Day 23- Steve gets a pitcher

I seem to be having more and more trouble getting up out of bed in the morning.  Waking up- not a problem.  My mental alarm clock wakes me up about 3 minutes before the alarm goes off, giving me those 3 minutes to try to pry my eyelids open.  Unfortunately, my alarm is now not waking anyone up (I am already up and I think the other girls have become immune to its beeping), although I never turn it off in hopes that they hear it.  However, staying asleep can also be an issue- because of the bugs that somehow manage to invade my mosquito netting.  I had this biting bug the other night that dove and stung me right on my shoulder joint (which also happened to be the site of my sunburn).  I turned on my flashlight and found a bug (still don't know if it was the culprit or not) and took out all of my anger upon it.

Tara finished mapping my major mess-up of a plot and then we moved away from mounds but also not in pristine forest- to an area where the farmers around Yalbac, or maybe the lesser nobles, lived.  We were able to completely survey that region (which made me very happy).  Also, another happy point was that our survey region partially overlapped an area with recent non-Maya disturbance (a logger's road probably used about 50 years ago or so).  So, we now have areas cleared by Maya, not disturbed at all, and disturbed in the historic period.  I was ecstatic!

The mosquito situation has steadily gotten better- comparatively.  I mean, it's not like we are not getting swarmed and have at least 10 buzzing around us every second, but, its not 30 anymore.  So, we are happier.  I have also gotten progressively better at killing them.  I can detect where they are and strike there.  Today, I was trying to take notes and kept having to slap myself every other word or so.  Once, I even slapped my face- really hard because it takes a hard slap to kill them or maybe I am just not accurate enough.  So, I had a dead mosquito, but a slight headache!

I got back home in time to spend an hour pressing plants.  It is the most exhausting point of my day- not because of the time or effort or anything like that- just the monotony of it.  My to-do list grows daily, which is exciting and also a struggle.  I am always, always, always working on something.  If I am not, I am feeling bad for not doing what I need to be doing.

At supper, Steve always drinks about 5 glasses of whatever liquid they pour for him (limeade or tea).  The staff always laugh whenever they fill up his glass and, before they can finish the next 3 people Steve has downed it again.  We make fun of him for it, too.  Tonight, Jessica, who is the main server, gave Steve an entire pitcher.  I think Tara has a pic of it somewhere!