Fieldwork is done for the season, so I've been pulling extremely un-fieldlike hours to finish my work by Thursday. My paper is kick-ass, and I'm so excited to present my findings to all the other bio nerds here, but then...it will be all over, and on Friday I leave. In a word: AAAUUGH.

When people ask me what I took away from my time here, I'm going to say (a) somewhat accepting the CRAZY uncertainty of behavioral data, thus bracing myself for grad school, and (b) finally learning non-karate ways to exercise. Both huge steps for me, in very different parts of my life. The fitness thing is awesome�I went from knowing neither how to swim nor bike in January to participating in a triathlon two weeks ago. I wish I could say I did the whole thing, but I can't swim a whole quarter-mile without resting yet (one day!), so I did the 15-mile bike portion as part of a relay team instead. It was pretty cool; everyone from the station who registered went home with a trophy. Next up is the 5K at the bird conference in Wyoming. The altitude just might kill me.

Tomorrow I'm revising my paper with my boss, cutting off several inches of baked brown hair, getting an oil change, and doing a dry run of the presentation. I hope I'll have a chance to go out into the field one last time before missing the jays like crazy. Before missing EVERYTHING here like crazy. Augh.

I should probably finish my Powerpoint.