Treacherous Voyages -- Physical and Mental

In case you're wondering, I'm the busty gal in the black dress in the middle.

It's been a pretty long summer. I made it through the first semester of my Masters degree with a 4.0 gpa. As it turns out, that is pretty much all I have to say about May through July. I was worked to death both for my classes and doing research for professors. But the last two weeks have actually been pretty nice.

Last weekend I went on a bike trip with a group of folks to Dauphin Island. We left on Friday morning, rode about sixty miles to Fort Morgan, hopped on a fairy to Dauphin Island and made camp at about six in the evening. Of course, along the way there were stops at the Flora-Bama (yeah, it's pretty much as lame as it sounds) and some Mexican restaurant for lunch (yeah, it was an even worse idea than it sounds like). Then, for no apparent reason, we woke up early on Saturday and headed back to Pensacola. All told, I rode about 120 miles in two days. From this I learned a few things.

1. I need a more comfortable seat on my bike.
2. Waiters in family style Mexican restaurants are not polite to people who smell like dirty socks.
3. There is a nerve in your palm that, if pressed against a solid surface such as a handlebar for extended periods of time, can prevent you from having any feeling in your pinky or ring finger. Seriously, I am only now starting to be able to feel my pinky finger.
4. Bike tires will fail in rapid succession during torrential downpours in the last 10 miles of a long journey.

Yep, it was a pretty good time.

In other news, I am so awesome that the Department of Government awarded me a position in the "Teaching Academy." Essentially, this a new program (paid for by stimulus money) that will pay me to (under the mentorship of a professor) develop and teach a class to undergraduates. So a year from now, I will actually be teaching Intro to American Politics at UWF. Meanwhile, they are still paying about half of my tuition. Even better, I don't have to work in the office anymore. Exciting eh?


p.s. You might as well go ahead and order my nameplate for the Fantasy bobble-head this year. With Brett Favre in Minnesota, teams will have to think twice before stacking 8 in the box to stop the run. Adrian Peterson is about to go crazy.