a midwesterner's adventures in northern california

time flies

2008-09-25T13:03:00.000-07:00

just over 2 months before AmeriCorps is over.

just over 2 months before i pack up and head to argentina and chile.

i have 2 months to plan where i'm going, learn spanish, sell my car, and work a million hours at the restaurant (on top of minimum 40 hrs/week @ americorps) to make mad cash.

oh. shit.

(also i am starting a garden in my friend's backyard, we're working on an urban farming collective within SF! so i have an unfunded project to return to post-trip.)

(you can also find me at nattles.tumblr.com.)

Post-AmeriCorps

2008-08-22T09:14:00.000-07:00

At some point in the past few months I decided that the money I was saving by waitressing, catering, and working for AmeriCorps would be used to send me to some other country to wwoof (work on an organic farm in exchange for food and housing).

Yesterday, with my stomach in my throat, I bought plane tickets. Here is my plan thus far:

Dec 5th: AmeriCorps ends
Dec 9th: SFO to LAX
Dec 10th: LAX to EZE, Buenos Aires
....
....
....
Jan 29th: Santiago, Chile, to LAX
Jan 30th: LAX to SFO

The .... indicate that no, I don't actually have any idea of what I'm doing in the 7 weeks between. I have a list of farms in Argentina and Chile, I know people who know researchers in Chile and salmon fishermen in Chile, so I have some places that I can stay, targets for some time periods.

Maybe I'll start in BsAs, go to a farm near Patagonia, cross to Chile through Patagonia, up to Chillan, up to Valaparaiso, out of Santiago.

My hope is that I can spend more time in fewer places rather than see as much as possible.

If anyone wants to join at any point, let me know. I can't wait to see Christine somewhere down there, and maybe Michelle too!

Secretly, I'm scared as fuck. This is not a very natalie-thing to do. Also I don't know any Spanish.

AmeriCorps: take action!

2008-05-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

I'm copying and pasting this from an email I was forwarded:

------
On Friday, May 16, 2008, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut will introduce the AmeriCorps Act of 2008. The bill will:

Raise the education award to $6,185,the average annual cost of tuition and fees for an instate student at a four year public university
Make the education award tax exempt
Restore the Corporation's previous authority to partner with other Federal agencies to use national service as a strategy to carry out Departments' priorities
Promote the Corporation for National and Community Service to Cabinet level status.

AmeriCorps Alums encourages all AmeriCorps Alums to support this effort, as it recognizes the importance of service and promotes access to education by increasing the value of the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. Since its inception in 1994, more than 540,000 citizens have served through AmeriCorps to address the unmet needs of our nation. These citizens have given over 700,000,000 hours toward improving the lives of other Americans.

-------

To take action:

You can build support for national service by encouraging your Senators to join as original cosponsors of the bill. Call today; the deadline for cosponsors is Thursday, May 15th at 4:00pm.

Action Steps for the AmeriCorps Act of 2008:

1. Call the Capitol operator at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your Senator.
2. Ask your elected official to be an original cosponsor of the AmeriCorps Act of 2008.
3. To cosponsor, interested offices should contact Mary Ellen McGuire with Senator Dodd’s office by email: MaryEllen_McGuire@help.senate.gov. Deadline for cosponsors is Thursday, May 15th at 4pm.

-----

And of course, I am NOT doing this while clocking hours (hello, lunch. jamba juice & a popsicle! apparently a predicted high of 95 degrees encourages SF to buy popsicles, even though its really like 75 degrees.)

Quick update. From the NYT.

2008-03-13T11:20:00.000-07:00

This is one of the issues we're involved with:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/us/13salmon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=salmon&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Collapse of Salmon Stocks Endangers Pacific Fishery

By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: March 13, 2008

Federal officials have indicated that they are likely to close the Pacific salmon fishery from northern Oregon to the Mexican border because of the collapse of crucial stocks in California’s major watershed.

That would be the most extensive closing on the West Coast since the federal government started regulating fisheries.

“By far the biggest,” said Dave Bitts, a commercial fisherman from Eureka, Calif., who is at a weeklong meeting of the Pacific Coast Fisheries Management Council in Sacramento.

“The Central Valley fall Chinook salmon are in the worst condition since records began to be kept,” Robert Lohn, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Portland, Ore., said Wednesday in an interview. “This is the largest collapse of salmon stocks in 40 years.”

Although the Washington and Alaska fisheries are not affected, the California and Oregon ones produce “some of the most valuable fish, ones that are prized from West Coast seaports all the way to East Coast restaurants,” Mr. Lohn said.

The effect on salmon prices is not clear. Mr. Bitts said the effects on commercial and sport fishermen and their communities could run to millions of dollars.

On Wednesday the council closed several minor short-term fishing seasons off California and Oregon in connection with the salmon shortfall.

Counts of young salmon, whose numbers have dwindled sharply for two years, were the first major indication of the problem. The number of fish that survive more than a year in the ocean, or jacks, is a marker for the abundance of full-grown salmon the next year. The 2007 count of the fall Chinook jacks from the Sacramento River was less than 6 percent of the long-term average, Mr. Lohn said.

The Central Valley salmon runs are concentrated in the Sacramento River, the focus of a water struggle between farmers and irrigation districts on one hand and environmental groups and fishermen on the other.

Three years ago, some conservation groups challenged in federal court an advisory opinion by federal fisheries managers that let federal and state officials increase the water drawn from the Sacramento River Delta for farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and cities in Southern California.

The opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Service said the increase would not harm the three salmon species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The fall Chinook salmon were not under the act.

John McManus, a spokesman for Earthjustice, the group handling the suit, said lawyers in the case had been told that the judge would rule by the end of March.

Federal scientists reported this month that abnormal ocean conditions might be affecting the food chain of young salmon.

----------------------------------

It's pretty exciting. We're going to Sacramento tomorrow; I couldn't go Tuesday because we had to teach in a second grade classroom.

In other news, I moved from the Mission District to SOMA (about 15 blocks, into a 'hood that doesn't really have a neighborhood feel. Like, I don't think it's appropriate to call it a "neighborhood". I live in an "area"). The day after I moved my car was broken into, again, right by my old place. Same window. One block away. "Thanks for leaving our neighborhood, bitch" I think is what it was saying...

I am so lazy.

2008-01-22T20:53:00.000-08:00

I spend a lot of time on the internet, but none on this thing.

Life is easy. I just started my second term of AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project, this year with the Institute for Fisheries Resources. Today was my first day at the office. It took me over an hour to get there, and obnoxiously the thing that makes it so long is my walk to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). It's during commute hours so I can't bring my bike on, and the shuttle from the BART to the office doesn't have a bike rack, so I can't cut down the commute by 30 minutes.

On the other hand, if I hadn't become such a wimp for the cold, I could ride my bike the 7 miles there in about 45 minutes.

Prior to starting at IFR, AmeriCorps WSP had an orientation/training up in Northern California, similar to last year except longer. This year we were inland enough and it was cold enough that there was SNOW. Serious SNOW. Something like a foot of SNOW. We did our swiftwater safety training in the river while it was really, really cold out. It was fun.

In other news, my neighborhood is not safe. My car was broken into down the block and my cubs hats stolen out of it. My roommate's friend was robbed at gunpoint two blocks down the street before Christmas. I need mace. I have no problem/fear riding my bike home late at night, but I don't like being on foot walking home from the BART at 11 pm or later.

Also I bought a MacBook. I love it.

Another Year in the West

2007-11-04T18:27:00.000-08:00

While I am sorry that I haven't updated since September (or was it August?), I obviously wasn't sorry enough during these past few months to prevent such a dry spell.

Things have changed since I finished my first year in AmeriCorps. I moved from rural west Marin County to the Mission District in San Francisco and started a new job.

Moving was a huge pain. With the housing market crash, more people are renting, driving prices in this already saturated and extremely expensive market higher. I probably emailed around 40-50 people on craigslist concerning room-for-rent postings between mid-August and late-September and received 5 replies. I only saw 4 places, and the place I ended up at was the only one I could honestly picture myself living in. And thankfully, the guys who already live here thought the same of me.

I equate the Mission most closely with Humboldt Park in Chicago - it's about 50% latino, there are some REALLY sketchy parts, and people who don't live or hang out here are afraid of it. Maybe a little more Logan Square - about a third of the Mission is crawling with hipsters. Unlike Marin, where there were lots of hippie/organic -eateries all over the place, there's a taqueria on nearly every corner in the Mission.

My roommates are fantastic - I cannot imagine a better living situation. I live with 3 guys and 1 girl, Robert, Skitch, England, and Morgan. Robert and Skitch are brothers (and it's Robert's birthday today). England is from the Philippines and Morgan is from Philly. Morgan and I moved in around the same time - we met the day I moved in.

Robert, me, Morgan, and Kurt (Robert's friend and bandmate)

I interviewed for my second term of AmeriCorps last month and now that it's November, I'm just waiting to find out if I got the position or not. Right now I'm working at a restaurant near Fisherman's Wharf (though it doesn't get much of a tourist crowd) - I'm planning on making this secondary income when AmeriCorps (hopefully) starts in January. In the meantime, I ride my bike/BART (sort of like metra or maybe the purple line) to work everyday, about 1.5 miles there, and when I ride all the way home it's about 4.5 miles. So I get some kind of workout.

So, in addition to living and working at Houston's, I also usually cater about once a week, though not at all in November, and I still go back to Marin about once a week to do office work at Sea Turtle Restoration Project, SPAWN's sister organization. That leaves me one day a week off (though somehow I managed to get 3 days off in a row this weekend - absolutely amazing) to run errands, have fun, etc.

Things I love about my new situation:
-Along with the garbage and recycling bins, SF has compost bins
-I live with people my own age
-I drive ~1x per week - I'm no longer chained to my car
-I can get anywhere I want on a bike. Except Marin or Berkeley, they're too far for me
-I make a lot more money than AmeriCorps, though it's not really making me grow professionally

Things I'm not so keen on:
-No more pets that aren't really my own
-Less fresh air
-No funny ridiculous kids
-No work gossip with Mitch (the dad I lived with)
-It's dirtier and loud. Really loud. People tend to stand on our corner and gossip a lot... usually in Spanish, which makes it easy to drown out, but when it's in English it's annoying.
-I don't know Spanish.

Anyway, so that's what's happening here. I just baked a cake for Robert's birthday and I don't think it's terribly good, but I'm going to blame the cheap aluminum cake pans.

My last days of AmeriCorps (term #1)

2007-09-03T22:51:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened in the last two weeks, all of which I’ve had grand plans of blogging about. I guess what this really shows is that I should not have a career as a blogger.

I finished my hours with SPAWN two weeks early, but I hadn’t quite finished all my duties so I was working less than full-time, taking off early here and there and occasionally taking full days off. I worked until the last day anyway.

Let’s start with the Cubs. The Cubs came to play a three game series against the Giants in the middle of the week – their only time this season in the Bay Area. I was fortunate enough to attend two of the three. Both were really exciting games, which the Cubs won in either the 9^th or the 10^th inning. Each time I was the loudest of the bunch, essentially cheering for each new (cubbie) batter. I took full advantage of this on the second game, when our seats were 3 rows behind home plate.

I supplied Heidi with a pink Cubs hat for the game.

That Friday, Heidi and I were supposed to leave work early and drive to Monterey to visit Kristin (AmeriCorps at IFR). Originally we had planned to see Wilco in Berkeley but the show sold out really early. But, that day, Heidi’s friend emailed to tell her that he found tickets for them on craigslist. After obtaining the “ok- come a day later” from Kristin, I opted to check craigslist for my own ticket. Which I found, for free – with a catch.

The catch: I had to pick up the ticket owner from his hotel in Union Square (downtown SF – like picking someone up from Water Tower Place) and drive him to Berkeley and back (so technically I could have just “led” him – ie taken public transit or the like, but I have a car and I don’t live in the city).

After considering that this could possibly lead me into a dangerous situation with a psychopath, I decided I’d rather take the risk and see Wilco than stay home. The stranger was Canadian and actually pretty cool – we got along really well, which was especially sweet because the should-have-been-30 minute drive from Union Square to Berkeley took well over an hour due to rush hour.

I like to refer to him as "the stranger"

The next day Heidi and I left for Kristin’s in Monterey. The three of us went to the Aquarium (awesome), explored tide pools on the beach, and ate a Jewish food festival. I ate the best pastrami sandwich ever. Vegetarianism does not work for me.

There are more pictures on flickr.

I returned from Monterey to find that Mitch had extra tickets for the next day’s Giants game against the Rockies. Heidi and I took off work early for another baseball game, this time sitting in the owners section, 4 rows back between home plate and the Giants dugout. The Giants win in a very exciting and close game. Like I said, I bring the magic.

And yes, I have no problem bragging about the best seats I will ever have at a baseball game. They were amazing.

The next day (we’re on Tuesday now – it has been exactly one week since that first Cubs game), Paola threw Heidi and I a potluck dinner party as a goodbye prior to our last day of work. There is no story here, I just wanted to continue the week of Awesome.

On Wednesday evening, Kristin and Nate (AmeriCorps IFR) arrive late at my house since the four of us have to drive to Humboldt on Thursday for our WSP exit celebration and paperwork. A five hour drive (each way) for 5 hours of work (plus 70s party and sleeping). Even with the carpool, it didn’t really seem like a good use of fossil fuels considering we’re an environmentally conscious organization. Oh well, it was fun.

Southern Carpool ladies decked out in 1970s gear - my dress was
worn by Kristin's mother in 1972 at Kristin's aunt's rehearsal dinner.

There were a lot of 70s outfits. Many of them actually from the 70s.

Nate may be permanently grumpy due to sharing the car with
the 3 of us (though he usually doesn't look that upset). We're
in front of the bathroom sign because of all the bathroom stops
we have to make...

So now I’m done with AmeriCorps. I logged my last hours on Friday – a few hours of paperwork and 5 hours of driving. I spent my first unemployed weekend catering for two weddings and finally had my first actual day off today, Labor day, which I celebrated by tabling for the Barack Obama campaign.

The next four months (until AmeriTerm #2) will be interesting – right now I’m catering on the weekends and helping out Mitch and Julie at their office. I’m also searching for a room for rent in San Francisco, which is not going very well. Hopefully I will find something by October 1^st, but Mitch and Julie are not pressuring me at all and giving me ample time to figure out where I’m going. On Saturday they told me I could take the bed and desk that I’ve been using as well, so now I’ve even got furnishings!

More photos on Flickr!

I skipped July. So here's an entry for August.

2007-08-09T22:28:00.000-07:00

I've been very, very bad at updating this blog. I like to blame some of the problem on a lack of (home) internet during 3 weeks of July, and my computer's wifi capability (or card?) breaking down, thus requiring me to plug directly into the line when I'm at home which isn't terribly convenient. The other, more realistic reason is lack of motivation.

But enough with excuses, on with adventures!

So what's happened to me since late June? Well, a lot of stuff. In July, this 25-foot steel and fiberglass salmon visited SPAWN on it's journey around the West, garnering support for removal of the four lower dams on the Snake River, one of Save Our Wild Salmon's campaigns. This is a video stolen from the blog of the trip, condensing the trip into about a minute. I'm actually in the movie - the shot of the "It Takes a Valley to Raise a Salmon" is from our float at the 4th of July parade in Woodacre, and I'm the one in the big sunglasses escaping the camera (and handing candy to kids) right before the video moves on.

The thing was hollow and the interior was painted with the life cycle and some other cool stuff, but honestly I didn't explore the interior because a) it was really hot on the 4th and I didn't want to be in an oven very long; b) on the 3rd I was wearing a skirt and wasn't about to climb up; and c) I don't like those kinds of confined spaces.

Fin is the salmon's name

Paola, Heidi, me.

Heidi inside

The hottest day I've felt here thus far - in the 90's
(yet still not as muggy as the Midwest)

It was exciting to connect with salmon folks working on a larger scale issue - SPAWN is focused on a small watershed in West Marin, really, the San Geronimo Sub-Watershed of the Lagunitas Watershed. While our salmon population is crucial and the creeks hold the largest wild run of wild coho, the amount of people directly benefiting financially from them is small. The fish in the Snake are, yes, still endangered and thus not fished, but by removing the dams and restoring the fishery, jobs will be created - both in restoration and monitoring, but also in commercial and recreational fishing. I've never worked on an environmental project that made sense even when you ignore environmental impacts.

****************

Heidi and I held our Independent Service Project in July as well; pictures will be on Flickr, eventually. I promise I'll post those soon and then post here to let you know. Though, honestly, I doubt the pictures are exciting. We recruited volunteers to removed invasive Himalayan blackberry and English Ivy at a property on National Park Services Land, along Lagunitas Creek - a property where SPAWN's office will be moving to at the end of this month.

****************

Immediately after the Independent Service Project, Heidi and I trekked up north again for AmeriCorps WSP summer training. We all camped for a week near the mouth of the Klamath River, where Dick Cheney may have been responsible for a major salmon kill a few years ago. As much as these trainings wear on my quickly (by Wednesday I can usually be heard whispering to Heidi or Kristin (AmeriCorps WSP at IFR, see below) "it's Wednesday! Almost done!"), this one had some fairly kick ass moments (there is no way to more eloquently say that).

The Klamath meets the Pacific.

There were elk, bald eagles, osprey, comorants, AND GREY WHALES. I have never before seen a whale and it was awesome. I also saw an osprey catch a fish, but a) it paled in comparison to WHALES ROLLING IN THE OCEAN; and b) I told my dad and he's like "oh yeah, don't you remember seeing that when you were kids on such-and-such trip?" (I remember seeing ospreys nesting but no fish).

****************

So my future. I guess that's the next topic I need to discuss, since putting it off in order to write about how I'm starting to like cats (even ones that you cat-sit and that wake you up at 6 am by sitting on you) is kind of lame.

My WSP internship ends at the end of the mouth. Technically, it ends after I complete about 30 more hours, but that's 3+ days of work and there are 3 more weeks left till the end of the month. I'm planning on taking it easy, yet still working until the end.

I'm also definitely applying for another term in AmeriCorps WSP, even though it won't begin until January. My mind is still the same and I'm applying for a position at the Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR), whose office is in the Presidio. I'm not really worried about the application (though, honestly, at this moment in time my essay question answers -- and I use the term essay loosely -- are not really up to par) or the interview. For a while I was worried about this four month period in between where I would be unemployed, but I think I've got a handle on things now. I'm working part time as a caterer on the weekends and I've been applying for other part time jobs. Since I can take lots of time off, I plan on using it to apply to restaurants and retail places in person. If I work at IFR and life in San Francisco, my rent will be significantly higher than what it is now, so I'll need a second job anyway. What's better than finding that and settling prior to starting stressful, awesome work? I don't know.

As for living situation, I'm attempting to move out of Mitch & Julie's house as soon as possible. The past 11 months here have been awesome; I really cannot say enough good things about living with them, their family, the pets, their house, the location, and on and on. However, I'm still not *really* supporting myself here. I'm also in an area with very few 20-somethings and it's getting kind of tiring. I'm ready to move on.

As I'm writing this, I got my first twang of "wait... I don't really want to leave Mitch & Julie's because I'll miss them!" For a while I knew I'd miss Lily (kitten who stalks me in the mornings and evenings and is currently curled up in the chair next to me), and maybe the sentimentalism has taken hold because I haven't been living in the house much the past 3 weeks (Klamath + cat-sitting) and thus haven't been living with 5 kids (since they are all away this week the house is quiet and empty - talk about an advantage of second marriages with ex-spouses still maintaining joint custody) (not to say I don't love the kids too - but 5 for a full week when there is no school for them is a lot).

****************

Today I spent the day in the San Joaquin and Central Valleys of CA touring Tuolumne River restoration sites as part of Kristin's independent service project with IFR, thus spending a large portion of the day with my potential future bosses. Like I said, I'm not too worried, though I never ever count on things like that (you never know who else might apply) and I would never not take something seriously because of it. Hilariously, Zeke (exec director) and Pietro (president) both have worked with Jean Flemma (Prairie Rivers Network!). It is truly a small world.

So that's what's been going on. As of now, I've been awake for over 20 hours today and I think it's time to go to bed. Maybe I will roll into work a little late tomorrow... hopefully literally as I want to pump some air into my borrowed bike (!also news though only exciting to me!) and take it instead of the car.

Job Searching

2007-06-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

My time with SPAWN is coming to a close. I'm about to hit month 10 of the 11 month internship and August 31st is coming up quickly.

This means that I'm constantly hearing "So what are you doing next?"

The answer: I don't know.

A second year of AmeriCorps at the other site, IFR, is still up in the air. Funding issues (?) caused there to be a question of whether or not the site would exist, and while we were initially told that we'd know the answer to that question in early June, we still don't.

I'm not particularly excited about this mystery. Yesterday I heard a rumor that the start date for a second term would begin in January, so if I decided to apply for it, I've possibly got 4 months of unemployment to look forward to before it begins.

Rather than sit on my hands and wait, I've decided to apply for other jobs in the Bay Area. In doing so (and really throughout this internship), I've been trying evaluate what I'm really good at and what I want to do. I still don't think I necessarily have to decide this for the rest of my life, but at least it should help me shape what part of myself I want to explore and develop next.

Send job postings this way!

Whoa, 2 entries in 1 week.

2007-05-30T12:37:00.000-07:00

Heidi and I watered and mulched some plants we put in a couple months ago along Arroyo Creek, about a half mile up the road from my house.

We parked, and I noticed a turkey on the lawn, behind the cars, at the house we were at. It's not really unusual to see wild turkeys around here. Just a couple weeks ago while driving to the same place there were two walking alongside the road. I jumped out of Heidi's car and tried to chase them down (it was near the end of the month and my food stamps were running out). They out ran me.

Anyway, we sneak up and there's one male presenting - feathers all up, puffing out his chest, he looks huge - and there are 5 females hanging out around him. His little posse. About 20 feet further there's a young buck standing on his hind legs to get above a tree protector to nibble on the sweet shoots or buds of the tree.

I love my job.

May 2007

2007-05-28T09:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, a long time since I updated… so I’ll try to keep this to exciting new things.

Disclaimer: My camera was running out of batteries, so some of these pictures were taken with my cameraphone.... which I have yet to master. More photos can be found on flickr.

Two weeks ago I spent the week up in Petrolia for AmeriCorps spring training.

About 53 of us AmeriCorps Watershed Steward Project interns gathered in the Mattole Watershed, near the lost coast, for “career building” and other get-together stuff. It was fun – it’s super rural there. Only ~40 miles from Fortuna and Eureka (fairly large towns in Northern California), it takes around 2 hours to get there because the road is windy, tight, and full of blind curves. You also get to drive through the (largest?) oldest stand of old growth redwoods in North America. And they were massive. The redwoods by me at Muir Woods are nothing in comparison. Of course, coming from the south it took more like 5 or 6 hours to get there.

Mattole Salmon Group's screw trap for smolt trapping -
go to March 22nd entry to read about SPAWN's
smolt trapping project.

Measuring chinook, steelhead, and the occasional coho
caught in the Mattole Salmon Group's screw trap.

WSP members climbing a large in-stream structure installed
by the Mattole Restoration Council made of woody debris and rocks,
put in to decrease erosion, create pools and habitat for salmon.

The mouth of the Mattole River.

This smelly dog that decided to hang around during training.
Eventually his owner showed up to bring him home. Picture
by Bob Atwood.

On the drive home, Kristin, Heidi and I decided to stop at those giant redwoods we drove through on the way to Petrolia. Coincidentally, this is where Creek Days was held two weeks later (read on).

----------------

After a week back at SPAWN, I went back up to those old growth redwoods to camp and work at an outdoor environmental education fair, Creek Days, organized by our education team leader, Karen.

My first night getting to the campground and there are only a handful of us there. Karen, who has been there since the day before, tells us how the park ranger saw a black bear cub down the road (5 miles) at the site where we were having our education event and it was the youngest she had ever seen alone before and was NOT afraid of humans. Usually with black bears, you make a lot of noise and act really big and they take off. They want berries and trash, not people. Karen also tells us that she went to the bathroom mid-dinner prep the day before and returned to find claw marks in her boxes of food... and of course there's recent bear scat ~30 feet from the outdoor kitchen set up.

*I want to insert here that I am unable to sleep through the night, almost any night. I usually wake up 1-2 times to pee. Also, there are flush toilets at our campground but they are a ~3-4 minute walk, making a pee break 10+ minutes. And it's cold at night.*

Needless to say, I spent a large part of the first night (Sunday) composing a fan letter in my head to Stephen Colbert about how I now agree with him that bears are the #1 threat to America.

Tuesday night I wake up around 1 am needing to pee, of course, and I can hear something in the kitchen. It sounds like something rooting around.

I'm freaking out. I'm so goddamned sure it's a bear, and now that I'm worried I'm unable to make myself sleep. I have to pee more. So once I hear the last noise, I give it 30 minutes, then pop out of my tent, clapping a little and scanning with my headlamp to see if anything's out there, and just pee right outside the tent.

Phew, safe!

Wednesday, my coworker Tambra caught me on my way to the shower and asked if I wanted to drive her to Arcata and sleep on her couch - no bear, free shower, food, plus internet and cell phone charging! HELL YEAH! NO BEARS!

*Also, it turns out it was probably a raven or raccoon I heard, not a bear. No damage was done, though a wooden spoon was missing.*

So Friday was our last day of kids at Creek Days and there are only 3 groups (instead of 11 or 12). I have one with 10 3rd graders and 6 adults (parents, teacher). We go to our first booth, stop and chat, then walk a bit and I stop to talk to them about redwood tree rings and tree structure. Another AmeriCorps WSP-er, Jen, down the trail is looking at me as I'm trying to get the kids to quiet down etc and giving me the weirdest look... Either she looked behind me or the kids saw it first, but I turned around and behind me, a bit above my head, is a black bear cub. Maybe 5 or 6 feet away from my head.

Holy shit... I just freeze - this is the one that the park ranger contemplated putting down because of the potential danger it was to humans. I look at Jen, she starts clapping and shouting at the bear, and I just start trying to herd my kids back down the trail. Of course, all the parents have to stop and take pictures, and I just want these kids to keep moving.

I'd never seen a bear in the wild before. It was pretty awesome, especially being so close. The whole rest of the day I kept trying to contain questions to what we were learning about and NOT the bear ("I thought it was fake or a trained bear that you guys put there..." I must've heard that from one 3rd grader 40 times), but as soon as the kids were back on the bus, my excitement was boiling over and all I could talk about was the bear.

Hopefully one of the parents will send me a picture, because I didn't take the time to get my camera out.

Other pictures from Creek Days (I'm a poor photographer so most of them didn't turn out well):

Sharah has the kids smell a fish carcass

The work days ended fairly early (3 pm) so we entertained
ourselves with games including nails, a hammer, a stump, and beer.

Cheers.

Tambra takes a swing.

Kids doing some macroinvertebrate sampling.

Matt the sustainability pirate.

------------

The day after I returned from Creek Days I started a second job. I’m working at a catering company based out of the North Bay, though my first job was at a wedding reception in the Presidio (within the city). It was a pretty easy job, though I think most of that was facilitated by the party itself – less than 100 people, really nice people and just smooth sailing. All the music was 50s and 60s rock, r&b, and soul. It was pretty awesome, as weddings go. I’ll be working for the catering company on occasional weekends, certainly not a lot – I already work a number of weekends for SPAWN. I plan on using the money I made at the first job to go to the optometrist. My eyes have been red far too often and for too long of time periods lately and it’s making me really nervous to wear my contacts. Yay health!

I’ve been thinking a lot about after August when my internship ends. I would really like to do a second term at IFR, but there is some question as to whether or not that will continue to be a site. Well, that’s not really putting it right – the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project has undergone some budget cuts and that means that some positions will be cut next year. That will include some positions at sites with more than 2 members and will also probably include some sites in their entirety. One of the things that the board that makes the decision will look at is how much “Watershed Assessment” time is logged at each site. IFR is all policy – watershed assessment generally refers to time spent in the field. So it’s a safe assumption that IFR is in danger, though is has been a site for 13 years, since WSP’s inception, so that should give it some gravitas, as it were.

WSP will know about IFR’s status in a couple weeks and at that point I’ll start applying or I’ll start a massive job search. I’d like to stay in at least the Bay Area, preferably moving to the city. It takes a while to establish roots and meaningful friendships in a new area, and I’ve just gotten that. I don’t want to give it all up so fast. However, I do want to have housing, etc, so I plan on looking back in Chicago and I’m also considering New York City. Unfortunately any move is incredibly expensive, and a nearby move would be considerably cheaper.

We’ll see what happens.

A bear! I saw a black bear cub!

Photos

2007-04-19T13:37:00.000-07:00

I created a flickr account and have uploaded the majority of my California photos and a smattering of photos from before that.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliehg/

Spawning a Trout

2007-04-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

On Thursday I went to a fish hatchery to participate in Steelhead spawning.

When steelhead trout and salmon are born, they are imprinted with the smell of their home stream. So when they're out in the ocean deciding to come back to the freshwater streams to spawn, it's the smell of that stream that guides them and results in them spawning in the exact stream they are born.

So the Warm Springs Hatchery is at the head of Dry Creek (or at least, right before it's dammed off to create a lake or reservoir) and all these trout, imprinted with the smell, are just waiting to get inside, not realizing that they will herded into pools and then spawned by CA Dept of fish and game employees.

It all went down like this:

We all put on waders, rain jackets, and gloves even though we're working inside. About 150 fish are waiting in this channel, and a button is pressed and a gate starts moving from one end of the channel to our end, herding the fish into a much much smaller space, maybe 8x8? Basically, about 30 fish at a time are herded into a basket filled with water and CO2, which makes them slower. Relatively.

After about 25 or so fish have fallen into the basket, the elevator drops and the gate moves back - the fish can swim the whole channel again. Meanwhile, the trapped fish are slowly being doped, becoming more passive by the second (relatively more passive). After 4 or 5 minutes, the basket raises and dumps the fish into a counter top, where I (and two DFG employees) sort them into male and female. 3 ready females go into one bin, with more CO2'd water, and then about 7 males into the one next to it (also with spiked with CO2). The rest of the fish go down a hatch into a pool (not the channel).

Doped up or not, the fish are thrashing around wildly, and pretty big at that - 18 to 36 inches, I would guess. Big and thrashing while you're trying to sex them and grab them... Mostly I stood there trying to keep them from jumping off the table or from smacking me. My face was soaked, quickly. So were my sleeves under the raincoat. Thank god for waders and a heavy rain coat (mostly).

Anyway, so, now we have 3 females, getting more doped (again, relatively) and 7ish males. First we deal with the gals. Grab one, hold in this weird way, while another person sticks a needle in her belly, depressing it and releasing air into the belly so the orange eggs spew into a cloth-lined colander. Then the female goes into another bin where the water isn't spiked so they can recover.

I tried to hold a female like this, so that someone could get eggs out. She trashed. Too much. I dropped her. Visitors (parents with kids on spring break) were standing on a balcony above, watching, much to my embarrassment. Awesome. 36 inch female steelhead trout flapping and flipping and flopping all over the floor.

On to the males (this I could do successfully, probably because they were drugged much longer). I grabbed the guy, fin in right hand, resting his head on my left hip, running my left hand along his belly so the milt (sperm) spew out onto the washed eggs.

Then the males went down the hatch, into the pool, where the other, unused fish, went.

Back to the females. So the females' bellies are full of air and they're swimming upside down while they're recovering. They need to be grabbed, held upside down and rubbed on the belly so the air comes out, then carried over to the hatch and down they go.

But, of course, they're recovering from being drugged.

Yeah, I dropped one of these too. Embarrassing, again.

We repeated the whole thing until all 150 fish had been gone through and were back in the pool.

Once all the fish are out of the channel, thrown down the hatch, and into the holding pool, we moved them back into the channel, drug them, and then the head lady counts males and females and we move them into a truck with a water tank on the back. One of the DFG guys and I drove to the Russian River, well upstream of the Dry Creek mouth so they wouldn't get respawned that year to release them. We backed the truck up to the side of the river (we're about 20 feet above the water), attached a big metal tube to the back, then opened it up - fish went flying into the river - really - just this stream of water and fish shooting into the river.

Pretty awesome.

I have no pictures, get over it.

-------------------

The weekend before was Easter weekend, Heidi and I went to the Bring Your Own Big Wheel race down Lombard St.

A really far away picture of Lombard St.
The race was down the really curvy part.

My friend Zack was racing, if you can call it that. It was a lot of people crashing into each other, into walls, it was hilarious and awesome.

This video was stolen from Tony Chang (Zack's roommate - was in grad school at UIUC while I was there, we met on the bus to the March for Women's Lives).

The end, for now.

Tide Pooling and Bike Riding

2007-04-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

These past few days have been fantastic - probably some of my favorite times here thus far. A lot of it has to do with becoming better friends with people, even those I haven't known very long.

Saturday was Cesar Chavez day and AmeriCorps WSP required us to volunteer for at least 4 hours. Heidi and I decided to host a nursery day in SPAWN's native plant nursery and invite other semi-local AmeriCorps WSP members. So the John and Brock at the Dept Fish and Game in Hopland (about 1.5 hours north) and Nate from Institute for Fisheries Resources in SF (the place I want to be next year) visited and a ton of seeds got planted. Hundreds.

After the nursery day, the guys and I went tide-pooling on Tomales Point. 20 miles away!! Who knew you could do that so close to where I live? The red circle is where we went, the green is where I live.

I saw (and touched) starfish, crabs, sea anenomes, mussel beds, some weird cockroach-y thing, and a sea urchin (I didn't touch that one). It was absolutely amazing. Our trailhead was actually in the Tule Elk Refuge and the elk were hanging out at the parking lot on our way back to my house.

Brock, John, and I accidentally got our feet wet at one point, as we were staring at starfish, assuming we were out of wet-foot danger but then the water crept up and BAM! I screamed, we all jumped back, Nate up the rocks immediately above us but Brock and John and I were not so quick.

Shells!!

This tiny guy had a funky shaped shell with this crazy curve in it.

John with a crab

Brock

Nate

Sea Anenome! The fingery things feel really, really weird. We fed the crab to a different anenome.

John and Me, looking down on the ocean and crashing waves.

Me, Nate, John... rock scrambling.

It was amazing.

I want to do it again.

---------------------

On Monday I went to San Francisco and went to a seder with Zack, who also went to U of I for a little while. Zack lives with Tony, who I met at U of I while he was in grad school. Anyway, I took Tuesday off of work, slept on their couch, and borrowed Tony's bike to take advantage of the free admission at SF's Museum of Modern Art.

I'd never ridden a bike in a big city before and I was a little nervous - I'm not really the most excited motorist when it comes to passing someone on a bike, even if they're in the bike lane. But it's really not as frightening being on the bicycle side of it. I didn't die, get hit, or get in any kind of trouble (except I walked so much my foot really hurt).

It was actually really difficult being at the museum. I spent an hour beforehand waiting for it to open by window shopping and the weather was absolutely beautiful. Once I got back to MOMA I felt, firstly, really tired, secondly, somewhat lonely, but third and most of all, cooped up. I wanted to get back outside and back on the bike.

So I left. Eventually I made it back to return the bike and home before crazy traffic.

pictures will appear... someday.

2007-03-22T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm so bad at posting on here.

I went to spring training and it was fantastic. Sitting in the sun all day watching baseball... what can be better? I'm going to create a flickr account and post some photos, eventually. Maybe this weekend.

Immediately after driving back from Phoenix (with a night spent on a couch in Santa Barbara, thank you Anthony), I left for a conference about an hour north of home, in Santa Rosa, CA. The conference was the Salmonid Restoration Federation, full of presentations and lectures about salmon and, well, restoration focused on salmon-bearing creeks. I did work trade in the kitchen to go for free (and AmeriCorps paid the rest).

Now that I've returned to SPAWN from vacation and conferences, a new, big project has begun: Downstream Migrant Trapping.

In the life cycle of the coho salmon (and the steelhead trout), the eggs are laid and a year and a half later the juveniles (smolts) migrate downstream to the ocean, where they'll live for a year or two (or more, if they're steelhead) before heading back to the creek to spawn. They actually migrate at night, facing upstream. Meaning they're floating to the ocean facing backwards in the dark... smart move.

We have a trap in San Geronimo Creek set to trap migrating smolts (and anything else that gets caught there, including newly hatched salmon/trout fry). We mark the smolts and from the recapture percentages we can estimate population. Each morning the trap needs to be checked, and while I'm not there every single day, it's a lot of them. I know it's significantly warmer here than it is in Illinois, but the stream at 8 or 9 AM is COLD. I thought my hands were going to fall off this morning! So did Paola, so I know it's not just me being a wimp. The sun doesn't hit the spot we do the data collection at until around 10:30 or so, and half the time we're out of there before that happens.

In the morning we arrive (8 AM if I'm with Todd, 9 AM if I'm with Paola) and fish everything out of the trap - smolts and larger fish in one bucket, fry and smaller fish in another. We dope the smolts with an organic sedative (clove oil), measure, weigh, identify, and clip their tails. We measure 25 fry of each species and all of the other species we catch (california roach, stickleback, juvenile lamprey eel, signal crayfish). The other day one of the crayfish we caught had eggs on her underside - that was really neat. We began late last week, getting around 400 fry in the trap. Now that number is down to less than 100, which is interesting.

We've also put a smaller trap in one of the small tributaries (Larsen Creek) that leads to San Geronimo Creek. This is likely not to catch smolts at all, even though it is a salmon-bearing stream. In the summer, the small tributaries often dry up and SPAWN does fish rescue, bringing volunteers out to catch the fry in the drying pools and moving them downstream, away from certain death. These streams are not historically intermittent, so while it's an unsustainable practice, it's a result of development and rescue is really the only option. So there aren't smolts left in Larsen Creek because as fry they were all transferred out or they died.

Instead, that trap is meant to catch fry that might be migrating out of Larsen Creek before the really hot season begins. This will help us figure out what percentage of fish we're rescuing and whether the program is worth it. The trap went in the water yesterday, but there were no fish caught when we checked it today.

------------

SPAWN partnered with the College of Marin to create a display creek/garden for the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, taking place this week. Tomorrow Heidi and I get to work at the show and finally see the display (we weren't part of the project). I'm excited, though it means I need to get up early again tomorrow (and again, Saturday, for smolt trap checking).

But Sunday, Sunday I will sleep forever.

It's hard to find pierogis here.

2007-02-26T20:42:00.000-08:00

I'm seriously considering a second term in AmeriCorps. Part of me may be thinking "oohhh... don't have to worry about real jobs for another whole year!" But most of me is thinking about how much the experience could do for me.

If I did another term in the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project, I would absolutely want to stay in the Bay area. I really don't want to go through another big move - making friends can be a pain, especially when you're broke as a joke. If I were to look for a real job, though, I'd prefer to look in, again, the Bay area or back in Chicago. I have friends in both places (I feel like I'm actually now starting to really develop more than superficial friendships here, and it would be annoying and difficult to just drop those), I know Chicago and I'm getting to know Marin and SF.

Basically, that boils it down to another year at SPAWN (which I love, and is perfect) or at IFR, the Institute for Fisheries Resources. IFR is a non-profit in San Francisco that is entirely entrenched in policy. Little to no outreach or field work. I'm really interested in finding out if I am interested in policy. Did that make sense?

I think policy is neat and I'd like to learn more about it. But I don't know if I'm really interested in policy for a career. I took the LSAT a couple years ago; obviously I've had some interest in environmental law at one time or another.

So, yeah, I've been considering IFR. This past wednesday I visited the AmeriCorps WSP interns there to check it out, see what they did, where they worked, etc. None of their mentors were there, unfortunately, so I did not meet anyone except the part time accountant. (I stopped and ate pastry at the Headlands on the way, that was fantastic).

We went to a salmon fisheries meeting with the department of fish and game (DFG). Mainly, the point of the meeting was for DFG to present last year's catch numbers to salmon fishermen, suggest ideas for next year, and get public comment and input from the fishermen so that they could better make up the allowed catch etc for this upcoming season. Tensions were high. CRAZY high. Commercial fishermen were pissed off about last season and this season, in part because last year, after all these meetings and an eventual DFG decision, at the 11th hour the governor-appointed commission decided to scrap the whole season. So their anger, paranoia, and distrust in the government has a very clear foundation.

Luckily, not all IFR days are spent at meetings that stressful or annoying (a lot of people being mad), because if it were, I'd say "HELL NO" to policy. I'm still undecided, though definitely more interested.

--------------------------

In other news... I leave for Arizona on Wednesday! I'm going to Cubs' Spring Training! (and I'm going to see Kerry and Vince!)

del.icio.us

2007-02-20T16:21:00.000-08:00

If you're on it already, add me into your network:

http://del.icio.us/NatalieHG

Real updates coming soon!

As promised:

2007-02-14T18:51:00.000-08:00

Photos from Alcatraz! Just as a heads up, they give you a free audio tour, so some of the pictures show people with headphones on. The pictures show Heidi (my field partner), James (her friend from St. Louis), and a very dork-tastic Me.

James and Heidi on the Larkspur Ferry (to San Francisco).

It rained and misted almost all day.

San Quentin: maximum security prison, right here in San Rafael!

....maybe Heidi's future home? No, just kidding.
She's totally straight.

Just in case there weren't tickets left for Alcatraz,
I took a picture from the Larkspur Ferry.

Prisoner intake! (bye Heidi)

James takes a shower. Like, a jailhouse shower.

At a cellular level.
haha.

Heidi examines her future home. I mean, a jail cell.

Recreation yard! Where you can do ... things.

The view from the rec yard - the Golden Gate
bridge is in the background.

I look too happy to be in jail.

Heidi looks a little mad. More appropriate
for her future home... I mean, jail.

View of the city from Alcatraz.

I like that you can see the roads.

Chatting on the phone with one of my jailhouse visitors.

A certain cell block name bears a resemblance
to a certain Chicago street.

I have no clever commentary for this picture.

They paint black where the knives are supposed
to go so it's easy to tell if one is missing.
They went missing anyway.

Guard apartments? I think... I can't really remember.

The windiest road ever... but really far away.
We stumbled upon this view on accident while
walking to Chinatown from the Alcatraz ferry.

Heidi and James on the ferry back to Larkspur
(and the rest of the North Bay).

Angel and... idiot*?

The End.

*He's not really an idiot

I'll try to make this short. (yeah, right)

2007-02-13T21:22:00.000-08:00

1. Heidi's friend from St. Louis came to visit this weekend and it rained, a lot, while he was here. Nonetheless, on Saturday we took the ferry into San Francisco and then went to Alcatraz. Pictures to be uploaded soon! It was pretty awesome - the ferry to the park* is expensive, but there's no actual entrance fee for the park. A audio tour is also free, which is totally useful and amazing.

And then we had a delicious lunch in Chinatown. Pictures not coming soon, because I didn't take any.

After spending the day in the rain, we ended up soaked, taking the ferry back to the North Bay.

I HATE THE FERRY. Well, hate might be a strong word. I'm not a big fan of boat rides. If I'm not distracted by conversation and exploration I start to feel queasy. The ride to Alcatraz was really choppy and uncomfortable. We got off and the ramp up to the ground was really shaky too. After finally reaching solid ground I had to hang on to Heidi for a bit to regain my stomach.

2. Yesterday and today (and tomorrow) we worked on this new restoration site on the golf course. It's along the creek and the golfers have to hit their ball OVER the creek - meaning, while we're working there, that we have to hope and pray they don't hit us. Actually we wear hard hats, start early in the morning, and when we see a golfer get ready to t-off at that spot we go a little downstream in the healthy riparian zone (ie, tall plants, willows, trees, etc).

We're planting willows, juncus, and hazelnut tomorrow if I can fit them in my car. Essentially we're trying to recreate a riparian zone so the creek doesn't get so skanky there and golfers stop trying to rescue their balls from in the creek. Endangered salmon and threatened trout spawn there, dudes!

Yesterday I managed to smack my hand with a metal mallet once, with a rubber mallet twice, drop the rubber mallet in the creek, slip in the mud, bend a piece of rebar (long metal pole), and cut my hand. K L U T Z.

Today I realized that the smell I always associated with freshwater mussels & sampling with Bob and the Illinois DNR is really just wet neoprene. Wet the day before and not yet dried. IE it's river funk. Ahh waders. (Neoprene is what my waders were made of with the IDNR and what the bootie part of my current waders are made of - if I get a picture of them I'll upload it).

3. Last but certainly not least. My external hard drive died yesterday. All my tv shows, music, photos, and work files. Thankfully, one of SPAWN's volunteer naturalists works for Driver Savers, a data recovery service based in Marin, and will recover my data free of charge - I only need to pay for the medium they put it on (DVDs, a new hard drive, whatever). I think I'll need a new hard drive. Thank god for savings/Goodbye savings (well, not all of it - not delving into car insurance $$ or AZ $$).

4. Finally, I'm importing this blog to both Facebook and LiveJournal (on a separate feed for LiveJournal). So you can read it there if you forget to come over here... in fact, maybe you're reading it over there right now...

Photos soon, I promise.

*National Park, mind you.

Obama '08!

2007-02-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

Those are Barack Obama '08 stickers that I've circled on that car. I actually followed him a little out of my way in order to get this picture with my camera phone. Of course, that would explain the size and quality of the picture.

I want those stickers.

some photos

2007-02-06T16:28:00.000-08:00

From the Marin Headlands. It looks so much bigger when you're there.

Heidi and I got a little goofy after an hour and a half of teaching
1st and 2nd graders the water cycle.

We lost.

2007-02-04T23:46:00.000-08:00

How sad is that? The Chicago Bears lost the super bowl today.

Heidi and I had a superbowl party at her place. About an hour before I was supposed to get to her place, she texted me to let me know she was at urgent care because of an allergic reaction to something. Shit, yo. Talk about awful - she just got over a steroid run due to a crazy allergy attack (BTW, the kitten in the house I live with just had a problem getting up a table and it was really funny), ANYWAY. When I got to Heidi's, she still wasn't back. Her roommate let me in.

Shit, yo. (can you tell that's the theme? and that's the "funny/hip" phrase I'm all about currently?)

Shortly after calling her, her roommate left and two of my friends arrived. Not really early, except for the Heidi-missing factor... and if they hadn't arrived then and kept me company while I made food in an apartment I'd never been in (her roommate also left, by the way), I probably would've been freaking out a little bit. As it was, I was totally high on the holy shit i'm a hostess in another person's house thing and it was stressing me out but less than it could've.

Heidi didn't actually get back until after the game started and everyone who was going to arrive had arrived. Then we made beer brats, and they were awesome. And then the Bears lost, and it was not so awesome. I mean, shit, yo.

California is so much warmer than Illinois

2007-02-03T23:20:00.000-08:00

I like jobs where we get to go to National Parks for work. Thursday we went to Muir Woods (old growth redwoods) to check out their native plant nursery, on which we're modeling our own. We drove back over Mt. Tamalpais (the North side marks our watershed's boundary), which is pretty high. We got to stop and check out the view before the sun went down, and spot a bobcat. The view was so beautiful: the Pacific Ocean, San Francisco, the lights from the east bay, and even the Golden Gate bridge peaking out from behind a hill.

I went into San Francisco Friday to see Of Montreal - it's really not that far from me, as long as the traffic is light. I left my friend's at 2:25 AM and got $8 of gas, got home, brushed my teeth, took out my contacts, and was in bed by 3:28 AM. So I shouldn't be so "ughh.... don't want to go so far..." because it's not that far. The only killer part is the $5 toll southbound on the Golden Gate. Parking is also killer, being my archnemesis, but I lucked out Friday night. I spent 30 minutes searching, gave up and parked in a hotel garage, but the attendant wasn't around when I left and the gate was open. So I just kept going.

Today I went to the Marin headlands. Remember that hill the Golden Gate bridge was peaking
out from? Right, that's it. I saw the postcard image of SF and the Golden Gate. It was pretty goddamned gorgeous.

I felt like such a wimp when I complained about the wind and had to add a sweatshirt. I talked to my mom this morning and their furnace can't even keep up with the cold from the wind there.

MLK Jr and Ed Training

2007-01-20T16:55:00.000-08:00

So the service day and ed training are done. Hooray.

For our service day on MLK, Jr. day, we learned about Tsunamis, and then we were split into teams of 3-5 and sent to local towns where we would canvas, giving people information about what to do, how to know if you're in danger (natural warnings rather than official warnings), and where they should go in their community.

I was in a little town called King Salmon, essentially a large trailer park.

Definitely going to be underwater in a Tsunami.
You can see it cause I circled it with red.

The tsunami danger reminded me of tornadoes in the midwest. The warning to watch elevation, the sirens (which either don't exist, don't work, or don't carry far enough in the North Coast area...). The main difference was that everyone in the midwest knows what to do if a tornado is on it's way. Basement, low point, not by a tree. The sirens are used, tested regularly, and acknowledged (unless you're in the middle of nowhere). Not so much for tsunamis.

WSP member Tambra pushing her independent service project at
King Salmon's Tsunami information station

Thus the event, while being in its first year and thus poorly organized (not enough sandwiches for people, no organized rides to the communities-to-be-canvassed), was still clearly helpful for a number of community members. A lot of people knew where to go, but not necessarily the natural warning signs. And of course a lot of people knew what to look for or feel, but didn't know where to go.

------------------------------

The education training was alright. We went through a lot of stuff that was redundant, considering the number of field trips Heidi and I have done at SPAWN. But we also learned a lot of new games to play and useful tips on classroom management, we dissected a steelhead trout, and went through what is required to complete our "Real Science" portion of the AmeriCorps WSP.

One of the new games is a salmon pageant. I was a shimmery, shiny smolt.
Jacob is a spawner (adult coming back to spawn)

Another new activity is fish printing - using plastic fish molds,
painting them, and then pressing them to paper. Yay a fish.

Are you ready steelhead? It's going to hurt.

I told you so.

Fish organs. Tasty. Or not so much.

We also met the new January hires (there's an October hire period and a January hire period in the WSP), one who is from Champaign-Urbana and went to Parkland. Yay chambananites.

We played catchphrase and drank cheap beer.

It was colder up there, and I spotted some snow on the drive back! Driving along hwy 101, Heidi slowed and I rolled the window down and took a couple pictures. Kristin laughed. One of the pictures showed up.

SNOW! Or possibly ice/frost that never melted if it's always in the shade.
I'd like to believe it's snow.

You can kind of see the white ahead along the road...
another small patch of snow. /frost. Didn't turn out so well.

I like this town's sign. It's a fairly large town along hwy 101.

While we did have to buy our dinners while we were up there, we got to claim them as expenses. Of course we won't see that money for many, many months. I did finally receive my physical reimbursement ($70.15!) from September. I think I may have been the first person to receive it!! Yay money.

-------------------------------

Talking to Kristin, who is the AmeriCorps WSP at Institute for Fisheries Resources, made me really curious in possibly serving a second year, specifically at her site. The position at IFR is all policy, so no field work and little outreach. I would really like to know more and experience more of the policy side of this whole industry, but I'm not sure I'd want to spend an entire 11 months away from field work and outreach. Currently I feel like I learn something new every day or at least reinforce newly acquired knowledge. I have this fear that I'd forget all this new knowledge.

Whatever, it's a long ways away before I need to start worrying about applying for another job.

real quick....

2007-01-18T22:42:00.000-08:00

It frustrates me that I can't reply directly to comments, but basically:

Annie, Congratulations! It's good to hear from you.

Rob, No, a Natalie would not fair well against a Bear. No bears around here anymore.

WSP training, post #1

2007-01-18T22:39:00.000-08:00

I am in the front, sort of near the middle. These are all the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project interns and staff in our new WSP hoodies. I'll write more about the training and MLK day later, when I don't want to go to bed so badly.

*photo by AmeriCorps WSP

Field Trip!

2007-01-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

Well, the Coho Salmon run has ended. We took out 6 school groups this past week from preschool to high school (on probation, failed out of other school type high schoolers) and only 4 groups saw any fish, and most of those groups just saw a sad, wasting away female. Only one group saw her do anything besides swim a little downstream (she muscled her way over some shallow rocks creating this wall of water behind her).

I'm glad it's over. Heidi and I have discovered that any age group can come out for the creekwalks, but the walk's appropriateness is entirely dependent on the teacher's control of their students and the students' respect for others.

With the end of the Coho Salmon run also comes the end of creekwalks. This weekend is the last weekend of volunteer naturalist led creekwalks that SPAWN puts together, and HOORAY. I am so sick of coming to the office and returning a bazillion phone calls saying the exact same thing to every person.

This new ~~week~~ ERA brings me and Heidi first to the Eureka/Fortuna, CA area (where the AmeriCorps WSP home office is) for a MLK Jr Service Day and then Education Training.

Tomorrow is the Service day - we'll canvas the area teaching people about disaster preparedness (i love knocking on unsuspecting people's doors in the middle of the day when they're napping, or reading, or otherwise enjoying their leisurely day off and then telling them all about awful things like tsunamis and earthquakes. yay).

Tuesday and Wednesday is Education Training. AmeriCorps WSP requires that we go into a classroom a set number of times and teach a set curriculum. I'm actually really looking forward to this part. I feel like a lot of salmon related questions I answer I'm not necessarily answering completely correctly - I'm using the background information that I already have and picking up on what others say to draw out answers. So I'm excited to really learn this stuff and become a true salmon expert. At least, I hope to become an expert.

The good news is that AmeriCorps will pay for or provide all of our meals for those days, and reimburse our travel (though the reimbursement for these things takes a long time - I still haven't received reimbursement from my October Training week. I'm not looking forward to spending money I'd rather spend on something else and then not having it back for 4 or 5 months).

I'll bring my camera. And I *might* take pictures.

In other news...

2007-01-07T22:11:00.000-08:00

I'm going to visit Kerry in Phoenix, AZ, with Vince for CUBS SPRING TRAINING!

From March 1st through March 5th you will find me in the bleachers at miscellaneous spring training parks (mainly HoHoKam park though) throughout the Phoenix area wearing my Cubs hat and hopefully drinking an Old Style.

This coming week of adventures....

2007-01-07T21:36:00.000-08:00

We have 5 school groups coming for salmon creekwalks.

5. There also happen to be 5 days in a work week. Which means we have a school group every day this week.

I get exhausted after groups of kids or really any kind of outreach thing - the whole "being on" for a couple hours (keeping relevant conversation, keeping upbeat, happy, knowledgeable...) is mentally tiring. With a group of kids each day (sizes ranging from 8 to 50 + parents) I'm going to be sleeping like a baby every night.

Two of the groups are mixed age, I think. One is kindergarteners, another is at risk high school youth (god this could potentially be awful), and the last I'm not sure - Paola (mentor), set that one up.

-------------(insert image of obnoxious and noisy children)--------------

We had another restoration day this Saturday - about8 or 9 volunteers showed up and we planted nearly 40 trees. All within 2 hours and with only 6 shovels. We had this whole last hour to do more miscellaneous tasks, from cutting back blackberry to removing not invasive non-native plants to collecting alder seed. Things that needed to happen at some point, of course. All this happened with a totally beat up pair of fish in the creek right there. The male's kype (nose-protrusion dealy) was beaten and partially missing. These fish are the swimming dead. Zombie fish, decomposing as they spawn.

The seasons are confused

2007-01-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

There are daffodils blooming in Mitch & Julie's backyard.

Disappointing

2006-12-28T11:07:00.000-08:00

It didn't snow the entire time I was in Illinois. 9 days of weather pretty similar to what I came from, though less rain I'm sure. I'm disappointed.

No hoodie with a scarf under a peacoat with gloves and a hat. Instead it was run-outside-really-quick-in-your-tee-shirt-and-no-shoes to move the car weather.

Oh well. I shopped on State Street, saw the Marshall Field's/Macy's windows and the Bean, practiced my South Side Chicago accent, and celebrated Kerry's Christmas Eve birthday all the while enjoying family and friends... etc etc. We had a take off of peking duck for Christmas Eve dinner and lasagna for Christmas day dinner. Very a-traditional and very delicious.

It was my last night sleeping with Judy (my parents dog), and she decided to be even more of a bedhog than usual. She comes into the room late, usually when I'm already asleep and last night was no different. In the middle of the night I had this uncomfortable feeling that I couldn't put my legs together. I woke up and discovered Judy curled in a ball between them. She's such a slow and difficult mover when she's half asleep. When I got up to go to the bathroom I discovered she had moved, even though I had just shoved her to the perfect spot, and was now positioned exactly where I wanted to be. Like, the central point. Frustrating things to deal with when you want a living space heater to sleep with you.

On the way here, I had a layover in Denver. Luckily it was the day before the blizzard hit, so I had no problem with it, though apparently Aspen was snowed under as the flights across from me were incredibly delayed. As they boarded, the woman on the loudspeaker said "If the plane can't land, it's coming back" and everyone groaned. I flew into Rockford, amazingly, and ended up in a very small airport very late at night with no one there but the people getting off the plane and the people waiting for them. Seriously, I really don't even remember workers there.

I leave for O'Hare at 5 PM this evening and have a direct flight to Oakland. Which means I'll have a movie on the plane! Lately I've discovered that I get a little motion sickness on planes and I can't read on them. I need the movie to distract me, since my iPod is breaking down and the battery only lasts a couple hours at the most (but I got a new one so this will no longer be a problem after this flight).

ThroatLand Security

2006-12-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

I've decided that my hypochondria should have levels like the terror alerts the White House has. Green for everything's fine, I don't think I have a disease or terminal illness; Yellow for maybe have a cold coming or something bigger but nothing terminal or life threatening; Orange for not dying but something's bad; and Red for I have something terminal and awful and debilitating.

Right now I'm at red because I've decided I have throat cancer. Yes, there is a tumor in my throat and I'm probably dying from it. Hopefully soon I will go to the doctor (and they will probably tell me I'm crazy and I just have plaque buildup or something lame), but until then, I will continue to worry.

way too much news

2006-12-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

This week was a big mix of coho salmon related fantastic-ness. It was also super busy.

The storm Saturday night brought the flows high enough for the coho salmon to jump up the pools at the Inkwells, which I think I already wrote about.

So anyway, to continue, I suppose, the salmon run is really hot. Heidi and I have been going out a lot this past week to both look at fish and just check out the area and also do some surveying. Tuesday we took a video camera to Roy's Pools (a series of pools built so that spawners could migrate upstream, though it's a migration barrier to smolts migrating back to the ocean) to watch them jumping up the pools.

Unfortunately, by the time we got there in the afternoon they were no longer jumping every minute, but more like every 10-15 minutes. I tried to get a picture with my camera phone, but everytime they'd jump it'd be a surprise and by the time I got over the "HOLY CRAP LOOK AT THAT!!!" moment, the jump would be done. But we did catch at least one fantastic, perfect leap on the video camera.

Marjorie, the law intern, had her last day on Friday. It was sad - so on Tuesday (or possibly Mon or Wed, can't really remember) Heidi and I took her around to see the salmon, and indeed we saw lots. Marjorie works on the Sea Turtle Restoration Project/GotMercury.org project, so she doesn't have these requisite "hey we're gonna check out Lagunitas Creek today" excursions. It's so exciting - these huge fish in these streams! Their behavior is so clear - it's really easy to humanize them and get excited about what they're doing and what their objectives are while you watch them.

We went out later in the week with one of our volunteers (and because we were possibly going to do a CBS interview - didn't happen) and saw a salmon missing it's nose. It had gotten stuck while jumping through the Inkwells (a series of pools at the confluence of Lagunitas and San Geronimo Creeks) and ended up not making it - and staying in the larger creek. And he lost his nose in the process!

So, other office-y news:

Megan, our lead naturalist (who occasionally brings us delicious homemade food ever since she discovered that we were on food stamps) called into a show on NPR and mentioned our creekwalks on Tuesday, so every since then the phone's been ringing off the hooks. Heidi and I come back from outdoor excursions and we have billions of messages. I ended up hooking up with one of the creekwalks today, after our habitat restoration in the morning, because I signed up a friend of mine (yes, I have A friend in San Francisco) and his roommates. It was so packed! And we saw coho and possibly a chum salmon, so it was quite a success.

I need to go to bed:

2006-12-13T23:03:00.000-08:00

So this will be short.

The coho salmon are spawning!

Monday Heidi and I took Marjorie (the law intern who is leaving to go back to Wisconsin and her parents while she awaits the bar exam) to an area to see them - we watched males fighting, females building redds (nests), amazing.

Yesterday Heidi and I watched them leap through Roy's Pools (a series of pools that allow the salmon migrate through in high flows and, in lower flows, act as a dam. The dam that was there before was too high for the salmon to get over)!!!

Today Paola took Heidi and I on a spawner survey - so we got decked out in our chest waders and went in the stream, walking upstream (out of the stream as much as possible) in a tiny tiny creek (literally 2-10 ft wide) for 2.5 hours looking for salmon building redds and males hanging around waiting for their gals or fighting with other males.

holidays are coming

2006-12-09T22:05:00.000-08:00

so here's my address in case you want to send me a card or a present (gift certificates are nice: walgreens, safeway, target, or just cash):

PO Box 400
Forest Knolls, CA 94933

And you will not get anything in return! Because I'm poor and lazy.

San Francisco

2006-12-06T18:35:00.000-08:00

My pet peeve with San Francisco is that there's no highway that runs straight through it. So even though I live about 30-40 minutes from the city, once I cross the Golden Gate Bridge it still takes another 20-30 minutes to get anywhere. Hwy 101 immediately turns into a really heavily lighted road - imagine trying to get from the north side of Chicago to the south side taking Halstead the entire way.

Heidi and I went to the SF Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) yesterday after we had a school group of fifth graders come plant willow in the morning. So yes, we skipped out on work early. Being the first Tuesday of the month, the museum was free (parking, however, was not - $9, yuck).

Even though we only spent an hour and a half or less there (since it took longer to get to the downtown area of SF than we expected - thank you absence of an express route), it was still great to get out and just see something beyond the North Bay. They had some really neat pieces - a room of Paul Klee and some sweet Jackson Pollock, Jasper Johns, and Marcel DuChamp pieces. They also had a room dedicated to the art of design. Something I know Jess would like, but something in particular Jason would've loved. They had Charles and Ray Eames furniture, a whole bunch of ESPRIT stuff, including explaining the transition to using more natural and recycled paper (with very high post-consumer %s - since the term "recycled" is sort of a catch-all), as well as typewriters, citrus presses, and a series of concert/show posters done by two design firms (one had done a series for the Pixies reunion tour, and two recent Bowie shows. Recent as in 10 years ago, but not in the 80s. Recent enough).

The museum closed a little early and we just walked a little. It appeared that we were right in the downtown - people were leaving work and businesses were getting to close around 7. Heidi was going to see the Blood Brothers & Trail of Dead show, so she had to wait for a friend arriving via BART (bay area rail transit or something). I, on the other hand, was missing both that show as well as The Faint, which I would have really liked to see, but definitely not alone.

Today we had another school group come, more fifth graders, and we put them to work. Yesterday the group that came got too social and didn't do as much as we would've liked. I realize it's about their experience too, but they can chatter away about video games any other time. So today we really made them work. They took all the redwoods and oaks out of the shade house and organized them by species - a lot of work for Heidi and I, but really quick for 18 kids. Then we split them into 4 groups - 2 planting acorns, 1 propagating snowberries (separating the seeds from the berry) and 1 collecting acorns. A lot of work for Heidi and I done in so much less time - it was great to have them.

Tomorrow is... something. Returning the calls we didn't return today, I suppose. And Friday is another school group - home schoolers that are going to help us plant more willow! We've had these kids before, they're hard workers.

It's not this year, but it's still our creek and a Coho salmon jumping.

FINALLY

2006-12-03T16:58:00.000-08:00

I saw my first salmon on Friday! We took the morning at work to go on a hunt where some had reportedly been spotted earlier that week. Paola, Todd, Megan, Heidi and I piled into Megan's car and we were off!

Amidst wet toes (I was wearing sneakers) we hiked along the side of the road and nearer the creek, spotting around 5 Chinook (really big, also known as King) and 2 Coho (smaller, redder, and federally endangered). We watched this massive Chinook building a redd (the nest) - she looked like a shark. She'd flip on her side, showing herself and digging the gravel with her tail and then disappear underwater, until she'd appear again digging. It was amazing.

I can't wait until the run really gets going - I'm afraid I might be in Illinois for most of it though. Hopefully it will wait for my return. (I'll be home Dec. 19th - 28th with sometime spent in Glen Ellyn and Chicago in addition to Paw Paw).

There was a frost this morning

2006-11-30T16:32:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was our first field trip! Heidi and I had 50 kindergarten boys from a private boy's school in San Francisco come up for a creekwalk (we took them in two groups, plus parents). Unfortunately we didn't see any fish, but we talked about their life cycle and what kind of habitat is good for them and what SPAWN does to help keep their habitat clean. The one thing we didn't cover that would've been good is what they could've done at home.

It was rushed, but it went well considering the craziness of the day before - discovering that kindergarteners need car seats and thus weren't taking a bus, but instead taking 18 cars, discovering that a movie was being filmed at the site we wanted to take them (so we couldn't)... Overall, it worked out.

Yesterday morning, however, my computer broke. The LCD display is on the fritz, says Dell. Today at work I hooked it up to an extra monitor that happened to be lying around, and after someone else blew a fuse, my laptop LCD display decided to start working again.

So I don't know what it's deal is, but I'm not paying to get it repaired until it's really, really broken.

Our second restoration day is on Saturday, we're expecting a big group, but we don't know where our food donations are... somewhere still in the land of FedEx, I suppose.

It's so much easier to compose these when I'm not in front of the computer

2006-11-26T17:11:00.000-08:00

Like, when I'm on the plane or the bus and I'm bored. Now I don't feel much like writing about Thanksgiving week.

Wednesday was a full day of travel, leaving Mitch&Julie's at 3:30 AM and arriving in Paw Paw around 8 PM. I had a layover in Cincinatti (both directions) and the plane from Cin. to Chicago and back was small; we stepped outside to board and deplane and walking up the built-in-door stairs. Arriving in Chicago, we flew around the city and I tried to identify streets, where I used to live and so on. I miss Chicago like crazy.

My father's food was delicious. For Thanksgiving we had caviar, duck pate, mussels marinara, salad, duck, rice pilaf w/ chestnuts, green beans, orange sauce, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. It was the first time I can remember having guests (friends of my mom's from work) and it was tasty. I moved around so much these past couple days though, that I felt like I didn't really spend much time at home. I was in CU for a night, then back to Paw Paw and then off to Chicago the same day.

My flight today was at 6:10 AM, so I spent the night at Jess' in Bucktown since she lives off the blue line - double pluses: see Jess, don't have to leave Paw Paw at an ungodly time. I miss Chicago like crazy.

It was warmer in Chicago waiting for the El to come at 4 AM than it was in SF when I arrived at 11:30 AM. I left my winter coat and scarf in Chicago and while I waited for the Marin Airporter (a coach type bus that takes people from Marin to the airport and back), I wished I hadn't.

Oh, right, and (I think) I went through security at O'Hare with Lil' Kim and her entourage. That or Lil' Kim has marketed carry on bags, the woman was wealthy enough to have private security with her, and Fendi boots, bag, and belt.

busy busy busy

2006-11-19T19:32:00.000-08:00

We had three "events" begin this weekend, so this past week was crazy busy. On Thursday, our Winter Salmon Seminar Series started, and on Saturday our creekwalks and volunteer creek restorations began. We also wasted about a day for this KPFA public service announcement, only to never record it.

Probably about 3/4 to a whole day was spent writing the PSA (it's amazing how difficult it is to write something 30 seconds long and still pack in all the info you can) and finding 50 seconds of appropriate instrumental music (which is also, surprisingly, really hard). On Wednesday Heidi and I drove out to Berkeley to the KPFA studios to record it. We arrived early, grabbed breakfast, got to the studio and waited 30 minutes for someone to come out and get us.

Once the guy came out, he looked at our script and said, "Who is this a benefit for?", the answer to which is no one. (We were prepared to advertise our creekwalks, the fee for which doesn't completely cover the cost of running them. They hopefully will bring benefits to the salmon through informing and educating people, but that's not the same as a fundraiser/benefit.)

Our script not only was for an inappropriate event, but it was also missing information that we were unaware had to be included - the benefactor, the fact that SPAWN is a non-profit, the cost. We explained that we had not solicited them to do a PSA, we had submitted our event for the community calendar and one of his employees (whose name he didn't even recognize) called us to invite us to record a PSA. He put us on the Community Calendar, which is still broadcast on air but simply read by a DJ - what we had initially asked for.

So we wasted a half day going to Berkeley for no reason. We wasted SPAWN's money on gas and the toll. We wasted nearly a whole day preparing the damn thing in a crazy busy week.

It was just really, really frustrating.

-------------------------------------------------------

Thursday marked the start of our Winter Salmon Seminar Series, as well as a 12 1/2 hour day for Heidi and I. We set up the hall and had previously done all the media for the event - some flyering, but mostly sending info to local papers and online calendars. So when ~35 people showed up, we were very excited to see our efforts pay off.

Saturday started the creekwalks and our restoration days, so Friday was full with preparation. Again, these are things that Heidi and I had done all the media for, so we were a little disappointed for the numbers that had RSVP'd to the creekwalk, but it's early and the salmon haven't actually started running.

As for the restorations, we were unsure of how many people we would get. We had gotten some responses - the local high school requires its students to complete community service hours, so we knew some of them would show up, and besides those we had about 2 others say they would come. We ended up with 9 volunteers - more than we had expected! I'm sure the fact that it was a beautiful day (I spent most of it wishing I were in a t-shirt instead of long sleeves) didn't hurt our numbers. With all the help, we ended up getting quite a lot done. They planted torrent sedge along a particularly erosion-ready part of the creek bank, spread seed, planted dogwoods, elderberries, coyote brush, mystery plant (we couldn't remember the name), and removed non-natives.

We also got promises of future food donations from the company Nature's Path - by our next restoration, we'll have a sample box of 200 granola bars, so we probably won't need to ask for any other donations until mid-March (or maybe even never!).

And finally, not work related, I drove up to Willows, CA yesterday to visit a friend from college who is working up there. It was nice to have something to do and it was nice to see him. Incidentally, Willows happens to be where Dusty Baker goes every year to pheasant hunt and he was there last week - Michael even met him. Anyway, it was a pretty town with lots of nut trees. It's very flat there, but only because it's nestled in between the Sierra Nevadas and the Mendocino National Forest (with some mountain range within it; I can't find the name and neither could Michael).

I think that's enough for now. I'll try to update a little more often, just in case someone's relying on this for close-to-daily entertainment (I already got told by my mother today that I haven't updated lately - and she never even checks this thing).

Photos from the move out here and another attempt at humor

2006-11-11T21:50:00.000-08:00

My mom sent me a CD with all the photos she took while we were driving out here. I was lazy and hadn't posted them yet.

So, without further ado, here they are. And no, none have been photoshopped (because my mom actually CAN take a photograph).

My mom really wants to capture Utah and the way the
salt flats have a mirage. But I refused to stop the car.

Salt flats in Utah

Salt flats 2/Moonscape

Eventually I had to pee, and conviently I used a rest area.
Mom was happy. There was a pet area at the rest area.

Red rocks in Utah

Sagebrush in Utah

outside the house I live in (me and mentor Paola)

The kitchen I use (plus mentor Paola)

Again, outside the house I live in.
With my new Nissan Sentra (new is relative).

Native plant nursery (plus mentor Paola) (at the house I live in - down the hill).

I live off this road. On the way to the ocean

The Pacific Ocean

A WWII lookout, in fact

Again, the Pacific

At Stinson Beach

a palm tree on a beach in California. Imagine that.

A tropical iceland. Two days later it was
foggy and freezing on the same beach.

Muir woods - natural bridge

Circle of redwoods @ Muir Woods. The way they
propagate themselves is interesting and creates these
rings of young trees around a dead adult.

Muir Woods

Muir Woods

Muir Woods

Mom and I in a tree

Me, still in a tree (Ah! It's going to eat me!)

Well, that's all the pictures I have. I'll try to remember to take pictures and then to post them.

Election day!

2006-11-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

I have been bursting with excitement over this for the past couple weeks. I got up early to vote before work

-No on 85
-Yes on 87
-No on 90
-Eggers for Water Board
-Jared Huffman, for waterever he was running for (former Water Board head - leads our Technical Advisory Committee that SPAWN is a part of - I had cake at his last meeting, how can I not vote for someone my bosses support (&cake)?)
-Diane Feinstein!
-The non-Schwarzenegger (it's like picking between someone you think it's gross and bad, and someone you just think isn't very good/borderline bad). Doesn't matter, Ahnold's gonna win.

I wasn't as invested in any other races

I hope you all voted!!

The democrats won the house! I'm still waiting for the Senate.

Umm, the Daily Show isn't live for me. WTF.

a dresser!

2006-11-04T18:48:00.000-08:00

I hate living out of boxes and suitcases. It's been over a month and I still haven't unpacked - I basically do the same load of laundry over and over. Just the past week I moved back into Mitch and Julie's though, expecting to soon be able to find many of my missing items (somewhere near the bottoms of boxes).

Unfortunately, the free dresser I got from Marin FreeCycle had clearly been kept outside for a number of years and needed a lot of cleaning. Because of daylight savings time, it's dark by the time I get home from work, so I can't take the drawers outside to give them the scrubbing they need.

And at work, this week has been busier than most (preparing for a really busy season), so it wasn't until Thursday that I was able to take an afternoon off (a rainy, rainy afternoon) to get the dresser cleaned.

It wasn't until today that the drawers were dry and ready to get stuffed with clothes.

It's so nice to be finding things now that I can unpack - stuff I need to mail to IL, floss, shoes, etc.

I am reachable

2006-10-31T20:17:00.000-08:00

I have a new phone! It's pink, it's thin, it's got a camera, (insert cingular and motorazr plugs here)... it's possibly the most technological thing I've ever owned, I think more so than my computer. Afterall, it gets internet AND has a camera!

Same number, but it works in the San Geronimo Valley, which is a miracle. And with a better connection than I thought I would have. Voices are clear, understandable, without weird pauses, and so far no dropped calls (though to be honest, I've only made two calls).

This weekend I went to San Francisco to volunteer restoring quail habitat at Lake Merced. Essentially we weeded invasive plants and watched out for flying golf balls. Afterward I went to Berkeley to see a girl I've known since 4th grade. We hadn't seen each other since sometime early in college - maybe freshman year? It's her second year here, she's a law student at Berkeley. We carved pumpkins and she showed me around the campus, which is beautiful.

Her yard, a rental house that she + some phd chem candidates live in, has persimmons, kiwi, avocados, lemons, mint, and roses! It's quaint and gorgeous and I'm absolutely jealous (but not of the ant problem).

Unfortunately there's no Halloween celebrations for me, as I don't really have anything to do. Becky (in Berkeley), was having a party, but I was up since 6:30 am that day to get to SF and I was not about to shower at her house, get ready, and stay out late (after weeding, my face even had dirt on it).

In new news, Heidi and I are going to be recording a Public Service Announcement on KPFA, Free Speech Radio, about SPAWN's upcoming (and ongoing) creekwalks. We emailed to ask them to put them on their community calendar, and they called to schedule us to record for the air. Holy crap, we were a little excited, like little school children.

I edited out the rude parts... ie the parts where I swore angrily about customer service individuals.

2006-10-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

I just switched to Cingular.

California, and San Geronimo Valley in general, are different than Chicago and Illinois in terms of useful cell phone companies. It seems that the west in general is just useless if you have Nextel. My phone doesn't have service period in the Valley (where I work and live) and drops calls constantly in the suburbia area (where I house sit).

Apparently Cingular is the only thing that provides close-to reliable service in the Valley (and they're very honest about coverage on their website - it shows a graded service map, rather than just an all over "we have service here" kind of map. So the Valley is "moderate" but San Anselmo/San Rafael are "good" and "best". So that's good.

Anyway, I've been calling Nextel a lot- last week and the past couple days. Friday they put in a technical ticket or something so that someone would actually come out to the area and figure out the problem - basically, would it be possible for them to provide me service? Should they build a tower? Would it be financially lucrative blah blah blah. I don't actualy know that that's what they were doing, but it sounded like it.

As instructed, I called back yesterday and the woman told me "nope, no service!", transfered me, and then the cancellation lady tried to tell me that I would have to pay the $200 early termination fee. Bullshit. I hung up.

Today I got a message from Nextel, a follow up on customer satisfaction. So of course I called back- I wasn't fucking satisfied! And the woman was all "oh, yeah we don't charge a cancellation fee if you're not getting service - that gets waived. When you do figure out when you're going to cancel, and someone tries to charge the fee, tell them to look at the reference on 10/24" or something to that effect.

So hell yeah, that stupid brat yesterday. I'm not paying that crap!

Yeah so I switched to Cingular but I signed up via www.wirefly.com... a free Razr. It's pink. Yes, it was a bit of an impulsive "wow that looks cool" kind of phone purchase, but it's free. I am just so sick of this clunky gross phone and I want something small that fits in my pocket and flips! Like my last phone (oh how I miss it). I probably should've gotten black or silver or blue though, something less adolescent and easier to match with things. Oh well, I want to look like a prissy little brat with my PINK RAZR. (not really).

Oh my god did I just try to accessorize with a cell phone?? "easier to match with things"??? Am I wearing around my neck or on a belt clip?!? Good god I AM turning into a prissy brat. Emery board, Coach wallet (and purse, occassionally), pink razr... now I just need to get the dirt and berry pieces out from under my nails.

Back to the point, though I'm not sure there ever actually was one, this will also be my first adventure with a CAMERA PHONE. Maybe if you send me presents I will send you pictures. Deer sleeping next to the backyard door, the quail I scare up when I water plants (with their little feather hat thingies! oh I sound like a real scientist...), redwood trees, whatever.

Picnic!

2006-10-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

I had my first "event" this Sunday. Our parent organization, Turtle Island Restoration Network, had a fundraising picnic under the redwoods. There were oysters (I have now had 7 in my life and I have determined that yes, I do like them when cooked!), mussels, local beers, wine, among other assorted delicious donated food and drink. There was music - acoustic bluegrass/folk that was perfect for the setting and location.

TIRN's law intern and I created a turtle egg nest scavenger hunt for the kids that came. It was really complex but I think it turned out well. We created clues (short 4 line rhymes) that told the kid what animal they were searching for and where they should be looking.

One clue, for example, was like such:

I swim in the sea, far do I roam
but you'll find me here far from my home.
Under one of many, but all alone.
It's brown and wooden and you might eat on this at home.

The animal was a whale and the next clue was hidden under a picnic table that was set away from the others.

The kids were divided into four teams and had to pay attention to what clue they picked up at each spot, because for each team, the clues were in a different order.

I'm technically not supposed to drink alcohol while wearing AmeriFlair, but I sort of forgot and I did have a beer and a half or so... they were local and I wanted to taste them! At least I wasn't walking around drunk, or doing drugs or stealing things, some crazy AmeriCorps girl... badly representing the organization and my country blah blah blah...

So things are moving along in California. Right now my main project is native seed collection. We're expanding our native plant nursery so Heidi and I go out a lot and collect wild rose berries (rose hips, which I used to collect with my family), sword fern, elderberry, snowberry, coffeeberry, among other things. We have to clean the berry seeds after we collect them, which can be quite a pain in the ass. Leaving on the berry parts can cause the seeds to mold and go bad.

Besides that, I'm mainly waiting for Heidi (field partner) to get back from middle America where her sister's having a baby. When she returns we will be scrambling to schedule and advertise our volunteer restoration days which start in November.

Halloween is coming up and I'm stealing a past costume of the law intern's (Marjorie) - The Bachelorette (like from the reality show). Is that not current enough for people to get? A black dress and a fake rose?

Stories from a week ago

2006-10-16T19:12:00.000-07:00

So there are a couple things I want to share from my AmeriTraining week that I forgot.

They're fun.

Each day we played some kind of team building game, which were fun and just helped us get to know each other. At night, when we were essentially free, we would read, break up into smaller groups and talk, play card games, whatever. One night, I think our last night, we decided to play some group games. Two very ridiculous group games. I'm going to start with the second, because the first is even more amazing.

The Paper Bag Game

It starts with everyone in a circle around a paper bag. The object is to pick up the paperbag with your mouth while standing on one foot. No hands - they cannot touch your body (ie can't hold your leg up) and they can't touch the bag.

Once everyone in the circle has done it, the last person cuts 1-2 inches off the top, and everyone goes around in the circle and picks up the same thing, and again the last person cuts 1-2 inches off the top.

Eventually you end up discovering some amazingly flexible people. To get your head down to an inch to two inches off the ground while on one foot and your hands in the air - And then come back up with a bag in your mouth? Holy Crap.

It was ridiculous and silly and great. The first game is even worse.

Who Can Eat the Most Chocolate?

Jill, one of the second year AmeriCorps-ers, brought out this huge chocolate bar - not a king size, but seriously family size (one of the giant Symphony bars you see in the baking aisle) and put it on a cafeteria tray and we all sat in a circle. The object was to eat as much chocolate as you could with a knife and fork and cutting the bar in pieces smaller than those little rectangles already marked in.

All while wearing a kitchen rubber glove, aviator sunglasses, and a paper crown.

And each person had a time limit. There were two pennies being passed around the circle, each person flipping them. If you got two heads, it was your turn to get the chocolate. You would grab the tray with the chocolate, the knife and fork, the hat, the sunglasses, the glove, suit yourself up and go at it. After getting all this stuff on, you had to eat as much chocolate as you could. But most likely before you even started cutting away someone else probably flipped two heads and your chocolate was being swiped away.

It was ridiculous. It took me so long to get 2 heads that when I did, I was just cutting my piece when someone started to grab the tray from me so I grabbed the big chunk I was cutting and shoved it in my mouth.

And we didn't actually pay attention to who ate the most chocolate.

A (short-term) new home

2006-10-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

On Friday I moved into Candace's house to house- / cat-sit while she is on vacation. She lives in San Anselmo, which is much larger than Forest Knolls. It's in the suburban area, towns packed upon towns, and outside of the San Geronimo Valley so my cell phone (mostly) works.

Despite this, there's open space nearby (5 minutes or less walking) and wildlife in the backyard. Yesterday I had deer running through. Candace tells me they don't actually live in open space - they're habitat is the backyards around here. This morning while sitting here I had a hummingbird flitting around the bush next to the window.

And of course, the two cats that live here. They're sort of like wildlife, right? They are pretty skittish around me, so I would say they count.

Today is the first day I will be going into San Francisco. This whole time I still haven't been there yet, nor have I seen the Golden Gate bridge. Today I will drive over it.

I can hear someone jogging outside, which is ridiculous. It's a crazy hill I'm on! Yesterday I kept looking out the window to make sure my car hadn't rolled down the hill yet and crashed. Thank god I don't have the pickup anymore, I'm sure that wouldn't have even tolerated 5 minutes parked on this slope.

Citizenry

2006-10-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

As my time here progresses I'm feeling more and more like a citizen. For one thing, I started working so I have a schedule. I'm also becoming more familiar with the grocery stores, I have a library card (and I went to the library!), I found the mall (on accident), I have an address (PO Box 400, Forest Knolls, CA 94933 - the same as SPAWN's), I have my CA driver's license.

Friday I'm registering my vehicle in the state, applying for food stamps and getting a bank account out here. So I'll be even more of a citizen.

Heidi, my AmeriCorps field partner at SPAWN, is from West Chicago which is literally down the road from Glen Ellyn. We know the same restaurants, the same streets, the same drive in movie theatre. So it's kind of exciting to have someone that I can talk about Chicago things with. And we get along really well, so it's also great to have someone there sharing the experience with me - an AmeriFriend.

I'm so at ease

2006-10-07T15:50:00.000-07:00

This whole housing situation has had me extremely stressed out. Let me explain how it's all going down thus far. Right now I'm staying with a family that housed SPAWN's summer intern. They're a nice bunch and the kids are hardly here - it's like the Brady Bunch so they're often at the other parents'. I'll be here another week, then I'm house-/cat-sitting until near the end of October.

After that, another story. I've been having sleepless nights, lying awake worrying about it and just going over my expenses and costs in my head over and over. I've looked at a number of possibilities, but my AmeriCorps stipend is really, really low. And it seems like everything is just too high.

But the family I'm living with now has decided that they can take me on for really low rent - basically get a tax-deduction because it would be considered a donation to SPAWN. They'll even let me use a twin bed. I can sleep again!

Yes, I photoshopped many of these to look better.

2006-10-06T22:58:00.000-07:00

The road to camp in the Mendocino Woodlands. It's not paved,
but very well maintained. And lined with redwoods

Looking up into the woods

Quail family on the driveway

Young redwood - no photoshopping here!

Eucalyptus

The bedroom that I'm staying in. My bed is to my right.

Fairfax. Essentially, all towns are the same! Just
different logos and a different body of water

AmeriTraining

2006-10-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

I started working! Sort of.

I spent this past week at my first AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project (WSP) training. On Sunday I drove up to Fortuna, CA. The highway winds through redwoods, some bigger than the ones I saw the first day I was here, and it's absolutely gorgegous.

A very long drive - around 5 hours

They put those of us coming from long distances up for the night in a Best Western, since we weren't actually starting until Monday morning. So I met a few fellow AmeriCorps*USA FreedomCorps members (Bush's retitling of Clinton's invention...) before work actually began.

Monday morning began and all 27 of us got to meet - I finally met my field partner, Heidi! A few people have returned for a second year of service, including Heidi, though this is her first time at SPAWN (it's an entirely new site, they've never had AmeriCorps members before). There are a number of different sites and members are placed from as far south as San Francisco to as far north as the Oregon border. Most members are placed nearer Fortuna and that northern region, as that is where most sites are. The organizations that take AmeriCorps members range from non-profits to state government (CA Dept of Fish and Game) to federal government (Forest Service).

In the afternoon we drove to Mendocino Woodlands, a State Park another 4 hours south of Fortuna and in redwoods.

Right in the middle

The place was absolutely gorgeous. I basically forgot about my camera but did remember to take a few pictures on the drive out. But the camera's still in my car so they'll get posted later. Our cabins were equipped with cots and even a little porch, though no electricity and the space for screens was small so it was dark most of the time. But the bathrooms had running water so it was sweet. It was pretty chilly but we kept the fire in the lodge going. A second year member joined us and cooked absolutely delicious food all week, probably as good as I will be eating for the next 11 months.

Tuesday. The day for CPR and Wilderness Safety Training Certifications. The whole day was committed to this and it was intense. We learned the basic CPR stuff but still took the time to go through and practice it. The Wilderness Safety was interesting - what to check for and what to do in case of an injury in the backcountry, more than 1 hour away from rescue (could be as much as a couple days depending on the injury).

We practiced these techniques too. We got in groups of three, designating one person as "victim". The first bunch of victims all went to the trainer, got an injury, then went into the woods. The rest of the groups (primary and secondary rescuers) were told some of what happened - at least what they saw. For example, the first victim's story was that all three of us were working in the field but were lost hiking back. The victim climbed up a tree to see if they could find the trail and then took a 40 foot fall. As rescuers, we had to check all major arteries for bleeding and then bandage any up while keeping their spine straight.

At night we did it again, basically, but this time we had to also find shelter, make a fire (except not because of the fire danger this time of year), and hunker down as if we were spending the night. It was definitely more difficult with just a couple flashlights. We splinted our "tripped" pal's leg, moved her to a shelter, covered ourselves with duff (the plant debris on the ground - keeps in heat), and fed her only to discover she had a food allergy. At this point we took out our pretend benadryl or epinephrine pen or real zyrtec/other anti-histamine. If we didn't get the anti-histamine out, our pal would "die".

Wednesday was a new day of crazy stuff. Swiftwater training. We learned knots and how to make a harness and and how to get ourselves or another person up or down a steep area. Then we learned what to do if our field partner or ourself got caught up in a river's current, our foot stuck and face down in the water, if one of us was found the other unconcious in the water, or what to do even if we were caught in the current and had an obstacle ahead of us. We practiced these in the freezing river in our waders. For 4 hours. It was very, very cold.

I took a warm shower that evening. My only one of the week.

Thursday was all about the program, paperwork, and salmon. An indoor day where I learned that I qualify for food stamps and public housing. They also advised us on what to do if we encounter a field of marijuana. Friday was a little more program info and then back to Forest Knolls.

Sunday starts my first day at SPAWN working at a booth they have at an event.

And I promise, real pictures and less text coming soon. Food stamps too.

Forest Knolls

2006-09-30T11:34:00.000-07:00

The area I live and work in is sort of strange, in that it's very rural yet less than 10 minutes from a very urban area.

This is as big as I could get it... that tiny green arrow is
Forest Knolls. Fairfax is the nearest urban area. You
might want to google map it yourself to see better.

By rural, I mean there are cows, turkeys, and horses along the main road going through. Mitch & Julie's neighbors have chickens. Woodacre, the town my mom stayed the night in, is very residential but there are horses right smack dab in the middle and a goose that honks constantly across the street from a cottage I might live in.

Horses, in the middle of the residential area!

So it's sort of like the edge of the Chicago suburbs, except it's a lot closer to the city.

I feel compelled to make a list of differences:
-Each town seems more tightly packed. Tight streets, tight houses, few big fancy yards and long driveways to get to the garage are rare.
-Few chains! No big strip a la Randall Road or North Prospect or Roosevelt Road. I haven't seen a McDonalds, Target, Burger King, or Taco Bell in days. Granted, I have seen A subway and A Jack in the box, and beyond that I probably wouldn't recognize a California Chain.
-It's hilly (majorly hilly), so there's no grid system. I constantly have no idea which way is North and it's a little uncomfortable.
-Gas prices are different when paid by cash versus credit/debit and are advertised as such:

I take terrible pictures.

Other pictures from the road and from the area:

Quail! In the driveway!

Mitch and Julie's - where I'm currently staying

Roadtrip!

2006-09-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

I should start with a little introduction.

The purpose of this blog is to convey to my friends and family what I'm doing here. As an AmeriCorps member, a very poor person in a very wealthy area, a non-profit intern, a community member, a housing-searcher, a cat- or baby-sitter, the list goes on. You know, updates on my life. Basically, I've moved across the country to work for SPAWN as an AmeriCorps intern. I've never lived outside of Illinois so this is an adventure and a completely new experience for me.

Let's get on with the story:

Saturday, September 23rd. My mom and I set out from our home in Paw Paw, Illinois and drive for 2 and a half days to Forest Knolls, California, stopping in Cheyenne and Reno on the way. My mom had a cold and wasn't feeling well, so I didn't make her drive much and let her sleep, a lot. So I was a good daughter. On the other hand, I wouldn't stop to eat except for breakfast and late late lunches/early dinners, so I don't think that helped her...

2066 miles - could it be any farther?

Monday, September 25th. We've arrived! Since we have done no sight-seeing on the road, we drive off to highway 1 (the pacific coast highway), stopping at Stinson Beach and Muir Woods. Redwoods, Pelicans, and I try an oyster. Adventure-ific.

Mom likes SPAWN's watershed biologist's
bumper so much she takes a picture

Tuesday, September 26th. Mom leaves.

For the first week (and a little bit of the 3rd), I'm living with a family of 7 - a modern day Brady Bunch! Dad Mitch is on a business trip, so I haven't met him yet, Mom Julie is home, his kids are with their mom and her kids are here, with her. Though I've met only half the family and the dog always thinks I'm an intruder, they're very nice. The native plant nursery that I'll be doing a lot with is on their property.

Next week I'll be adventure-ing in Fortuna and Mendocino, north of here, for AmeriCorps orientation. Drug testing, paperwork, camping, CPR, "swiftwater safety", and so on. There I will meet Heidi, who is the other AmeriCorps member assigned to SPAWN and whom I have been in contact with via email. After that it's back to Mitch & Julie's, then to Candace's until October 30th.

Candace is one of SPAWN's volunteer naturalists. She has a couple cats and is going on vacation to visit relatives and her sweetheart in October. Rather than hire someone to come in and look after the cats and plants, she's allowing me to stay at her place while she's gone, which is amazingly nice. I've gone to her home and met her (the cats did not show their faces) and she is incredibly helpful and welcoming.

Most the time I've been here thus far has been spent looking for housing post-Candace. I might continue to live with Mitch & Julie's family (though in addition to the dog they also have an indoor/outdoor cat, which usually is just fine but occasionally I'm more effected that I want to be - allergies) or with another family in the next town over. I've also seen two studios which I could share with Heidi (AmeriCorps doesn't pay enough to get my own studio). Having a low paying job and living in this area is difficult.

All in all, the people I've met are really friendly. Interested in chatting and knowing who I am, where I'm from, how they can help. And they're tea drinkers, which is great, my kind of people! Today I went to see a studio that probably wouldn't work and ended up staying an hour with the woman chatting. People here are great, not that people from the midwest aren't nice enough. But the lack of snobbery is refreshing. That or I haven't hit upon it yet - it's probably a city thing. I remember Chicago snobs and if I were in SF, I'd probably get SF snobs.

I'll try to keep future posts shorter and more to the point. I will also get batteries for my camera and add any more pictures that my mom sends me (except the really ugly one from the Salt Lake). Unfortunately my cell phone is basically useless out here, so you're welcome to email me!

Oh, and NPR out here is great.