So sleepy…

Today was a sleepy day. One 16-hour battle of gravity against eyelids, and gravity tended to win.

It’s kind of (completely) my fault, because I did stay up till past midnight last night knowing I’d end up waking up around 6, but what I didn’t anticipate was how awful I’d really end up feeling. Within an hour of waking up, all I wanted to do was go back to bed.

The professors came in around 8, and I made the unfortunate mistake of sitting in the hammock during the whole discussion, essentially telling my brain it was bed time. But I managed to stay awake by eating cashews and peanuts, so it was okay.
During the discussion, we went through each of our project ideas, and the professors pointed out a few flaws in mine that I hadn’t really noticed before and which rendered it a somewhat pointless topic of investigation. A bit painful, but nevertheless necessary. It’s better to be realistic now than spend two weeks collecting data only to come to an empty, useless conclusion.

After lunch was the start of the next battle in the endless war against sleep, and this time sleep won. Every time I sat down, I fell asleep, which made it very difficult to get any work done or think of any other project ideas. Eventually I convinced myself that it was okay to take a short nap if it meant I’d be able to get more done later, so I conceded and passed out for a bit.

I didn’t sleep long, but I still can’t really remember the afternoon because I think a lot of it was spent wandering aimlessly in circles. Eventually, I came up with another idea, but when the hydrology-interested people all got together, it turned out that this one, too, was a bit unfit for investigation. While everyone else talked through their ideas, it bought be time to think of more, but at that point I was stretched for just about anything. It turned out to be a very bad day to have gotten too little sleep. In the end, I remembered something that some of the professors had mentioned a few days before, and that Gordan had also brought up, but was no longer planning to do: the marshland between the coast and the valley. With some help from Dr. Becker and Dr. Wechsler, I managed to develop something of a research question and plan, and I think after I’ve had more time to process it, I’ll be able to come up with some more ideas of my own. Though it wasn’t initially my plan, I am excited to see where this will go (and what sorts of trouble I’ll get into mucking around in the swamp). My only regret is that part of the study area falls in the pasture with the demon cows that chased Greg and I last week, so I don’t know how I feel about that, but I’m sure I can work it out somehow.

Now, the sleep war is over, and guess who’s about to win? Goodnight!