God is Speaking

Lately a lot of things in my life have been pointing to God and His plan for me. And I'm really excited about it.

I got a new job at a medical clinic (not my usual realm of science, but it helps pay the bills) as a drug screening lab technician. It pays well, but it's only once a week. I'm incredibly thankful that this job came my way. We could use the extra money and so far the people are really nice! It's actually a job where I feel included and a huge part of the process. I'm the only one trained on the sequencing instrument I'm using, so that's a lot of pressure; but I think once I get the hang of things, it will be perfect. God knew I had been asking and asking (and asking and asking) for a job. Not just THE job. But A job. He answered my prayer. He knows exactly what I need.

During the process of this transition, which included training and so on, I had to buy the uniform I would wear for this position at the clinic. I had to go buy scrubs. My first set of scrubs ever!

I went to the store close to our apartment and walked in, completely confused and bewildered at how many different kinds of scrubs there are (and how much they cost), and the lady who worked there came up to me. She could tell I definitely needed some direction. "Can I help you with something?" she asked. I was trying to look like I knew what I was doing. "Uhm, yes. I need...I need to buy some scrubs," I said. I immediately internally facepalmed. Seriously, Claire? Of course you need to buy some scrubs. You're in a store that only sells scrubs! Ugh. I'm so awkward.

She then went on to ask me what my price point was, and I tried to casually say whatever the cheapest was. Another awkward moment. (I'm the queen of awkwardness, thank you.) She told me I was in the most expensive part of the store! Oops.

Anyways, I got a pair of pants and a couple shirts to alternate every other week and left very happy. Scrubs are so comfortable! It's like wearing pajamas to work. Now that's something I can get behind.

I tried them on later that night and showed them to my husband. He then looked at the tags and kind of freaked out. He never does that so I asked him what was wrong. "These scrubs were made in Kenya." 😱  Wait...whoa. The job I had been praying for had finally come (answer to prayer) only after I accepted God's call to go to Kenya this fall (heard through prayer) and then I go to buy scrubs and they're made in Kenya! This is so crazy. It's like the past 3 months have all been woven together in this one random incident and it sort of makes sense now. God's speaking to me through all of this, and you better believe that I'm listening.

Updates to come.

Recent Struggles: Why is this happening to me?

The past few weeks since I've decided to respond to God's call to Africa have been somewhat odd. Like, really odd. Things have been happening to me that aren't very fun, and I don't want to be weird but I think it's all related. Let me tell you about it.

So the city where we are going (Nairobi) is almost 6,000 ft. in elevation. 😲  Yeah, it's pretty high up there. For a reference, Wilmington has an elevation of around 30 feet. THIRTY. Compared to 6,000!!! I was just as shocked as you. And I wanted to prepare myself for that. The air will be thinner and I'll be chasing kids around at VBS. For sure I will get out of breath much more easily over there. So I decided to get back into jogging. I wanted a slow start, just jogging a little bit in the park a few times a week. Nothing crazy.

I kid you not, the first week into this new routine I jacked up my knee. I have no idea what I did to it, but it hurts. A lot. It doesn't make sense since I was barely jogging at all. I wasn't pushing myself that much, honestly. It was so weird because I had jogged in the park, went home to clean up, and then go out for a couple of errands, and I didn't feel any pain until I was running errands later that day. The next day it was really out of whack, and has been ever since.

It's hard to explain, but it feels like a muscle cramp in the back of my knee and it won't stop cramping. It'll hurt much more when I move my knee too fast or when I twist my knee trying to get out of a car or move in a different direction suddenly. Maybe it's a muscle tear. Or a knee sprain. Or something with my nerves around my knee. I'm unsure, but I'm going to the doctor today to see what happened (which will cost money). Hopefully I'll get it back to normal soon. In the meantime I can't prepare my body for that 6,000 ft. elevation and it makes me nervous. Why has this happened?

Story number 2: so I dog-sit on the side just for extra money every now and then, and about a week after God had called me to Africa I had a gig. I was excited because I was going to start saving up all of this dog-sitting money just for the Africa trip. Reminder: I'm poor. Haha

So, this dog-sitting gig was an overnight stay and it was at this nice apartment complex. I had pretty much parked wherever I had wanted to park in the past (this was a return customer), and never gotten into any issues. The morning after I spent the night over there I was taking the dogs out for a walk and noticed that my car was gone. Literally, GONE. I had no idea where it was. Well, apparently a tow truck had taken it across town since I was parked in a spot I wasn't supposed to park in. Yeah, I didn't have a very good weekend because of that. As if that weren't enough, I had to pay $100 to get my car back from the towing company, which was more than I was making that weekend for my dog-sitting gig. Essentially, I was losing money instead of making it. This had never happened before until now. Why has this happened?

Honestly, one could say that I just have bad luck or that these things aren't connected. But I think it's so weird that these bad things (that cost money) are happening to me only after I decided to dedicate those things to Africa. I've been a runner in the past and never gotten an injury like this one. Why now? I've dog-sit for this customer in the past and never gotten my car towed. Why now? I truly think that this is Satan's way of trying to deter me from going on this trip. Or at least he's trying to make it harder for me to go.

Pray for my knee and that it would heal soon so I can get back to jogging to prepare myself for Africa. Pray that God would protect me from these unfortunate events. Pray that I would have endurance to go through them and come out stronger than before. Updates to come.

I'm Back! (Life Updates)

Surprise! I'm back! 😱 And a lot has happened since my last post! Just to fill you in:

1. I got engaged to the love of my life.
2. I moved to North Carolina to go to grad school for marine biology.
3. I got married to the love of my life.
4. I graduated from grad school in North Carolina.

That's pretty much the big updates. I can't believe I just summed up the craziest 2 years of my life in 4 sentences. Wow. Anyways, it's been a while. Obviously I've been a little busy with life happening, if you can't tell. Still, I think about this blog a lot and I want to keep it as much up to date as I can because it's sort of therapeutic to me. Call me a weirdo.

Next on the agenda of, well, my life: get a job. Duh.

So...about that...ok guys, it's been harder than you think. I promise I'm not lazy! The city I live in (Wilmington) is absolutely the WORST place to find a job. Especially for someone who just graduated with a Master's in Marine Biology, apparently. I've had the worst luck trying to nail something down lately, and it's sort of depressing. I feel like if I were a lot weaker of a person, I probably would have just moved back home by now. Honestly. But I really don't see that as an option. It's not what God wants for me. I just know it. I feel like things will work out here in Wilmington. I just don't have any idea how or when that will happen. I just have to keep trusting that God will provide like He always has.

Funny story: I kind of had an epiphany the other day. This was about 2 weeks ago. And I am going to go ahead and apologize in advance because this is one of those stories that requires a lot of background information. But in the end it's a great story, if you have the patience to listen to all of it. Here goes.

I've been a member at a Southern Baptist church in Wilmington with my husband for about 6 months now. I had visited the church (not as a member) for about a year before we became members, so I've gotten to know a lot of the people there and we've made some great relationships.

The church has mission trips every year for anyone who wants to participate, and those include both domestic and international trips. Since I am a poor, right-out-of-college, newly married 20-something, I obviously wasn't considering going on any of these trips due to financial issues mainly. Also, when I was a grad student there was no such thing as taking time off.

Anyways, these past few months multiple members have told me about this mission trip to Africa that would take place in November 2017. It would be over Thanksgiving and we would put on a vacation bible school (VBS) for some missionaries' children during that trip. It sounded cool, but I was not interested...because of the previously stated reasons (essentially I'm poor haha). The option of going on this trip was not even an ounce of a thought to me. I had already made up my mind that I wasn't going. Period. Maybe next year, blah blah blah. Maybe once I get an actual job that pays me good money, blah blah blah. Maybe when we get a house, blah blah blah. The list went on in my head.

Here's the catch: I had never prayed about it. I never asked God about it. Never. Not once. Like I said, I had automatically made up my mind that this wasn't for me and I wanted to have nothing to do with it. Finally one day during a devotional, reading through Isaiah 5, I decided to get up the nerve to ask. "I mean, what's the harm in asking?" I thought. "It's not like God will all of a sudden call me to Africa during this weird time in my life." And then I thought, "Oh crap, what if He does?? Oh no. I don't want to ask. I bet that's what will happen."

Guys. That's what happened. I was driving to work, praying to God, simultaneously thinking those thoughts in my head (like He couldn't hear what I was saying haha), and listening to what God had to say. Mind you, I had been praying and praying and praying for an answer relating to my job crisis for months at this point. Months and months. And I had heard nothing. Of course, right when I ask the question in my prayers, "Should I go to Africa?" - it's like the heavens opened up and God was screaming at me, "YES, YES, YES, finally she asked me! YES, you're going to Africa! I've been waiting for you to ask me for so long!"

Yes. The answer was yes. So guess what, guys? I'm going to Africa. I had been waiting for so long to hear from God like I heard from Him that day. I was just afraid to ask the right question. Why on earth would He want to send me to Africa? Why, during this insane and unstable time in my life, would He tell me that I should go across the world? I can't answer that. What I do know is that the next day I read Isaiah 6, and understood what He had been wanting me to say:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord asking:
Who should I send?
Who will go for Us?

I said:
Here I am. Send me.

-Isaiah 6:8

Pray for me and the rest of the team that will go to Africa in November 2017. Pray that finances would work out to where all of us that have been called to go will be able to pay the amount to go. Pray for our safety. And of course, pray for those in Africa who God is already working on ahead of us. Updates to come.

Fishing Trip for the Win

Today I was randomly invited to help catch flounder on a fishing trip. And why would I refuse? I mean, come on. 

So today was definitely full of adventure. We met the charter around noon today and stayed out on the water until around 5. And I forgot my sunscreen...yeah I got burned. 

The boat was so relaxing. And guess what?! I didn't get seasick! Woohoo! I'm just winning this summer. 

My first catch was a Redfish! I was pumped. 

My other catch, say whaaat! Yeah it was my first stingray that I caught all by myself. It made. My. Day. All of those hours out on the boat were worth that catch. I was so happy. My face is "I can't handle, please take this picture so I can let this poor guy go but I'm so happy ahhhh"

He survived by the way. No harm was done to this guy. 

We caught a few other fish, including some drum, catfish, and sheepshead, but we didn't catch what we were out there for: Southern Flounder. Sadness. Hopefully soon we will get some. 

Tomorrow is boat day for the crab project since Tuesday was gloomy and stupid. Out on the boat two days in a row this week! Yes!

Getting Crabby

I told you guys I would eventually get some boat pictures, or just crab pictures in general. I have succeeded! 

This morning we went to collect whatever was trapped in our crab and flounder traps. It didn't take too long to go through them all, but it was DURTY. Yes, dirty with a "u" because it was that bad. My beautiful white fishing shirt was ruined with Mississippi mud. I smelled so...so...I don't even know how to describe it actually. Just putrid. Like rotting poop. Sorry for the graphic language but it's accurate, let's be real.

That's me on the boat! And my beautiful male crab that I caught. He's trying to pinch the fire out of me, but I'm holding his claws. That's really the only way I've figured out to hold them without being in danger of a painful experience. 

That's my "New shirt and it's already ruined with disgustingness" selfie. I had to take a shower immediately afterward. I couldn't stand smelling myself. 

After my shower and some lunch, I worked up the 12 crabs we had caught. They had been pretty feisty, especially the males, so we put them on ice for about an hour. It calmed them down. (They all survived this little journey so don't worry. I released them all after I worked them up and took my measurements. This is not a lethal experiment.)

I weighed them, measured their width, and determined sex. That was really all I needed. 

This was the biggest male we caught. He was humongous. Such big claws. His claws were almost as big as his body. He was pretty much jacked. I wouldn't have been handling him like this if he hadn't been on ice. He was calmer in this picture. Otherwise he would have reached around and pinched the crap out of me. 

Overall a really tiring day. Full of adventure and crustaceans. And mud. Let's not forget to mention the mud. But I loved it all. And I can't wait for the next boat day. 

First Boat Day!

Hallelujah, Jesus, we went out on the boat today! 

The weather this week has been so crappy, raining every few hours and cloudy almost all week. But today was a little bit better. It only sprinkled a little bit this morning. The wind wasn't horrible, either. So it was boat time!!

The little 17 foot whaler was a tiny thing but it did the job. We actually fit 3 people on there along with our gear, traps, and safety equipment. The fit was tight, but it worked. No complaints. 

I was used to the big boat last summer for the shark biology class, with a whole crew doing most of the dirty work for us. This time around is a lot different. Because there are so few of us in the lab, everyone has to pull their weight. We all need to learn how to steer the boat, hitch it on the trailer, take it out of the water, prepare beforehand, clean up after. The dirty work is cumbersome and it zaps your energy. I fell into my bed this afternoon and conked out for a while. That's just what boat days will do to you. 

We set out all the crab and flounder traps, launching them in three different locations in the Mississippi Sound. We will go out again on Tuesday to see what we caught! This trapping project will most likely be a twice a week thing. 

I'm so sorry I don't have any pictures...I'm a horrible blogger. I was so much better last year. BUT! I post a lot on Instagram (@clairerobinson0316) and Snapchat (cerobinson316)! So if you aren't already following me or whatever they call it, be sure to look me up. Snapchat is so much easier to post on, don't judge me. 

I promise boat pictures! I have at least a dozen more boat rides ahead of me, so you'll see something eventually. 

Btw, no sea sickness for this girl today! I took my medicine, wore my sea sickness bracelets (actually advertised as bracelets for pregnant women going through morning sickness, but they work anyways), and drank lots of water. The boat ride is only about ten minutes, we do a few science things like set traps and take data, and then go back to shore. Nothing like an all day boat ride. I'm loving it. 

We'll see how next week goes!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It's so rainy. And gloomy. And cloudy. And blah. 

Today we were supposed to go out on the boat and set traps. Sadly, the monstrous weather kept us from doing so. So today was just another day in the lab. Reading literature and stuff. 

This morning, though, I helped a technician work up some menhaden! They smelled super fishy and gross, but it was better than sitting around. 

It looks delicious, I know. If only you were there to smell it. Get immersed in it. I was telling someone earlier that the only way to describe the smell was "penetrating my soul." Accurate statement right there. 

The menhaden project is for NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. I weighed them, measured their length, and took scales from them to be observed and analyzed later. I believe that NOAA is using the scales for aging. 

Hopefully the weather will get better this week! I think we will try to set the traps out on Friday. 

Day 3

Ok, so my internship this far has been overwhelming, informative, interesting, and overwhelming. 

Oops I said overwhelming twice. I'm just gonna keep it there, it deserves to be said twice. 

Anyways my job has been a little bit of this and a little bit of that. But mainly I've been working on some data loggers for my blue crab project starting next week. Calibrating them, figuring out how it all works, banging the computer a few times in frustration because I don't do computers. You know, the usual stuff that goes along with learning a new technology. 

Field work starts next week so we are trying to prepare as much as possible this week with the loggers and data sheets and boat equipment. We don't have the largest boat at the lab so we will be a little crammed on there. So the more prepared we are ahead of time, the better. 

We deployed a flounder trap off the dock at the lab just for some practice with data loggers attached. While bringing up the trap this afternoon to put one of the loggers on it, we found a couple blue crabs in it!

They're sort of hard to see but they are in the top of the picture. The bait is in the middle of the trap. Sadly they escaped the trap before we could take them out and use them as test subjects. Scientific summertime sadness. But I have a feeling that there will be a lot more where those two came from. 

It's Been a Whirlwind

I have been in such a whirlwind that I haven't been able to even think about posting on this blog for the past couple of days. So so so sorry. I know my multitudes of fans are reading this shaking their heads at me in disappointment.

Well, I'm here! Here at the research lab, 2 days in, and I'm already swamped with stuff. I will definitely be learning a bunch this summer. I'm working in a marine fisheries lab, and my background is definitely not fisheries, so we'll see how this goes. I have a lot to do but it'll be worth it. Whatever experience I can get.

My project is mainly about blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and its abundance here in the Mississippi Sound. I can't get into too many details because it's just the first couple days, but later on it will come together. Adjustments to the details of the project may happen based on how field work goes and how the data looks and so on.

We will be going out on a little skiff not even 20 feet long. It probably fits 2 people, 3 max. It's a little guy alright. We'll be setting out traps for blue crab and flounder (for another project), baiting them, and coming back to check them later on in the week. That field work will most likely start next week, mid-week.

Because of the flounder project going on simultaneously, I have become an expert at filleting flounder. So many flounder have come in to be worked up, and the lab will fillet the catch for you complimentarily. Yeah, no extra charge people. Come right on down, I'll be here all summer!

I've already told the whole lab that I get sea sick, so they have been warned...Hopefully I won't get sickly, because I have a lot more responsibility this summer than last summer. I won't have like 30 other students to step up to the plate for me. I'm taking a half dose of Bonine every morning to get it into my system so maybe that will work?? Ugh I hope so.

NEWS!

This is it: I'm leaving for the Gulf Coast in 3 days! Wow, I seriously can't believe it came this fast. Graduation was last Saturday and now I'm about to start my first internship.

OH! And I meant to post something about this last week, but let's be real, I was a tad busy...

Graduation + Exams + Packing + Moving out of my apartment + Re-packing for the internship + A baby bit of Netflix = ultimate chaos and no spare time whatsoever.
Ugh, I just got tired from writing that.

I got accepted into the Graduate Program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW)!!! God is so good! That was the only school I was accepted to, but who cares, I was accepted! I found this out 3 days before graduation. It was a wonderful graduation present. So add "Looking for apartments in North Carolina" and "Enrolling in grad school" to the little equation up there. Yeah, my life right now...

I won't complain. The apartment hunting is actually pretty fun for me. I'm seeing myself in a new chapter and it's fantastic. I can't wait! AND you millions of readers out there will hear of more coastal adventures! (Yeah, I know there are millions of you.) Most of my work will be genetics-based, but I'll be a quick little drive away from the Atlantic Ocean! Ah!
Spending a life living at least 7 hours away from the ocean is a struggle when you have a coastal dream. But still, I've gotten used to living land-locked all my life here in Tennessee. It'll be weird. But a good weird. An awesome weird.

Updates later!!

Get Ready for More

I can thankfully update you all that I will be back in Ocean Springs this summer! I applied for a summer internship at the Gulf Coast Research Lab a few months ago and was accepted! I can't lie when I say that I was completely shocked. And obviously I was humbled. There is apparently more for me to do down in Mississippi, and I'm not complaining.

This summer will be filled with update after update, so just get ready for more. I know you've been patiently waiting for something like this to happen. You're living vicariously through me. It's ok, I'm honored ;) Anyways, I'll be in Ocean Springs for 8 weeks studying under a faculty at the marine lab. According to the information I've been given so far, I'll be working with menhaden. Menhaden is a huge part of U.S. fisheries. It will definitely be an informative, eye-opening experience for me. But it'll be fun. And geeky. And probably filled with sea-sickness. But that's just a given, guys. You remember last summer.

P.S: Graduation in 33 days whaaat

Thanks for the Memories

This is it. It's my last night here in Ocean Springs. This is definitely a bittersweet night. I'm looking forward to coming back to Tennessee and seeing my loved ones. Oh, how wonderful that will be. But I still have this place in the back of my mind. I'm going to miss the beach...the people...the experiences I wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. I've gotten used to having all of these opportunities right at my fingertips here. My reality is living in a land-locked state with a coastal dream. I'm probably going to miss that feeling the most. Just the feeling of having opportunity right here in front of me.

So, a tribute. This is a post for all the good times I had here on the Gulf coast. A highlights reel, if you will. If you haven't been keeping up with my journey, here's a recap of the past 6 weeks of my life.

My first actual day in class. My herpetology girls at the local beach.

My snake handling experiences in Ward Bayou in Coastal Herpetology. I was a beast at it. No fear!

Holding a glass lizard. Extremely fragile and rare to find.

Oh, camping in herpetology...those were some crazy times.

Biggest crawfish I have ever seen!

I call this snake my personal catch! I caught her in one of my traps I set. A beautiful Mississippi Green Water snake. She was my favorite. 

Black pine snake handling. They are the coolest. But they hiss...

The corn snake that had an affinity for my head. I enjoyed the attention. And there were obviously some legit pictures that came along with the experience. One of my favorite moments.

Kayaking on Cane Bayou in Louisiana. We even caught a juvenile alligator, while kayaking! So freaking amazing. Seriously. And beautiful.

Seeing dolphins on every boat trip in Shark Biology. They brighten my day, every time. It never gets old. They're such graceful creatures.

Making friends in lecture. Living humans and dead sharks included.

Participating in tedious boat activities. They were probably tedious to the pros onboard, but I couldn't get enough of it.

Having a first-hand experience seeing a 7-foot great hammerhead. Absolutely beautiful shark. So so so amazing. My heart jumps every time I see the pictures!

Tagging a blacktip shark by myself! Probably one of the biggest highlights, if not the biggest. I can't believe that happened. It still amazes me that I was there and did that.

Coastal Herpetology. Thanks for the awesome herpy memories. I had a blast. 

Shark Biology. You crazy kids. I'll never forget the amazing times I had.

I thank God for every moment that I had here. There's no telling what will be next for me. I will be patiently waiting for my next adventure according to His will.

Keep Calm and Science On

Last boat trip. Yep. Sadness. I have to post pictures because I know you guys are freaking out waiting to see them. I had mentioned earlier that I got to tag a blacktip shark, so here's the proof of my adventure! Here ya go!

Getting ready for a good boat day! My friend was kind of tired...it was an early day.

And the forecast called for rain...ridiculous.

We had to throw our guns up. Go, back row! Represent!

I got to measure another shark! An Atlantic sharpnose. We had a good amount of those. They were definitely in abundance.

Sharks everywhere. It was thumbs-up worthy.

I'm putting used hooks into the barrels after we take them off the longline. We check each hook one by one. That's 100 hooks, people. It took a while, especially with the amount of sharks we had.

Here's the shark I measured! Pretty picture time!

This is one of the blacktip sharks we caught! We actually caught 2 blacktips. I tagged one of them. This was the first one and I tagged the second one.

This was the second blacktip. Mine! It was a flopper, alright. Full of energy, which is good. Sometimes the sharks caught are extremely sluggish or deceased. 

In the process of tagging. I just popped the tag in with that wooden handle. It was the coolest thing I've probably ever done. Ever. This tops it all.

Cheesin' with some fellow shark scientists!

We also got to dissect a female shark onboard on our way back! This bull shark was caught a couple days before on a gill net. She was pretty. And probably the smelliest shark ever in existence.

Shark selfie had to happen. Obviously.

In the process of dissection. It. Was. Smelly. But a good review of the internal organs and different systems.

 This is the only evidence of one of the bull sharks that were caught on the line. Both of these bull sharks were huge. Like, freaking enormous. Unfortunately they both broke their line. So we saw them but didn't get to haul them up onto the boat. It was so sad. But I'm just so happy with how the rest of the day went that I really didn't mind.

 Crazy class photo! We barely all fit on the boat. It's been fun, Shark Bio. Really fun. I've learned a lot. Not just about sharks, but also about myself. There have been bad days, like getting sea sick every Friday. There have been good days, like the last boat trip. I loved it all. Thanks for the memories. Shark biologists are the bomb, no question. I'm looking forward to my next steps, whatever those look like, toward my future. 

Only a few more words to say...

Keep calm and science on.