Swampy Territory

Stefin's friend Tommy came to town recently, who does all this cool public health research and is about to move up to the lovely NW to study at UW. It was good to chat about big ideas of health and systems... my brain has been feeling hungry for that sort of stimulation. Three YEARS (!!!!) now out of college and 2 weeks into this year's summer break... I'm not bored per se (Is it "per se" or "per say"? Now I feel pompous using it at all, not even knowing how to spell it. But hey- Uncle Jesse on Full House used to use it all the time. If John Stamos can say it, I sure as hell can. Anyway, I digress.), but I am missing certain types on conversations. Keith, Jake, and Josh are embarking upon "Ulysses" for their sumer book club... it's tempting as an intellectual challenge, but frankly, just doesn't interest me. (Puts up arms to shield self from potential English-majors' harassment) I need something easier than Ulysses, but more meaningful than Sodoku.

Anyway- that whole tangent came out of mentioning Tommy being in town. That's when Stefin surprised us by hooking up a swamp tour out in the Barataria bayou. We saw numerous alligators and a few of these crazy red-headed birds that ran, road-runner-style, across the (80-90 degree!) water. Our guide was heavily accented and sunburned, and absolutely passionate about his boats and everything in that water. He was especially mournful while talking about the oil creeping this way. Beautiful flowers and frogs and- did you know that dead Spanish Moss is so strong it can be used to suture wounds? And it was used like that back in The Day. I know because our guide told us.

So that was fun, and about a million degrees. We celebrated by eating lots of fried seafood and going on a short, flat "hike" through the very buggy Lafitte Wildlife Reserve. Saw ANOTHER alligator and some crazy looking insects. I am beginning to see why Southerners aren't all that into camping.

So here's what I did today to keep my intellect in shape:

Read

Did dishes

Cleaned out my car, in preparation for selling (more on this later)

Watched as Ron at YAYA did that hardest parts of making the frames for my paintings

Painted

Drew

Watched a movie on Netflix

Snuck into a rooftop hotel pool

Had a root beer float BEFORE barbecued dinner

Oh wow.

And I also learned in my "What to Expect..." book, that pregnant women actually have fewer brain cells during pregnancy than they did before and will have again after. Fun! So please pardon me if I'm not now as brilliant as you remember me being. The book assures me my brain-cell count will return to normal "a few months" after delivery.

For now, I'm just trying to savor the time being. Let me know if you have any recommendations for games to keep my brain from going to complete jam.