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I’m all alone until Wednesday night — Ben’s at JavaOne in San Fransisco. I dutifully made time to exercise Chaco with the green laser. He ran ALL OVER the basement, but when we went inside, he still wasn’t tired, so I ran him up and down the stairs. After about ten minutes of that, I noticed that there was blood all over the stairs. Wait! I know what you’re thinking. Poor puppy. Don’t! Don’t even for a minute feel sorry for Chaco! He wasn’t in any pain and he definitely enjoys licking blood. He likes it even better if there’s a scab. If he doesn’t have one of his own, he’ll go for mine if I’ve got any. I spent 20 minutes scrubbing blood out of the carpet! Next time we get a carpet, it’s going to be poo colored. That should hide pee, poo, blood, and vomit. Definitely the way to go.

Friday night I spent a long time thinking, then talking with Ben, about how to handle graduate school.

I really respect people who can work most of the time, but after an honest, month-long trial period, I’ve discovered I’m not one of them. I’ve got two reasons: (1) I don’t think it’s physically possible (I’m can’t sleep, and about 10 o’clock every night I burst into tears), and (2) my efficiency falls off after a while, so it’s not all that beneficial anyway.

So here’s my plan: I’m going to keep working hard — but not “too” hard. What does that mean? I’m going to spend time with my family, get a moderate amount of exercise, eat healthier, and take some time for myself.

I’m going to exercise Chaco when he needs it. I’m going to find time to relax with Ben at night. I’m going to exercise a couple times a week. I’m going to come home from the office for dinner, both so I get to see Ben and Chaco and so I can eat stuff that doesn’t have to be microwaved. That means I’ll also have to take time to go the supermarket. If possible, I’d like to keep working on my photography and some computer projects (like a privately hosted blog and some digital video editing).

I think I will still pass my exams. I’m still going to work hard and give it my best shot. I’ll put in long days and bring work home for nights and weekends. I *want* to be here at Caltech. However, I realize that taking time away from studying for other things means does slightly decrease my chances of passing. I’ll be sad if I don’t pass, but I’m ready for the possibility. If I don’t pass, I can still get a master’s degree from Caltech. I’ll have plenty of time to submit transfer applications, and all things considered, that would be an OK option for me and Ben. We can move to Colorado, which is a dream that we’ve shared since we started dating. I can still get a PhD and teach geology.

What do you think? I need moral support!

Last night, we got Chaco some toys at PetCo. He destroyed the bone last night. He carried it around with him until bedtime, when he sat in the middle of our bed and just ate it all up. I also got him a tennis ball, which I cut a slit in and stuffed with a treat. He’s been working on removing the treat for a while.

Last night Ben and I went to see The Terminal. The theater was so crowded that Ben and I had to sit across the room from each other in the two handicapped seats. It was fun anyway; Ben and I actually *both* thought the movie was great, which is fairly rare! Tom Hanks did a fantastic job. It’ll make you think, but it’s not sad.

Today, Ben and I went scuba diving. Mostly, I got accustomed to my new equipment (it works great!), discovered that I need a new mask (mine bumps my eyes), and enjoyed doing somersaults at 15′. My biggest problem is equalizing my ears.

Here I am getting into the water!

We returned our tanks to Sport Chalet this evening and stopped at Petco on the way home — we needed some more algae-eater power for our fishtank! Maybe I’ll get able to get some pictures of them. We got three baby Plecos for algae control and a pair of gold gouramis because they look really neat (they’re bright yellow) and big enough not to get bullied by our 4 inch long angel fish. Someday I’d like to get a moray eel, but that’ll have to wait until all our fish are big enough to avoid getting eaten.

A bad thing that happened today was I got depressed about school. I just want someone to say, “We want you here. Good work. Keep it up.” Someone besides Ben or Sam, who are absolutely wonderful but are not on my oral exam committee or connected to anyone who is.

A good thing that happened today was that I found out I can’t take Ge121 in the fall, so I can crew the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta instead and still get a master’s degree by next June.

“A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students.” — John Ciardi, poet and essayist, quoted in today’s “Writer’s Almanac” from Minnesota Public Radio. (Can you believe I subscribe to that, Mom and Becky?)

Tomorrow morning I’m going to buy dive gear with Ben! Yay!

By popular demand…my meeting yesterday went well! Yay!!! Jean-Philippe is somewhat familiar with the area and said that, in particular, it presents an interesting way to study the time evolution of seismicity. Also, it’s a great — maybe the only — place to study the relationships and transitions between the Basin and Range province, the Sierra Nevada, and magmatism. And here’s the best part — although Caltech is involved in the Plate Boundary Observatory, he might be able to get funding to set up some of our own GPS units if neccessary! Way cool. I thought funding would be a major obstacle to proposing my own research. We’ll meet again in a couple weeks to talk about exactly where we could start, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things will fall into place then. Woo-hoo! :)

Chaco found a friend on the internet…he got an email from Kaweah today! Kaweah belongs to my friend Jen Yu. Friday is “Bring Your Dog to Work Day” (the excuse is to encourage friends at work to adopt puppies from shelters) — so maybe Chaco will get to meet his internet girlfriend in person!