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Hmm…I planned to work a lot today, but I didn’t get all that much done. I’m fine with that. I’m pretty tired of working and I’m very relieved that the end of the term is near.

Ben and I went on photo shoot in our neighborhood this afternoon. My best pictures came afterwards, when I experimented with bright backlighting for portraits. I also tinkered with artistic borders in photoshop and came up with this compliation of Ben. What do you think? Technically, I like the pictures, though I’m disappointed with Ben’s closed eyes in the right-hand shot. I need to work on my people skills so I have more laughing, smiling shots to choose from!

Garden V2.0: I built shelves for my window boxes today. I estimated that it would take 3 hours, and instead it took 6; not bad, since I *am* my father’s daughter and he sometimes takes years longer than expected to finish home improvment projects.

I also went to Burckhard’s Nursery because they were having a big sale, and I got a couple more plants. I don’t think too many people back home have seen our house, so here’s what our dresser looks like with my plants on it:

Today was really long. I indulged myself in a trip to The Soccer Store for a knee brace, Arcadia to watch the men’s club soccer team play, and then an In-N-Out fueled expedition to Home Depot to buy lumber for my balcony window box shelves.

Tomorrow maybe I’ll build the shelves and then go back to work. Ben and I were going to go snowshoeing, but I have tons of work to do and maybe it’d be better if I just stayed at my desk.

Work stinks. My schedule tomorrow:

10-11 ME101
11-12 Ge277
12-1 Tectonics group meeting
1-~5 Ge177 Lab

That’s a lot of paying attention with no break. At least I get free lunch.

My engagement ring, as interpreted through Ben’s green laser pointer:

Someone once told me that I’d get tired of my ring and stop wearing it because it would get annoying, but I’m still not past the looking-at-it stage.

Tonight Chaco and I played on campus in the rain. I like the rain.

I’m not so keen on graduate school anymore. I work really hard, but even after a 12-hour day today, I couldn’t finish my homework. (I exaggerated. It was twelve hours minus dinner and a doctor’s appointment.) Also, sometimes professors are mean, even if they don’t intend to be, and I’m not very fond of that, either.

No torn meniscus! After battling Madison Radiology for my MRI results, I finally got to meet with the orthopedist this afternoon. My meniscus is intact. I have a build-up of fluid in my knee that’s causing the pain. Normally, this is only seen in runners and old people (the doctor called it an “overuse syndrome”.) It will go away on its own. It’s the best of both worlds — no surgery neccessary or anything, but I definitely wasn’t imagining it!

I’m allowed to gradually return to normal activities over the next 1-2 weeks. I can play in my soccer game on Monday “but it’s going to hurt.” Yeah!

I didn’t feel so good at the doctor, though. The innards of my knee are very interesting, but I couldn’t handle looking at pictures of them and watching the doctor poke my flesh to find the fluid bubble. Grody.

Just in case…please don’t share this with my advisors! Thanks!

OK, so I finally got ahold of Kerry today to ask what’s going on with my second proposition. First, I was going to go to Mono Craters and excavate a fault associated with volcanism; then, I was going to go to Alaska and measure and date moraines offset by the Denali fault; then, I found out — by overhearing a conversation — that we probably won’t have funding to go to Alaska. I cornered Kerry and got a list of my options:

Alaska: I could wait and hope that we *do* get funding to go to Alaska.
Pros: I’d like to go to Alaska.
Cons: It might feel like I was stepping on the toes of Ann-Sophie, who would have to “give” me a moraine that she’s working on. I would have to be very flexible because it probably won’t pan out.

Mono Craters Fault Excavation: I could go up to Mono Craters, hire a backhoe to dig a pit across a fault, and map the trench to determine whether the fault ruptured before or after the volcano erupted.
Pros: Mono craters would be a great place to spend the summer. Kim might be able to be a field assistant. It’s a well-defined project with a definite end, and I could publish a paper on it. I’m very interested in geologic hazards in the Mammoth area.
Cons: It’s a dead-end project — I couldn’t turn it into a thesis project. In that sense, it’s kind of a waste of time.

New Option: Faulting in the Basin and Range Use aerial photographs, satellite images, and some field work to determine a slip rate on a Stateline Fault south of Yucca Mountain.
Pros: A *useful* problem — people really want to know about the geology of Yucca Mountain. Could become a thesis project. I’d be working with Brian Wernicke, who is a great teacher and doesn’t seem too intimidating. It would be good to “try out” a third person to work with.
Cons: It’s hot in the Death Valley area in the summer. Really hot. I don’t like the computer software you have to use to analyze satellite images.

A really frustrating thing: Kerry chastized me for not choosing a project yet. I tried to stand up for myself (YOU try it when you’re standing face-to-face with a famous professor — it’s harder than it looks), but (1) I thought I *had* chosen to go to Alaska, and (2) how can I be more firm in my decision when he won’t even tell me whether or not we’ve got funding? I’ve asked him about it before, but he told me that “students shouldn’t worry about those things.”