People are funny!

Especially when they are in high school.

I had the unique and high honor of accompanying seven of the high school interns that I mentor to an environmental science competition called the Envirothon a couple weeks ago. What a sight we must have been - a bunch of Asian-American kids (OK, they had a token white girl) and their white women mentors, battling it out against 14 other teams of... dare I say... hicks (which I mean in the nicest possible way). Us: (sub)urban, AP-exam taking, raucous kids. Them: Carhart-wearing, FFA-attending, rural white kids from other counties. Not that we kicked butt - we did OK, with one of our 2 teams placing 3rd overall. One reason for our poor showing in general may have been this statement during the oral presentation: "It takes 300 acres of solar panels to power one." The judge asks, "One what?" The intern's reply - in all seriousness, "One lightbulb." Good lord. Oh, the laughter. And possibly the funniest part is that when we got their scores back the other day, THAT team did way better than most other teams on the oral presentation. We suspect some end-of-day slackness in the scoring.

Love the "get to know you" emails!

Since I'm very bad at filling those emails out, I thought I'd blog one! Aren't you thrilled?
Here goes-

Two Names You Go By:

1. Miss Tiger (thanks a lot Arbor School kindergarteners.)
2. Salal

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now:
1. orange shirt silk-screened by Kelli
2. ratty slippers

Two Things You Would Want (or have) in a Relationship:
1. laughing
2. kindness

Two of Your Favorite Things to do:
1. walk around in the woods
2. eat

Two Things You Want Very Badly At The Moment
1. to stop stressing out
2. a new hub cap (the darn thing just couldn't hold on any longer)

Two things you did last night:
1. make and eat yummy stir fry dinner with Melinda and Michael
2. sleep

Two things you ate today:
1. blueberry pancakes, bacon and eggs and coffee at the Lockspot (OK that's 4 things)
2. sesame rice cakes

Two people you Last Talked To:
1. boyfriend
2. produce seller lady at The Fruit Stand

Two Things You're doing tomorrow:
1. prepping for a lesson on rainforests
2. lazing about

Two longest car rides:
1. Pennsylvania to Washington via National Parks and other points of interest
2. and back

Your two favorite beverages
1. coffee!!!!!!!!
2. beer

So, there you go. Who picks these topics, anyways?

I got...

rhythm!
I got music...
I got A NEW JOB!!!
and really, who could ask for anything more?

Finally, I've landed the (almost) full time gig I've been trying for for the past few years. Wasn't aiming for this job specifically, but A job that didn't end in the winter, or pay peanuts, or give me random hours here and there. So now I have one! It is for Friends of Issaquah Salmon Hatchery, as the Education Coordinator. I get to do many of the things I know how to do (teach, create curriculum) and some things I don't know how to do (deal with entrenched volunteers, be in charge of the schedule of programs). Let the learning curve begin!

So, to those of you who gasp at the notion of me - an idealistic environmental educator - (or anyone) going to work at a hatchery, I say, if this is me "selling out", I could do a whole lot worse. Just thought I'd get that out there.

By the way, thanks for everyone's support these last years and months and weeks!

And this week...

What a crazy week it's been.
On Tuesday I saw a documentary with Melinda called "Right to Risk" about some folks with physical disabilities going on a many-day rafting trip down the Colorado. It was a great movie and I highly recommend it - very inspiring and beautiful scenery! One of the biggest messages, as one of the rafters put it, is that anyone can become disabled at any time, so efforts toward making sure everyone has equal access and opportunity is making an investment in your own future!
The next day, I got a call from Miko asking if Jonathan and I wanted to go with her and her boyfriend to see This American Life's live show! Would we?? Uh, make that an emphatic YES! That Ira Glass.... And soon he'll be on TV!
And after each event, Jonathan and I went out for food/drinks with friends - way more than we're used to on a school night! This weekend's been good for catching up on sleep and lazing about.

I thought this might be a good writing exercise

Good evening! Here it goes: I'm jumping on the wagon of the Blog. Imagine! Just a few short years ago, I (and most people I know) had never even heard of a blog! And now it's in the dictionary. It's enough to make a person feel old. Still no iPod for me, but I do have a palm pilot! I'm goin' tech.

So now, a short briefing for those who've forgotten or didn't know:
I have four jobs. All EE (success?), and all at least 20 miles away from where I live in Ballard. I have many issues with my chosen profession (more on that later, I'm sure), and the one that nears the top of the list at this point is the commuting.
I've recently joined Melinda in a no-new-buying "compact" (that's what others are calling it - see links) from January to June... and hopefully beyond. What this means is that we don't buy anything new (except food and health/safety stuff). But Goodwill is fair game! Our small attempt at further lessing our impact on earth.