Things that are blue

Today was the Marine Science Center's open house, and my (dubious) job was to pass out little blue baggies full of free things to the flip-flop-x-x-x-l-t-shirt clad visitors. I had my first real "Texas moment" when a lady in pink plastic sunglasses leaned over the pad of paper where I was keeping track of where all of the visitors were from and exclaimed, "Awww... Y'all are doin' an expearimeant!!"



I got to go out on one of the boat trips into the salt-marsh, too, and it was wonderful. The little boat skipped all over the water and the marsh-muck was particularly viscous and satisfying. I met my soon-to-be best friend the Blue Crab, got my hair all frazzled up into something crazily wind-swept, and had salt crystals caked at the corners of my eyes. Mmmm.


Yes, so apparently I'm going to be doing something with Blue Crabs and their larval distribution patterns. Not only does it sound interesting, but also I get to escape the laboratory and go on boat trips around the estuary to track down the areas where the baby crablets hide out. (By the end of the summer I'm sure I will be able to describe this in much more official language).

I'm still sick, though. My mom thinks I have mono, but I'm operating under the assumption that my refusal to believe that this is the case will make it not so. It's all very poor timing, though. I would much rather be familiarizing myself with the cloud patterns spiraling through this port town than the spackle on my cieling. Alas.

I will not end of such a sour note, however. I will end on an Indigo Bunting note, which is far from sour, and also blue:


Me and a lab-tech were talking about how beautiful Port Aransas is, and the bird migrations came up. It turns out that this guy was watching Indigo Buntings pass through Texas in March or so, while I stalked them through the Minnesotan prairie this May during my ornithology class. We might even have seen the same little bunting. These guys really do go a long way... Crazy. Birds are crazy! I need to get a hold of a pair of binoculars.