Graduation Contemplation

So I'd like to say that I have so many exciting things going on that I haven't been able to update my page lately, but that would kind of be a lie.  Don't get me wrong, we have a lot of exciting projects in the works, but I'm just in the boring research phase of my city projects and school papers.  My head throbs daily from reading so much and the arthritis in my fingers refuses to deflame from all the typing, but it will be worth it in the end.  Heck, I found out the head librarian in town has an Oceanography degree, so even if those Baby Boomer planners continue to refuse retirement there's always research work in the library, right?  NOT - I'd find myself beating my ADD head against the wall everyday.  It's too quiet in there.  Who gives up the ocean for a library anyway?  Crazy lady.

Speaking of my future career plans, I did make it through the first round of cuts for the Associate Planner position at Snohomish County Planning and Development.  I don't feel very confident about the interview though.  I did all of the right things, held up my posture, smiled, firm handshakes all around, gave off a self-confident aura until... the curveball question.  It all went downhill after that.  I said so many uhs and ums after that, I wouldn't hire me.  I HATE uhs and ums.  I'm sure it's not as bad as I make it sound, but compared to all of my pharmacy interviews where I came out feeling like a stud it was cow material.

So, I'm applying for more positions at private firms and other municipalities as they come along, and hopefully I'll network into something.  Until then, I'm still a giant Pez dispenser at the pharmacy, and a freebie at the city.  I hope you all can make it to our Humanimal series at the City of Arlington every Thursday in May, it's going to be fun.

Closer to Home

This week has been a great one, I must say.  But first, I have to brag that my daughter took one in the face for her basketball team and still scored 8 points in the game.  Way to wear a shiner to the dance, and make your team proud! 

Our visit to the Elwha River last weekend was a great opportunity to become more familiar with the Olympic National Forest and to hang out with the other Seniors from the peninsula campuses of Huxley.  The rivers in Western Washington were all running at or just above flood stage, so the Elwha was raging, and it made the discharge falls from the lower dam loud and powerful. 

We all chose our top three category picks to work on for the Environmental Impact Statement of the dam removals, and I'm hoping to get Natural Resources so I can have a chance to research the historic fish run numbers.  It will be interesting to keep an eye on recovering run numbers and see if, and how long it takes to see those numbers again.  So far, I haven't seen anyone else choose the category.

I'm interning much closer to home these days, and have a lot of great projects lined up at the City of Arlington.  Last year the city was able to obtain enough grant money to combine with their funds to purchase the old Country Charm Dairy.  Plans for the lower flood plain portion of the acreage include a large open play field (which I intend to write a low-mow plan for), a community farm and garden on existing farmland, a fishing pond, trails, a 26 site campground, and a safe swim area with an interpretive salmon education sign system.  To connect this property with the future downtown riverfront park plan an interpretive ecological and historical water trail for human powered watercraft with four pull-out areas is being designed.  Then Arlington will be a walkable and rowable city.  How cool is that? 

I'm also helping a fellow Senior intern with a four night ecology class curriculum sponsored by the city.  I'm not a great teacher, but I'm getting more patient.  At least this will be in front of a crowd and not as frustrating as tutoring.  I'm thinking about what portions I would be able to teach well and I'm leaning towards toxicology, flooding and perhaps some forest ecology if my friendly ex-forester neighbor will let me borrow some books.  The final night will be a green networking night, and I'm hoping to get the SnoCo PUD, the SnoCo Green Team and SnoCo Public Works there.  The Public Works biodiesel booth was an absolute hit at the Darrington Community Science night two years ago when I asked them to make some on site.  I love watching the public get excited about science, especially loggers.

Under the Dogpile

Bleh.  That is how this week has felt.  The engineer at the parks department said yesterday, that she was "just staying ahead of the nipping dog," when it came to her projects, and I told her I felt like I was under the dogpile.  I wasn't really ready for school to start, I passed a kidney stone, and my kids were gone for most of the week.  I think the really great weekend made the week seem worse than it was, though.

In fact, Friday and Saturday couldn't have been any better.  The Hermit turned 40 on Friday, and I was able to throw together a great dinner and a cake in the matter of two days.  Wednesday, I was completely incapacitated by the kidney stone, so I decided to completely change the menu.  We went from bbq ribs and chicken to brats, hamburgers and turkey burgers.  I spiced up the Americana bbq with some easy antipasto salad with all fresh herbs, cheeses and garlic, a variety of cheeses, crackers and bread, and a mean bruschetta that was a hit with the adults and the kids.  All of the herbs and most of the veggies were from the garden, which should have about 40 ears of sweet corn ready for harvest really soon. 

After the bbq, we hit the casino with his family, and managed to stay up until 3:30 am somehow.  His brother and wife, and cousins had driven up from the Seattle area to meet the rest of us, and we managed not to lose too much money.  We had reserved a room at the resort, which was really nice, and it was great that we didn't have to drive anywhere, but hotels really need to warn people when they have all feather down bedding.  That way those of us who are allergic to it can bring our allergy medicine and sleep better, hint, hint.

On Saturday, I manned the parks table at the Centennial Trail expansion opening in Arlington, while the family hit the Bite of Arlington downtown.  Both events had a pretty good turn out, though I hope the Bite is bigger next year.  The weather was supposed to be rainy, but we had 70 degrees of sunshine instead.  Of course, the county executive canceled at the last minute, big surprise, and the parks director was on vacation, but the head planner did well handling all the PR, and the mayor and our county councilman stepped in, too.

Unfortunately on Sunday, I had to work, and that's how the rest of the week has gone.  I will top off this week with an 8 hour Biostats lab in Poulsbo on Saturday.  Exciting, right?  Like I said, I wasn't ready for school this week, so, bleh.

What Day is it Again?

Well here I am at a midpoint in a long 13 day stretch of working. I get to work seven days in a row beginning tomorrow, and am strongly considering taking another day off at the internship, just so I can keep some mental clarity. I've noticed on six day stretches that my days begin running together, and by the time I'm closing the pharmacy on Fridays, delerium has made everything funny to me. Delerium is not a good thing when you are dispensing medications.

I really don't want to take another day off from the Parks Department, though, because my map is finally finished to the point where I can begin implementing our no-mow project. We'll be expanding and enhancing existing vegetation plots, wetland and streamside buffers, and allowing more meadows to grow in the county parks, using Willis Tucker Park as a test site. Once I get our measurements and crunch the numbers showing how much money we can save on mowing labor, gas and fertilizer I may be able to justify the purchase of some wildflower seeds for the meadows. I'm thinking of donating some lupine and digitalis seed from my personal seedbank, and even holding a work party in late August to dig and pot other native plants on our land such as elderberry, vine maple and various ferns for the enhanced sites.

Today we're leaving the sun up here in the mountains and going "down below" to the foggy beach at Kayak Point for my step-dad's family picnic. I really have a hard time relaxing there, because I see all the litter and feel like I need to start picking it up. Not just out of habit because I worked there for 3 years, but because we're expected to do that at all park sites when we visit despite your position. Actually, I'm sure I'll end up picking up litter, I can't help it.

Speaking of Parks Department Administration, I've been catching up on all the Thursday night shows I missed because of class. I'm not a big tv buff, but there are a few shows I like to catch when I can, and one of them is "Parks and Rec" on NBC. My favorite quote so far? "I think all government should be privatized. Chucky Cheese could run the parks department. Drop in a token, go down the slide. Drop in a token, take a walk. Drop in a token, look at the beach." Seriously - LMAO!!!

Time to Be Back

Here I am, back to reclaim my Saturdays. No more trips to Sequim or long road trips to Mt. Rainier or Spokane, but it's been weeks of great experiences. I've learned how to measure trees, tons of native plants, hydrology, soil science, and even got in some snowshoeing on Mt. Rainier which was a major feat. Not because I played in the snow, or camped in the mud, but because I made it up a trail from Paradise, that I couldn't even go a quarter mile on when my dad took me 20 years ago. Don't judge - I was raised a flatlander and had just moved out here. The other feat was getting one of our housewife classmates through the mud camping and packing her excessive baggage and shoes into my car. Oh, and I need to mention that I got a 3.83 out of this crazy 16 credit quarter.

My poor little car put so many miles on these last 3 months, and now I'm depending on it to get me to and from work in Arlington and Snohomish 6 days a week. I wasn't sure how working 6 days a week was going to go, but the first week wasn't so bad. Work seems to be flowing better at the pharmacy, although there are always going to be those busy days with strange situations. I'm just not as tired as I thought I would be, but I guess I'll have to wait a few weeks to really judge that.

The internship down at SnoCo Parks planning department has been great so far. I've met most of the planners now, and cannot believe how many concurrent projects they have going. I definitely need to inquire about getting some files and a clean drawer. I've run into so many familiar faces just in my first two days, it's been great.

I sat in on the depressing Sr. Ranger budget meeting and talked to Jack, my boss the last year I was at Kayak Point, as well as other rangers we had done various things with. Jack and I didn't really hit it off when he came to the park, as he changed everyone's shifts and work partners, and I couldn't really tell how he felt about seeing me in the administration office. It was nice to see him though, and catch up on life.

Then on Thursday, Ranger Tom came over to my cubicle to say hi. He's probably the most involved ranger in the community as he does raptor shows and bat box demonstrations all around the county parks and at schools. When I was in high school, I did most of my Honor Society community service with him in his Ranger Explorers program, and he got me the seasonal job out at Kayak Point after I graduated. We caught up for a while and he threw me some ideas for one of the camping projects I am working on. I wonder who I will run into next week.

I'm not really sure what I'm going to do today with my only day off. It's pretty gray and damp outside, so I'm sure some housework will be involved, but I want to try and finish my pumpkin patch before all the pumpkins I planted become too rootbound in their pots. I want to get some hiking in too, so I hope summer shows its face around here soon. Come on sun, you can do it.

Headed Down the Homestretch

I just want to let everyone know that I am still alive. This quarter has been amazingly busy, but I've pulled it off. I have one portion of a final assignment due tomorrow and then...School's out for Summer! Not to worry, with the busy schedule and lack of sleep, I've learned an awful lot, between field work and my internship. Next week I begin my 6 day work week - 4 days at the pharmacy and 2 days at the SnoCo Parks Planning Department. Even with that schedule, free time is coming soon. More to come later...

Officially an Intern

I officially have an internship. I no longer feel like a lost puppy in a scary world of big dogs, now I have to help my classmates find some. We're kind of on our own out of the WWU Huxley Everett campus, since our program director, and most of the faculty is located out of Port Angeles. There were plenty of internships posted for the Olympic Peninsula, but those of us in Everett, were forced to look on the Bellingham campus postings.

This not only means that we have to compete with students out of the large main campus Huxley College, but we also have to compete against students from UW, Central, Evergreen and other large universities here on the west side. Needless to say, the paid internships have pretty fierce competition, and I wasn't willing to wait around another 3 weeks to see if I got any of those positions. I figured I might as well get a head start on everyone else for unpaid positions, and cold called 8 agencies last Wednesday.

Snohomish County Parks Planning Department was the first to get back to me, with an internship plan included. A day later, the City of Arlington called me back, and wanted to make an internship plan with the Natural Resource department. I took the SnoCo position, because parks are kind of my passion, and they were always so good to me, even as a student volunteer in high school. A lot of projects we started in the mid 90's are full-blown parks, trails and campgrounds now, and it's fascinating to me seeing what they've become after only being involved in the early grunt-work. I still want to talk with the City of Arlington to see if there's an opportunity to work for them one day a week during the next school year so I don't have to wait for internship hours next summer to graduate - we need a minimum of 300 hours.

I'm really excited for the SnoCo position, though. I went into the interview room, expecting a one-on-one with the Planning director, but ended up in an actual meeting with other planners. He brought in Chris, who was the planner I interviewed for a class project last quarter, and two other planners. I was expecting the regular questions, you know, "why do you want to work here, what are your strengths/weaknesses?" etc, but it was actually a brainstorming session to throw projects at me. Towards the end of the meeting, the Parks director walked in, and I got to meet him, too. Then last night, the hubby turned on "Parks and Rec" and I felt like a dork. Whatever, I like my future projects.

Some of my work may end up on the SnoCo website, or at public meetings. I'll get to use ArcGIS, GPS, and AutoCAD, and of course Power Point for presentations. I don't care how dumb Amy Poehler makes Parks staff look, I'm excited. And speaking of excitement, I've got to jet for a day of preparations for Tay's 13 th birthday party tonight. Minute-to-win-it games, possibly the box-in-a-box game, and tons of 12 and 13 year olds at the Darrington Community Center. Jealous much?