i’m itchy

This is mainly my fault.  I decided to go tubing in the hot Arizonan sun for 3.5 hours, and went down most of Salt River by Phoenix.  It was great, beautiful, relaxing, lots of fun (until Becky and I were separated from Annie and Eddie, and then it was not fun and more stressful and hot and painful since I lost a shoe), and I got burnt like I never have before.  And trust me, I used like, half a bottle of sunscreen.

Moral of the story? Wear a shirt over my bikini.  It might be slightly uncomfortable when wet, but I won’t have to spend the night rubbing Aloe Vera into my stomach.

THIS JUST IN: I just killed the weirdest looking alien bug, with the one flipflop I had remaining.

I’ve been busy, so I will try to update what I’ve been up to recently.  Firstly, it is officially monsoon season here in Flagstaff, so I’ve been getting considerably less observing done.  This means I’m getting paid less, which is sad, but such is life.  Becky and I were recently indoctrinated in the tricky art of declination changes for the Astrograph.  Basically, the telescope is pretty handy dandy in moving on its own for a field, since the field doesn’t move too much throughout the course of the night.  The declination arm, which is automatic, has a reach of about four degrees up and down.  However, when we are moving to a new field, we sometimes have to move the arm manually, and then allow it to run its four degrees over the course of the night.  To do this, we get to use the telrad, and then we get to manually push the telescope up or down!  Telrads are so cool, even though I have blinded myself with them by accident multiple timesl!  We’ve mainly been using Scorpio to guide us – usually Beta Sco.  One night we had to use Delta Sco and it was hell.  Another night we had to use Alpha And and when I finally found it, it started lightning-ing, and we had to close up.  And which sucked.

(By the way, when there is lightning, does one say “it’s lightning-ing?”  I must know the answer by the end of the summer.)

Let’s see, in other news, ie, my social life, I’ve been hanging out with the REU kids a lot since we’ve been having cloudy nights.  We were going to see Transformers midnight on opening night, but then we couldn’t get tickets, so we got it for the next day.  We then had to wait in line for about … an hour just to get into the theatre, even though we already got tickets.  The movie?  I can’t decide if it was awesome, or sufferably terrible.  I will say this: the CG was absolutely fantastical.  I am also somewhat intrigued by the sixth Harry Potter movie, even though I only somewhat like the books and like the movies something less than I like the books.  I have a feeling it’s going to a hit amongst the people here, so let’s pray for another possibly cloudy night for its opening!

In terms of hiking, Eddie, Annie, Becky and I went on a weekend trip to Tucson and Phoenix.  It was really fun, and as I mentioned before, I definitely got more sun than I probably do in an average semester at MIT.  Also, I apologize to anyone I laughed at about Boston weather – after experiencing 100+ degrees down there, I’ll take crappy rainy weather anyday (I think).  I’m back in Flagstaff right now though, and it’s absolutely gorgeous as usual.  Neener neener.

Our weekend excursion began around 4:30 am Friday, when we set off for Tucson.  Annie and Eddie both had appointments at the University of Arizona, so that’s where we stopped by first.  I took a walk around, and checked out the “Physics – Atmospheric Sciences” building.  While I am slightly offended that they lumped physics with atmospheric science, they seemed to focus on astrophysical research a lot, which obviously made me very happy.  I might consider going there for grad school, since I sort of am in love with Arizona, though I’m not sure I could stand for winters without snow.

While we were over there we stopped by Bookman’s, which for people who don’t know, is a really sweet used-items exchange for books, video games, dvds, etc.  I got two books: When the Wind Blows by James Patterson and Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.  Yes, I’ve sold my soul to Neal Stephenson.  I started When the Wind Blows, and while I find the concept of a genetically engineered angel absolutely intriguing (and maybe the fantastical romantic in me has always wanted to have big wings and to soar high up in the sky), the writing leaves much to be desired.  I look forward to starting the Stephenson book, though.

We then moved on to driving around and taking pictures with cacti.  We made a cactus friend named Flubbs, and took many pictures with it, which I will post… sometime later (posting pictures is always a bit of a drag around here…).  We also explored around a bit, before crashing at the motel.

Today (well, officially yesterday) comprised of visiting a zombie town (except it was so abandoned I guess even the zombies upped and left) and tubing down Salt River.  We all know what happened there.   I have a Brass Rat tan!

Oh, for those of you who may or may not care, we drove past a building labeled “Cylon.”  Hehe.

Becky has started watching an episode of Chuck.  We’re nearing the end of Season 2 (nooooo!), but I’m going to go join her.  After applying more Aloe Vera.  Psyyyych.