Congrats, Goodbye & Good Luck!

A big congratulations to Laura & Ryan, who've survived their very last semester at CSULB and have finally earned their BS in Marine Biology, YAY! And for the rest of my Hawaii buddies-- JoAnn, Jen, and Chase--congrats on finishing up your finals and hang in there, you guys will finish soon enough! (Trust me, you don't want to rush into the real world too soon, lol) I'm excited for Laura that she's done and gets to move on with her life, but I'm also really bummed to be losing my happy hour & weekend buddy! Gone, are the days where I ride my pink cruiser over to her house to convince her to go to happy hour with me. Gone, are the nights I have to drag her off the club's stage on the Thursday 80s nights. Oh, they were fun times. I will definitely have to try to visit her in Australia when she's there for Grad School (BTW, Haley--Laura's planning on going to JCU for grad school. If I visit her, it will be so weird being on the campus again! And, I can't believe we were leaving this time 3 years ago!) So again, to Laura & Ryan, congrats and good luck in all that you do! And goodbye to Laura, who will be moving home Monday, I'll miss you!

Holiday Celebrations

I had the pleasure of enjoying the Holidays several times this past weekend. First was the Education Department's annual X-mas boat cruise (aka booze cruise) around the Long Beach Harbor. Next was the 4th day of Hanukkah party, thrown by my two self-proclaimed pseudo-jewish coworkers Nemesia and Alie (I couldn't bring myself to try the build-a-fish, oops, I mean Gifelte fish, but the latkes were excellent.) Then came the yummy X-mas dinner party at Micah and Wendy's place (which was followed by a fun game of cranium!) Check out some pics on my photos page--"My Photoblog" under the Links section, in the column on the right, for those of you who haven't noticed yet.

Hope everyone is doing well! For those of you finishing up finals, good luck! For those of you finishing up your Christmas shopping, good luck! Happy Holidays! Love, me.

Shark Deaths

One night a few weeks ago, three thirteen and fourteen-year-old boys snuck into the Aqurium I work at and killed a bamboo shark, a nurse shark, and a cownose ray, and injured a number of other sharks. It was very sad for everyone who works there, and for the guests that love our animals. Fortunately, the boys were caught and arrested and charged. I just wanted to share a moving essay written by a student the same age as the boys who committed the crime. Click on "Shark Essay" under my Links section to read it. This was just one of a few hundred essays that was submitted to the Aquarium.