My new pal, Charley

Like many people, I grew up always wanting a tattoo but was never certain what I would want permanently inked onto my skin. For years, I watched as tattoos became increasingly ubiquitous among those in my “millennial” generation, from ankle dolphins, barbed wired biceps, tribal patterns, Chinese characters, and the tramp stamp.  As an observer, it seemed that many people took less care and thought with these external visual representations on their bodies than with their daily attire. I am glad I waited.

When I saw the art for my tattoo, it was love at first sight. I discovered it in the most unexpected context, in a children’s ABC book at a friend’s house. As soon as I saw the illustration for the letter “S,” I knew that I found what I had been waiting for all this time, two beautiful little snails.

But why a snail? I had recently identified the snail as my “spirit animal,” an animal with which you identify your personality and inner emotions. For me, this wasn’t a selection process as much as a realization, and one day it dawned on me that snails represent facets of my personality that I really value.  Snails move with deliberation and are capable of covering great distances. They are self-reliant, having their home on their back, and may be a little introverted because of that. They create a growing spiral shell; spirals are one of my favorite intersections of math, nature, and art. So, really, a snail makes perfect sense for me.

Before committing to a tattoo, I had to determine a couple of things. First, I wanted to make sure that I loved seeing my art as much in the long term as I did that first day.  I bought myself the ABC book, opened it to the illustration, and sat it on our bookshelf.  I looked at it every day for months, and sometimes I would just zone out and stare at the two snails upon the page. Next, I began to ask myself where I would put a tattoo on my body.  

The question of where to tattoo was a challenging one. I do not have a particular part of my body that I want to highlight with art, so there was no obvious choice. Also, I wanted to be able to see my tattoo, so places like my back or shoulder were not up for consideration. I had decided my first tattoo should definitely be outside of the “employment zone.” I pondered this question over several months that also saw me battling with my bum ankle with even surgery as a consideration.

Then I realized that I could use my tattoo to make a part of my body that I hated lovable.  My right foot causes me so much pain and disappointment, from the pain of my ankle that keeps me from doing many things I love, to the flatness of my foot so I can’t wear cute shoes, to the irritating eczema that makes my toes itch and burn.  This hated foot needed something to love about it, like beautiful artwork.

I began to daydream about having a snail on my foot. I started noticing other foot tattoos and liked them on others. I thought about placing the tattoo on my foot so that it appears the snail is leading the way. I liked the contrast of my bony deformed foot being graced by a gastropod that glides along on its invertebrate “stomach-foot,” traveling without ever taking a step. I had finally made up my mind.

Once I decided on what tattoo to get and where to place it, I felt like it needed to have some significance as a life moment. When I filed the paperwork for my Master’s degree, I didn’t feel excited at all. If anything, it felt like I was only highlighting how much time I needed before I would finally be finished with school. But I will never forget the day I got it. I picked it up from the administrative office on campus and decided to open it up in the lobby. I got tears in my eyes when I saw my name on the parchment. I had come so far to get to that point, with so much help from so many people. It made me miss Mom, who I knew would be extremely happy and proud. So, even though it’s not an end point, receiving my first advanced degree had an unexpected importance for me. I decided this achievement was the perfect occasion to commemorate with my first tattoo.

Picking my tattoo artist was easy. While Memphis has many talented artists, I have been a huge fan of the work of Tony Max from No Regrets who did all the work on my pal, Ben Dickey. I had admired the quality of Ben’s art since I met him, so I knew that’s who I wanted to do my work. I thought I could just breeze in and make an appointment for a couple of days later. I had to schedule almost three months out. An artist in demand is far from a bad thing in my opinion, and I was happy to wait and go with someone I trusted even before I met him.

After nearly a year of pondering and three months of waiting, the day arrived to get my tattoo. I was a little nervous because I had heard that foot tattoos are especially painful. I was also worried that I wouldn’t be able to get work done on my foot because of the eczema (thankfully, this was not an issue). Andrew went with me for moral support, which was appreciated. Tony sat me down and talked with me about sizing and positioning of the line drawing he had prepared. Then he transferred his drawing onto my foot to provide a guide for his work. He asked if I wanted to keep the colors like those in the original art, which I did. Then he squirted out different pigments – black, dark green, red, orange, yellow, white – into little plastic wells, got out two tattoo guns and inserted different sized needles. Finally. It was show time.

While getting the tattoo was obviously not without pain, the end result was definitely worth it. I sat back as Tony began the snail’s outline and was surprised that the pain was not more intense. It was more of a persistent stinging sensation. After the outline, coloring in the snail was a bit more painful, but it was fascinating to watch. As Tony mixed the pigments and laid the ink into my skin, he left behind beauty. After about an hour, he was finished. I was astonished. My skin now bears a work of art. On my hated foot, now there’s a beautiful snail that I absolutely love. My eyes teared up with complete joy and satisfaction. It was really a special moment.

At last, after acquiring my permanent artwork, I felt my snail needed a fitting name. As with most things I do, I took some time to think about this aspect of my new lifelong companion. After a few days, I decided on the only name I had even really considered because I liked it so much.  I named my snail Charley.

I was principally inspired by the name of the artist who drew my snail as an illustration in an ABC children’s book, Charley Harper. Mr. Harper was an interesting artist based in Cincinnati who’s primary subjects were wildlife, which he portrayed in a minimalistic and bold style that captures a whimsical element that completely captivates me.  In addition, my favorite author, John Steinbeck, wrote an autobiographical novel called Travels with Charley, that is among my favorites. In Steinbeck's case, Charley was a poodle. But I like the concept of traveling with my own Charley. Also, there's a great Grateful Dead song, “Cosmic Charley” (how do you do?), that I really love, and I enjoy the cosmic connection. Finally and closest to my heart, my grandfather was called Charlie by his peers, and I like thinking that I am reaching out toward his energy of pioneering and love for his family. In all, I think it's a pretty swell name for my new pal, Charley.

I am so pleased with Charley. I love waking up and seeing a snail on my foot or glancing down at glimpsing Charley peeking out from the hem of my jeans. I love that, when my ankle is aching so bad I can’t sleep or my eczema itching so bad I could scream, I can immediately see something positive about my plagued paw. I love not just being the bearer of art, which feels more profound than I would have ever guessed, but also that the art is actually a part of me, which feels really significant and is something that I hadn’t really considered before Charley.  I love my new friend and look forward to many journeys ahead with him leading the way with beauty and deliberation.

Charley has a sister. The same illustration has another amazing little snail that I hope to get tattooed one day. I think getting my doctorate would be a momentous enough occasion, but I will wait and know that I will recognize the right time when it comes. Until then, I will keep putting one foot in front of the other and appreciate the joy each day brings.

Charley, created 10/29/2102

The biggest, tallest, oldest tree

I just returned from attending the South Central Chapter meeting of the Society of Wetland Scientists in Fort Worth, Texas. The conference was a great success, but that is not the subject of this post.

A peaceful start to the day with Venus
Mustang Park, Benbrook Lake, Benbrook, TX
19 October 2012

I camped by a lake outside of Fort Worth to save money and because I really enjoy camping. The first night was nearly empty and totally serene, complete with howling coyotes, hooting owls, flopping fish, and shooting stars. After spending 14 hours at the conference the next day, I returned to find a much different vibe at the campground, with a large family reunion in full swing near the entrance and an extensive campsite set up by mine with a van, a car, and a pickup truck.

The too-loud country radio station playing from the neighbor's pickup truck didn't really bother me; I just put on some music for myself at an appropriate volume. The mostly ignored little kids seemed to be entertaining themselves just fine, riding their bikes around and shrieking until after 10pm or so. I admit I was a little worried when the mom pulled up in the car and then jumped out and yelled at one of them because she almost hit him with the car; I'm thinking, "Slow down, lady - it's a campground and you know your kids are running around unsupervised."  Eventually, my tunes and the sound of the lapping waves on the shore soothed me, as did a few beers. By midnight, I was sufficiently tired enough to drown out their music and conversation and laughter.

I awoke with a start at 4am sharp to the sound of a couple's argument. I lay there thinking they'd shut up so I could go back to sleep but quickly assessed that was a hopeless strategy. So I decided to go visit the bathroom. Surely when they hear and see my get up, I thought to myself, they will get their agrument tamped down by the time I get back from the bathroom. Wrong.

As I returned to the site, I finally heard enough to catch the gist of the disagreement:  The guy is going on about how some tree is the biggest, tallest, and oldest in the world. The woman is disagreeing about some point of this, who knows what. What? They were arguing loud enough to wake me from a sound sleep about some freaking tree? And they were not shutting up at all.

When I got to my campsite, I snapped.

I turned their way and called out, "For the record, the oldest tree, the tallest tree, and the largest tree are three different species."

The woman called back, "What's your point?"

"It's just my contribution as a scientist."

Angrily, she yelled, "You wanna come contribute something over here?"

"What I want to do is sleep!" I shouted and stalked back to my tent.

I heard them laughing and the incredulous phrase "tree scientist" as I realized I was too pissed off to go back to sleep and didn't want them coming over and peeing on my tent while I was in it. So I broke down my camp in about 10 minutes and loaded up my car. I considered waiting until the office opened at 6am before leaving so I could report their rude behavior to the ranger. But I didn't feel vindictive enough to wait around for an hour with so many miles of travel ahead of me before I made it back to Memphis.

The positive side of this incident, other than getting home hours earlier than I'd planned, was that I enjoyed sunrise with fossilized dinosaur footprints in the Paluxy River streambed at Dinosaur Valley State Park. I'd planned this side excursion to close my Texas adventure and really enjoyed watching the stars disappear as the sun came up and illuminated the prehistoric treasures at my feet. No matter what reason got me there so early, I wound up having a really special time.



Sunrise, sauropod trackway, my foot and theropod track, Paluxy River

Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose, TX

20 October 2012



Life is good

It would be impossible to adequately recap everything since April with my limited time. But, I can say that life has never been better. The summer was productive with data collection and analysis. We had a great visit with Madison that kicked off with a trip to Orlando for Andrew's birthday in June and concluded with a trip to St. Louis for my birthday in July. During our anniversary trip to Red River Gorge in Kentucky over Labor Day weekend, Madison decided to move back to Memphis. She is doing great with the transition and with dealing with the fallout from people's hurt feelings as a result  of her decision. I am so happy to be in a situation where I can give her lots of time and support and nurturing because, everyone knows, being a teenager isn't easy and learning how to be an adult can have its growing pains.

Today, I received my actual Master's degree. I almost cried when I saw it. I am very proud. This weekend, I set out for EcoSummit 2012 in Columbus, Ohio. This feels like it will be an important event in my life. Serendipity strikes again, and I will be spending the week with Dr. Yamamoto and Fumiko who are also going to the conference, although our tandem attendance was unplanned. While I am gone, Melissa will defend her dissertation, leaving me as the last Pezeshki nestling. I am a year from doing exactly what she is doing. It all feels right. I don't know what's going to happen next, but I know that I am ready and willing to accept the opportunities the universe bestows.

That is all for now, and that is enough.

A moment to catch my breath

2012 is one-fourth over. That seems impossible. I guess time has been flying while I've been having fun.

The first three months of the year have intense but enjoyable. In mid-January, I was lucky enough to see two lectures by Noam Chomsky, both of which were fascinating and inspiring. Andrew had an intense work trip to France's Loire Valley for a week with another instructor and 26 students. He had a great time, but he was pretty exhausted when he got back. While he was gone, I cleaned and organized the kitchen. It was a serious undertaking, but it's been generally successful, so it was worth it. We visited Louisville during the President Day weekend and had a great time visiting Maddi and the Carter crew during a quick visit. Our combined gang and Emily and her two kiddos went to The Eggroll Machine for an epic dinner. It was a fun time. Since February, I've been actively observing the movements of the planets in the night sky. It's been really awesome to see the universe's treasures, watching their movements, and feeling connected to the human collective past in marveling at the the beautiful sights in the night sky. At the end of Spring Break, Andrew and I went to St. Louis for a couple of days of fun centered around the Radiohead concert for which I got tickets at Christmas. We had a great time including a life-changing visit to the City Museum, a fun food foray on the Hill, and a stop by Woodhenge and the Cahokia Mounds, not to mention the excellent show. Immediately upon return to Memphis, I helped host the Japanese scientists during a quick visit to the city. It was a hectic visit, but their objective of scouting potential research plots in the area was met. It was also fun to see my old friends and daydream about future collaborations. I've had some other fun times sprinkled in there too, like seeing the public launch of our friends' business enterprise, Dickey Heirloom Farms, at the Botanic Garden plant sale, going with Sam and Justin to see a Phil and friends show at the Brookhaven, going to the National Ornamental Metal Museum, attending a lovely reception for our friends, Sean and Anne, and hanging out with Maddi here in Memphis during her Spring Break. She loved her room renovation which turned out pretty awesome. We had a great time having her here, even if it was too short.

Where does the time go?

Despite reminding myself to post on here over and over again, I still haven't made it here before now.  I've been thinking of the year end post that I would post, but here it is a week into February, and I guess that aspiration is no longer relevant.  Instead, I will recap some of the things I was planning to put in my year end post.

Since my last post, I've stayed busy as usual. I went to Louisville to visit Madison and the Kentucky contingent a few days before Thanksgiving.  It was a quick fun visit that included going to a Railroad Earth show at Headliner's with Carter and Rachel, visiting Grandma with Maddi and Carter's crew, and taking Noah to the Louisville Sciene Center.  Thanksgiving was an enjoyable event at Missy's featuring Andrew's highly successful fried turkey, which somewhat controversial in the planning stages.  Madison visited Memphis for a few days then.  It was great to have her here.  While she was visiting, we went to Seize the Clay and painted a bunch of ornaments and Christmas gifts.  We had a lot of fun, and the gifts were a great success when Christmas rolled around.  The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas was characterized by a major organizational effort on my part (with help and support from Andrew) to get the house in order.  I did manage to make significant progress that has held up so far. 

The Christmas season got under way big way.  Madison, Andrew, and I were going to visit Dad, Michelle, and the boys, and we were taking Noah along because he's my favorite pal.  Meanwhile, Carter got a working interview lined up at a ski resort in West Virginia.  It wasn't terribly far out of the way for us to "drop off" Carter at the mountain, but the road was very, very windy, and it was cold, snowy, and got dark in the 1.5 hour it took from when we left the interstate to get to the resort.  We got Carter squared away and headed the rest of the distance to Virginia Beach.  It was a long drive, but it was totally worth it.  The next day, Jamie, Selma, Chris, and Tony came to Dad's for Christmas dinner.  I was so happy to be with everyone, and, especially, to see everyone really enjoy each other.  It had been too long since we had gotten together like that.  Jamie and his crew had to head back the next day, and we stayed for a couple more days.  We got to see Dad play music with his band at a Jewell Jam, visit Sandbridge, and go to the Virginia Marine Science Museum, my perennial favorite and a place that influenced my love of and fascination with nature from an early age.  It was a great visit that packed in a lot of happy times.  "On our way home," we stopped and picked up Carter from the ski resort and headed back to Louisville.  Team Saunders continued on to Memphis the next day, but before getting on the road, we had breakfast with Maddi's boyfriend, Quinton. 

I was happy to be home again; we were all off and together and Christmas was just days away.  Christmas day came and we spent the morning at Missy's, the afternoon at Vicki's, and the evening together.  The next day, I was back on the road to Kentucky to take Madison home.  I had to compromise to work out Madison's time with Jerry's brother visiting from Kansas and their Christmas plans so that I could take Madison to visit Grandma at Christmas.  Fortunately, it all worked out for the best.  After dropping of Maddi, I stopped by my old friend Tommie's house.  It had been alomst 10 years since I last saw him, and I was so happy to my friend hanging in there with his same attitude and personality.  From Kentucky, I headed to Monteagle.

I arrived in Monteagle on the 27th, and Andrew was joining me after a couple of days to spend New Year's together.  Unfortunately, the heater was broken in the bedrooms, and there was a cold snap.  The repairman had to order the part from the factory which took several days.  I got a couple of space heaters, and those along with the fireplace made things pleasant enough for the first couple days.  When Andrew got there, we had a great time.  We hiked and hung out and went to Modern Dave's for New Year's Eve dinner.  We got to see the Northcutts when they came up the mountain to meet us for brunch on Andrew's last day.  I hiked almost every day I was there, twice at Stone Door, one long burly hike at Fall Creek Falls, and just a bit on the Sewanee campus where there's some of the most scenic hikes anywhere on the mountain.  On my last night, I watched a fantastic meteor shower.  Thank goodness it was good because the night before the pipes had frozen at the house despite leaving the faucets on a slow drip as prevention.  It was a pretty major debacle, but, on the whole, I had a great time clearing my head and making plans for the new year.

When I got back from Memphis, I had clocked around 3,300 miles on the road since Thanksgiving in about 3 weeks.  I've never been so happy to be home, with no travel plans in the immediate future.  In the new year, I've been implementing my strategies I devised for acheiving my goals, and I am pleased to say that I am finding a surprising amount of momentum with my progress on all fronts.  I've been closely monitoring my diet and have found a friend in the recumbent bike at the YMCA.  I've been working like all get out on that manuscript (no, Dr. Pezeshki didn't get it as a Christmas gift like I'd hoped).  Then, suddenly, Dr. Pezeshki decided I should take his comprehensive questions as soon as possible, as in this week.  I am glad to be getting it done with but it has been quite a sudden change of plans.  I can't complain as I need to get this behind me and prepare for the growing season that is already upon us.