Day Thirteen

First off, I would like to apologize for the string of late posts.  It is partly because I have been falling asleep earlier without intending too, partly because I'm lazy, and partly because I forget to do so.  I need to write more consistently so that posting about my day is in my blood.  I'm also sorry that many of the posts are very repetitive, but this is a bit out of my control.  Unlike last year, I'm working on my own (for the most part), so I really don't have any stories of interactions with colleagues.  I'm also more experienced, so I am not as frustrated or determined to conquer ID's as last summer.  I also know what to expect more, so there are also really no twists or turns or me needing to vent my feelings.  My roommates all tend to keep to themselves for the most part too, so no fun stories involving them yet.  Now onto my day.

Channeling my inner Advisor, I wore my new polo today (98% of the shirts I've seen in him are polos).  I went to work and worked on editing the PowerPoint that accompanies the talk I'm going to give eventually.  Then I went about confirming if the Systoechus we have are actually that genus, because I was having some doubts.  I took lots of pictures with the webcam attached to the microscope, so I can compare dried identified Neartic specimens to the alcohol ones.  That was kind of useless, because The Doc came in and confirmed that they were Systoechus (because she also had her doubts about them as well).  After this, I went through the Systropus and wrote a semi-detailed account of each variety we had.  Spoiler alert, there are three.  But two of them look very similar, so I want The Doc to look at them to confirm that I am seeing two different species, not differences within a species.  Prior to this, I made the poor choice of purchasing an iced coffee to go with my PB&J sandwich.  The coffee made me slightly shakey and my arm muscles felt twitchy, so handling the flies a little nerve racking.  And for the first time the muscles where my neck meets my shoulders became pretty sore, which had never happened.  They're still sore, I'm hoping a hot shower will loosen them up.  After the Systropus sorting I went through Bee flies of the world to key out the small black flies that The Doc thought were phthiriine.  I wound up on Bombylius, and two genera found in Australia that were later renamed Bombylius.  Definitely something to show The Doc.

After work I came home, messed around on my laptop, made dinner, and here I am writing this blog.  I'm sorry this post isn't more exciting, but my day was not that exciting.  Dr. Student had texted me last night, telling me to wear my sneakers because he was going to bring me to check his insect traps today.  That never happened, and I was a little disappointed.  I love doing field work and a day outside would have been nice.  Oh well, maybe next time.