Kick It Up A Notch

Photo: www.infobarrel.com

In December I'm going to take a cave diving course.  I can't wait!  This is one of the types of diving that I've been looking forward to for a long long time and it just so happened that a spot opened up in a course that I only need to pay for about a third of the cost of a typical cave course.  I'm not wishing my time away between now and then but I am REALLY looking forward to it.

Music Revival

I finally got a couple marine science grad students together to play some trios with me!  One is a violinist and the other plays the cello.  We have another violinist in the mix but she's in Texas right now so we'll have to wait for her to get back.  We're meeting up next Thursday evening at my house to play together and I can't wait!  The last time I played music with anyone else was December of 2010: over a year and a half ago.  From the day I picked up a viola until now, today literally marks the longest amount of time that has passed since I have played music with anyone else.  It's not the longest amount of time since I've played alone, but definitely since I've played in a group.  Crazy.

Pulley Ridge

Hi Friends,

Mike and Casey goofing around on decompression.

I'm now safely back in Miami after a fortnight's adventure at sea was cut short by 3 days due to the impending tropical storm/hurricane Isaac that was coming in from the Caribbean.  Overall it was a successful trip and it is the first of about 5 trips that I will be taking for this project.  As I might have said before, the capacity to which I was a part of the team was as the support diver for the rebreather dives.  The way I work as a support diver is by getting the team in their gear which includes a rebreather, lift bags, reels of line, clips, hoses, 3 extra stage deco bottles they clip onto their left sides (see the photo from the last post), and collection tools.  Each of the four divers has the configuration slightly different so although the beginning phase was slow, I was setting them all up in a flash by the end of it.

Rebreather team

I honestly don't really know much about the science that was going on during this research cruise.  I do know that the rebreather team, other than the three dives it took to set up the instruments on the moorings as mentioned a couple posts back, were diving to collect samples of specific fish, corals, sponges, and algae.

Me on deco, photo credit Casey

Yes, the cruise was a success all things considered.  Sure we had to go home 3 days early and cut our productivity, but for the time we were out there we were working very hard and very well together.

I got home Saturday evening and spent that night and all day Sunday with Christina at home taking shelter from Tropical Storm Isaac as we were hit with rain.  She had work today but when she got there they told everyone to go home after an hour or two because it was too rough to take any boats out and a little too dicey to be taking down all the hurricane shutters yet.  So... she came back home to me and we're spending time together by finishing a movie we started yesterday, making dinner, learning more salsa moves, and now reading.  Well, she's reading while I'm posting this update.

We had up to 10 silky sharks at a time.

Work is going to kick off tomorrow in full swing.  As I've mentioned, we're teaching two classes this semester (same course but 2 different sections) so it will be much more demanding than ever before.  Tomorrow the students are not having their pool session tomorrow since we need to go over a few lecture sessions before we can get them in the water so the whole day will be spent getting everything situated for the semester ahead such as packing everything away from the cruise and figuring out space for all of the new gear that we had to purchase to accommodate the double enrollment.

Sharks all around us!

The semester ahead will be busy so I hope I find time here and there to keep everyone updated!

Recently

The academic year has come to a very sudden end.  I didn't see it approaching but finals week is nearly over by now, marking the end of my second full academic year in Miami, the end of the first full academic year of teaching.  One year ago marked the last time I was a student.  Since kindergarten, the longest streak I've ever had of not being a student was my year abroad (the reason for starting this blog) and in a few months when this summer is over I will have tied that streak though this time it is evident that I'm going to continue the streak.

In the news (of my life)...

I have moved out of my parent's house completely.  All of my remaining belongings are in a pile ready to be picked up by a moving truck and will be here in less than a month.  It's certainly a weird feeling and I do feel significantly grown up.

Christina has started her internship at Biscayne National Park.  It's a year-long internship that's located about 45 minutes to an hour and a half away (depending on traffic).  I'm excited that she's going to be within driving distance for the next 12 months.  I don't know if I mentioned it before but I was concerned that she would end up in an internship that was outside of southern Florida and we would rarely see each other but realistically we'll share each other's company on a fairly regular basis especially since she's living within a mile of me for the entire summer.

For someone who makes a living out of diving, I don't dive all that often these days.  This is why this week is looking so exciting.  Monday: help on a checkout dive.  Tuesday: 2 nitrox dives for our students from this past semester.  Wednesday: dive with.... actually, I forget now.  Thursday: practice dive for the reef surveys I'll be doing over the summer for a few weeks in and beyond the FL Keys.

If you don't count orchestra which was 3 hours a week, I'm playing about as much viola these days as I did back at Denison.  Okay, so maybe that's even still an exaggeration but I play an average of 30 minutes a day, so frequently in fact that I haven't even put my viola in its case for the past 2 weeks.

Life Changes

 It is rather amazing how much has happened since I last updated this blog.  It’s mind-blowing actually.

Screened-in porch

Living room, with view of dining room, Florida room, and bed/bathroom

There’s no sense in beating around it so I’ll just get to the point.  I finally bought a house!  Yes, it is true.  I have officially become a grown-up.  It is a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom single detached home in Coral Gables and it is perfect for me.  I’m including a few pictures that speak for themselves.

It has been a long time coming, or at least it feels that way.  Realistically it’s only been since November since I started searching but it felt like it couldn’t come fast enough.  It has a screened porch out back by the small backyard and then a smattering of trees and bushes in the front yard.  A couple owners ago was very much into horticulture and has a menagerie of plant species throughout the yard among which include a coconut tree and two mango trees.  I’ve spent the past week moving and settling in.  I’m not close to being done despite the few belongings I own, but I’ve been making progress.

Master bedroom

I’ve had the time to settle in but I’ve been keeping busy elsewhere because I don’t want to have my whole life sucked into the house.  Instead, time has been spent rock climbing, diving, seeing friends, and hanging out with Christina a whole lot.  I weeded almost the entire front yard today and trimmed most of the bushes.  There’s one that appears to be taking over some others but it’s spread so much that it’s hard to tell what’s supposed to be there anymore.  I cut it back and maybe in a few weeks I’ll cut it back even more until I can make sense out of what’s going on.

Living room

Kitchen

There are rumors about my job changing for the better but I won’t believe it until I see it.  Everyone gets the impression that the upper administration, since they are non-divers, see the diving program as something they could turn into a money maker.  They don’t see the benefit in giving it a little bit of a leash and letting it expand to the point that people would come to Miami specifically for diving.  Since the two head people of the Business Office have been fired for losing a 7-figure amount of money, there have been committees going through each part of RSMAS collecting information and presenting their suggestions to the dean.  The committee luckily has come to see the importance of the diving program and would like to expand our resources and realize a little more of our potential.  I say I’m not going to believe it until I see it because the administration still has to consider and approve/deny all of the committees’ suggestions.  I’m not hopeful. 

Yikes!

I'm getting seriously behind again!!!  Since my last post:

We took the class to Little Salt Spring
I turned 25 (woot!)
I found over 30 shark teeth on a single dive at Venice Beach
We all came back to Miami
I ended up on ABC for a few seconds
Christina and I have hung out a bunch
The housing process is making progress
I sat in on a meeting of the Diving Control Board
Rick got me excited about what our diving program could and hopefully will be in a couple years
Some family is coming in to Naples and I am heading over there to meet them tomorrow

I promise I'll update for real sometime soon.  As for now, I need some sleep.

Spring Break 2012!

I'm off to Little Salt Spring with the diving class for spring break.  I will not be taking my laptop there so I will not really be updating but stay tuned afterwards.  Hopefully I'll be able to get caught up on my parents being here as well as fill everyone in on spring break upon my return.

Also, tune in to ABC this Saturday morning to "Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin" (check local listings for times).  I will be on for a few seconds!

Also I can't believe my birthday is in 2 days!

Life and Limb

Today my heart goes out to a man I never met.  His name is Aaron Cohen.

I rode my bike to RSMAS today at 8:30 and was pleased that I did when I noticed a horrible and unusual traffic jam toward the entrance of the island.  I immediately patted myself on the back for deciding to go green today by leaving my car at home.  As I breezed past the hundreds and hundreds of cars and made my way onto the Rickenbacker Causeway, I noticed flashing lights at the top of the bridge up ahead and assumed it was a car accident.  As I passed the scene and got a closer look, I saw police talking to each other near two mangled bicycles.  No car, no victim, no witnesses, just two police cars, some flares, a couple cops, and two beat up bikes.

Photo: blog.mayacycle.com - Not from the accident today.

I continued along my way to find out much later that what I had passed was the scene of a hit and run.  Evidently a motorist in a silver Civic hit two cyclists a bit after 6am and never stopped.  One of them is now recovering from a broken leg while the other, as of 2 hours ago according to a local news source, is suffering serious life-threatening injuries.

I try to ride my bike to RSMAS once a week on average and I'm very familiar with that stretch of road as a cyclist because it's one of the few places in Miami that is bicycle friendly by the fact that it has a particularly large bike lane (the fact that it has a bike lane at all is a huge deal).  I always see people making good use of it every day whether I'm one of them or not. 

As someone who frequents the causeway by bike this story really hits home.  Seeing the bikes myself really pounded it in.  Just like his bike, Aaron Cohen is lying down broken right now on account of a horrifying hit and run.  My heart goes out to him and his family as well as any and all cyclists who have been harmed in the unforgiving cycling environment that makes up Miami.

EDIT: Aaron Cohen passed away in the hospital on Thursday, leaving behind his wife, 3-year-old daughter, and 1-year-old son.

EDIT: The 24-year-old responsible for the fatal hit and run finally turned himself in the next day after a very public city-wide search was under way for a car matching his description.  He was driving on a suspended license and has a history of traffic violations and drug charges.

Progress Please

I spent two hours this morning with my realtor driving around looking at properties although there are none that are available for going inside.  This entire process is going to be much slower and far more painful than I imagined.  He was telling me about clients that sometimes wait over a year to find a house; I am not going to do that.  I'm not going to wait one, two, or three years for the perfect house to come along.  I would rather get a good place and move in soon that wait ages while continuing to pay rent living where I am now.  The time has come to move on and I'm starting to realize that it would have been wise to start this search back in September.

Oh and on an unrelated note: through the Diver's Alert Network, I can now teach Diving First Aid for the Professional Diver, including Basic Life Support, CPR, AED, First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life Injuries, Oxygen Administration, and Advanced Oxygen.

House Hunting

I finally met up with my realtor today for a couple hours to cruise around town and drive by some of the areas and houses we are interested in.  We weren't able to go in any of them but the morning was worthwhile.  I'm starting to learn that the market right now is very competitive.  I feel like a lioness stalking prey patiently biding my time but when I finally find the one I want, it's going to be a pounce and a fight to get it.  There have been instances where buyers are so competitive that after viewing a house they will put the key in the door and break it off so no one else can get in and see it for a few days while the lock gets fixed.  Overall there really isn't much of a selection which is a hard reality to accept for someone who is determined to move into a place of his own.

The key is patience.  Mine is wearing out but I need to grasp it with both hands and never let it go.  Being such a big investment, I'm not going to jump into anything unless I'm sure it's what I want.  The only thing is that as soon as it comes on the market, I have a very short time to make the decision whether I want it for sure or not or else someone else will pull it out from under me.

Follow-Up

Oh yeah!  I taught class on Wednesday and I never said how it went.  I ended up finishing with 20 minutes to spare which I think was well-received by the students.  Rick's lectures usually take the entire time because he has so many stories to go along with everything but since I don't quite have the stories that he does, I keep everything concise and to the point.  It may be slightly less interesting but I imagine it's equally as straightforward and I cover all the information that needs to be covered.  I'll be teaching a few more lectures throughout the semester so we'll see how it goes.  One down and I feel pretty good about it.

Adaptability

Snapshot of the show.  Photo: www.thegrio.com

Don't you hate it when you try to support the arts while also planning a great night by putting a whole bunch into two tickets for a show and then someone changes your plans and makes it impossible to go?  Yeah, I do too.  I'm quite flustered about it but hopefully I'll be able to change the tickets (which were delivered today).  I need to get it together and do all I can to change the seats to another day.  Yes I'll be hit with a whole lot of talk about massive non-refundable fees and ultimately our seats will be way up in the nosebleeds instead of really close but I need to do what I can to make it still work out the best that it can.  I'll work on that a little bit tomorrow.  My hope is that I'm overreacting and it's not going to be an issue.  Time will tell.

I went to the grocery store tonight and was reminded how in Florida the baggers are trained to use as many bags as possible.  I left my reusable bag in my car and my 7 items were placed in 3 different bags.  I would have been happy with 1 but 2 seemed reasonable so I grabbed the bag that had one thing in it and moved it to another bag, gave her a warm smile, made a kind comment about saving some of her supply, and headed toward my car.

The dean and assistant dean of RSMAS seem to be trying to make a change to the diving program that could change my job considerably.  There haven't been enough meetings and nothing has been set in stone yet but if this new policy goes through, it would not be good, at least for a couple years.  More details will come once more has been decided and made public.

This Is Where I Live

Miami is a very bizarre city and I still haven't quite figured it (the city) out yet.  The Miami Herald wrote an article (found here) about how Miami was recently dubbed the #1 most vain city in America.  The article referenced the poll that was used by saying, "the survey found that half of Miami respondents consider themselves an 8, 9 or 10 in looks."  In an area of the country that looks so beautiful, it appears people are trying to do their best to look better.  I pass advertisements every day for breast augmentation, liposuction, cosmetic plastic surgery, tummy tucks, butt lifts, botox, the list goes on.  Even so, Miami is not only about looking good but it's about having the lifestyle to match:
"On top of that, a Prada dress doesn’t have to be covered up by a parka, or those Christian Louboutins traded in for lug-soled boots. 'You can always wear expensive high heels in Miami, and the worst thing that is going to happen is they get rained on,' she said. In fact, Miami consistently ranks as one of the largest luxury car markets in the country, and local designer shops generate top revenue, thanks to high-net-worth residents and visitors who are willing to shell out for high-end goods."
For a country that has gone through a recession, true colors shine through when priorities are made apparent.  People in this city will willingly put themselves deep into debt to buy things they cannot afford whether it's clothing, accessories, cars, boats, mansions, or cosmetic surgical operations.

Yes, all of this is true and I've seen it with my own eyes.  That being said, the city has tons of good things to offer, starting with the natural beauty that I alluded to earlier which brings me finally to what I did this weekend.

One of my students last semester is in his 50s and has a yacht which he used to take the diving class for a field trip to the Bahamas for some dive training (and of course a great experience).  He is one of the most genuine, down-to-earth, fun, and generous guys I know.  Since his wife works or volunteers with Teach for America (TFA), he is involved by association, something he is not unhappy about.  Last week he invited me and Christina to come join him in leading a beach cleanup project for 9 TFA teachers.  We met him at the marina at 8 and hopped on his 50' boat to pick up the crew.  Highlights of the trip include the stunning land and seascapes that we were surrounded by during the entire trip, the smell of the ocean which was more present than usual for some reason, and running aground.  That's right, since Biscayne Bay is so incredibly shallow and the boat has a draft of just over 3ft, we pulled up about 200 yards away from an island to clean and the boat waited while some of us hopped off and swam ashore to see how much trash needed to be picked up.  While we were there, the boat had managed to plant itself on the shallow sea floor of very mixed substrate (hard, soft, sandy, gooey, slippery, spiky, spongy, etc).  When walking through the 3ft murky water there was no telling what texture(s) you would feel with the next step.  After trying to free the boat with its own power to no avail, Steve asked for volunteers to get out and push so of course I was the first one back in the water.  After a lot of grunting, pushing, heaving, straining, slipping, and straining, we managed to free the boat about 30 minutes later.  By the time we dropped everyone back off, they were endlessly telling us how thankful they were to have had the opportunity to see the city from a completely new and exciting perspective.

Moving the boat.  Photo: Steve

After dropping them off, we went immediately to RSMAS where we picked up a good portion of our former dive class and Steve took us all out for a swim in the bay and a joy ride around Key Biscayne and a little bit of downtown Miami.  On such a beautiful day, I cannot describe the happiness I was feeling of being on the water in such a stunning place with such a fantastic group of people.  We eventually dropped off the rest of the class after which Steve took us back to the marina where my car was waiting.  Christina and I drove back home and temporarily parted ways to prepare for the night.

One of the students in the class last semester (who was on the boat) recently got engaged to a guy named Alex.  Alex had a birthday and invited us to his fiesta-themed birthday party on Key Biscayne which we went to and had a fantastic time.

Today included church, working on Wednesday's lecture, following up on the housing search, pizza, more working, napping, then briefly visiting Christina around dinner time.  Tomorrow is back to work as usual which of course I love.

Yes, Miami may be the most vain city in America and perhaps even in the world.  It might be fake, it might be plastic, and it might be obsessed with image.  Even so, it has a lot to offer.  It is a city with a character unlike any other place in the world.  It is a city with rich diversity.  It is a city overlooking a large fraction of the country's coral reefs.  It is a city that honestly is gorgeous on the outside.  It is a city surrounded on both sides by national parks.  It is a city that offered me a job.  Furthermore, for now, this is the city I call home.

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Dr. Christian

The last thing I ever thought I would be is .... well no, that would be a politician.  Let me rephrase that.  One of the last things I ever thought I would be is a teacher.  This doesn't include being a dive instructor because although I was technically teaching diving, it was never going to be a permanent thing.  There was no classroom, it was all on my own time, I wasn't working for a school, there weren't really any lectures, I had no contract, etc.  Let's not argue semantics and agree that I wasn't a teacher in the typical sense of the term.

Photo: www.napavalley.edu

Now I suddenly look at where I am and what I'm doing to realize that I have become a teacher even in the more traditional interpretation.  On Wednesday (a week from today), I am going to give the Physics lecture in our 2-hour diving class.  Rick is already going to have me teach at least two other lectures when he's gone this semester and if he ends up being needed in Australia, I could end up teaching 4 more classes at 2 hours a piece.  Sure it's only 8 students who I consider friends, but it's still a college course at the University of Miami.  The feeling I have is not anxiety, but rather more along the lines of excitement.  Most of the excitement is due to the fact that it is a new experience for me; it's the reaffirmation that I really am in a grown-up job working at a university and now giving lectures to a mixed graduate and undergrad audience.  What's more is that it shows that Rick has the faith in me to take control of the class.  Sure I know that teaching a few lectures is not really a huge deal in the grand scheme of things but I'm enjoying the novelty of it while it's still new.  Remember, I like to appreciate the little things.

Developments

Wow, a lot has happened and I've been so busy that I haven't been able to say anything about it.  I won't quite pick up where I left off but I'll at least hit the highlights that have been going on since then which consist of three things: end of the semester, motor boating certification course, and Christina.

1) The semester finished up about a week and a half ago.  It marked the first time I have ever had to grade twelve 8-12 page papers which as I have discovered is not as exciting as one might think.  For my first semester, I think I have performed well in my new position.  The lab that I manage on main campus is much more organized now than it was when I first arrived and every one of the diving students is much improved from day 1.  There are 1 or 2 who are still struggling but they are at least as good or better than the average recreational diver.  As for the others, they are far beyond recreational dive industry standards and are really great divers now.

2) Over the past week, I have been taking the Motorboat Operator Certification Course (MOCC).  This is a course offered around the country by the Department of the Interior and is designed to give a lot of academic and hands-on training at operating a small power boat.  The day I heard this class was offered through UM I was begging to be put on the waiting list for it and that was when I was willing to pay for it.  Now they've enrolled me and haven't asked for a dime because their plan is to eventually have me teaching this course as well.  The course was a bit of a breeze since I have so much boating experience but it was still loads of fun.

3) There's this girl and her name is Christina.  I have liked Christina since early October which makes about 2 and a half months.  I didn't know it then, but she has liked me since pretty much the same time.  She is a masters student from Texas, is essentially a dive instructor, and we can't seem to get enough of each other.  The only thing that's really caused a problem is that she has been one of my students.  Due to something called conflict of interest, I am forbidden to hang out with students outside of class until grades are out of my hands so until the night of the 8th, we were forced to be apart.  (We actually did such a good job of it that I still questioned if she really liked me - that being said, I am pretty oblivious to that sort of thing.)  Since the 8th, we have been spending as much time together as possible (which includes the MOCC course we were coincidentally signed up for together by UM).  A few hours ago I finally dropped her off at the airport and it is starting to sink in that a week and a half of being together non-stop is going to make a month apart particularly difficult.  Christina really is absolutely stunning but my stance is one that is reflected by one of my basic life philosophies: if it is meant to happen, it will come together but if it dies away then so be it.  There's no sense in forcing anything that shouldn't have to be forced.  If instead it grows, which is what I'm really hoping for, then that would be wonderful.  I'm not committing myself to what may or may not be but I'm along for the ride and I'm going to make the best of whatever happens.

There is a lot to look forward to in the coming month but since it's getting late and I'm terribly tired, I'm going to have to save all of that for later.

Sun Goes Down Over Shark Lab

Sometimes things come into our lives for good, but often times we get tired of, grow out of, or change our minds about things. This is the case for my participation in the lab I've worked as an intern catching and tagging sharks.

When I was accepted to be an intern in the program, I was warned by a few friends at RSMAS about the lack of focus on scientific content that is found in this lab but brushed off the comments as rumors that were not backed up by first-hand accounts. Last semester I had a great time on all of my trips and even putting in extra time to help put equipment together and re-structure an underwater video rig. I was even one of 4 interns that spent 5 days on a tiny fishing boat in the Dry Tortugas this past spring and loved it.

Tending the lines on the way to the site.  Photo: Anonymous

When I came back this semester I was excited to hear about all of the big plans that have been put in place to draw more media attention through newspapers, local news channels, internet posting, local educational outreach, and even big players such as National Geographic. As the semester progressed, I became exposed to a little more about how the program is run and I was not pleased. The best thing about the program is that everyone involved in it absolutely and firmly believes in what it stands for. The problem is that it lacks internal structure.  The program will undoubtedly continue to grow without me but it frustrates me to know that under different leadership it could be booming in both the scientific and media worlds.

I do not want to say anything more about what has led me to my decision since this is a public forum and do not want anyone to read this and misunderstand my issues and then give the program a bad name because it really does do a lot of good. It's been fun and I have memories that will last forever but my decision has been made. If the program turns around and really establishes itself structurally and things run more smoothly then I would consider offering my time to help them if they would take it. Until then, I'll spend my free weekends doing other things, perhaps running dive courses or traveling around southern Florida. Who knows!

Delayed Gratification

Sad times are these that I don't post for weeks.

I'm afraid during that lapse, significant detail has fallen through the cracks.  At any rate, I will do what I can to hit the important parts.

Marc inspects the inside a full face mask while Jesse prepares to dive.

A few weekends ago, I was at Little Salt Spring.  Nothing has changed there since the last time I saw it (and probably for about 10 years prior for that matter).  This time however I was the one driving the van, setting up equipment, helping teach, buying groceries, and being much more in charge than last semester when I was there as a student.  We managed to have loads of fun making up a plot for a horror film, looking for shark teeth, having bonfires, telling stories, playing Taboo, and hanging out together.  Like last semester, we spent an entire morning at the Florida Aquarium where the students who earned the top 6 scores on the midterm were allowed to dive in the aquarium.  It was much more exciting this time as there are now several new sand tiger sharks in the tank.  Everyone who had the opportunity to dive there had a blast and those of us watching them enjoyed the show.  We then traveled to Venice Beach where we spent a dive in search of ancient shark teeth and I managed to find 9 within 20 minutes, 9 more than I found during the entire trip last semester.

The rest of the trip was eventful and enjoyable but will be sadly scratched from the record in the interest of hitting other parts of my life.

I am helping to head up the Science Diving Club at the university, something that has been in the works for over a year but lacking the resources and time to be put together officially.  The time has finally come and I am on the forefront.  There has been more than just talk about turning the classroom portion of the class I help teach into an online course.  I have been the driving force behind it and there are many reasons we want to do it.  Our program has been referred to as a bottleneck since we can safely only have 12 students per semester.  The plan is to turn the lectures into online modules which would give us enough time to offer twice as many in-water training sessions (which is the limiting factor - student/instructor ratio) and thus work through twice as many students.  It has a long way to go but I feel very empowered to be the one pushing the envelope for creative and resourceful ways to expand the program.

I was talking to a friend of mine recently and over the course of a long conversation was able to lay out very clearly an important observation which I will simplify for you all here.  I am exactly where I need to be.  I wake up every morning excited to go to work and it would take a lot to get me to give that away.  I feel important, useful, appreciated, and happy and I couldn't ask for more.  Praise God.

I'm going to Little Salt Spring tonight with the diving class and we will be there until Sunday.  Once we return I will be able to post about it.  Perhaps it won't be as exciting as last time but I expect it to be equally as fun even though this time I'm doing it for work rather than for credit.  Pictures and stories to come next week.  Until then, enjoy the changing seasons everyone!

Real World

As of today I am officially a full-time employee of the University of Miami!

Thoughts and Plans

Being certified to dive with helium, teaching the college science diving course, getting trained to go cave diving, learning to dive on a rebreather, taking and then teaching the boating course, and diving in various locations around Florida and the Caribbean are all things that are potentially in my future.  All of these things have been presented to me as plans, not mere possibilities.  The prospect of these opportunities is what is keeping me very securely hooked into this position.  As I mentioned in a very recent post, I need regular stimulation in order to keep me satisfied.  If there was no promise of great excitement and benefit, I would be thinking about sending my resume out to distant corners of the earth and hopping on another plane.  I look back on my year of scuba instructing with a particular longing.  However, even if I went to do the same thing tomorrow, it wouldn't be the same.  I'm a different person now with different skills, experiences, and wisdom that I did not have last time.  It would lack a distinct thrill that it presented the first time around.
This topic is relevant because I was reminded today about a friend of mine who graduated this past spring from UM and landed a job on a liveaboard in Palau.  It is a country that has been on my list for 2 years but was too much of a risk to fly to without the promise of a job.  The internal monologue is simply the result of me reasoning with myself that it would be foolish to try repeating it.  Frankly there are some days that I really do wish I could be on a remote island with locals, fresh fish, and no worries in the world.  It usually happens when I'm sitting in rush hour traffic taking 40 minutes to drive the 10 minutes to get to my house from either campus.

Good ol' Sunshine State

Speaking of driving, I got my license plate changed today so now I'm pretty much a real Floridian.  I tried to get the plate that said Save Our Seas and had a shark on it but it turns out those cost about 80 bucks and then another 25/year to have.  No thank you.

On the job front, I'm very nearly official.  I'll keep the blog updated on my employment status which SHOULD change sometime around Monday.  Stay tuned!

Photo: http://www.15q.net/fl.html