The Best Of It…

Well, I guess I should say I tried to make the best of the rest of my day…that was a lot of of’s.  Haha!

Anyhow…my work day didn’t actually start until around 1pm and I finally got home around 8.  It may have only been 7 hours, but it was 7 hours that left me in a FOUL MOOD.  Luckily I’ve got some peanut M&M’s to whip me out of that funk!

Anyhow, did everyone check out my post from this morning about Weakness?  Thanks for all the suggestions for why I might not feel up to par.  I’m going to look into all of them to see if I can figure something out!  I’m tired of feeling like I can’t do anything and don’t have the strength!

I spent the morning getting some stuff done and settled on some lunch before heading out into the field.  I was excited for the fruit part because I was going to try a new variety of mango for me: CHAMPAGNE!  I’ve never seen nor heard of these so when I saw them at WF last weekend for a dollar a piece I couldn’t pass it up.  I mean, who doesn’t like a ripe mango, right?!

HOLY. MONSTER.  This mango was seriously one of the best I have had in a while!  I know I was eating some good ones earlier in the year but as of now…I’m still daydreaming about this beauty!  It was just the right firmness and the sweetness was absolutely perfect. I could not have asked for a better mango.  I want to make it sound like a diamond because it was that astounding.  No joke.

Ok, that probably makes me sound crazy..

Anyhow, for the base of lunch I had the same thing I had the other night with my leftover eggplant, artichoke, tomato, lettuce and Cabot Seriously Sharp Cheddar Cheese.  This wrap is beyond extraordinary to me…like I said before…I didn’t want it to end…and I want more stomachs so I can eat more of them!

 

I wasn’t feeling as full as I would have liked after lunch so I had two handfuls of my trail mix…this stuff never lasts around me.  I seriously need to never have it around!

And just before we left, knowing I would be way too dirty to want to eat out in the field, I had a very ripe pear with a tablespoon of Sunbutter.  Was as great a combo as apples or bananas and PB/AB!

The rest of the afternoon/evening was walking through some very very deep swamps and tagging trials to nests...

and getting eaten by a lot of mosquitoes.  It was very unpleasant for a while, if you can’t tell from my reaction in the picture.  They were horrid!

Brit thought so too.

But in the midst of all the muck, getting the living everything scared out of me when we scared a gator very close by INTO the water, being completely soaked, getting bitten by unseen creatures/bugs and becoming covered in bird crap…we found some nests!

(coworker checking for some eggs…)

And I took the time to cherish the environment I was in by just listening.  The wind was blowing pretty hard today (up to 30 mph gusts and stead at ~22-23 mph) so the trees were swaying with it…and the sound, is so insanely peaceful I wish I could record it.  Maybe I can…we’ll see.  There will be many more days like this before I leave so I’ll make sure to take the time to just listen and be reminded…of all the good things.  It actually reminded me a lot of Australia and how the rainforest sounds with the wind in the canopy…so peaceful!

Like I said, I was in a foul mood by the time I got home; it was a combo of many things but I’m getting to bed early tonight in hopes I’ll feel better tomorrow morning when I fly!

After a very thorough clean up (scrub away all the leaves/moss/tree parts stuck to my legs under my pants) I wanted a simple and plain dinner…eggs it is!

I sautéed some bell pepper, chickpeas and artichoke hearts together then added two eggs and some tomatoes at the end.  I paired it with a piece of sourdough bread to finish it off…

And to make my smile just that much brighter I just finished off a nice sweet naval orange from California (go figure, I have to be in FL to find good oranges from CA.  What?! ) and a large handful of peanut m&m’s and some extra trial mix…

Sleep is now.  I’m counting down the hours until this weekend…