So what have I been doing in these seven months? I went home to California in September and visited many of you, including a side trip back to UCLA to get letters of recommendation for grad school applications. I returned to the island in the last week of September, when Channing's dad came to the island to visit for a week.
October was pretty slow work-wise. The weather was terrible, the economy had just tanked, and so an already notoriously slow month at the hotel completely hit the brakes. November was just as bad. The one upshot was that I was able to devote much of my newfound free time to finishing and mailing my grad school application and training for the Cayman Islands Half Marathon on December 7.
This was my first half marathon ever (first race over 6.2 miles, actually - a half marathon is 13.1 miles). My best case scenario goal was 2:00:00, though I would've been happy with anything under my somewhat more realistic goal of 2:20:00. I ended up running it in 2:04:44, which made me extremely happy, considering this was my first big race and I had trained for it entirely on my own. I have since also competed in a cross-island relay (my leg of the race was 4 miles), a 5K, and the running portions (two 2 mile legs) of a Duathlon just this morning (I was teamed up with a biker - a really good biker - and we came in 9th).
Running took a break almost immediately after the half marathon as Christmas Break hit. We were busier than we thought we'd be, but definitely not as busy as the year before. January quickly brought us back to reality, though, as I spent 16 of the last 27 days of the month not working. Most of those 11 working days were only half days, too, so it was pretty rough all around.
Seeing that I was once again blessed with copious amounts of free time, I decided that I might as well go get those wisdom teeth removed like I'd been meaning to do for some time. If anyone reading this is considering getting their wisdom teeth removed with only local anesthetic and subpar pain meds, let me be the first to tell you DON'T DO IT. Just don't. My dentist (not oral surgeon - also a bit of a mistake) insisted that she couldn't do both sides of the mouth at once, so only took my lower left tooth (the top teeth are fine). To add insult to injury, they didn't even check my chart to see that I am allergic to iodine and so I got a rash all over the outside of my mouth to boot. After a couple weeks spent in abject misery, I decided I love the other tooth just the way it is and will therefore not be making a return trip. The tooth that was removed was the only one giving me trouble anyway, so I don't see the big deal in letting this one stay on a little longer.
By the end of February I had become somewhat unpleasant to live with. My mouth had healed, but I knew the grad school results were supposed to be out any day. The question was when. Would they be late February like most other grad schools, in which case my late notice would mean that I'm on the wait list, or would they come out on the 17th along with the undergrad announcement for the school, in which case I couldn't bear to wait that long! I started checking my email compulsively. I began frequenting various online grad school admissions forums to see if anyone else had heard from the school. I saw postings from all the other grad school applicants with their qualifications, the large number of schools they applied to, and the almost-as-long list of rejections. It was around this time that I really began second guessing myself on my choice to apply to only one school. What had I been thinking?! With the economy in the toilet, of course everyone is going back to school, so there's even more competition than usual! There's a saying about eggs and baskets, and I totally just did that! What the heck would I do if I didn't get in?! Finally on Friday the 13th of March I got the email saying I was accepted. It was quite a relief for both me and those I live with.
I have since submitted my statement of intent to register, my proof of CA residency (which they approved a couple of days ago, saving me about $15,000 in out-of-state resident fees), and my application for on-campus housing (there are no RA positions, so don't even ask). I was offered an on-call job with CAOS in Santa Barbara when I visited last September (their home office is there), so my ducks are forming rows. (And I have to say thank goodness for the internet. If I had to do all of this via snail mail - Caribbean snail mail at that - this would be a bit of a nightmare.)
The only thing that's not really worked out is what to do with Channing. As you know, the US government is not particularly welcoming of foreigners coming to work in our country, so as it stands now we will unfortunately have to do the long-distance thing for a couple of years. He's planning on returning to Canada a month or two after I leave the island and finding a job there, possibly related to the 2010 Olympics. On a related note, if anyone knows of anyone in the Vancouver/Whistler area of Canada looking for a concierge/bartender/magician, you just let me know.
So that's life around here. Sure there has been some big news of late and there are big changes up ahead, but it's still mostly the same old routine. In fact, to reach the photo quota for this post, here are a few night snorkel pictures that have been in queue since October:
Spiny Caribbean Lobster
Green Sea Turtle
Longspined Sea Urchin with crazy stripes
Common Octopus
Christmas Tree Worms (this one is actually a day snorkel shot from January)
This is also from January and obviously not taken underwater. Or at night. We took a staff outing to a local beach and found this hermit crab who had eschewed the usual snail shell home of most of his kind and decided to use a sea urchin test (shell) instead. Fancy.
Oh and those totally aren't my fingers. My nails look better than that.
