i heart tea

ironically i don't really drink it that much...except for this summer, when i went on tea overload. i am currently enjoying my second cup since getting back to austin, and i have to say, it tastes fantastic.

i'm not sure how it happened exactly, but i think staying out too late combined with a busy schedule this weekend broke down my immune system a tad. i was exhausted yesterday and felt like i was dragging through my three (yes, three) mile run. i was in bed before 10p last night and my throat was raw and aching. it felt a little better this morning, but i still feel a bit off...which is why the tea tastes so good. it feels great on the back of my throat and generally just provides that much needed ounce of comfort when you're feeling under the weather. the upside to this is that i still more or less have my voice.

last night while waiting for my laundry to finish, i started reading the kite runner. i have heard good things, but i'll let you know what i think. this single act of being able to read a book has me thinking: what exactly is balance? i would say that my life right now has all the components that i would normally need for it to be considered balanced, and yet it doesn't feel quite right. similarly, there have been times when i am wholely focused on one or two things and that feels "balanced." Maybe we're always in a state of unbalance?

Part of my lab when I was in Hawaii focused on time series analysis of the biology, chemistry and physics of a point (Stn. ALOHA) in the Pacific Ocean. For a long time, the theory behind sampling at Stn. ALOHA was that the biology, chemistry and physics observed at this one point were representative of the entire North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (basically the entire North Pacific rotates in a giant clockwise circle). Within the last few years though, there has been a shift in what people are thinking. They are realizing that the North Pacific is not homogeneous and that Stn. ALOHA is not necessarily representative of the entire North Pacific at any one instant in time. Stn. ALOHA is changing constantly and can be subtly or substantially different from one day to the next depending on what else is going on locally (ex. the passage of eddies). It can also vary annually.

My current theory is that we, or at least I, are/am the same way. I suppose there is never any real balance. Rather its how much you are enjoying the lack of balance that makes you happy or stressed out or somewhere in between.

On a somewhat related note, my advisor from my master's thesis Dave Karl has been featured recently on the Discovery Channel (among other venues) in part of a series looking at how scientists are tackling the problem of global warming. You know what the theory behind the stuff he's doing is? The first paper I published in oceanography (aka the first half of my master's thesis). I am really excited for him (and the lab in general), and I look forward to seeing the results of the experiments carried out on a larger scale.

In the meantime, I think I'm having another one of those existential 'why am I here still in school?' crises. I suspect it has something to do with lack of sleep and not feeling well, but honestly, when I stop and think about it, I don't really know what I want to do. I know basically two things: I like to watch people move and I like the ocean (not necessarily in that order depending on what's going on in my life). But I'm not really sure what to do with these two things that I know!