a song for your heart, but when it is quiet i know what it means

i woke up early today. no reason, although i did go to sleep at like 11 last night, so that probably helped. i laid in bed and listened to the guys above me playing guitar and singing. i couldn't quite make out what they were playing, but it was nice. then i enjoyed the view of the ocean as i walked down to the station with my homemade latte (thank you chris!) class was interesting - bio 43 is totally my area.

i think i had the best lunch break anyone could possibly request. i went to the library to do some reading and sat down in one of the big comfy chairs in front of the huge windows. before i could pull out my papers, the waves entranced me. i decided to write about it instead. now i'm not much of a journal keeper, but something inspired me. here is what i came up with:

As Pooh Bear would say, it's a rather blustery day. I'm sitting in the library staring out the huge window. The waves keep tumbling over the rocks. It should be loud and windy, but this room is silent. It's as if I'm staring at the most beautiful landscape painting I've ever seen, but it's in motion. The rocks hold their ground, unwavering. The deep blue water approaches but the brown sculptures stand strong. They seem to have stopped the waves in their tracks when suddenly white foam leaps up and encases the rock, only to roll off as if gliding down a frictionless surface.

And to think this happens every day and even at night when no one is here to see it. It's not a piece of art, hanging in a museum, with a steep admission price. It's Nature. It's God's art. Yet we are all sculpting it.

Out the next window is a fence. Beyond that fence is a street with cars whirring by. Then a row of colorful houses marks a new coastline. The meeting place of new forces. The wind doesn't sway them, and the water doesn't reach them. But people and their bikes and their dogs swim all around them and inside them.

...

I just stood up to try to capture a picture of the waves - of course they eluded me - and I found a family of three sea otters just offshore. I caught them in the telescope. A mom with her pup and the father! Usually the father doesn't stick around but the mother's nose was bright red, suggesting a very recent mating. They were so neat to watch, riding on the waves and tumbling over each other.

and that was my lunch break. after lunch we had lab. i spent the rest of the afternoon playing with snails. my favorite. (that's sarcasm - for those of you who don't know i have been afraid of snails pretty much since kindergarden. i know they are harmless, slow creatures, but they just kind of gross me out.) anyway, i had to pick them up, hold them, poke them, and examine them. we were doing an ecology lab on behavior, specifically predator-prey interactions. we took 4 species of snails (our group had Tegula brunnea - the little brown ones) and poked them with 4 different species of sea stars. some of the sea stars (the ones that often eat snails) made them jump around and scurry away. at least as fast as a snail can scurry. my hands were freezing after all of the snail and sea star handling in the cold water, but it was kind of cool. then i came home and cooked dinner for me and my roommates - grilled cheese and tomato soup! perfect for a chilly evening. now i've got to seriously get some work done because i'm going to campus tomorrow night! i can't wait to see all my friends there :)

oh, and as if enough isn't going my way, i'm really happy because i found a good radio station here. i discovered it when i walked into a shop on cannery row yesterday and they were playing matchbox twenty. so now i have good music to wake up to!