There’s a squirrel in my wall…

Yes, I realize that I have not written in quite some time now, readers. Things have been a little hectic around here and I have a paper that I am only halfway finished with that is due tomorrow that I should be writing right now. But I figure I have all day and it will get done eventually. However, this will be short and sweet.

This past Friday afternoon, my roommates and myself began transference into a BIGGER, “better” apartment just next to ours. We upgraded to a three-bedroom. Before, Cher and I were sharing a small bedroom but now that we will be seniors, we all thought it would be nice to live lavishly our last year in college.

Upon entering our new apartment, we witnessed a total mess. Apparently there had been a breakdown in communication and the maintenance staff had not been notified that they needed to have our new place ready by the end of April. So we spent the first half of Friday cleaning with the maintenance staff and the second half moving all our BIG furniture. I am AMAZED at what Lafonda, Cher, and myself were able to move by ourselves. Three ladies! Who knew? Although, near the end of the day, we did get some help moving two desks; we were getting very tired. At that point, everything was nicely cleaned by the wonderful maintenance staff and we were mostly moved.

That night, I slept soundly…until my sleep was disrupted by a scratching sound in the wall next to my pillow. Long story short, for the next three nights, I shared my room with a squirrel who somehow managed to get into the wall. I called the emergency maintenance number on Sunday when I finally decided there was something living in there. Nothing was done. I called again on Monday and although they paid a visit to my apartment, they told me they would assess the situation tomorrow…which is today.

So here I am at 3:15 p.m. This morning, maintenance cut a hole in the ceiling and taped a trash bag to the hole. On top of the trash bag was a plate of peanut butter. Accroding to maintenance, the squirrel would go for the bait and then fall through the trash bag. Upon landing in my room, he would flee out of the window. Seriously? I think I would expect to see elephants flying first.

However, the maintenance guys were nice and they seemed like they knew what they were doing, so I trusted their plan. When I returned to my apartment after lunch today to see what progress had been made, no one was there and nothing had happened. Scruffy (the name my mother gave to the squirrel) had managed to eat the peanut butter off the plate without falling through.

Again, long story short, I contacted the front office and decided that after three days of playing ring-around-the-rosy with a rodent, some forward progression needed to happen, pronto. I got in touch with a wildlife control company who is supposed to be stopping by this evening. When I told them what had been done thus far to handle this situation, they laughed. They seemed to think that Scruffy has a way in and out of my ceiling and/or wall and will be setting traps for tonight. : )

Meanwhile, I have a paper to finish and final exams to study for. Agh. Other than having a gaping hole in my new ceiling and a squirrel living with me, everything else is going rather well, I daresay. And summer is just around the corner…it’ll be me and the trees. : )

Until next time! Hopefully by then I will truly have my own room.

Crunch time and the Duke Marine Lab!

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is officially “crunch time” in the world of colleges and universities. This week I have two exams, my induction into TriBeta Biological Honors Fraternity (Yay!), a paper due nest Tuesday and yet ANOTHER biochem exam next Thursday. Then I have another paper due as well as a presentation. Whew! I am feeling the heat! But it’s all good and I will take it in stride as best as I can.

In other news, I just recently got back from a class fieldtrip to Beaufort, North Carolina. My Invertebrate Zoology class traveled with part of the Oceanography class to the Duke Marine Lab on Piver’s Island and had a marvelous time dredging, trolling, and mucking around on the mud flats. The place was truly beautiful. We got to stay in these cozy little houses with cozy little bunk-beds. It was really like going to camp for a weekend!

^^^ Here is a view of the island and the courtyard separating the labs and dorms. Labs are on the right, dorms on the left.

As much as I enjoyed my trip, I had some emotional hurdles to get over. My once-boyfriend was on the trip. We had signed up for the trip together while we were an item. Even still, after we split I had not anticipated it being a problem since we were doing the “friend” thing pretty well. For some reason, I felt stiffled the entire weekend. Every time he was around, my heart sank. I don’t know how to explain it or why I felt so down. I suppose it’s because he was spending time with every other person on the trip besides me; it was a constant reminder that I no longer have any claim on him. Or maybe it’s because we were in a beautiful, potentially romantic setting, and I felt completely alone. Many times, I couldn’t wait to get home.

^^^ This was the view from the chemistry building on the island. I studied there at night and it was gorgeous.

In the midst of the painful reminders, I did enjoy myself and experienced many new things I had never tried before. For example, I DROVE THE BOAT! Not just a little dinky boat but the BIG boat! Upon making friends with the captain, I had the opportunity to steer around the waterways as we dredged for more specimens. To “dredge,” we put a heavy metal basket thing that was connected to the boat by two poles down into the water and dragged it along the ocean floor. The basket would be reeled back in and its contents dumped out onto the deck for us to sort through.

^^^ I googled Duke Marine Lab and this is one of the images I found. I think this might be the exact boat I was on!

We found a giant female horseshoe crab, MANY sea urchins, striped hermit crabs, blue crabs, stone crabs, chitins…And you get the point. When we trolled, we fished out many squids, a couple flounder, and sting rays too! That was all on the first day but on Saturday, we got to visit the mud flats!

^^^ It was EXTREMELY easy to get stuck.

This time, we were looking for conchs, whelks, sand dollars, and you guessed it, more crabs. By sheer happenstance, I was the ONLY ONE who got completely wet on this part of our journey. As I was delving around in a deeper tide pool, I got stuck in the mud. This wasn’t just any mud- it was a mud flat by the ocean meaning that the moisture from the incoming tides keeps the sediments extremely fine and tightly packed. So once you’re in, your are IN. Back to story- I was in this tide pool, right? And I stepped down with my left foot but as I began to pull it up, it did not budge one millimeter. Mind you, I am already thigh-deep in water but I was wearing water-waders. So I tried to correct myself, leaning back a bit but I over-corrected, so I leaned forward quickly, then back, then forward, then back…Then down. I looked like a pendulum teetered like that. I have already been approached twice in the Science Building on campus about my fall. And I was the ONLY one who got completely wet. A few others fell in the mud so it was nice to have friends to share the joy of dirtiness with!

^^^ Ah, waders.

We left on Sunday and stopped at Fort Macon on the way back which was a TON of fun! This was such a cool place to explore! There were tall walls and lots of nooks and cranies to explore!

A good friend of mine who roomed with me on the trip had loads of fun taking cool pictures at this place. I would suggest this as a stop if any of you readers find yourself along the North Carolina coastline. And now, I must get back to crunching. There are things to be done that I must do.

Just need to write…again.

This post will serve as a short update to my readers. I don’t really have anything specific that I feel like writing about so I will discuss a whole bunch of nothing.

Just got out of a Biochemistry exam. I studied a lot for it. Now I just want to roll over and play dead. But I think I did well!

^^^ This is one of the things we were tested on. Gotta love alpha-helices and beta-sheets!

The other day I was at the gym with Lafonda. I always listen to my Bollywood music when I am working out. As I pumped the elliptical, a thought occured to me: “Why am I not taking belly dancing classes?” I took one class through my gym in my hometown over the summer but I haven’t had the chance to continue since I came back to school. Plus, I felt like the class at the gym was more fitness oriented rather than dance oriented. So I looked over at Lafonda, mid-sweat, and said, “Let’s take belly dancing classes.” And she replied with a cheerful smile, “OK!”

^^^ She seemed really excited when I presented my scheme to her!

That night I went home and googled for local dance studios that offer belly dancing. Sure enough, I found one that is only about fifteen minutes away! YES! We started last Wednesday and we have class once a week. I plan on continuing my lessons over the summer through another instructor in my hometown. Hip-scarves, here I come! It’s actually pretty tough. It’s not like working out where you sweat and your heartrate goes up, but the muscles you use to bend your body are pretty discrete, thus, soreness in my side every Thursday morning. We have learned horizontal and vertical figure eights (this is a hip thing), “snake arms” or arm oscillations, and other varying shoulder rolls and booty-shakes. Right now, it’s all very elementary but Lafonda and I are having a great time!

^^^ This is gonna be good.

I’m ready for summertime. I am so sick of constantly wearing jackets. Speaking of which, I should go work on my internship applications instead of rambling about a whole bunch of nothing to you fine people! Until next time!

^^^ I can’t WAIT to kayak again!