What's Up Wednesday- April 9th

Wild Dolphins, Eleanor & Park and mooore Dolphins 

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop geared toward readers and writers, allowing us to touch base with blog friends and let them know what's up.  Should you wish to join, check out Jaime's or Erin's lovely blogs and sign up with the link widget at the bottom of the post.

WHAT I'M READING
I downloaded ELEANOR & PARK last night before bed. I meant to read for about 20 mins, instead I read until the wee hours of the morning. Until Boy Chris woke up and said: "You know Rabbit, there's this thing called "Nighttime" and most people sleep through it."


I still have a book hangover while typing this. But I cannot say enough good things about this book!!! It is such a heartbreakingly, achingly perfect incarnation of that time. I was instantly 15-years-old again, after my Dad kicked me out of the house. All that, uncertainty of that time, that unmoored feeling came rushing back. That risk of trusting another person, not just with your person, but with your heart. This book was simply exquisite. I am pretty stingy with my 5 stars (probably too stingy) To me, 5 stars means I want to turn right around and read it again. It means I try to read it out loud at the breakfast table to Boy Chris so he'll understand why I was up half the night thinking about it. Five stars makes me wish I could write a book that good. ELEANOR & PARK is a solid 5 stars.


WHAT I'M WRITING

I'll be honest, I've written very few words this week. Besides a couple quickie writing parties for Spring Writing Bootcamp I've seriously neglected writer me. 

If anyone has any brilliant ideas on how I can write while kayaking, I'm all ears. :) I do generate a lot of great ideas out there. But this week, by the time all the boats are washed and loaded, I just want to collapse into a sunburned, salty heap.

But of course instead, I read until 3am and then I'm totally wrecked for anything the next day. Smart Biologist is SMART like that. 
"Like primates otters use tools"

WHAT ELSE I'VE BEEN UP TO 

Kayaking my arms off. 

But oh, how I love my job!!! Quitting Evil Day Job was the best decision I've ever made. The last few days there have be dolphins EVERYWHERE! Kayaking with wild dolphins is probably one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. (which is saying something, because life is pretty grand) 

WHAT INSPIRES ME RIGHT NOW 

If you thought I was going to shut up about dolphins now...I'm sorry to say I'm going to disappoint you. The sequence of pictures below are of a mother and her 2 year-old calf. (I think if you click on it, you can see the pic full size) They spent the better part of an hour with us. Just going about their day. Fishing. Playing. Nuzzling each other.

What inspires me about this interaction? Here are these amazing, intelligent creatures, going about their daily lives. Their world is so different than mine. That cool, blue underwater world. Different sounds. Different sky. A three dimensional water world. I just get the tiniest glimmer of what their life is like. A pinhole camera crack. A keyhole peek. I want to know what they are thinking. I want to know where they spent the night. I want to know what that mother sees when she looks at her baby. We figured out who she is. She's dolphin 7979. Now we're emailing researchers and downloading papers, because I want to know her. This animal that graced me with her presence. This wild thing that trusted me enough to let her baby play next to me in the shallows.