What doesn't kill me...

I'm taking a quick break from studying to mention that I'm still here. Busier than hell, but I'm still here. In addition to schoolwork (including homework for a class I'm not even officially taking... yeah, I know, but it's a good class), I've started a leaf litter decomposition study in a number of local springs (which means three full field days between this past Monday and next, plus lots and lots of lab work). And then there's the presentation I'm giving to the Salt River Watershed Watch tomorrow night, and grant proposals, and stressing about procedures for assessing microbial biomass and community composition on leaf disks and worrying about my graduate committee and research plans and everything else under the sun, and... thud. (That's the sound of me collapsing in an exhausted heap.) My trip to Santa Fe for the ASLO Aquatic Sciences Meeting the week after next will be a welcome break. And yeah, even that's school-related.

Here's photographic evidence of how hardworking I've been lately:

Here I am retrieving a leaf bag from one of my study sites. The smudge on my butt is a lovely mixture of mud and bovine excrement. And no, said butt is not as huge in real life as it is in waders.