Did you ever see the Harry Potter film where Harry drinks the potion that gives him good luck? Today was perhaps the best day of the entire semester. For the first time I was cold when I woke up (it's what happens when it finally drops to 60F and you're sleeping in only shorts with a thin cotton sheet and have your windows open). I reluctantly pulled myself out of bed as my muscles were crying out to just put on a pair of sweats and curl back up and go to sleep. Not this morning. No, not when I decided last night that I would go for a bike ride. That's right folks, within 30 minutes of rolling out of bed, I was mounting my bike and pushing off for a long ride. Literally moments before embarking, I received a phone call from the dive shop asking if I wanted to teach a Discover Scuba Diving course on Saturday in Key Largo to which I happily accepted. Even before my day started, I was seriously loving life: great weather, the promise of diving and money, and a great big bike ride ahead.
I hopped back on my bike, strapped my feet in, turned up the volume of my music, and forged ahead. Although it was quite cool, the temperature warmed up very quickly and I was sweating within the first mile. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the scenery of quaint little houses punctuated with palm trees simply does not get old. The ride took me all the way to Bill Baggs State Park at the end of Key Biscayne which is about 11 miles from the house. The first 3 miles are not very well suited for cyclists but once I reached the bridge to cross into the keys, I had the bike lane all to myself. I fought a warm breeze somehow in both directions and was simply beside myself about the beauty of the area: it is so much more organic and natural when experienced outside the confines of an automobile.I found my way back to the house and had time for a much-needed shower before heading off to school where a sandwich was calling my name from the food court which ended up being a delicious decision. Before leaving, I was checking facebook and noticed that NASA had found new life forms in Mono Lake, CA whose building blocks were made up of arsenic instead of phosphorous which turns biology (particularly genetics) as we know it on its head. Crazy!!! From there I made my way toward my final Marine Biology class with Dr. Glynn but not without first seeing a small flock of massive wild parrots that are seldom seen flying around the region. The birds are uncannily loud and obnoxious but their plumage is absolutely stunning and it is a treat to see them. For some reason Dr. Glynn's lecture ended up being a much more engaging lecture than usual and even finished 15 minutes early. He announced that he had seen manatees in the canal on his way to class and offered to lead whoever wanted to see them out to the lookout point and I quickly opted to be late for geology so I could see manatees.
Unless you have some sort of a manatee fetish, the gentle beasts are no more than interesting. They don't move very fast, are not particularly active, generally stay just beneath the surface of the water, and really don't do anything. That being said, I was pumped to see them because it is such a treat and I ended up loving it. It turned out that geology was canceled (the professor was there to offer help to anyone working on labs) so we didn't actually end up missing anything. I turned in my lab and went merrily on my way with a spring in my step despite the soreness deep in my thighs from the morning ride. This concluded my semester of undergrad courses at the University of Miami. All I have left is the take-home lab which is due tomorrow, then one very very very difficult marine bio final exam.
After an uneventful dinner, I found out that the Miami Heat were playing an away game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Not only was it a big game because LeBron was playing for his first time as an opponent in the Quicken Loans Arena but everyone back home was tenaciously rooting for Cleveland. Never being attached to Ohio, my loyalties are not deeply rooted there and now that I'm living in Miami I felt that it was fair to cheer for the Heat. Too bad I didn't bet on it: entering the stadium to a chorus of aggravated and betrayed “boo”s, LeBron went on to rack up 38 points and lead the Heat to an easy win over his former team.
Oh, then I found 20 bucks. Seriously. (Well, it was at lunch but I couldn't resist putting it at the end. The picture is taken long after the fact b/c I didn't have my camera with me at the time and honestly, who's going to take a picture of a 20 on the ground of a food court?)
