I'm back at Panera's! : ) It's like my new home...they know me now. It's kind of scary....they know exactly what I"ll want, although today I threw them for a loop and got this iced mocha almond drink...pretty good! : )

Anyways, today went well. Both meetings were good and I got to sound off some ideas. I think for now, a good compromise has been reached on all fronts....diplomatic me! But I will be doing even more sampling: beat sheets and shaking the tree, pitfall traps in the ground. I'll be collecting all predators, but starting to key out (taxonomy) the spiders first. I'll plan to publish (I have to have something in press by the end of the summer) the spider stuff and work on other predators. Since I'm catching insects from on/in the tree and those dwelling on the ground, I've got some long days, more like long long nights in front of the microscope and using microdissection tools to identify all these insects to species. The crazy thing is, I kind of like doing that stuff -- it's neat, and the bugs become much less scarier when you can see them up close and notice cool things about them or realize just how detailed in structure and function they are and appreciate the complexity that went into their creation. Plus, they are dead when I handle them ; )

So, tomorrow I'm going to a church service and their 20/30's single group afterwards. It should be fun, I went to a thing there on Wed and loved it. Everyone was friendly, the music was very contemporary and it kind of felt very similar to the church in Oxford I went to, which was great. I figure I need to meet people and put myself out there and get active. That's just what I've learned from striking out on my own so often the last several years of my life. Cait's hoping I'll meet my future hubby and hers while I'm in Lexington (hahaha!). Anyways, this is where Melanie goes and another girl from the department, Anna. On Monday I'm going to a 1 year birthday party for my lab mate's son. So that should be fun and there'll be lots of little babies around : )

On a note of babies, I'm loving this time of year! There're tons of fledging birds everywhere and they all seem to like coming on my patio. I've seen robins, blackbird, and there's a trio of pigeon chicks who use my patio to get fed by their parents. It's kind of cool. I really am a nature freak!

The apartment is still so very empty....so tomorrow I'm going to Goodwill and the Salvation Army to try to russle up some furniture. I'm going to be buying a futon from Melanie, so hopefully by the end of the summer, I'll be amenable to guests! It's such a part of my nature to have people over and cook for them or host events....and it's killing me that I can't. Seriously, "welcome to my apartment, don't mind the echo and watch your step I don't have lamps in that part of the apartment; oh and please find a comfortable corner on the floor and make yourselves at home....there's only one cushion, so fight amongst yourselves for it....oh, sorry there's no tv, no stereo...there's well, there's some science textbooks and my childhood random knickknacks you can go through....yep, that's pretty much it." Very warm and friendly ; ) So, that's my next game plan, while in the throughs of major fieldwork that will require me overnighting at several of the sites. I don't think I'll be camping out completely; I'm pretty sure there's a cabin at most of the sites that I can use, and my supervisor has said I won't go out to the field alone. (Which is good, some of those sites are literally along a steep hill on the side of a mountain...)

But I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my life....it should be a good one. Still feeling a bit lonely, but I think I'll be plugged into a good group of friends, and I've met more people from the department who are all friendly, so that's good. In fact, this weekend, I'm taking care of Anna's cat. Her name is Izzy and she's very cute and talkative! Anna lives in the next complex over, so I'll just walk over and feed Izzy/probably make use of Anna's tv and internet! : )

I sure do miss having a dog around though.....went on a pet adoption website today. But I can't get a pet and not have any furniture, so first thing's first.