Disappointing

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

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

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

A young redwood - 2 years old I think