When in Doubt

Beautiful day of work at home; still freezing in my house but I keep convincing myself that it is this way so that I truly enjoy the warm outdoors. An evening of stupid confusion about the next year of my life...and picture taking. not confusion *about* picture taking. Just an evening of picture taking. When in doubt, take pictures. and read LOTR. Nothing like chopped off heads to make you feel better about your lot.

The weather. is. beautiful.

Tuesday starts with T!

I began yesterday by going for a run. Determined to discover just how far Happy Hollow (gas station) was from the park, I returned home about 50 minutes later, after running the 6 mile round trip…a feat that should not seem extraordinary to an ex-x-country-runner, but that is still present in my aching muscles. Upon return I dunked in the canal- providing me with an excuse to lay around in the sun for a while.
In the evening I went over to Stacy’s where we were, as Jamie would call it, “culinary.” We were quite successful until we burnt the garlic bread…and grated the black parts into the trash can. This trick I learned from Jacques Pepin.


Crashed at Stacy’s so that we could take Twanoh for a walk in the morning. I woke up early and walked around her garden, taking pictures, playing with Twanoh, and enjoying the green grass under my bare feet. We had breakfast, and went to Banner (state forest). Then shopping, chatting, and I returned home and was productive. This word “productive”- I think this is interesting and shall continue to explore its meaning and use in my life.

The park aide here, Wayne, stopped by about an hour ago, as I was sitting down to write this entry. We ended up having some great conversations that we are excited to continue.

I feel silly thinking about all of the things I have learned out here- was I really that naïve? I always fought the adjective “sheltered,” but I wish someone would have shaken me and taken me out of this stupid college environment sooner. Does anyone else see the irony? I don’t use sheltered in terms of the things that college can un-shelter you from….there are people. Everywhere. Living there lives. I want to know how they all do it. I want to say that I was craving this, but was I? I think so. I hope so. None of this will make sense tomorrow and I am being purposefully vague…I have no idea what I am trying to say other than I am glad I am out here. I don’t want a “told ya so.” I don’t know if it is a blessing, or if it is of my own doing, or if it is because of my blessings that I could pursue this of my own doing.

Responsibility.

What is the responsibility of a college student? Is it to get a degree? Is it to learn as much as possible? If so; about what? The area that you are studying? The different kinds of cheap light beer? How to schmooze? How to listen? How to learn? How to interact with people? How you interact with people? How to decide for yourself what the responsibilities of a college student are?

Is it universal?

TGIF

Worked a short day of work at Penrose this afternoon, and then came back and finished The Two Towers. Took a short walk, called gma and Kelly (happy b-day!), and began reading a new collection of stories. Judging from the 2-hour nap I just took, this week was a long one. Up long enough to blog, and now off to sleep!

ZzZzzZZzzzZzz

Junior Ranger Program at Kopachuck, then to the Community Fair to work the Parks booth, then back to Kopachuck for an evening program. Returned late, made a real dinner (after stopping to finally buy food), and am finishing a documentary on Wyoming. Excitingly anticipating a day off.

Tenacious Travelers

Took my new camera out this morning for just several minutes to play before I had to go to a meeting and prepare and give a program. Fancy this: I am actually reading the manual. I am pleasantly surprised by my little Canon a720 IS, and have had some success so far. Then again, it's not that hard to take a good picture of these mountains... I am playing around with the manual settings and have met mild success with the Macro setting...it only seems to work when I am not taking a picture of a flower. Anywho, I love it. Add "take pictures" to the list of "blog, play guitar, read." I have given up these things from my list "keep journal, work out, sleep." But who cares when I have mountains!

After a good meeting at the Salmon Enhancement Group, I went to Belfair to work on my program and then came home and continued working on it until 7 when I got a late start rallying the troops in the campground. I had lots of kids tonight, and so I catered it more toward them. Afterward, we played/sang and hung out. Enthusiastic and interested kids with supportive parents. Sweet.

I have a feeling my body will make me catch up on sleep tomorrow, no matter what my alarm says, and so I am mentally preparing for my 12 hour day of work (as are my saturdays) and for a very unproductive morning. I am excited to work at Kopachuck tomorrow; I haven't spent much time over there, but I love what I've seen at the park. I'm also working a booth at the Community Fair for several hours in between programs. Maybe I can beg my way onto the Ferris Wheel before my evening program :0).

Again, I leave you with my tinkerings:

People and Plants

Today I gave my first walk: the topic was ethnobotany and it went pretty well. I am not satisfied yet, which is how it should be. It was a lot of fun, but I'd like to add in some more interaction with the plants we talk about. Picking berries seemed to be the highlight, and I had a little girl who pointed out every cedar tree we passed (it was awesome).

I also ate stinging nettle off of the stalk. I was telling Aaron (park aide) that I had heard such and such about eating nettles raw, and so we decided to try it. I actually spit it out, but we discovered that indeed the leaf, when folded in on itself, does not sting you. After killing the poison with our saliva, we discovered the leaf didn't even sting our hand. This will definately be added to my program. "This is stinging nettle, people eat it." chomp. And it's true; the stinging nettle is edible, but it is a good idea to cook the poison out of it. A raw leaf was put on the toungue to stop nose bleeds. The fibers in the shoot were used to make string and twine. The leaves are cooked and used as a substitute for spinich. and we just think that it is a nuisance.

Still continuing the debate about school...mama was there (on the phone) to calmly and cooly stop me from entirely freaking out. I'll figure it out.

11:11!

For now I am going to go read a book and revel in the fact that I don't have to work until 11 tomorrow. Which means I should rise early and do things, but which actually means I will catch up on some much-needed sleep. Which means I won't freak out about school. Sweet!

I leave with a random collection of pictures I took today:

and Sets in the West

Beautiful day of nature and music. Spent the morning doing bookwork outside, then went to Penrose where I walked the trails and then worked on my program. Janet's husband came out and brought his guitar and we spent the evening playing outside the office. Wonderful day. Just great. Any day that calls for hiking the trails and paying close attention to plants... If anyone had forgotten, this is my job.



Drove home as the sun set behind the mountains and wished someone was there with whom to share it. My commute is gorgeous.






*check July 1 for new pictures