The finish line is in sight

I spent most of this week checking margin widths, indents, capitalization, and page numbers.

After a couple of reams of paper...sorry trees, I have successfully submitted my dissertation in the correct format. It's 243 pages of my blood, sweat, and yes, even tears, and I am so excited to be almost finished. All I have to do now is give my exit seminar and pass my defense...both scheduled for October 27th.

In the meantime, I have started a new job at the TREC Plant Diagnostic Clinic. (And yes, one of my new tasks is to write bi-weekly posts for the clinic blog, so if you are curious about plant diseases we see in here in south Florida, check out the link). The job is fantastic so far, I have several projects started, and every day is new and different. I still get to do research, but now I also get to see all sorts of diseased plant samples coming in (it IS fun, really!), and so I am seeing lots of fungi that I'm not that familiar with. I get to exercise all of my knowledge from all the training I have had to diagnose the samples.

In addition, I am doing some writing for extension publications, and I will eventually participate in some training events as well. So I should get some good teaching experience, and it's really fun to interact with the public, as opposed to exclusively working within academia.

I also get to go to Puerto Rico in November to train some collaborators in molecular diagnostics!

Cabin fever in the summer?

While most of the country is eagerly awaits the spring after many cold months of winter, we here in Miami march to beat of a different drum. March and April harbor the end of our 'winter' to be sure, but to us, that means the end of gloriously mild days full of sunshine, and cool nights that leave you refreshed in the morning.

While the rest of you are enjoying picnics and pool parties, we are sitting inside with the air conditioner running, not brave enough to confront the wall of sticky heat just outside our doors. A couple of weeks ago, David and I were suffering from some big time cabin fever. It was early Saturday morning and I felt like getting out of the house. "I want to go to the botanical garden," I suggested

"Too hot, how about the beach?"

"Too hot."

(Tou may wonder how it could possibly be too hot to go to the beach, but really, imagine baking in the sun and then instead of plunging into cool, refreshing water, diving into something resembling tepid bathwater).

Well, what else is there to do in Miami? The answer is a lot of things of course, but you know when you have cabin fever, nothing sounds exactly right.

Sigh.

We are just biding our time until mid October or so, when the true beauty of Florida weather can be enjoyed.

A million sparkling lights

The 4th of July never seems quite right with just David and I. I always miss the family potluck with all those great traditional dishes, hamburgers, fresh vegetables, blueberry or cherry pie. And the growing excitement for dusk, when the fireworks begin. I have always loved fireworks. I love the loud bang followed by an explosion of colored light. I love waiting expectantly for the next display of sparkling light, scattering from a single point, then falling slowly toward the ground until they slowly fade to darkness. The unintentional sinchrony of the 'oohs' and 'aahs' from the crowd.

David and I do our best. We grill some steaks, cook some baked beans, and slice up a juicy, sweet watermelon. But we usually don't get motivated enough to go to fireworks show. We always talk about it, but then decide not to go because we don't want to fight the crowds. Not a very good excuse. This year, it was just growing dark, and I said, "Well,. I guess we're going to miss the fireworks again."

"Let's go find some, then," David said.

So we threw on some shoes and hit the pavement. We could here explosions all around, but could just see a glimmer of light through the trees. We needed to get to high ground. "We need a parking garage, quick, to Sunset Place!"

We hurried up to the parking garage and frantically pushed the elevator up button. We got in and David hit the button for the 8th level. When we got there, we were amazed. As far as the eye could see were fireworks, popping to the left, and then to the right, far off in the horizon. Each town of greater Miami had their own show going on, almost simulataneously. Not to mention all of the "backyard" shows going on. We were just in time to see the finale for the show at the hospital, just a few blocks away.

So we didn't get to spend the holiday with family. But at least we got to share the fireworks with the entire city of Miami.