INCPA Tea

I met up with some girls in my INCPA (Interpretive Naturalist Certification Program of Alaska) group today; we get together about once a month for some girl-talk. They are both married with children, and I know from my sister’s lives that sometime you just really crave adult conversation. Me: I just like these girls. I sit back and listen to them talk while drinking a nice hot cup of organic chai tea. It’s a very pleasant way to spend a Friday after noon, particularly after a long week at work.

I first ran in to these girls, Lisa and Susanne, while on a Mushroom walk out at the Campbell Creek Science Center, during a particularly good time of year for mushroom hunting. The lady leading the talk knew all about mushrooms, so as we were walking down the trails we’d occasionally scamper off to pick an interesting looking one and bring it back to her. She would then hold it up for the group and talk about its features, telling stories of past encounters with that particular type of mushroom.

I next ran in to Lisa and Susanne at our CEMP orientations (Citizen’s Environmental Monitoring Program). That was two days of 5-hour training sessions each, so we had ample time to get to know one another.

One day shortly after our training, I picked their emails out from the mass-emailing sent by the Anchorage Waterways Council and contacted them both to see if they’d be interested in getting together for tea one afternoon. Thankfully, they both thought that was a great idea, and we’ve been doing it ever since.

The place we meet is a really nice organic coffee shop called The Terra Bella, although I must admit that none of us drink coffee. That’s ok, thought, they have organic teas as well, along with all kinds of organic muffins, brownies, bagels, and the like. The Terra Bella takes part in Anchorage's First Friday Art Shows, so always has something interesting up on the walls. I had to admit I did not care for the art this month: too cold and frightening for my tastes.

Susanne just had her little girl 3 months ago (yes, she was 8 months pregnant while learning to monitor our city’s creeks!), and little Willa Jane is just the cutest little girl ever! I got to hold her today: she was looking around and smiling at every body the whole time.