Just when I thought things could not get any more stressfull

This week I have been extremly stressed out with a multitude of things, getting into grad school, signing up for GRE's, passing classes and others. So on Tuesday, I felt as though nothing else could be possibly worse than how I was feeling. Then while I was TAing the intro Geo lab, Justin walks in and said " I need to talk to you in the hall." Oh boy what could this be? There in the hall Justin tells me that him, I and three other people have been permenantly banned from dino camp. Yes, Banned.
So here is the events that lead up to this banishment. Last school year, Justin, I and some fellow dino staffers had decided to kick-start our paleontologist's research by starting it up ourselfs. We decided to submit a poster for the SVP meeting that we are leaving for shortly. It was a simple poster on the general ecology of the area in the time of our dinos that we study, nothing big, or terribly exciting becaue everyone knows it was tropical. So we submitted it and got accepted. We went to dino camp last summer and told her what we did, and she got really mad. We are not really sure why but we think it's because we actually did something that she could have done for years. So we told her that we would retract the poster, everyone made up and everything was hunky-dory when we left...or so we thought.
Justin contacted SVP several times to make sure that the poster was retracted and finally they replied saying that it was. But, when the abstract book came out for this coming meeting...our poster was in it. So, we were not very happy about that but justin had emailed her earlier and told her that the poster was retracted so there was nothing to worry about...or so we thought.
Well, now about two months later, on tuesday she sent out a vicious email, not only to the people that were involved with the poster but all the staff memebers and a few other regulars to the camp, proclaiming that we were all banned from camp and it basically told everyone what horrible people we were for having a poster submitted to SVP without her permission, even though she well knows that it was retracted but failed to mention that point. She embellished several points to make us sound like we were intentionally trying to hurt her. She just generally made us sound like people with no morals at all.
Well this caused a huge uproar from those involved, several phone called among us and a short and cold reply was made, not by us, but another bannished one who told our version of the events.
This just makes me very sad, because this is the place that I met Justin at, and where he proposed to me and i'll never get to see it again.

Early Birthday present and upcoming trips

When it comes to Justin in giving or receiving presents, patience is not his best virtue. My Birthday is not for another 15 days(but who's counting right?) Anyways last night we were at a study group for Structural Geology and for whatever reason, he mentions that he already has my birthday present. My ears perked up, What! You have my present already?! Then he said yeah and you can have it when ever you want. Oh, the pressure, excitement and wonder filled my head. Do I wait until my birthday (I'll be in Denver at the time, I'll talk about that in a bit) or do I cave in and want it right now? So on the way home from the homework session. He told me if I wanted my present that night he'd have to stop at the store and get the rest of it. Oh there's more! I exclaim in delight, of course I want my present tonight. Justin and his parents had gone intogether and got me a PINK iPod Mini!! I had adored those tiny mp3 players since they had come out and I love their fun commercials, so at this time I was basically doing my happy dance in the car which was probably quite a site to see. So we stopped at Target and picked up the Dock that charges/transfers music then we went home and I got to play with my new toy. So ever since last night I've been downloading CD's into iTunes and putting them onto my new mini. It's so sweet.
This fall and winter I'm going on two fun trips. In about I think it's 12 days now, Justin and I are going to Denver for the annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meeting. This is where dino geeks from all over the country get together for three days, we listen to talks all day till 5 on the newest findings on all things paleo. When the clock strikes 5, it's time to hit the bar. I think what happens is that all these researchers and professors spend all year on their research and are totally immersed into their work, but once they get to the meetings they just totally let go and party. Last year on the last night, there is a big reward dinner followed by a party. I guess it got so rowdy after we finally left that the cops were called because there were people were playing Frisbee in the street. So, on the way to Denver we first have to drive down to MO. pick up our friend Alyssa and we're also taking a freshman, new to the department. He really likes dinos so we thought it be a good idea to introduce him to the meetings so he can see what he's getting himself into. =) So I'm sure when I get back I'll have some good stories/pictures to share.
Now finally, this Christmas break I'm taking Amtrak out to Seattle to visit my friend Jeni and her 6 month old Emma. I just bought the tickets today and they are less than half of what a plane ticket would be, but then I'm traveling a lot longer to, but the price was to good to pass up and now that i have my iPod, which has a 30 hour battery life, I will be entertained for the trip. So Rayna, if you're going to be in Renton for Christmas let me know..I'll be there from Dec 30-Jan 6.

End of week review

I have been so busy this last week, that I now finally have time for a breather and to write in my blog. Everyone of my classes are stressin me out. I don't have enough time for homework and I'm alway tired from working the early morning shifts which then free up the afternoon and evening for homework.
Yesterday, something dreadful happened. It snowed. Yes, it has already begun. Thankfully they were the tiny flakes and the melted right away but this is still worrysome. We had a really mild summer out here in the great plains so the general idea is this winter is going to be very cold.
Tonight, Justin and I are actually going out, we are going with our friend Sarah and her b/f Ryan. We have not been out enjoying the night life in ages. Usually one of us has to work early in the morning. I've been up since 4am, but i'm surprisingly awake. I think it's because I know I'll be doing something other than homework or Sims 2.
Well I popped in Legally Blonde so I better go watch it now and wait for Justin to get home from work and for Sarah & Ryan to come over. Later!

Raynas Question

Rayna sent me this dinosaur article and she asked me a question about the feathers it had so I'll try my best to explain it.
Fossil remains have been found in China of the oldest and smallest ancestor to the T.rex, he was given the name Dilong paradoxus, meaning "surprising dragon", i'm just going to call him Dilong. Both specimens that were found, have what seem to be proto feathers that covered the body.
So Rayna asked how can this t.rex line start with feathers and end with the non-feathered T.rex while the new idea is that birds evolved from dinosaurs.
Ok, what the Diong has is called Proto feathers. They are the early stages of feathers, all they would be used for is insulation. Since the Dilong that were found ranged in the 5 foot region, smaller bodies could have used these proto feathers for a sourse of warmth. As time went on, dinosaurs got bigger along with our t.rex line. Proto feathers were no longer used because by the time they had gotten to T.rex size they actually wanted to get rid of heat so they evolved the scaley skin. Some people thing that T.rexs young may have had a feather coating to keep warm.
Now there were other dinosaurs that are thought to have had feathers, a new idea is that some of the raptors had feathers on thier bodies if you watch any of the Walking with Dinosaur specials on Discovery Channel, you will see the little guys running around with feathers. Justin told me that it is believed that some of the smaller therapods (meat eaters) may have evolved to birds but that is a huge controversial debate.
So while T.rex evolved away from feathers by growing larger, many others develped feathers which may have lead to the present day bird.
I hope this helped Rayna!

Here is a beautiful lower jaw that another student found. Right now it is thought to be Rhino, and if it is, it will be the first found in the Golden Valley formation. It's been preped a bit and it's in pretty good shape. The pointy looking object just below the jaws is one of it's canine teeth. 

Here is our friend Dan, he's a bit of a goof so when he found this shallow pipe he thought he'd have some fun. This was taken on the hottest day out there, and a good laugh was definetly needed. 

Here is my poor foot on the first day of field. We were climbing down and very steep and narrow gully, when I stepped on what I thought was an almost dry mud puddle, my foot dropped in this mud pit and this resulted. My shoe never did quite recover after that, I'm still picking mud off them. 

My week so far and cool geology

Well, last night I had a great long blog all ready to go. I clicked on spell check and my window closes..no more blog. Argh, that was really annoying.
Anyways, I just finished with a Structural Geology test and unfortunately I missed a few things. The answers were posted on the bulletin board outside the class, so we all right away got to see how we did. I missed a few easy points on not remembering some vocabulary, bummer. Well I didn't count up my points so hopefully I did ok.
That was the only major thing planned this week, test or quiz wise so now I have to start writing my Field paper. Dr.Ashworth wants the stratigraphy of all the formations written up by Monday. So it will be interesting to see how I can accomplish this task.
Cool geology in the news is of course that Mount St. Helens has been blowing some steam and ash quite regulaly. Supposedly, lava is on its way up so it would be really neat to see that baby go. If there is an explosion, it is doubted that it will be anywhere near the size of explosion from the 1980 catastrophe. The current dome inside the crater is no-where the size of the dome was in 1980, the closest structures to the mountain are 5 miles which are visitor centers and I think a few houses.
Well thats it for now!