A 3 month post

Since my last post, three months have passed and the winter quarter at UCSC has come and gone. Bhodi has been continuing to sail on Lynx up and down the California coast and with the Lynx in Monterey Bay, has taken three days off to come home. Looking back I have only taken around 12 pictures covering this time. So, in so many words and not so many pictures, here's been the last 3 months of life on land...

I came back to Santa Cruz from dropping Bhodi off on the Lynx just before New Years. I wasn't feeling too sociable with my squeeze gone, so I just walked downtown and here and there, celebrating the change of year with a beer at the local dive bar, Brady's Yacht Club, just down the street. Winter quarter started up a couple of days later. I only had one class, Great Papers in Earth Science. The rest of the time was given over to TAing the Natural History of Dinosaurs and a little research. Being a teaching assistant was great, my first experience teaching academia. I had about 90 students in three, hour and a half long classes. Being there and interacting was the fun part, the grading was not, especially since most of the students were non science majors. But, very enlightening all together. Still waiting to get my teaching evaluations back to hear what the students really thought of me. I also prepped for research, deciding on the composition I wanted to depict a early solar system planet mantle, then grinding the rock and doing XRF analysis to determine extact composition. Starting to get down to crunch time on research. I need to get rolling this spring so I can finish by the end of summer. Everything which seems so simple takes so long when so many parties are involved and the coordinator (me) is not quite sure.. well, about anything. :) Ce la vie.
In a semi related school subject, I also took up recreational leading again, in the REC department of UCSC. It was nice tap dancing to go through the paperwork that would have me approved to hold two jobs for the university. But I'm glad it worked out. So far, I've lead a weekend trip to Mercey Hot Springs, a night time wine tasting, and a day trip to Monterey Bay Aquarium. The pictures on this post are from the Mercey trip (where the hot water is piped to outdoor clawfoot tubs!). The rec departments are quite different between Boone and Santa Cruz, but I appreciate being apart of that type of community again, of outdoor leaders.
Outdoor pursuits this quarter were some cold water surfing, continual sailing on Surge III, and climbing. Oh yeah, I just remembered I took up a position at the climbing gym as a kid belayer... don't know if I mentioned that in the last post or not, since I started in December. Mostly on weekends, it hooked me up with the very rad staff of Pacific Edge and I started getting up early on Tuesdays to climb in the gym when it was empty except for the crew. In early Feb., I took a trip down to visit Bhodi and the Lynx gang, for Christopher's 40th b-day and a nice sail to Catalina and back. Some great shots from that which may appear in Bhodi's blog eventually.
I received word from the Coast Guard in late Feb that I was finally approved to test for my Captain's license!!! Books were cracked, plots were laid and on March 19th and 20th, I came, I sat, and I kicked its ass! As soon as the damn license gets here, I'll be Captain Erin Doak, 100 ton inland master, 200 ton near coastal mate, sail endorsed, at your service. Whew. All smiles.
At the end of the quarter, I caught the bus to the Lynx in Morro Bay to get my fix of Bhodi and wooden ships. We were delayed in departing for Monterey due to a really nice gale, but when we did get out there we had some decent sailing in 15 kt winds. I also got to lead my first official watch, which ran very smoothly. Thanks C watch!
What else.... not much. School, sailing, and lovin'. Oh yeah!!! Speaking of lovin', I know we have been leaving everyone in the dark about our wedding plans. Sorry about that. We decided to postpone a year, until I get out of school and we are a little more solid financially. So, wait until next April or so for a summer wedding in '08.

Cheers,
Erin