Achievements

I solved my first Sudoku puzzle today! And it was a "Medium" level one, too, not even easy (though not "Very Hard" either - I'm not there yet!). There's something very satisfying in challenging my brain in that way, solving puzzles and making it think in a different way than it normally thinks all day.

Those who love to walk in the rain should walk in the rain

It is pouring outside today. It wasn't raining all day - I had a lovely breakfast and stroll down NE Alberta St. with Lisa this morning, checking out the co-op and all the funky stores and art galleries and restaurants. But this afternoon it really started coming down. So, naturally, when it was clear that the rain had settled in for the long haul, I decided it was time to go out to the garden. John had just gotten home, with his friend John (he's got about 3 friends named John, which makes it difficult sometimes - for simplicity, this one is John S.). John S. warned me that it was "practially primordial out there," and that I should put my wellies on and be prepared to get wet. I pointed out that that was most of the reason I wanted to go outside - to be in the rain and, yes, to get wet.

I love walking in the rain. I don't so much love walking in the rain when I'm walking to work and have to try to stay dry by wearing a raincoat and carrying an umbrella, or when I'm carrying things that I don't want to get wet. But I love walking in the rain and just BEING in the rain, feeling it splash down on me from the clouds above, feeling it drip off my eyebrows and down the bridge of my nose, feel my hair getting soggy and eventually dripping from the tips as well, feeling closer to nature as I get wetter and wettter and happier and happier. I took out the compost, picked the last of my zucchini and basil and gourds, and one remaining unbedraggled sunflower, and then came back to the apartment, completely soaked and with a huge grin all over my face.

This got me thinking, wow, everybody should go walk in the rain more often - we'd all be so much happier! But then I realized that some people don't like the rain like I do, so that might not actually make everybody happier after all. So I amended that to "those who love to walk in the rain should walk in the rain," which basically means "everybody should do more of what makes them happy." Can you imagine what the world would be like if everybody walked around with huge grins on their faces all the time like the one I get from walking in the rain?

So, if you love walking in the rain and it's raining, go walk in it. If you love something else, do that. Give yourself a grin, a nice wide pure-pleasure smile. You deserve it!

An Invitation To Be

This is an invitation to be.
Not to be calm,
not to be silent,
not to be contemplative or introspective or reflective,
but just to Be.
What does it feel like to Be?
What does it feel like to breathe this air,
to feel your body on this planet,
your heart beating in your chest,
your soul, hidden deep inside or just at the tips of your fingers
as you reach out to touch another in need or in love?
What does it feel like to be exactly who you are right here, right now,
to hold the hopes, the fears, the dreams that you hold?
This is an invitation
to discover what it feels like to Be.

Release

In my last post I mentioned that I was looking for a second job. I've sent off a number of applications in the last several weeks, but haven't had many takers. I did have one interview last week, with the new Executive Director of Pacific Printing and Imaging, Inc., a non-profit supporting the printing industry in the Pacific Northwest. She wants a half-time administrative assistant to help her out with day-to-day things and to help harness her creativity and transform it into productivity (that is, of course, my interpretation, though quite well-founded, I believe).

Anyway... on the morning of my interview (Wednesday) I chose an Angel Card for the day - it was Release. I thought, hmmm, I suppose I shouldn't get too attached to the outcome of this interview today; I just have to let it be what it is and then let it go. Well, when John got up he chose an Angel Card, and then I chose another one, this time specifically for the interview. I got Release again. Okay, I thought, I get the message!

The interview went well, I thought (a few interesting coincidences in our history didn't hurt things), and she said she'd like to have somebody picked out by Friday. Well, to make a long story short, Friday came and went with no word. I didn't think about it too much over the weekend, but today I started wondering if I should send another followup email, just to see where she was in the process and to let her know I was still interested. I ended up not having time to send the email, and by the end of the day I had finally (really, this time) taken the Angel Card to heart and released the attachment, figuring she'd made her decision and I shouldn't worry about what was already decided.

Well, I came home this evening and there was a message from her on my answering machine - I called her back and she offered me the job! :) So I guess it's good to let go of things sometimes - if they're really right for you, chances are they'll come back.

The Long View

I've experienced an interesting mental shift in the last six months or so, which has allowed me to (often, but not always) examine my present situation from an outsider's perspective, take stock, and then take a look at how things might be in the future. Now, I've been practicing the first part over the last year or two, trying to remove my emotional attachment to the outcome, or even the process, of difficult situations. It's been pretty successful a number of times, and I can pretty much get myself through just about any situation now by reminding myself that it will eventually be resolved and I will still be alright. But recently I've definitely noticed a trend toward looking to the future and trying to act in such a way now that I provide for myself in some way in the future, I'm not talking just money here, like retirement accounts and the like. I'm thinking life stuff. It's been kind of interesting to watch this unfold in myself, and kind of inspiring at the same time (if it's not too conceited to be inspired by onesself...)

Here are some of the areas I've recently noticed myself looking to the future:

- Seed collecting! I went out to the garden yesterday evening and collected seeds from flowers that have finished blooming for the year, and am keeping my eyes open for seed collection opportunities for the rest of the season. I'm letting some of my peas and beans dry on the pod for collection in the fall, and even keeping my eyes out on my walk to work for interesting flowers and things. The more seed I can collect, dry and store this year, the less I will have to buy for my garden next year.

- In the same vein, I've been thinking a lot about planting trees. I want to have a house some day, and I really want to have trees. But trees take a long time to grow to maturity in terms of shade and/or produce (fruits, nuts, etc.). So, I've been seriously considering trying to start growing some trees in containers over the next several years, so that when I'm ready to "graduate" to a real house, I'll have a head start on my orchard. :) I already have a few apple seedlings growing from seeds from the Santa Cruz apple tree. I don't know if they'll bear fruit eventually, or if it will be any good, but it's an interesting experience.

- Work. I just got hired on as a permanent OHSU employee, doing the same job I've been doing as a temp for the last several months. It's only half-time, and it's not what I want to be doing for my career, and I'm not really making enough money from it to live on, but I accepted the job because it could be a good thing for me in the long run. First off, I'll start getting benefits in 3 months, which will be an excellent thing (they're great benefits!). Secondly, in this position I have access to tons of training and educational opportunities which will help me in future job searches (and current ones, since I'm looking for a second job). And, of course, there's the obvious reason that I pretty much already had the job and I would have been a fool not to accept it and to be completely unemployed once again. Oh, yeah, and they pay me for riding my bike to work - how cool is that? I don't know how long I'll stay at OHSU, but if I end up making some sort of career there, the benefits are excellent for a family, and the children's hospital is superb. Not that I'm planning to have children right away, but remember, I'm thinking long-term here.

I know there are more, but it's my bed time, so I'm going to leave it at that for now. Good night!

Fresh bread and jam

... By which I mean fresh bread, hot out of the oven, and fresh strawberry-rhubarb jam, hot out of the jam-making pot. Soooooo good! I cheated a little with the jam - it's not strawberry season yet, so I used up the last of last year's strawberries that I had in my freezer. But the rhubarb was fresh from the farmer's market this morning, and boy, is this jam delish!

Unfortunately, I don't think that my oven likes to be on when the front left burner is on, because it seemed to blow the oven. So I had to take the risen loaves over to John's to bake them, since I was in the middle of jamming and needed the burner! They still turned out yummy, despite one of them being chucked onto the floor when the improperly placed oven shelf tipped over when I pulled it out. :}

By the way, Happy Earth Day, everybody! I spend several hours in the garden yesterday (with Alice!), and hope to get out again this evening. There was a big volunteer group planting native plants in our pollinator garden this morning, so it'll be fun to see what progress they made.

An interesting method of escaping fire

John has been wanting to teach me how to rappel for a long time now, and tonight we finally did it -- off the fire escape at the back of our building. :P Don't worry, it's perfectly safe, and he had me on belay as well, just in case. He hauls things up and down on ropes all the time when he loads his sound gear in and out for gigs, and he's a very experienced rappeler (if that's how you spell it), so he knows what he's doing. Once I got myself over the handrail and actually let my weight into the rope, I was just fine, and it was a fun ride down. A couple of guys from the next building over stopped to watch and ask questions, but politely declined John's offer to let them join in. :)

By the way, no fire was involved.

Wire Weaving

It's pretty near impossible to push pins into the walls of my cubicle at work, so I've been struggling to figure out how to hang the big calendar that Catherine gave me. I decided that a couple of hooks that hang over the top of the wall and come down on my side to put through the holes in the calendar would do the trick. Of course, this is a rather common thing in the office; there are all sorts of hooks and things hung on peoples' cubicles, of various sizes and designs, likely bought from places like Office Depot for an exhorbitant amount of money. Because I'm too lazy and too cheap (and too creative!) to go spend money for something like that, I decided to make my own hooks out of a spool of wire I have lying around, originally bought for dreamcatcher hoops or other such crafty business. I was sort of envisioning Graham's paper clip sculptures and wondering how to recreate something like that as a hook, when I thought of the wheat weaving that Mom used to do. It turns out that the square weave with four strands works perfectly for 22-guage wire, and creates a lovely sturdy braid that I can bend to whatever dimensions and shapes I want, and that should hold up a good deal of weight once hooked atop a cubicle wall. Maybe I'll make another one to hang my coat on... :)

Garden pictures

For those who asked...
Hopefully more cool wooden trellis structures to come. :)

Plot Planning

I spent a wonderful afternoon yesterday preparing my garden plot for spring planting. I'm really excited about the garden this year. Okay, so I was really excited about it last year, too, but I feel like I've learned a lot since then and I have lots of new ideas, which is exciting. :P I've been reading gardening and permaculture books and magazines all winter, and my goal for the garden this year is to have every square inch be covered in healthy, thriving plants, and to have the plot be maximally productive. I read an article last week about a family who gardens on 1/10 of an acre and produces 3 tons - yes, tons - of food per year. It was extremely inspiring.

Some new things for my garden this year:

- Natural trellises! I spent two days last weekend at DeMara's parents' farm in Ranier, and with the help of her step-dad Kim, collected alder branches and built two wonderful funky pyrimidal trellises. They will be great supports for climbing sweet peas, snow peas, bush beans, nasturtiums, and anything else I can get that likes to climb. I will hopefully be going back to the farm soon to build a couple of other supports and things for which I have ideas.

- Paths! Since I'm planning on covering every inch of soil with plants, I figured I ought to have a way to get into the garden to water and harvest without killing things. So I collected stones and old mossy bricks from the back reaches of the garden where they had been discarded, and laid out a branching path running through my plot in two places. The stones are close enough together to make walking easy, but far enough apart that we can plant ground-cover in between them. Paul suggested Corsican mint, if we can find it cheaply enough.

- A bat box on top of our 15-foot-high bamboo corner pole. Paul is going to play around with some wood and hopefully make something that will attract bats. Even if it doesn't, it will be a fun conversation piece! :)

- Multi-story gardening. One of the things I want to build with more alder branches is a horizontal bar supported by triangular crossed-branch supports at either end. That way we can have tomatoes growing underneath, and hanging pots with herbs and things growing above! I also would love to have jasmine and/or morning glories on either side to grow up the supports.

- Rhubarb! I just bought a rhubarb plant at the farmer's market. I have always loved rhubarb, and was determined to grow my own this year. Since it's such a space-taking plant, I may end up putting it in the community area near the berries and fruit trees. It may run the risk of being harvested by others, but it will leave me a lot more space for other things in my plot. We shall see. I'm feeling rather possessive about my rhubarb plant at the moment, but maybe that will go away. :P

So, now all I need is a place to keep chickens and I will be all set! :)

Spring Cleaning

In honor of spring, and of finally being finished with undergraduate coursework, I decided to spend the evening in purging my bookcase of most of my old school work. I have a stack of about 22 empty binders, two paper bags full of recycling, a long-lost protractor and a shelf and a half of available space in my bookcase to show for my evening's efforts. Hooray!

I didn't think I was out of shape...

I decided to start running again this week. It's been a long time. John and I had a pretty good running routine going in the fall, doing about two miles every other evening, but then when it started getting colder and we started getting busier we kind of stopped running. But the weather has been absolutely gorgeous the last couple of mornings, and since I don't have to leave for work until noon, I actually have the time to take a run, come home and take a shower, eat breakfast, and still have plenty of a morning left. So yesterday and today I ran a mile each morning, which felt pretty good; a workout, but not pushing it. I could definitely start to feel my quads going up and down the stairs at work today, though, and by this afternoon I was getting sore. Add to the two runs about an hour of ice skating on Sunday afternoon, and biking across the river and back this evening with an hour and a half of rapper practice in between, and my legs now feel like jelly.

On the bright side, it was warm enough for me to bike home in shorts and a tank top tonight - and it's still March!

:)

Blue eggs and compost

Happy Spring, everybody!!

I celebrated spring yesterday by going out into the garden and getting my plot ready for spring. I also turned the compost pile, which was exceedingly smelly and absolutely swarming with worms -- hooray!! The only really unpleasant part about turning the compost was discovering that an entire egg had somehow survived intact, way down at the bottom of the pile. Unfortunately, of course, I discovered it with my shovel. Do you know what color a really rotten egg is? Blue. Yeah. And really really smelly.

Other than that, it was a fabulous day. The weather is absolutely gorgeous, and it feels like spring!

First Day

I had my first day at OHSU today. It didn't really count as a work day, since it was all meeting people, doing the New Employee Orientation, taking tours, and the like. But I got my employee badge, which is an instant status symbol and lets me ride the free employee shuttle bus, which basically takes me door to door between home and work, which is really nice. I think this will be a great place to work. Everybody I met was really nice, helpful, friendly, and enthusiastic about where they work and what they do. It feels like a good culture and a positive work environment, so it should be fun. Tomorrow I'll get a bunch of actual job training, and after that I'll probably just get to make things up as I go along, since it's a brand-new position. Fun!

I got a call back from TriMet; I didn't get the Program Assistant position. It's a disappointment, since it would have paid better and included benefits, but I'm actually pretty happy staying with OHSU for now. I'm still going to apply for a couple of different graduate assistant positions for next year in the hopes of getting tuition remission and a monthly stipend, but for now at least I have a job. Hooray for that!

It's Snowing!

Big, fat flakes, scurrying around in all directions with the wind.

Effective Interviewing

Yesterday afternoon I went to a workshop at the Career Center called "Effective Interviewing." I ended up being the only person to show up to attend the workshop, so I basically got a free hour and a half interview training session. It was great! Interviews have always freaked me out, and they still do somewhat, but it was really good to force myself to sit down and face up to the fact that I need to actually practice interviewing - and then do it.

That workshop came with perfect timing, because this morning I had an interview for a temporary job up at OSHU (Oregon Health Sciences University). It's an indefinite-period, part-time temporary job in the Career Development Center, basically providing administrative support to the career counselor and running the computer lab, scheduling trainings, etc. Armed with the practice from the workshop yesterday I went in much more confident than usual, and came out feeling like I'd done a great job. That was pretty much a first!

Apparently, the women who interviewed me also thought it was a good interview, because they offered me the job! The recruiter from the staffing agency called me this afternoon to say that they want me to start on Monday. So I have a job! Hooray! Of course, I still have an interview on Friday with TriMet for a permanent part-time position, so there's a chance I could end up landing two jobs in one week! But we shall see. For now I will be extremely content with the fact that I have a job and will be working next week. It's a good feeling.

The Flipping Post

Last night I went over to Caroline and Erik's house for a rapper DVD-watching party. Dave had given Caroline a DVD of last year's Half Moon Sword Ale and we wanted to sit down and all watch it together to critique style points, figures, etc. that we might want to incorporate into our dances (did I mention I'd joined Iron Mountain Sword?). Anyway, one of the cool moves that's in at least one of Iron Mountain's dances (I only know one dance so far!) is the backflip. And I get to be one of the backflippers! (Are we surprised?) Scott is also a flipper-in-training, and Caroline has been doing it for a few years now. So Scott and I arrived early to their house to practice flipping in the backyard. They have a post pounded into the ground specifically for that purpose - it's called the flipping post, of course. So you have a post and a person's shoulder (ordinarily in the dance you would have two people's shoulders, but it's actually nice to practice with the post) and you put your hands on them and flip over backwards. We had spotters for practice, of course. :) The great thing is that Erik used to be a gymnast, so he could watch us flip and tell us what we needed to do differently in order to get over faster or more easily or more flashily. "You just jump straight up, then tuck your knees in to your head, fling your head back and you're over." Easy for him to say! I was doing pretty well after a few flops (I only had to put my hands down once, though!) - it really does help to jump straight up, because the ground doesn't come at you so fast. :P So it was fun, and good practice, but I'm sore in the oddest places this morning!

Lookee What Else I've Got!

Okay, so this may not be as impressive (or as readable) as the last, but it's my letter of acceptance into the MPA program! Hot on the heels of the diploma. No rest for the wicked, huh? :)

Lookee What I've Got!

It's Official!

I am now the Garden Coordinator for the PSU Community Garden! Hooray! Apparently I was voted in at the RHA (Residents' Housing Association) meeting yesterday without my knowledge, and I only found out today when I met with the president! :P So now I'm part of the RHA Executive Board (ooh, all four of us), and I have a whole bunch of responsibilities and privileges and an extra $50/month! (Yeah, I'm definitely not doing it for the money... if you just count the five office hours I have to have each week, that comes out to $2.50/hour, and that's not even considering all of the outside work and time spent in the garden itself.) Anyway, that was the exciting news that was supposed to become official last week but got delayed. Sorry for keeping you in suspense! :P

Check it Out

I made Alice a harness the other day, so we can take her outside and let her run around without worrying about her running away. She doesn't really like getting into it, but once it's on she pretty much just forgets about it. She doesn't like the leash, though!

I have been absolutely loving the weather here this last week. It's been bright and sunny and brilliant out. Looking out the window, it looks like spring, but when you go outside you realize that it's very nearly freezing outside, and your breath comes out in wonderful soft puffs in front of you. I just got back from rapper practice, biking across the Hawthorne Bridge. The clock display at Seattle's Best Coffee downtown said it was 1°C out, but since it was pretty much an uphill ride all the way home I was quite nice and toasty warm by the time I got home. What wonderful biking weather! I'm definitely enjoying dancing again, too. It's encouraging me to get in shape again, and it's a great excuse to ride my bike. So many dual benefits - having fun and staying in shape, which encourages me to have fun and stay in shape! What could be better? :)

In other news of note, I turned in all of my graduate applications this afternoon -- only to check my mail this evening to find my last official transcript had arrived. I had turned in my PSU application without it! Ooops! Fortunately, it's only my Portland Community College transcript and only represents 14 units, and I can probably go back and turn it in late and still have it included in my file. But, boy, did I feel stupid! I was juggling so many transcripts for the separate applications that I thought I had them all, but I had the unofficial PCC transcript for my departmental application, *not* the official one for the university application. Go ahead and tease me, I already feel dumb. :}

Tomorrow afternoon, some more exciting news should hopefully become official, so I will post about that soon. I like exciting news. :)

It's Starting...

The other day I recieved two pieces of mail - a notification that my diploma would be ready to pick up on March 1, and my very first copy of PSU's alumni magazine (creatively titled PSU Magazine). That was interesting and coincidental in itself. But maybe not so coincidental. Last night I received a phone call. My caller ID display said "*Telefund9" and I wondered, now who could that be? And who was it indeed but a PSU freshman calling from the PSU Foundation asking me to pledge my support of PSU with an alumni donation! Boy, these people catch on quick! :P Upon reviewing our conversation after the fact, I realized that I should have told the girl that I am showing my support for PSU by continuing to take classes and pay my tuition, fees, and housing bills! But I didn't think of it at the time.

Not-So-Big News, but Still Very Happy-Making

I have new shelves! The space above my bed has been blank and empty since I moved in, because I couldn't think of anything worthy of occupying it. Well, John finally came up with the answer -- plants! Hooray! It's nice to have a place to show off my plants (where Alice won't chew them up, as I discovered her doing to the poor little spider plant the other day), and it's wonderful waking up to greenery (and purplery - that tumbling plant is magnificent!) overhead and all around. Anyway, it makes me very happy, so I thought I would share it.

Paul is starting some heirloom tomatoes from seeds he saved from our tomatoes last year, and he's going to bring them over to grow on my windowsill, since I get more light (and have more room) than he does. So I'll have more little plants starting! Hooray for more plants!

Big News, Part I

Alright, since I don't seem to have the time to write up all my big news in one big post (and you probably wouldn't want to spend the time reading it anyway), I'm going to do it in installments.

Part I: I'm applying to grad school! In particular, to PSU's Master of Public Administration (MPA) program. I didn't even really know about this department until starting this grant writing class, because they don't offer undergraduate degress, but when I discovered it I realized that the MPA program integrates a whole lot of things that I've been interested in for a long time, all rolled into one degree. My plan is to pursue a dual concentration in Non-profit Management and Natural Resources Policy and Administration, so I can hopefully find good work with an environmental non-profit. And possibly, someday, to start my own. But that's the subject of the next Big News post. :)

One for the Compliments Diary

Richard and Angela (and Tracy!) are up in Portland this weekend doing a series of waltz workshops. I didn't have the time or the money to attend the workshops, but I went to the dance last night. It was fun to walk in and surprise Angela and Tracy at the door, and Richard at the music station. Richard got up and gave me a big hug and said hi and whatnot. Then the woman from Waltz Eclectic (the group that's putting on the workshops and dance) came over and saw that we knew each other, and asked me, "So, how do we get more young people like you to our events?" Before I could answer Richard piped up and said, "Have her teach!" Meaning me! I confess I was mildly flabbergasted (and extremely honored), but the woman snatched it up immediately and asked excitedly, "Oh, would you?" Eep! What did Richard get me into?! I don't know if I'll be able to do it (I don't know if I have the time or the expertise), but it was definitely a compliment if I've ever received one!

Also at the dance I met a number of people with various connections to Stanford (or connections to people with connections to Stanford), and connections to things that will be very useful for me in the very near future. But that will be the subject of another post, because I've been very lax in reporting my recent news, to which these connections relate. Let's just say there are ambitious projects afoot. I promise I'll enlighten you soon, likely in a series of posts.

In other, smaller (but still interesting) news, I've been invited to take over the position of Garden Coordinator for the PSU Community Garden. My friend Lisa has been doing the job for the last 9 months or so and she's ready to step down, and she said she thought I'd do a great job. It would be great for the experience, but from what I've witnessed, it's a heck of a lot of work (supposedly 5 hours a week, but usually more like 15) for a very small stipend ($50/month). So, we'll see. It would be a good thing for a resume and experience, but I have so many other things going on right now.

Anyway, that's all you get for now. The exciting news will have to wait.

Inspiring Words of the Day

I went to a lecture last night entitled "Re-Building Communities for Sustainable Living: Birthright, Convergence and Abundance," given by Mark Lakeman, co-founder of City Repair. It was a very inspiring talk with lots of really cool slides. City Repair is an organization that helps communities implement projects to turn space into place, and has been involved in such projects as illegal intersection painting, building a 24-hour solar-powered tea station (maintained by neighbors), and other really cool things. Anyway, the quote I pulled out from the evening that was the most inspiring, and possibly said the most about the society in which we live today and its receptivity to certain ideas and practices, was: "If you want to change the world, you've got to stop asking permission." I like it.

Alice goes Adventuring

John and I took Alice outside this afternoon, just to see what she would do. We put her in her little cardboard travel box (which is barely bigger than she is) and took her down the stairs and out to the grassy area next to the greenhouses behind our building. We set the box down on the concrete at the edge of the grass and opened it up to see what she would do. She sniffed around and looked around and mewed pathetically for a few moments, then hopped out, because it was obviously expected of her (okay, who am I kidding? Since when do cats do anything because it is expected of them?). She stayed really close to us on the concrete and went back to the box and tried to climb back in pretty quickly (it was also drizzling out -- no, please don't call the SPCA!) John decided to take the box out into the middle of the grass and let her try that, since she hadn't really explored the grass. She seemed to like that much better, and actually set off exploring in the plants and shrubs by the side of the greenhouse. John and I stood at opposite ends of the greenhouse to catch her when she came our way (we didn't want her crawling under the greenhouse door where we were unable to follow her!), and eventually put her back in her box and took her home to treats and petting. She was a very brave kitty, and a good thing, too, since we plan to make cat outings a regular occurrence. We're going to get a cat harness and leash so we can let her roam a little more freely (ironically enough), and hopefully she'll start getting bolder and more active and maybe lose some weight. Then in the summer time we can take her on picnics and let her romp in the (dry) grass! :P