day Monday, 13 September, but no one really thought he was much of a threat -- not even when UNO announced it was shutting down at 4:30. I spent the afternoon educating myself on the bad and good locations to be in relation to a hurricane, but I was never really that worried. Then the Privateer staff came around and announced that there was a mandatory evacuation in place -- we were to be off the UNO campus by 2 p.m. Tuesday. Sure, and how do you suggest I do THAT? The campus and city police and the Red Cross disaster preparedness folks were less than helpful, to be VERY nice about it (the RC wasn't very prepared, in my opinion -- the guy ACTUALLY asked if someone could just put my power chair in an attic to save it from the water). My advisor Barney Rees had offered for Reba and I to come to his place within walking distance of campus, but how to get out of the city? Ivan was veering more and more Westward, and there was a very real possibility that he could slam NO. Great. Fabulous.

Option -- rent a wheelchair-accessible van from a company used by my pal Gina in the past. I called, and they actually had vans available. Hoorah. They delivered to Barney's house Tuesday afternoon, and he and his wife Jackie came to pick me up. We went back to their house and finished getting things ready to go to Lafayette, then we heard about the traffic. To say it was crowded is an understatement. We opted to leave early Wednesday morning in hopes that the traffic would thin out. Anna, Barney and Jackie's ten-year-old daughter, watched a little "Pirates of the Caribbean" while Patrick, the six-year-old, played in his room and Reba and Honey the Golden retriever played in the backyard.

Almost time for bed. To be continued . . . .

Killin' time

Engaging in study-avoidance behavior, and found this quiz on my pal Kendermouse's Live Journal.

I Am Coyote

Coyote is a fun-loving goofball and that fits you to a T. Playfully silly, you appear somewhat bumbling at times, and your goofy exterior sometimes makes people forget what a quick mind and razor wit hides behind that amiable grin. In the mythos of the Plains tribes, Coyote is also a Creator, and stole fire as a gift for mankind. Your gift to the world is the creative fire of your quick, capable mind.

Which'>http://www.isleofdreams.net/trickstertest.html">Which Trickster Are You?