Whiners Not Welcome Here

I can definitely say that I have not been this busy since high school. Even today, I don't have time to post much, but thought I would throw out an update despite my insane schedule.

Work: Our volume is up, and the new DSHS Provider One rollouts seem to be going rather smoothly. This was a surprise to me, as over time I have become very cynical of Medicaid "improvements," but this one will actually improve efficiency and streamline prior authorizations. And for once, a software rollover has occurred without big glitches, and it was the government, not private agencies, that was responsible. Take note Premera and Regence. If the state can do it, so can you.

Internship: I've been spending Thursday mornings at City Hall interning under the Natural Resource Manager. So far, I've gotten a lot of insight into the Puget Sound Partnership and county politics. We have also been planning for a community garden at the old Country Charm Dairy, and an addition to the connectivity trails in the city. Just like when I went to pharmacy tech school, there's so much that you can only learn on the job, and I'm soaking up as much as possible.

Oceanography: I've been spending most Saturdays near Sequim at the DOE's Battelle Marine Lab. Last Saturday, we waded through the seaweed beds doing a biological survey, and taking samples for a photosynthesis and primary production lab. I'm not really a seaweed person, but it was fun, and I found a sheet of Nori that was over 4 square feet! Wrap that around your sushi (yuck!). When it came time to crunch numbers after the lab, I found out that people in my group "didn't like math." Well, who does really like math? Annoyed, but wanting to get home as soon as possible after all day on the beach and pier, I busted out the Calculus as fast as I could.

Forest Ecology: The Saturdays we haven't had Oceanography labs, we've gone to the peninsula for this class. We've picked up an old DNR study from the 1960's to track Douglas Fir production versus the effects of thinning in low precipitation conditions. As I'm sure you can imagine, this is done in a stand in the Olympic rain shadow near Sequim.

This weekend, we are joining the Natural History of the NW class on Mt. Ranier. The Everett students have been excited for weeks, and we've been planning our homework around the trip. However, the students from the peninsula have done nothing but complain about the trip, and many didn't show up for class last night as they are leaving today for the trip instead of tomorrow.

They are also complaining about the cost of the camping trip, but they're staying an extra night. The only reason I can gather that they are leaving early is to have an excuse to not turn work in on time, and to complain about the cost. This is offensive to me, as my classmate and I loose 6 hours of work time to travel every weekend, and have been paying for ferry trips all quarter. Despite the time we spend traveling every week, and both having families and full time jobs, we've been able to turn everything in on time all quarter. It's been so hard not to just spout off in class lately.

Environmental Politics: This class has been taking up much more time than I thought, but is the most interesting to me. In fact today, I plan on collecting more research for my term paper about the Gulf oil spill. I picked off shore drilling as my topic at the beginning of the quarter after Obama approved a plan for exploratory drilling off the Atlantic Coast from New Jersey to Florida. Three weeks later, BP proved my point, and because of their disaster, it's been cake finding data to support my position. Hopefully all of you have joined me in a boycott of BP. Oh and don't feel sorry for them when they whine about how much they have spent in clean up so far - it's 4 days worth of profits for them.