Hi, I'm Maureen. I am a soil scientist living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I grew up in a little town called Ann Arbor, Michigan. Maybe you've heard of it. Or not. I went to Hope College in Holland, Michigan in 2001. While many of the other girls at school were working on their Mrs. degrees, I spent the next four years writing and editing for the student newspaper and getting two majors. I graduated in 2005 with a degree in creative writing and geology. I realize these things don't exactly go together, but sometimes being a geologist means you have to be creative.

After college, I decided I needed a little adventure in my life so I headed out west to Las Vegas, Nevada (hopefully you've heard of that one) for grad school, where I got my Master's Degree in soil science in the spring of 2008. While there, I learned a lot about science, and about life as I experienced things one can only experience in Las Vegas. I worked on a pretty cool little project studying vesicular pores in a surface soil horizon called the A horizon and had a lot of fun mixing chemicals in the lab and staring through the lens of a scanning electron microscope for hours on end.

Upon graduation, I headed back to Michigan. But I wasn't there long. About six months later, I was on the road again, this time bound for Albuquerque where I had just taken a job as a soil scientist. It was scary and exciting to have my first real job out of school. I would also be living alone for the first time, which you would be excited about too if you had some of my former roommates.

Being new in town, I tried to find some fun things to do in the ABQ and joined a couple local meetup groups. I quickly learned that these groups were designed for people at least 10-20 years my senior and have since stopped going. Before that happened, however, I attended one of their parties and was surprised to see a young man about my age (who apparently had also not discovered the age difference until then). He saw me too, and after a while, and a few shots, he decided to come over to talk to me. We ended up talking for the rest of the night and a few days later he called to ask me out. Matt and I have been together ever since.

This, my blog, chronicles my life as a soil scientist and as a girl living in New Mexico. I am excited to share my adventures with you!