Home Again - This Time For Good

I haven’t been updating this as religiously as I did while out in the field, so thought I should get you all up to date on what’s going on in my life. I’m sure you’ve all just been dying to know…

I did make it out of False Pass finally. The plane flew in on Friday and got me as far as Cold Bay. I flew out of Cold Bay on Saturday and was home in my own house by that evening. I must have smelled something awful, because Rob lasted all of maybe half an hour before he very kindly suggested I go take a shower and change into something clean. Oh well, at least I was home!

I didn’t do a whole lot that first week back in town; mostly just relaxed and got settled back in to my routines again. The girls were beyond happy to have me back: they were like Velcro and wouldn’t leave my side no matter what. They have calmed down since then, so are now able to enjoy the pools of sunshine all over the house.

The second week home I ended up back in the classroom being trained for a new position with the U.S. Census Bureau = I am now an Enumerator, which basically just means I’ll be the one going door to door to interview people, and won't have to worry about supervising anybody. I’ll be working at the military bases picking up all those people who didn’t mail in their form for whatever reason. It’s a reduction in pay, but at least I’m still employed – and even the reduced pay rate is more than unemployment was.

Things are picking up again at the zoo, getting ready for the summer season. I’ve had several Tour Guide Training sessions to refresh my memory banks. The way my schedule is right now, I should be able to do several of the Discovery Tours a week: I do love giving that tour. And soon – please, God, let it be soon! – the green will arrive and we’ll actually have leaves and grass and flowers. It’s kind of hard to give a naturalist tour when everything is still in its dormant winter stage.

The Cascadia Region Green Building Council – Alaska Branch (of which I am president) was honored recently by ALPAR (Alaskans for Liter Prevention and Recycling) and received an award for 2009 Leadership in Education "for exemplary efforts to raise awareness and educate Alaska's design and building industry about LEED building standards and incorporating recycling and reuse practices." I attended the banquet along with Lauri - one of our board members, Mark – our State Director, in order to receive the award. It was held at the newly remodeled AK Railroad Historic Freight Shed, which is Alaska’s first historic LEED building restoration.

We also had a Guest Speaker come up from Vancouver (although I suppose that should be “come over” since they are basically right beside us) to give a lecture on The UniverCity Project at Simon Fraser University. That was a really interesting talk, but I have to say I’m not happy with the attendance. There were only about 20 people in the audience! Seems like kind of a waste to bring somebody up here and not have a full house. I blame myself, really. If I’d been at home, I could have sent out a few reminders like I did for our last lecture. That one had plenty of people attending.

Today I’ve been keeping myself busy with yard work, house work, and computer work, and even have a job interview scheduled for later in the afternoon. I’ve had a bit of an emotional upheaval lately, and am really trying to think of ANYTHING ELSE.

On the positive side, I have discovered that I have some really wonderful friends who go out of their way to comfort me when I need it the most.