Allyson Asteraceae

Big Chill I <3 Science team. 

A friend took this photo of me on a hike in Sam’s Point Preserve in New York a few weeks ago. The view was pretty wonderful.

I’m so dirty. 

And happy after completing my first Mud Run through the Rutgers Ecological Preserve. 

For the past few days this week I’ve been helping a fellow grad student install flood monitors in local wetlands.  It was great - I got paid to hike around in the woods and learned a lot by hanging out with a more experience grad student.  

My only mishap was the morning of our last day.  While trying to cross a small stream, I missed the stick I was supposed to step on and sunk knee deep into mud.  In my first effort to free myself I managed to get my other leg knee deep in mud as well.  A little twisting, wiggling and pulling and I got out fine.  

That’s me all muddy after climbing out of the stream, and then by the end of the day when I finally got home.  

What may have been my favorite part of the day was getting ice cream to celebrate finishing the installation.  We went to a Cold Stone in a very well-to-do suburban town that was near our swamp and also close to where I grew up.  At first, I was hesitant to go since I was pretty filthy dirty.  In hindsight I probably smelled bad too.  But I am never one to pass up ice cream and the prospect of sitting somewhere air conditioned was quite appealing.  

After ice cream, my friend wanted to go browse a store down the street I had been raving about.  So we proceeded to walk around snooty-town for a bit and browse my favorite home decorating store.  I just smiled at all the soccer moms who kept looking at me funny and had a wonderful time. 

More old photos.  These are from two summers ago when we found a little brown bat in the kitchen.  That’s me carrying it outside. 

Ran my first 5K this weekend. (That’s me on the far right.)